Are more expensive knives better ?

[Kai Winters]

"Better" is probably one of the most subjective words in use.

As has been said...depends...on use, expectations, desires, etc.

If all you are doing with the knife, as most people use a cutting tool for, is opening mail, boxes, etc. a cheap knife, or anything reasonably sharp will do the trick.

Same is true with most tools, etc. we all use today...especially such things as pens, watches, wallets, etc...you can write with it, you can read the time, it holds your money and other crap, etc.

"Better" for me is a bell curve...as has been stated you hit a point of diminishing returns but that does not stop or get in the way of others who prefer a more costly...better...item.

I use a work supplied, cheap ass, fixed blade knife every day at work...we get them by the box...I use it to scrape coating off 2 1/2" connectors made of stainless steel, cutting scrubby pads in smaller pieces, all sorts of chores that puts nicks, etc. on the blade and dulls it in just a few strokes. But I bring it back with a "strop"/sharpening stone I made using a piece of 3/8" wood with double faced taped on each side and a piece of 320/600 grit sandpaper attached...it works super to restore the edge.
I'd not put my HK Plan D...my "work" knife to such brutality, using it for "cutting" tasks...opening bag upon bag of materials, cutting strapping, preparing rolls of paper for "splicing over", etc.

 

[link2derek]

Welcome to BF, smoky. I don't know if you've seen Nutnfancy on Youtube, but he has done a ton of knife review vids, and he always talks about "two kinds of cool." And I tend to agree with his philosophy on this matter.

First Kinda Cool is the knife's functionality. There are a lot of reasonably priced blades out there that will get the job done - whatever the job, no doubt. But some guys want that Second Kinda Cool. That means higher-end steel, premium handle and sheath materials, hand-assembly and -finishing, and that means more money in the end.

So, do knives with premium materials perform better than less expensive alternatives? Probably, but not necessarily as much better as the extra cost if you were to compare cost with performance. My advice? Get something less expensive that you can beat on and not feel bad about. And also get something really nice that just does it for you and you can treasure (and use sometimes, too!).

Anyhow, check out Nutn' if you're not familiar with him. He's sort of a nerd (and he'll be the first to admit that), but he has a lot of experience with a lot of blades in actual use, and I have found his data points useful in the past.

Cheers, and we'll see ya' on the forum...

 

[onojoe]

To answer your question... Yes

But the law of diminishing returns come into play.

A cheap knife can cut and an expensive knife can cut. You will really start to see that an expensive knife is better, when you start buying knives for specific tasks

 

[22-rimfire]

Depends. I find a sak does everything I need better than knives costing 7 times as much so for me the answer is no. More expensive knives are not better.

Me too on the SAK, but maybe not better than most knives costing 7x as much. Generally speaking, more expensive knives are better. But better for what and better than what? Holding an edge? Probably. Fit and finish? Probably. Cutting. Probably not once you reach about the $100 cost area.

I like the more expensive knives. But are they worth the money? Mostly, yes within reason. The rule of dimishing returns in quality certainly apply as far as I'm concerned. At what point do I say something is far better? I don't know unless you are comparing specific knives and even then there will be differences in opinion. It boils down to being willing to spend money for a higher end knife and believing that you purchased a great knife. Basically, I try not to worry about it too much if I can afford the knife that I choose to buy.

 

[Shotgun]

Me too on the SAK, but maybe not better than most knives costing 7x as much. Generally speaking, more expensive knives are better. But better for what and better than what? Holding an edge? Probably. Fit and finish? Probably. Cutting. Probably not once you reach about the $100 cost area.

I like the more expensive knives. But are they worth the money? Mostly, yes within reason. The rule of dimishing returns in quality certainly apply as far as I'm concerned. At what point do I say something is far better? I don't know unless you are comparing specific knives and even then there will be differences in opinion. It boils down to being willing to spend money for a higher end knife and believing that you purchased a great knife. Basically, I try not to worry about it too much if I can afford the knife that I choose to buy.

Well my sak was say 30 bucks. So yeah you're right it's more like 5 times.

