What are your knife buying rules?

[Stelth]

My main rule is buy nothing from china.

[xander99]

no serrations, no coating, no crap.

[frenchmade]

-no tantos
-no recurves
-no partial serrations
-no natural handle materials
-no ugly knives


I should note that I do own at least one exception to each of these "rules"

[Nutty Knife Nut]

my #1 rule is to never stop buying knives......and I also try to stay away from serrations....plain edge is just better to maintain. I already have enough serrated cutting tools for my yard work,they work good for that.

[Slidetechnik]

While I have no hard rules, one I tend to abide by is the buy quality, as the long term ROI is higher, despite the higher cost of entry. To clarify, I'm not talking about when you sell a knife. I'm talking about ROI in terms of satisfaction with the product, longevity, etc.

[I HAVE KNIFE ISSUE]

half serated and no frost cutlery

[86blade]

No serations, tip up carry, over 3" blade, & everything else is research. Also whatever I desire in knife. :-)

[G. Scott H.]

Pretty simple for me:

-No serrations
-Decent quality fit and finish (varies with price to a degree, of course, but absolutely no junk, regardless of price)
-I used to avoid certain blade shapes because I couldn't sharpen them (recurves, hawkbills, weird combos like "nightmare" grinds, etc.), but as my sharpening skills and knowledge improve I find these limitations disappearing.

[botdcypher]

no frame locks

[Zookie]

Has to be a custom and cost hundreds or thousands of $.

[Lone_Wolfe]

I try to avoid LNIB or mint condition knives. I'm going to use them, so if I can save $100 by letting someone else put the first scratch on it, I will.

[Bufford]

If I like it, and want it, then I will buy it.

[Raylas]

For me, it really depends on what I intend to use it for. Mostly, I tend to avoid bead blasts and carbon steels most of the time. I'm also not crazy about liner locks, but I can tolerate them.

[Lavan]

My new, improved, HARD AND FAST rule is to buy NO MORE of em.
I am looking at some knives now that I feel like grouping together SO cheap that someone would buy ALL of em in one batch.
Haven't got there yet, but it's sure tempting.
Had a birthday this week and thought..... NO.... NO MORE KNIVES!

I have even reverted to carrying my FIRST edc. The serrated Delica 3.
Light, handy, sharp, cuts everything GOOD.

I can't even figure out what I was thinking when I bought all the others.

There are a few I could "want" if I let myself go.

But then I'd just wish I hadn't.

[Steve W]

I can't say that I have rules (because at one time or another rules could be broken). My preferences usually are:
- USA Made
- Quality product
- Manufacturer/Maker stands behind product
- No serrations
- Have use/purpose

[benlg]

Besides price and design of course, I prefer frame/liner locks, lightweight (roughly 3oz), 3.5" blade, made in USA and S30V/premium steel.

[Phair12]

No serrations. Not a fan of tanto blades.

[knife2Agunfight]

No serrations

Blade steel must be 154CM/VG-10 or higher, unless it's Cold Steel

No wire-frame pocket clips

Blade must be 3" or more

Carbon steels must be black coated

Recurves must be very discreet, they are a PITA to sharpen

No deep-carry pocket clips

[AlexWitte]

Being fairly new to knife collecting, I've made some mistakes in my purchasing, some more recent than I care to admit. Mora Companion? That was good. Spyderco Tenacious? Not bad, but I should have saved up for Spydie with steel that wasn't Chinese. And yes, sadly, I bought the Bear Grylls knife... (Hey, I wasn't reading Blade Forums at that time)... so lesson learned.

Going forward, I will buy knifes that:

- are not serrated
- are not made in China
- have solid reviews
- look great
- and take some decent abuse/last a long time

[wouldestous]

i dont care for modern style knives in an aesthetic sense so i dont buy them. (lots of folks like modern knives and thats cool with me. carry what you like.)
i buy knives with the intent of using them in my work where they risk getting grit in them, being lost and/or being otherwise damaged. so i dont buy anything that i wouldnt carry because its too expensive to lose. (same reason i carry a cheap mp3 player instead of an expensive ipod). right now my favorites are a svord peasant knife, an opinel #7 and an imacasa machete. all of them together would cost less than a hundred bucks (including shipping) to replace. those are my benchmarks against which a new knife is compared. lol