I bought a Sanrenmu 763 recently, and it is great for EDC.
I'd like to know if there are any knives which offer nearly all the features that this knife offers, but have better blade steel.
Here are some of the features the 763 has which I consider to be indispensable:
● Excellent jimping.
● Fully ambidextrous and symmetrical lock, much easier to disengage than a lockback. I prefer the axis style lock to, say, the compression lock because it is truly symmetrical. Also, it lets one keep all fingers and thumb entirely out of the way of the blade when disengaging, unlike a liner lock.
● Reasonably deep carry pocket clip.
● Plenty of "wear in" room in the lock mechanism. Many Benchmade AXIS knives are made to too precise a tolerance, leaving little to no room for the lock mechanism to wear without becoming loose.
● Close to 2.5" blade length. Most knives of this type are 2.9" or longer these days, making it impractical(or at least unaesthetic) to grind them down to be legal in 2.5" jurisdictions.
● Reasonable traction of the grip, with a semi guard. I like to feel that if I pierce into a container and there is something hard and unexpected which obstructs the blade, that I will have little to no risk of the knife slipping and cutting me. Having good jimping, grippy scales, and a bit of a guard definitely makes me feel safer in using a knife for hard utility tasks.
● Fairly light, at close to 2 oz, but still very solid feeling.
Places where the SRM 763 could use improvement:
● I'd like a FFG blade rather than the high hollow grind SRM puts on it. It still slices great, and is much better than other hollow grinds I've used, so not a terribly big deal.
● Better steel than 8Cr13MoV. Sanrenmu's 8Cr13MoV is certainly better than the steel used by, say, Kershaw around 2001, when I bought several of my favorite EDC knives. However, I'd certainly prefer something like Sandvik stainless, 154CM, Elmax, etc.
If someone made a knife nearly identical to the SRM 763 except for having a FFG blade in a better steel, I'd certainly be willing to pay about 4 or 5 times the price for it. In fact, I've been considering doing a reblade myself in Elmax.
I'd like to know if there are any knives which offer nearly all the features that this knife offers, but have better blade steel.
Here are some of the features the 763 has which I consider to be indispensable:
● Excellent jimping.
● Fully ambidextrous and symmetrical lock, much easier to disengage than a lockback. I prefer the axis style lock to, say, the compression lock because it is truly symmetrical. Also, it lets one keep all fingers and thumb entirely out of the way of the blade when disengaging, unlike a liner lock.
● Reasonably deep carry pocket clip.
● Plenty of "wear in" room in the lock mechanism. Many Benchmade AXIS knives are made to too precise a tolerance, leaving little to no room for the lock mechanism to wear without becoming loose.
● Close to 2.5" blade length. Most knives of this type are 2.9" or longer these days, making it impractical(or at least unaesthetic) to grind them down to be legal in 2.5" jurisdictions.
● Reasonable traction of the grip, with a semi guard. I like to feel that if I pierce into a container and there is something hard and unexpected which obstructs the blade, that I will have little to no risk of the knife slipping and cutting me. Having good jimping, grippy scales, and a bit of a guard definitely makes me feel safer in using a knife for hard utility tasks.
● Fairly light, at close to 2 oz, but still very solid feeling.
Places where the SRM 763 could use improvement:
● I'd like a FFG blade rather than the high hollow grind SRM puts on it. It still slices great, and is much better than other hollow grinds I've used, so not a terribly big deal.
● Better steel than 8Cr13MoV. Sanrenmu's 8Cr13MoV is certainly better than the steel used by, say, Kershaw around 2001, when I bought several of my favorite EDC knives. However, I'd certainly prefer something like Sandvik stainless, 154CM, Elmax, etc.
If someone made a knife nearly identical to the SRM 763 except for having a FFG blade in a better steel, I'd certainly be willing to pay about 4 or 5 times the price for it. In fact, I've been considering doing a reblade myself in Elmax.
