These are the knife companies in the West that I know that SanRenMu has made knives for:
Buck
CRKT
Spyderco
Benchmade
Boker
I also suspect a few others like Kershaw based on the build quality and manufacturing techniques, but Kershaw's never said anything to that extent. At least a few of those companies (Buck, CRKT and Benchmade) offer lifetime warranties on all of their Chinese made knives, so you know they can do quality.
As for how they can do so low cost... well, the companies above did all the production training and paid for all the machinery. Very few fixed costs to worry about.
We're talking about basic metal working and mechanicals. This isn't rocket science, which btw china also does on its own. The idea that western ingenuity is necesary to make knives (ie a piece of metal with handles) is frankly pretty jingoistic.
I think that there may be some SRM knives in my future. :) I will have to wait until next month when I get paid but a couple knives sounds like fun. :)
There is an... art to making pocket knives, well beyond simple engineering prowess. Handle design, looks, size, opening speed, how many grinds you use for the lockup, what handle materials you use in certain situations, what blade shapes, what grind patterns, etc. I by no means meant that the Chinese couldn't do it themselves (they've proven adept at making anything they put their minds to), but having companies with significant experience in the field come in and teach you all the production and quality control techniques probably shaved 5+ years off of that learning process.
Yeah, there's nuance to everything, but knives are incredibly simple, and I would expect a trivial task for any competent material/mech/design team. Frankly if some joe schmoe can do "custom" ones in his garage it's not a problem for any mass manufacturing group.
The main reason why they probably sucked before is that people want "Boker" copy-cats for less than order of magnitude of the price and the places that tend to do those are fly-by-night.
I tend to agree with jekostas on this. I had a couple of Chinese knives from several years ago that mechanically worked ok, but they did not have the warmth and artistic feel that my japanese and American knives had. Now that production has moved to China for a lot of the traditional knifemakers, that has changed somewhat. But you can still tell the difference when holding a Benchmade or even a Buck made to Buck's specs, against a Chinese-designed knife. It is a subtle difference, but you can feel it when you hold the knife.
Be aware though, from a "tool" standpoint, Chinese knives can be just as durable, just as sharp, as anything else. But I tend to think of knives more as art than as tools, and I think the Chinese fail at Western art.
Because of my eyes i tend to go for function over looks in a tool. Now I do like a pretty knife but many times I just can not see the details of a nice knife such as a Case. :)
If you bought the knivies in the US, they were likely "western" designs in the first place. So, to be more accurate, some westerners fail more at this western art you speak of than others.
In general, if someone's paying like a dollar or two per piece (or often less), they're probably not hiring competent designers.
You also see this in flashlights, where the cheap ones often make shockingly amateur design and manufacturing mistakes. It really comes down to money, even a small bit of it by our standard, because it's podunk shops out to make a quick buck and even basic r&d cost something.
If you like Case, try RoughRider. Not quite the quality, but very, very good Chinese slipjoints, and they're already in a lot of North American stores (and they make Buck's line of Chinese slipjoints).
I hope you already own a Li-Ion recharger! If not, these guys will know of a good budget one. I bought mine when i was still on the "other site" and got talked into a PILA charger. I don't regret it... it works great and doesn't seem to overwork the cells. But it's hardly budget at $50!
@OP:
I’m not trying bashing any brands here.
I want to share my experience here for more expensive light ( ie branded light ). I started collecting flashlight from sept 2009 until present time. I have tried many brands such as fenix, solarforce, eagletac, liteflux, sunway, lumintop, jetbeam etc. Mostly i own chinese branded flashlight and some american brand.
From sept 2009 until now i have 4 failure on chineae branded light. First is eagletac mcx series ( dropped the battery tube axcidentally from my bed aftet it droped i can’t screw the head on the batery tube ), second is DOA Liteflux LF5XT dont know why, third cracked on fenix ld20 body ( noy sure as well why it’s cracked ) and lastly dead Lumintop L1A.
And all lights i mentioned above mostly are self queen lights and i never abuse it. Now if you think more expensive light is much more reliable than budget light, i don’t thinks so. With chinese light, it look like i’m buying lottery ticket.
But i have no issue so far with american lights ( maglite n surefire ). Don’t get me wrong, i dont saying that american light will offer zero failure. I’m trying to say that with american light, you will have reduce chance of failure compared than chinese light.
Just my 2 cents.
Thank you for your thoughts my friend. :) I am finding that it is simply hard to deny the value of a flashlight from a place such as Manafont. :) I am excited about my first order and I hope that everything is ok and that I am not let down. Many people on this forum know far more than I do when it comes to flashlights and knives so I must trust them as I feel they will not lead me wrong in buying a light or a knife from certain websites. It is a small leap of faith but I must give it a try. I did buy my first SUM knife today. I am a bit skeptical but I have to try it and see for myself. :) I have a feeling that I am going to be very happy when my Manafont order comes in.
I too bought an $85 Oveready Surefire 6P drilled for an 18650 and Surefire Z59 tailcap with a Thrulite 493 LED lumen drop-in....and you know what, I just sold it today back on the CPF Marketplace and got my money back for it. I did not know any better at the time, but now I know that I got ripped off. It was not all that special, not for that kind of money. I want to see what all this Solarforce talk is all about and try their lights out.
Njet212, those were pricey lights that failed on you, not your typical CCC stuff. I haven't bought an Eagletac yet because I can't afford one (plus they are sort of ugly IMO), and they do not seem to perform any better than a Solarforce or Ultrafire.
Klarus is another one I'd like to own, just too much $$ in this economy.
@trooplewis:
Whats CCC stuff ??
Actually first time i got into cpf made me think branded chinese light will offer more reliability than the budget one. But after what happened my some favorite chinese brands fails on me, i kinda agree with you they dont perform any better than UF even my 1,5 years akoray k106 still perform flawless until today.