Why San Mai Makes Sense
I think from what I saw at IWA this year is that there is no doubt in my mind that there are now many quality knives coming out of Chinese manufacturing facilities. I'm not talking about people who have been OEM-ing for years for big name USA companies etc.- sure, I'm talking about people with high tech equipment and good design ideas giving the west a run for it's money.
The business key here is collaborating with foreigners who want to bring their designs to light but find it financially impossible to do so using local manufacturer/s. Making knives other than "one offs" / ie custom designs require a lot: of skill and science, art for design aesthetic and understanding of biometrics even if that only means understanding comfort and basic ergonomics. Contrary to what many suggest, it does not require the black arts ie magic! To get reproducible results for production quantities, thus requires such an approach.
Some of these manufacturers, their pricing is not outrageous nor is it "cheap" either but I would argue "fair" in line with the current economy in China. It's now the same story about what people used to say about bicycles, 30 years ago, being made in Taiwan and that they had to be crap. I remember a guy who once joined our cycling club and he was crapping on about this when another bloke said, there was no reason that a Taiwanese made bike frame (in relation to a downhill bike frame) was going to be crap as they were using exactly the same materials, exactly the same CNC machines, the difference was they were operated by guys who looked different and the bike was welded by robots far more accurate for such a product than any human hand. That shut him up.
No, products especially from Chinese and or Taiwanese manufacturers can be just as good as any western manufacturer doing similar, eg take the semi conductor industry as a current example. However, this is NOT to be confused with ANY companies just trying to rip off other's designs.
There are many camera grip manufacturers and optical manufacturers in China producing cutting edge camera and optical equipment. For example: ZentronOutdoors comes to mind as a producer of some seriously fantastic thermal imaging hunting scopes (yes I've used them, hunting friends I know have used them and I still use them).
The propaganda images and notions that these companies can only do this by torturing their staff and or paying them next to nothing is exactly that, western propaganda, that when bandied about these days seems totally boring and only shows the lack of understanding those who say this in the west, has for what is going on in the economy in China today.
Anyway I'm getting distracted.
Let's get back to the title of this article about San mai constructed knives. Why I wanted to discuss this was that several days ago a viewer on my Youtube channel was, I suspect, pointing out to me that there could not possibly be any claim to "proprietary" or trade mark San mai steel from a recent company's product I reviewed, since this steel according to them had been in use from a famous Swedish (beginning with F) company (albeit, according to him at a lower HRC) for over 20 years! I was quick to point out that that famous Swedish company never actually manufactured that particular raw material themselves but imported it from Japan, where the "technology" if you like has been in use for centuries! So there is nothing Swedish or original about that!
I mean, what exactly does Proprietary mean?
According to Cornell University, their definition in regards to the law is the following:
and one can see straight away that this word is intimately linked with "Ownership" of something. That something may be a trade secrete on some manufacturing process etc. So just about anything can be "proprietary"!
What about Trademark?
Well in this case WithArmour are stating that the WASTEEL is a Trademark, they tell me that they import the raw materials (presumably from Japan) and create the San mai construction in house. That's my understanding from correspondence from them. If that's the case then I guess they can def trademark their steel construction.
The Design of the WithArmour CAJO I BK
The point is that this San mai constructed knife is very well made. I've field tested it! We don't bother testing rubbish products. But what about the design? The design is by a German guy living in Bavaria by the name of Andreas Löfflmann, and this design of his is very interesting for the following reasons:
It's a small knife which is easily carried by the hiker or hunter.
It possess a lanyard hole, such an important feature of ANY knife purporting to be used either "tactically" or in "the Outdoors" end of story, no lanyard hole, you can loose it in the snow, down a hole, in the lake etc etc.
Because WithArmour are using "chain ring bolts" to secure the carbon fibre impregnated G10 scales, it's possible to use the middle bolt (because by nature they are hollow) as a "top cap" in the fire bow drill setup.
The knife weighs an incredible 275 grams but because it's a SCANDI grind, such a thick 1/4" blade is very useful still for carving and cutting tasks. If it had a straight edge bevel then it would simply be too thick for anything IMHO. Now the fact that it has a scandi grind and it weighs almost 300 grams and is very comfortable to hold, means that one can actually chop with this knife making use of the momentum you can develop from such a small knife. See this video.
There are absolutely zero hot spots on this knife. Someone recently commented that their " 2 buck fishing knife could do the same". Ok after I recovered from laughing and then picked myself off the ground, I was about to write a serious reply but chose to write a somewhat ambiguous sarcastic but none the less truthful reply about multi use of a "fishing knife" ie other than strictly for fishing purposes, one could indeed use the same knife as a: screwdriver, paint scraper and or removers of battery terminal corrosion from the boat batteries, etc. etc.!
Now back to the no hot spots, what this means is that one can apply huge pressure to the spine without damaging your thumb and this is very important for any outdoor knife to be of long duration use. I say "long duration" because sure, many a knife can be used for carving and cutting but for how long???? Plus all of this changes once the hands and or fingers are wet and cold. Don't forget this otherwise you will only be going outside during warm weather and ok, maybe that's your thing, no problems.
So I had better actually answer why San mai makes sense?
To add to the features of this knife, a San mai construction is well known as basically an indestructible laminated construction when it comes to undue lateral forces, ie it's difficult to break such a knife blade and there have been countless social media demonstrations over the years showing just this. (and no I don't mean JOE X) there was a guy many years before him who ore overall and a Hockey mask. Joe X, simply copied him.
So there you go, I think I've emphasised the salient features of this new product from WithArmour and it's probably all sold out now, who knows as I have number 2 of 100, first production run. Hopefully they will continue with another run? Such a good value knife I believe.
And if you are reading this Andreas Löfflmann then let me tell you I'm also a passionate fisherman too!
BCT
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