Sanrenmu 763 or Inron MY803?

B

Bugout Bill

Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Messages
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After my musing about purchasing a Mora for IWB carry purposes, I've decided to look into getting another Chinese domestic knife. I had a Enlan EL-02B that I loved and gave to a buddy of mine for his birthday and I'm afraid I'm missing it. I've narrowed my search down to the Sanrenmu 763 and the infamous Inron MY803.

The Sanrenmu is fairly cool. I like the Axis-ripoff and the blade shape seems nice. The feature that has hooked me is the fact that the guy in the ad is opening a beer with it.

The Inron is quite intriguing. I've never owned any framelock knives, and I'm interested in getting one to justify my dislike of framelocks. I don't care that it looks like a Hinderer; if I wanted a fake Hinderer, I'd get a fake Hinderer. Another feature I'm interested in is the blade steel. How is 9cr? How does it compare to 8cr, 440C, 420HC?

Thanks for any imput!!
 
I have owned both. I gave the 763 to a friend, and I gave the 803 to my parents.

The 763 is a bit lighter. The axis lock is fun to play with. The bottle opener is quite nice as well. All in all, it's a nice EDC and a nice toy.

The 803 is larger, so I let my parents have it to bring along to picnics and other outings where large chunks of food need to be cut. Unless you're a flipper fanatic, its size is the only thing it has going for it. The one I had was poorly finished: sharp edges everywhere (the lanyard hole was cutting the lanyard), thumb stud came loose after 2 days, detent was annoying strong. I had to pretty much re-finish the handle before giving it. Personally, I'd never buy another one.

Between the two steels ... not much difference.

tl;dr: 1 vote for the SRM 763.
 
Bugout Bill said:
You ever owned any or had any experience with them?
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Probably not. This board has a small group of vocal nationalists who think every knife made outside of the US is crap. I got the SRM763 and I like it, except for the blade steel, which dulled after a week of very light use. Don't have the Inron, but opinions on it seem to be mixed and the quality seems to be variable (many people get excellent ones that stand up to spine whack tests, and some get ones that don't even lock up). Also, from what I've read online, 9Cr18MoV's composition is within the range of 440C, which is pretty cool, but there might be differences in manufacturing.
 
Tripton said:
Do you have any experience with quality cutlery? Or just with cheap Chinese copycat garbage?
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I own a Benchmade 530, a Benchmade Switchback, a Zero Tolerance 200. I regret selling my Griptillian Tanto. I wish I could call my Buck Vantage a piece of quality cutlery, but I'm afraid I cannot.

So yeah, I know the difference between quality and crap.
 
XiaolongJackson said:
Probably not. This board has a small group of vocal nationalists who think every knife made outside of the US is crap.
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To be fair they have a legitimate reason to dislike the knives - the Sanrenmu stole the Axis lock, and the Inron copied the Hinderer design. American companies do the same thing at times and people call them out on it too - Microtech Matrix, SOG SOGzilla, anyone?
 
XiaolongJackson said:
Probably not. This board has a small group of vocal nationalists who think every knife made outside of the US is crap.
Click to expand...

To be fair they have a legitimate reason to dislike the knives - the Sanrenmu stole the Axis lock, and the Inron copied the Hinderer design. American companies do the same thing at times and people call them out on it too - Microtech Matrix, SOG SOGzilla, anyone?
 
Goosey said:
To be fair they have a legitimate reason to dislike the knives - the Sanrenmu stole the Axis lock, and the Inron copied the Hinderer design. American companies do the same thing at times and people call them out on it too - Microtech Matrix, SOG SOGzilla, anyone?
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Benchmade opened themselves up to IP theft when they started making the red line. I think Enlan was actually their subcontractor. Same goes for Spyderco/Navy.
 
Bugout Bill said:
Benchmade opened themselves up to IP theft when they started making the red line. I think Enlan was actually their subcontractor. Same goes for Spyderco/Navy.
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Yes, it's still theft though.

As for the knives themselves, I don't have either but I have heard they are great for the price. My other Chinese (SRM) knives have been quite good.
 
Goosey said:
Yes, it's still theft though.

As for the knives themselves, I don't have either but I have heard they are great for the price. My other Chinese (SRM) knives have been quite good.
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It is. But Benchmade could have gone after CS and SOG if they were mad enough. They can't touch the mainland chinese manufacturers, though.

The only real chinese knives I have experience with are the Enlan EL-02 and the Spyderco Tenacious. The Enlan was awesome, good ergos and a really slicy blade. The Tenacious had better edge retention, though. Is SRMs axis-ripoff better than Enlan's?
 
Bugout Bill said:
It is. But Benchmade could have gone after CS and SOG if they were mad enough. They can't touch the mainland chinese manufacturers, though.

The only real chinese knives I have experience with are the Enlan EL-02 and the Spyderco Tenacious. The Enlan was awesome, good ergos and a really slicy blade. The Tenacious had better edge retention, though. Is SRMs axis-ripoff better than Enlan's?
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I only have SRM 710 framelocks. I had a Ganzo Axis-ripoff and it worked well with the exception of blade centering issues.
 
Goosey said:
To be fair they have a legitimate reason to dislike the knives - the Sanrenmu stole the Axis lock, and the Inron copied the Hinderer design. American companies do the same thing at times and people call them out on it too - Microtech Matrix, SOG SOGzilla, anyone?
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Honestly, I don't like the attitude that people have about technological innovation these days. It seems that a lot of people and companies are rushing to invent things first, just so they can prevent other people from incorporating them in their technologies. How would you feel if Buck was stingy about letting other companies use the backlock or if CRK tried to relentlessly sue every company that tried to use the framelock? Same with thumbstuds, opening holes, stop pins, liners, backspacers, and all the other great little things that go into our knives. I understand the controversy with Inron, because its design is almost entirely lifted from Hinderer, but from what I gather the 763 is an original design, except it makes use of a mechanism with a recognizable patent. If it had a backlock, would people give it the same treatment and kick and scream and cry about how Buck is getting ripped off?
 
Well, I've been sufficently scared away from the Inron. I'll probably get the SRM763 if I can find the G10 model. All the site has is a AL handled model.
 
I'd reply to the OP, but only if it was a serious question to begin with . :mad:
 
Bugout Bill said:
Well, I've been sufficently scared away from the Inron. I'll probably get the SRM763 if I can find the G10 model. All the site has is a AL handled model.
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Go for it. It's pretty comfortable, lightweight, and sensibly designed. If I weren't so lazy about maintaining my knives' blades, I'd carry it around more often.
 
Bugout Bill said:
Benchmade opened themselves up to IP theft when they started making the red line. I think Enlan was actually their subcontractor. Same goes for Spyderco/Navy.
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Add to that, the fact that IP theft is IP theft here in the US. In China, it's not considered illegal or taboo as far as I know...
 
Tripton said:
Do you have any experience with quality cutlery? Or just with cheap Chinese copycat garbage?
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LOL, the Chinese are certainly capable of matching quality in any product if they so wished, let's just be glad they haven't turned it on with knives just yet...

Those knives are probably meant for their domestic market, bringing it here was not their intention but there are many folks who are willing to buy them so here they come. Best to just vote with our wallets.
 
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