Thanks, that certainly does give them some perspective. I think the 603 is only available with green handle.
@df2dot @jekostas I'm not a Chinese knife hater, you got me wrong here. I own Ganzo and Sanrenmu 710 (both are great!). I just think that instead of getting 5 knives at once it's better to get one or two with warranty and support. I know that tenacious line is Chinese made, as long as they are good who cares? BM 550HG has premium 154CM steel that's way above any Chinese made steel, combine that with Benchmade warranty (that works!) and I think it's worth extra cash. However I respect FlashPilot 's choice and understand him. I even got my Ganzo 704 for rough abusive use.
Im sure those are all very nice knives and justify their price to those who buy them. You're welcome to review and compare them to other quality Chinese knives in another thread, and many of us would be very interested to note your observations in the differences in their workmanship as well as pricing differences.
The Tenacious can be bought at Amazon.com for roughly ~$32 with shipping so it wouldn't be instead of 5 knives, but more like 2 more expensive ones from Exduct. Cheapest here in Germany is like ~$61 with shipping, which is about twice the price. For ~$30 I would really consider buying one, for ~$60 my cheapskatism ;-) kicks in and tells me that I could have bought 4 Navy's for that price.
... and its made by Sanrenmu for Spyderco. Though Ive handled many Spydies, Ive never been impressed with their lower quality offerings when considering the price point. Even at $29 for a new Tenacious that I can buy through a friend, Ive declined. Im even more discouraged by their top of the line offerings and the prices they command. The word is getting out to the non-enthusiast about the Chinese brands discussed. The manufacturers listened to their market and have made improvements in quality and design based upon the suggestions of its users, yet the low price still remains the same.
It does not matter if you buy cheap or expensive knives. It's all about collecting. I have more than one flashlight, I could have bought a couple of expensive lights for the money I have spent, maybe the quality and reliability are better, but I rarely use any of my lights, and not a single one has failed me. I have runs most of my lights on high for the maximum run time.
I have two knives a Mora 2000 and a SOG Flash I tini, both of which I do not use, I intend to but some cheap chinese knives which I may never use, so the question of quality and reliability never comes up for me.
The problem with knives is that I need to feel the knive before I buy it as I find the handle on my Mora 2000 slightly big. I think the right size for me is 18cm or less. Vectrex has the right idea about knives sizes.
You have good tastes my friend. As for the sanrenmu site, I didnt realize that they build fixed blades. A google search didnt turn up a supplier and I wonder if they are in production. Any ideas where I might find them?
Search for "Buck 768" on http://aliexpress.com There are a number of copies (perhaps oem?) of the Buck Vanguard, which is similar to (same as?) the SRM Strike Civil.
"Strike Civil" looks like a nice knife in pictures, it would be an awesome for gifts and such. No price or known sellers anywhere though :(
http://sanrenmu.com/en/fixed/product/18.php
"Strike Combat" is supposed to be full tang.
I hope that "Buck 768" is not the same let down, as the "Buck" I ordered from PA. I wrote a little about it here .
I remember reading about that. The 768 is tempting because it at least looks identical to one of the fixed knives listed on Sanrenmu's webpage. I think it's possible that they are the same knife. The good thing is that it only costs ~$15 to find out (or perhaps much more, if you want a Vanguard to compare with).
I am pretty much done with being the guinea pig, because I fell flat on my face twice with that "Gerber" folder from DX and that "Buck" fixed from PA. Now I am searching for knives with no brand name at all, those ones have to be of spectacular quality. ;-)
In my experience, the entry level bucks and gerbers have been awful for as long as I can remember.
Double post
I have no experience with entry-level Bucks, but the Vanguard retails for $90 (although it can usually be bought for about $60) and the limited reviews I've seen rate it decently. The possibility of getting one for $15 intrigues me, I might have to be the guinea pig.
Also picked up a SRM 939, thanks to this thread. DB had them previously; I didn't realize they recently returned with an active link until I saw this.
I think the part that is more fun is picking the original those are a knockoff of. I saw Ken Onion, Al Mar, Spiderco, Kershaw, Benchmade right off the bat. Sure I could pick out a few more with another few minutes time.
Buck for sure, and while the K705 isn't a direct copy of anything it's modeled after a couple of Howard Viele designs.
Possibly the best part is the great build quality for the price. You probably wouldn't want to abuse any of the expensive name brand originals the way you would these. Most of the large ones can be replaces for under $15, so who cares if you beat the hell out of them? Many of these are also on YouTube comparing the copy to the original. I don't think I've seen a copy outperforming the original but everyone is very impressed with the knock-off's, often stating it would be a bargain at 2-3 times the price.
IMO, the Navy knives are very distinctive. I was able to identify most of them on ebay without reading the descriptions.
The K505 should also do well with food when the SRM 962 is to large to carry.
The 705 is definitely a Darrell Ralph design.