It's better because it does more work. Now that may be specific to me but it's true. I've tried more expensive knives and they just don't work better. The ergos, the edge geometry, carry ability...all better for what I do. And I haven't even gotten into extra tools and blades. The only draw back is edge retention which, admittedly, isn't that great. But would something that holds it's edge better without all the other benefits be better? Not for me. Besides, a minute every week on the strop isn't what I would call a very intensive maintenance schedule. So...really depends on the needs of the user. "Better" really is too subjective to put a finger on.

 

[stabman]

It's better because it does more work. Now that may be specific to me but it's true. I've tried more expensive knives and they just don't work better. The ergos, the edge geometry, carry ability...all better for what I do.

I found the SAK works pretty well, but on one walking stick I was making, I quickly switched from the SAK to the Umnumzaan. It just worked better for that job.

On the other hand, I also have expensive knives which don't cut as well as the ordinary SAK...it all depends on the knife, the job being done, and personal preference (perhaps the handle is what works better in a certain instance...).

 

[RevDevil]

Better is a subjective term that can mean anything. It can mean resale, desirability, performance, ergonomics, reliability, aesthetics, etc. All subjective and vary from one person to the next. There also exists a point of diminishing returns for many people. Say you have a $100 knife and a $500 knife, the $500 knife is not 5 times better than the $100 knife. What more expensive knives do (or what they used to do before all these production companies popped up over night) was push the performance and design limits of what was previously available.

 

[22-rimfire]

Hard to beat a SAK for overall usefullness and cutting ability. Easy to sharpen them. The SAK I routinely use costs about $30 (same sak cost $20-$22 10 years ago. oh well) The same would apply to good slipjoints. Of course, they aren't as cool or tactical as knives with clips or particularly useful for self defense. But for pure cutting, they are hard to beat.

I might add that it is important to choose the right tool for the cutting job. Shouldn't really generalize too much. There is certainly a place for larger thicker blades.

 

[AntDog]

"Better" is probably one of the most subjective words in use.

As has been said...depends...on use, expectations, desires, etc.

If all you are doing with the knife, as most people use a cutting tool for, is opening mail, boxes, etc. a cheap knife, or anything reasonably sharp will do the trick.

Same is true with most tools, etc. we all use today...especially such things as pens, watches, wallets, etc...you can write with it, you can read the time, it holds your money and other crap, etc.

"Better" for me is a bell curve...as has been stated you hit a point of diminishing returns but that does not stop or get in the way of others who prefer a more costly...better...item.

I use a work supplied, cheap ass, fixed blade knife every day at work...we get them by the box...I use it to scrape coating off 2 1/2" connectors made of stainless steel, cutting scrubby pads in smaller pieces, all sorts of chores that puts nicks, etc. on the blade and dulls it in just a few strokes. But I bring it back with a "strop"/sharpening stone I made using a piece of 3/8" wood with double faced taped on each side and a piece of 320/600 grit sandpaper attached...it works super to restore the edge.
I'd not put my HK Plan D...my "work" knife to such brutality, using it for "cutting" tasks...opening bag upon bag of materials, cutting strapping, preparing rolls of paper for "splicing over", etc.

Aha! So, what printing plant do you work at?

I think I know EXACTLY what type of knife you're talking about... Is it one of these?

 

[Charr]

Depends on what you think better means, nobody can tell you what to think however.

Generally quality tends to go up with price, that being materials, fit and finish, design, tolerances etc.

That's not to say one has to spend $1000 to get a quality knife, but shouldn't expect to find it under a certain range like say $30 or so either.

One can find serviceable knives in a lot of different ranges, even the lowest price ranges, however serviceable doesn't mean it's a quality product, that just means it will actually cut something, but then one can cut stuff with a lid from a can of beans so in effect that really doesn't mean much.

So in the end one has to weigh what they value personally in a knife and choose for themselves.

This all the way. You have to decide what it means to you, and what is worth how much for you. I regularly carry a $1000 knife. Do I think this is he best knife in history? No, but I damn sure love it.
Now, there are knives that are $2000 that wouldn't be as good for ME out there and I know it, and there are knives out there for $1000 that aren't as good as this one for me.

It's all dependent on you and your needs.