Santa dropped by earlier this year! Chubby, laughing like crazy as always, his enormous beer belly protruding from unzipped Serbian Post jacket, my friendly mailman handed me the usual inconspicuous FasttTech.com yellow padded envelope, containing one standard Sanrenmu 2-piece blister pack (thank God no sharp tools needed for opening!) and a simple order sheet that stated "SRM A6-606 St+". No customs fees this time, luckily.
This is actually the second Sanrenmu knife which I've purchased online from FastTech.com and placed into my regular EDC rotation. First model of this brand that I've owned was tiny "605", excellent little knife in the same niche as "606" ("micro folder" or "colibri class", as I usually call these petite performers). To be completely true, I've also ordered their "604" (which is in fact 605's chisel-grind, tanto blade sister model) but it was a present to my father and since Old Man is very possessive of his pocket tools, I had only the briefest chance to see it.
Sanrenmu are very well known and praised among the Internet's budget EDC-enlightened crowd for their range of full-size tactical folders, but I don't own any of those. The fact is, I want to be able to carry a pocket knife with me at all times. Knife law here in Serbia is quite ambiguous, so LEOs have a total carte blanche policy regarding pocket knives. To make a situation worse for the average citizen, in most of the cases they act under stress and tend to protect themselves first, so carrying a folding knife the size of, say, SRM 7007 (75 mm blade, non-assisted) in your pocket in any urban area can pretty sure guarantee you a seizure of the knife on the spot and a trip to the local court. So it's either small SAKs or micro-folders when it comes to fail-safe daily carry choice...
And now back to the knife itself. On the first look, right out the blister pack, open or closed, observed from any angle, its high-tech aesthetics are striking, so I'm giving it full 5/5 without any second thoughts. After some inspection, I've concluded that build quality is also excellent (5/5), as it was the case with other SRM's I've had a chance to hold in my hands: my unit was assembled meticulously and seamlessly, and that's almost unbelievable considering the price paid for this knife. Scales are machined from stainless steel and they feature a very firm and precise-locking frame lock (a sturdy variant of liner lock). Impeccable assembly and combo of one teflon and one bronze shim placed between the scales and the blade allow for zero play in both directions and provide easy blade opening at the same time. A6-606's thumb hole is large enough for my thumb and middle finger, but I've never succeeded in opening this knife with my left hand (I'm right-handed and ambidextrous for anything except writing). In fact, my left thumb exerts pressure on the locking spring, which in turn pushes the detente ball into its pit on the blade, thus keeping the knife firmly shut. I don't know if true left-handed people have a work-around for this issue.
Blade sits firm and straight between the scales (frame plates) and pivot is well lubricated in the factory. There are absolutely no sharp edges on the frame. On the contrary, blade is shaving sharp right out of the box. Unfortunately, blade has almost uniform thickness over its entire length (there's no usual tapering towards the tip) although this may not be a shortcoming if you normally use the blade tip for prying - with A6-606 there's a little chance of breaking it. Minuscule machining marks in form of thin parallel lines are barely noticeable on the flat surfaces of the primary bevel, but the rest of the knife presents a perfect sanded satin finish beauty (this kind of finish also prevents handle from slipping, even with wet or greasy hands). Handle ergonomy is not so great (I'm rating it three out of five), mainly because A6-606's scales are in fact steel plates with rounded edges. IMO, SRM 605 was more succesful in this area because it featured a very useful choil (better grip was achieved at the expense of a shorter blade). Weight of sheer steel gives a solid, firm sensation in your hand, but this weight is barely noticeable in the pocket. Supplied pocket clip is extremely rigid and IMO useless for its main purpose, however it helps in getting additional grip during the opening of the the blade and holding the knife when it's open.
When it comes to cutting ability, A6-606 has a fairly thick, symmetrical, partial flat ground, satin finish blade with pronounced secondary bevel and - in spite of being well sharpened in the factory - it isn't the top cutter out there. I've tried it on some food packaging, cable ties and thin wooden sticks, but its cutting abilities were modest. Sanded blade surface creates some unwanted friction in contact with material being cut (a bit of paste-stropping may help here) and its huge secondary bevel makes the blade slide down the wooden stick instead of cutting it when you don't get the angle right. So it's 3/5 for real-world cutting ability.
--- to be continued ---
Blade sits firm and straight between the scales (frame plates) and pivot is well lubricated in the factory. There are absolutely no sharp edges on the frame. On the contrary, blade is shaving sharp right out of the box. Unfortunately, blade has almost uniform thickness over its entire length (there's no usual tapering towards the tip) although this may not be a shortcoming if you normally use the blade tip for prying - with A6-606 there's a little chance of breaking it. Minuscule machining marks in form of thin parallel lines are barely noticeable on the flat surfaces of the primary bevel, but the rest of the knife presents a perfect sanded satin finish beauty (this kind of finish also prevents handle from slipping, even with wet or greasy hands). Handle ergonomy is not so great (I'm rating it three out of five), mainly because A6-606's scales are in fact steel plates with rounded edges. IMO, SRM 605 was more succesful in this area because it featured a very useful choil (better grip was achieved at the expense of a shorter blade). Weight of sheer steel gives a solid, firm sensation in your hand, but this weight is barely noticeable in the pocket. Supplied pocket clip is extremely rigid and IMO useless for its main purpose, however it helps in getting additional grip during the opening of the the blade and holding the knife when it's open.
When it comes to cutting ability, A6-606 has a fairly thick, symmetrical, partial flat ground, satin finish blade with pronounced secondary bevel and - in spite of being well sharpened in the factory - it isn't the top cutter out there. I've tried it on some food packaging, cable ties and thin wooden sticks, but its cutting abilities were modest. Sanded blade surface creates some unwanted friction in contact with material being cut (a bit of paste-stropping may help here) and its huge secondary bevel makes the blade slide down the wooden stick instead of cutting it when you don't get the angle right. So it's 3/5 for real-world cutting ability.
--- to be continued ---
