Sanrenmu 913P Urban EDC Survival Folding Knife

The Sanrenmu BG4-913P Urban EDC Survival Folding Knife is a must have when working and living in an urban downtown office type environment. The need to protect yourself and to prepare for incidents and disasters is equally important as when living in a rural area, the only difference is, you can’t carry the same gear. This knife though helps equal the playing field.

Sanrenmu positions this knife as a heavy duty combat knife, which it very well might be. It is a very nice, if not perfectly crafted folder. It has an excellent fit and finish that rivals the build quality of knifes much more expensive then this one.

In this article I’ll go over the 913P step by step and show you why this is a great urban survival folder. Now for starters, this knife will in no way pass the criteria I’ve come up with for an office save urban everyday carry knife. You don’t whip this one out at the office.

So why then do I like it as an urban EDC survival folder? Simple. The EDC knife I carry in my pocket is the B4-762. It’s a great knife that does pass all the criteria, but it’s not a survival knife. And since I do feel the need to carry something a bit more capable for in survival situations I needed a knife that I could take to the office and that, when somehow ‘discovered’, wouldn’t immediately get me fired. So no Bear Grylls ultimate survival knife. Enter the Sanrenmu BG4-913P.

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Details from the manufacturer

Blade length: 3.34″ (85 mm)

Blade thickness: 0.122″ (3.1 mm)

Blade steel: 8Cr14MoV Stainless Steel (57-58 HRC)

Open length: 7.71″ (196 mm)

Closed length: 4.37″ (111 mm)

Weight: 5.11 oz (145 g)

Handle: G-10 with steel liners

Lock: liner lock

Carry: right or left hand tip down

In case you wondered, 8Cr14MoV is not a typo. It is a steel that is a bit more stain and wear resistant then 8Cr13MoV.

Criteria For An Urban EDC Survival Folding Knife

It wasn’t all looks and no substance. I actually came up with what I think are some good criteria to look at in order to determine what makes a knife an urban survival folder. They are: Size, Type Grip, Blade, Pommel and Steel. I’ll cover each item separately a bit further down this article.

Coming up with these I borrowed from a few places where they already did some thinking on the topic, so do let me do the right thing here and give them credit: Tactical Intelligence, Willow Haven Outdoor and a bunch of really great ideas I found spread around on Reddit.

Surviving what exactly?

The question needs to be asked. What is it you’re trying to survive? In the context of this blog the answer to this question is a given: A western urban down town environment. So no bushwhacking and little or no chopping, no big game animals and no digging. But for broader purposes look at in what locale, what climate, what season or what situation the knife is needed. What kind of other gear will be accessible? Are we talking long-term or short-term survival? City, country, or wilderness survival? Alone or in a group? It all plays a part in picking the one knife that you will rely on to keep you alive.

Whatever knife you pick, in an urban environment it should at the very least be able to do these basic tasks:

Cutting/Slicing

Splitting

Self-Defense

First Aid Tool

Food Prep

Shelter Building

Fire Making

Hunting Weapon

Prying Tool

Signaling

Size

Wielding a knife doesn’t get any easier as the size of the blade goes up. For every extra inch you’ll lose ability to precisely steer the point and do precise cutting tasks with it. Who cares you might ask. Well, you might win me over with the argument that you’re no POW and thus won’t be spending your time chiseling chess figures out of wood. But that’s oversimplifying the matter. Lets face it, there’s a lot of precise cutting that needs to be done when it comes to survival. Think dressing small game, carving arrow tips or making a spoon. Your knife needs to be up for these kinds of tasks. So keep that in mind when making your choice.

Type Grip

Self-explanatory in that you need to have a handle with maximum grip. You’ll find that there are all kinds of ways manufacturers try to address the grip issue. I myself like the rubbery solution Gerber uses on some of its Bear Grylls knifes like the ultimate survival knife. The Sanrenmu 913P has a textured G10 handle that gives it a nice grip in dry as well as in wet conditions. To quote Knifecenter.com: “G10 is a fiberglass based laminate. Layers of fiberglass cloth are soaked in resin and are compressed and baked. The resulting material is very hard, lightweight, and strong. Surface texture is added in the form of checkering. G-10 is an ideal material for tactical folders because of its ruggedness and lightweight. It is usually available in black.”

Blade

Blades come in a variety of shapes and sizes and depending on the particular shape it is better at a specific task then the other shapes. When picking a knife it is a good idea to go over what you think the tasks are you’ll be doing with it and than pick the type of blade that fits best. Wikipedia has a nice write-up on the different types of blades and what they’re good for.

The 913P sports a modified sheepsfoot which is pretty much a cross between a drop-point and a sheepsfoot. The modified part is that a sheepsfoot normally has a straight edge where the 913P blade has an edge that curves up into the tip. This dramatically increases its cutting ability by concentrating the force applied to the blade onto a very small area, resulting in a higher pressure on the point of contact.

To double up on the cutting power Sanrenmu decided to add serrations to almost half the cutting edge. This makes that the force applied on the blade will be concentrated on an even smaller area increasing the pressure on the point of contact even further.

The tip of the blade is what you’d expect with a sheepsfoot. But, since the cutting edge is curved upwards towards the tip it changes the type of tip because of that. It now has a much more drop-point type tip. Which I like much, much better. In combat the drop-point is well suited for stabbing since it punctures a surface with ease.

Pommel

The pommel aka the butt, the back or the rear end of your knife. It has its value as well, as a hammer. If the manufacturer took the time to make it a usable pommel that is. Fortunately Sanrenmu did.

Using your knife as a light hammer doesn’t come natural to most folk, but it is a way to have a great extra tool on you. Most examples I’ve found is that people use it for driving in shelter stakes, but there are more uses. Remember that I look at it from the perspective of a downtown urban survival folder, and that changes the use case a bit. No tent, no tent stakes.

What you do have in a city are lots of windows, in buildings but also in cars. When surviving you might have to break one or two of them. The pommel of the 913P isn’t the best pommel for this (that would be the Boker Plus CFR‘s) but it is likely to break car windows with it. The other important use for it is to break up the ice on water barrels or small puddles so you can drink.

If you are in a fight and you don’t want to cut up the other guy, and you really don’t always have to, you can use the pommel to hit him on the head or knees. A very effective use.

Steel

I’m not yet at the point where I experienced enough type steels that I’ve developed a preference for one steel or another. So instead I’ll make do with my book knowledge and common sense here. The blade for my EDC and survival knifes needs to be hard enough to hold its edge and soft enough to make sharpening it on the go not to much of a hassle. On top of that it needs to be a stainless steel.

Sanrenmu choose 8Cr14MoV for the 913P, instead of 8Cr13MoV what you useally see being used. The 14MoV means it has 1% more chromium in it which should make it a bit more corrosion resistant, which is a good thing.

ROUNDUP

The 913P doesn’t just feel great in my hand, look good or give me the sense of being prepared. It actually is a very good folder that will come in handy the moment things get tough.

So, would you find the GB4-913P going through my EDC bag? The answer is yes. Safely tucked away in a corner, waiting for that one day.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading this far. I’d love to hear what your choice for an urban EDC survival folding knife is, and especially why, so please leave your comments below and share your thoughts.

Till next time, Kain.