This my friends is my first attempt to write an review/overview in English, which by the way isn't my native tounge so bear with me please. And since I have had no luck with trying to post this review before I'll try to make it into two parts this time.
- A Rather elegant Sea Eagle of Eastern origin
How to proceed as an established Chinese knifemanufacturer in the lower price segments if you want to aim at the European and foremost American market? One creates a sideline with more exclusive knives under a new brand of course. One makes a Lexus out of a Toyota to use a car analogy.
Now, this isn't a unique procedure for SanRenMu who created "Real Steel" for this purpose. It's the same business model used by for instance the Japanese KAI-group where Kershaw produces the volumes and ZT represents the more exclusive knives.
In this case it was a necessity since SRM made a name for themselves making relatively small and extremely cheap knives. They are certainly well built and priceworthy but not exactly high end by any stretch of the imagination. They really managed to nich themselves.
They seem to be in the same situation as CRKT in a way. Their attempt to aim at the higher end or rather mid-end knife market with "Hi Jinx" was an interesting but not entirely succesful one. Not all of us knife knuts are willing to pay that amount of money for a knife with that logo on the blade no matter how good or bad it is.
Real Steel E771 Sea Eagle, Explorer version
Another difficulty, closely related to Chinese law if I'm correctly informed, for SRM was size. The bladelength issue were already circumvented from time to time by making knives that were entirely sterile. As an exempel one can take a look at the small modell 763 that became the bigger 963. It was sold marked as "San Ren Mu" for export but also made in completely sterile versions for the Hong Kong market and then imported back to mainland China. I myself have one of those utterly discrete knives. Now the model are a part of the Real Steel line.
Under the new name they are now producing both fixed blade and folders. Gone are the cheapest lines and the prices now stretches from the 35-40$ mark up to 400$+ MSRP. It remains to be seen how successful the more expensive folders are going to be. Not only do they have to compete with all the established brands in that category but also the other Chinese newcomers such as Reate, Kizer, Stedemon, CH and the like.
But out of this project have come some rather interesting knives. SRM and now Real Steel have always had excellent fit and finish even though made with more basic materials.
One model that already have earned good reputation for being well built is the "H6" that was followed up with "H6 Blue Sheep" and later the "H6 Plus" model with another type of lock and some other changes including grind, thickness and weight. This is a good example of how responsive this company are to customer input. Real Steel have made direct changes to their line-up after feedback from customers via their Facebookpage.
Another change worth mentioning is that they now also tell us the names behind the designs.
An elegant and somewhat familiar profile
This particulary knife, the*E771 Sea Eagle, is the largest in Real Steels "E-series" and my first contact with this new bloodline. The question that remains is if they raised their game enough to play with the big boys?
But with clean design, resonable weight, and a flat ground blade in decent steel this knife has a few things going for it on paper.*
Blade
The bladeshape is a distinct, pointy droppoint where the spine immediately sweeps down from the thumbramp to meet a competent tip. The blade is 2.74" (95 mm) long and about 1" (25 mm) wide. Thus being a rather substiantal blade.
The blade is almost full flat ground from a thickness of 0.14" (3,5 mm) and is made of a steel well known to me since I'm from Sweden - Sandvik 14C28N. The finish of this "Explorer" version of the Steel Eagle is a fine stonewash. If you prefer more of a gentleman's look there is also a version with carbonfiber scales and a satin finished blade instead.*
This particular steel is the result of a collaboration between Sandvik and Kershaw and is basically a beefed up 12C27. It's a pretty allround steel that will take a very sharp edge, retain it resonable and is not too prone to rust. It's also very easy to resharpen. All and all not a bad midrange steel.
An almost 3,75" long droppoint with a nice fine stonewash
The finish on the blade is extraordinarily well executed with a homogenous tumble and even ground bevels. The knive came very sharp out of box which is a detail I always appreciate. It raises the overall impression. One detail worth mentioning is that the secondary bevel is ground all the way to the handle. No stupid plungelines that steals from the cutting length of the edge.*
The initial sharpness made it pass my "I got a new knife and must cut stuff immediately test" with ease. It shaved hair without problems and slid through paper with only a faint sound.*
The flat ground blade also make it decent for kitchen duties. Normally I don't use my folders for preparing food except outdoors. At home I have a array of kitchen knives for that. But it's always a good performance tester for blades. It handled fruit like apples better than expected and the same goes for root vegetables and onions. Both are excellent testers to find out if a knifeblade actually is a concealed wedge or not.*
The 0.14" blade is made out of 14C28N from Sandvik
Then I did as I always do. Test the bladeperformance, sharpness and endurance on the most common materials around the house and yard such as: paper, cardboard, tape, nylon- and hemprope, soft- and hard plastic, wood - both dried and fresh. And a very important test for me - fabric! As it happens I'm a cycleenthusiast and mountainbiking requires tons of rags for cleaning. So processing worn out clothes to rags is not an unusual task for my pocketknives. **
The bladeshape and geometry worked fine on most materials. It's not exactly a dedicated whittler though. But I attacked a 2x2" anyways just to do some prolonged cutting and the handle worked fine without hotspots.*
But I think that the blade could have been a tad thinner behind the edge for optimal performance according to me.*
The Sandviksteel isn't up to par with the supersteels when it comes to edge retention and you have to take a few strokes on the strop or sharpening rod every now and then. But the steel in this configuration takes an edge with ease.
to be continued...
