- Joined
- Aug 18, 2016
- Messages
- 634
Today I received my first knife from Enigma Knives, an upcoming Polish knifemaker.
First a little bit about the company as they're not really that prominent:
From what I could gather(their page isn't exactly in perfect English ) they're split off of a company(RONIN) that was founded in 2007. They're target is to produce high-quality knives at affordable prices.
The knives are semi custom(as they say) with all parts(well all but scales, pins etc. obviously) CNC machined and hand finished/-ground.
The steels they use range from US2000 MC/Z-Wear(pretty similar to CruWear; no silicon, higher Carbon and Chromium), K590, M390. Liners generally are titanium and scales pretty much all the non-metallic stuff.
Now to this knife:
first off: Price was 120USD
Steel: US2000MC @62HRC
Stock thickness: 2mm
Liners: Titanium
Scales: Stabilized Wood
Pins: Brass/Mosaic
Blade Length: 70mm
Weight: around 52g
The presentation was stellar; it came in a wooden box with cloth lining, a felt sheath(they also offer leather), key-ring pendant, and a cleaning cloth and the box was well packaged.
Pictures of presentation:
The knife itself:
The finish is good, though the blade is a bit shy of liners and spring, and there are slight gaps between spring and liners. So compared to GEC, better in some parts, worse in others.
(04)
The centering is close to being perfect, but slightly off to one side, no rub though.
(05)
The blade itself is ground pretty thin(like, really thin) and actually came sharp(GEC isn't even close here, way nicer on the Enigma) with perfectly symmetrical sweeping plunges. The blade finish is a belt satin(guessing 600-800ish?). The secondary bevel is even, about 800-1000grit.
The blade runs on 0.1mm pb washers.
(06)
(07)
The wood is some kind of stabilized Burl, one tiny imperfection(can be seen in pictures 03 and 06, nothing major, can't feel it) with a really nice deep grain. Really beautiful.
The pull is a solid 7-8/10; really stiff though doable without breaking your nails(blade can be pinched easily). While the talk is really nice, the walk leaves a bit to be desired which is a result of the blasted flats, I'd guess. It's a bit gritty, but I think that it will smoothen out over time.
Overall I'd say, for the money, there are few options that are better. Biggest positive being the really thin blade from PM steel and biggest negative the not-flush-ness.
First a little bit about the company as they're not really that prominent:
From what I could gather(their page isn't exactly in perfect English ) they're split off of a company(RONIN) that was founded in 2007. They're target is to produce high-quality knives at affordable prices.
The knives are semi custom(as they say) with all parts(well all but scales, pins etc. obviously) CNC machined and hand finished/-ground.
The steels they use range from US2000 MC/Z-Wear(pretty similar to CruWear; no silicon, higher Carbon and Chromium), K590, M390. Liners generally are titanium and scales pretty much all the non-metallic stuff.
Now to this knife:
first off: Price was 120USD
Steel: US2000MC @62HRC
Stock thickness: 2mm
Liners: Titanium
Scales: Stabilized Wood
Pins: Brass/Mosaic
Blade Length: 70mm
Weight: around 52g
The presentation was stellar; it came in a wooden box with cloth lining, a felt sheath(they also offer leather), key-ring pendant, and a cleaning cloth and the box was well packaged.
Pictures of presentation:
(01)
(02)
(03)
(02)
(03)
The knife itself:
The finish is good, though the blade is a bit shy of liners and spring, and there are slight gaps between spring and liners. So compared to GEC, better in some parts, worse in others.
(04)
The centering is close to being perfect, but slightly off to one side, no rub though.
(05)
The blade itself is ground pretty thin(like, really thin) and actually came sharp(GEC isn't even close here, way nicer on the Enigma) with perfectly symmetrical sweeping plunges. The blade finish is a belt satin(guessing 600-800ish?). The secondary bevel is even, about 800-1000grit.
The blade runs on 0.1mm pb washers.
(06)
(07)
The wood is some kind of stabilized Burl, one tiny imperfection(can be seen in pictures 03 and 06, nothing major, can't feel it) with a really nice deep grain. Really beautiful.
The pull is a solid 7-8/10; really stiff though doable without breaking your nails(blade can be pinched easily). While the talk is really nice, the walk leaves a bit to be desired which is a result of the blasted flats, I'd guess. It's a bit gritty, but I think that it will smoothen out over time.
Overall I'd say, for the money, there are few options that are better. Biggest positive being the really thin blade from PM steel and biggest negative the not-flush-ness.