- A Rather elegant Sea Eagle of Eastern origin
How to proceed as an established Chinese knifemanufacturer in the lower price segments if you want to aim at the European and foremost American market? One creates a sideline with more exclusive knives under a new brand of course. One makes a Lexus out of a Toyota to use a car analogy.
Now, this isn't a unique procedure for SanRenMu who created "Real Steel" for this purpose. It's the same business model used by for instance the Japanese KAI-group where Kershaw produces the volumes and ZT represents the more exclusive knives.
In this case it was a necessity since SRM made a name for themselves making relatively small and extremely cheap knives. They are certainly well built and priceworthy but not exactly high end by any stretch of the imagination. They really managed to nich themselves.
They seem to be in the same situation as CRKT in a way. Their attempt to aim at the higher end or rather mid-end knife market with "Hi Jinx" was an interesting but not entirely succesful one. Not all of us knife knuts are willing to pay that amount of money for a knife with that logo on the blade no matter how good or bad it is.
Real Steel E771 Sea Eagle, Explorer version
Another difficulty, closely related to Chinese law if I'm correctly informed, for SRM was size. The bladelength issue were already circumvented from time to time by making knives that were entirely sterile. As an exempel one can take a look at the small modell 763 that became the bigger 963. It was sold marked as "San Ren Mu" for export but also made in completely sterile versions for the Hong Kong market and then imported back to mainland China. I myself have one of those utterly discrete knives. Now the model are a part of the Real Steel line.
Under the new name they are now producing both fixed blade and folders. Gone are the cheapest lines and the prices now stretches from the 35-40$ mark up to 400$+ MSRP. It remains to be seen how successful the more expensive folders are going to be. Not only do they have to compete with all the established brands in that category but also the other Chinese newcomers such as Reate, Kizer, Stedemon, CH and the like.
But out of this project have come some rather interesting knives. SRM and now Real Steel have always had excellent fit and finish even though made with more basic materials.
One model that already have earned good reputation for being well built is the "H6" that was followed up with "H6 Blue Sheep" and later the "H6 Plus" model with another type of lock and some other changes including grind, thickness and weight. This is a good example of how responsive this company are to customer input. Real Steel have made direct changes to their line-up after feedback from customers via their Facebookpage.
Another change worth mentioning is that they now also tell us the names behind the designs.
An elegant and somewhat familiar profile
This particulary knife, the*E771 Sea Eagle, is the largest in Real Steels "E-series" and my first contact with this new bloodline. The question that remains is if they raised their game enough to play with the big boys?
But with clean design, resonable weight, and a flat ground blade in decent steel this knife has a few things going for it on paper.*
Blade
The bladeshape is a distinct, pointy droppoint where the spine immediately sweeps down from the thumbramp to meet a competent tip. The blade is 2.74" (95 mm) long and about 1" (25 mm) wide. Thus being a rather substiantal blade.
The blade is almost full flat ground from a thickness of 0.14" (3,5 mm) and is made of a steel well known to me since I'm from Sweden - Sandvik 14C28N. The finish of this "Explorer" version of the Steel Eagle is a fine stonewash. If you prefer more of a gentleman's look there is also a version with carbonfiber scales and a satin finished blade instead.*
This particular steel is the result of a collaboration between Sandvik and Kershaw and is basically a beefed up 12C27. It's a pretty allround steel that will take a very sharp edge, retain it resonable and is not too prone to rust. It's also very easy to resharpen. All and all not a bad midrange steel.
An almost 3,75" long droppoint with a nice fine stonewash
The finish on the blade is extraordinarily well executed with a homogenous tumble and even ground bevels. The knive came very sharp out of box which is a detail I always appreciate. It raises the overall impression. One detail worth mentioning is that the secondary bevel is ground all the way to the handle. No stupid plungelines that steals from the cutting length of the edge.*
The initial sharpness made it pass my "I got a new knife and must cut stuff immediately test" with ease. It shaved hair without problems and slid through paper with only a faint sound.*
The flat ground blade also make it decent for kitchen duties. Normally I don't use my folders for preparing food except outdoors. At home I have a array of kitchen knives for that. But it's always a good performance tester for blades. It handled fruit like apples better than expected and the same goes for root vegetables and onions. Both are excellent testers to find out if a knifeblade actually is a concealed wedge or not.*
The 0.14" blade is made out of 14C28N from Sandvik
Then I did as I always do. Test the bladeperformance, sharpness and endurance on the most common materials around the house and yard such as: paper, cardboard, tape, nylon- and hemprope, soft- and hard plastic, wood - both dried and fresh. And a very important test for me - fabric! As it happens I'm a cycleenthusiast and mountainbiking requires tons of rags for cleaning. So processing worn out clothes to rags is not an unusual task for my pocketknives. **
The bladeshape and geometry worked fine on most materials. It's not exactly a dedicated whittler though. But I attacked a 2x2" anyways just to do some prolonged cutting and the handle worked fine without hotspots.*
But I think that the blade could have been a tad thinner behind the edge for optimal performance according to me.*
The Sandviksteel isn't up to par with the supersteels when it comes to edge retention and you have to take a few strokes on the strop or sharpening rod every now and then. But the steel in this configuration takes an edge with ease.
to be continued...
