at what the price point do you start to baby your knife?

The knives I use, both folders and fixed, max out around $200-250 and are all in production and can be easily replaced if need. I won't use the ones that are out of production, limited numbered runs, vintage stuff, and knives that are vey hard to obtain. Which make up most of the knives I own.
 
The most I've spent currently on a blade is $375, and while I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them, there are certainly some I wouldn't use for certain jobs. I wouldn't necessarily considering it "babying" per se, but a part of it is just using the right tool for the job, taking blade steel, edge geometry, etc. into consideration. Still, there are also a couple beaters I have that I really don't care what happens to them, I guess it's all relative.
 
KenHash said:
I won't use the ones that are out of production, limited numbered runs, vintage stuff, and knives that are vey hard to obtain. Which make up most of the knives I own.
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Huh. I guess that sort of sums up my feelings too. If I buy a knife because I like the design and find it useful, I'll eventually buy a spare to set aside. Inevitably, anything I like gets discontinued, so knowing that I'll be buying another one way or another, it's more cost effective to do so sooner rather than later. My favorite EDCs are discontinued and becoming hard to track down, so I'm glad to have some redundancy.
 
I have "work" knives and "home" knives. My home knives are not babied exactly but they are used more lightly for sure.

For a knife I take to work I don't want to be afraid to rap on the spine with a piece of aluminum to cut something hard. I don't usually do that, I just don't want to be afraid to. Deburring metal with the spine or secondary blade happens.

I usually don't go over $30-$40 for a work knife. I'll spend more on a home knife.
 
What constitutes "babying"? I ask because it seems like such a relative term. What might seem like babying to me might be somebody else's idea of abuse. I have nice knives that i use strictly for cutting and general knife chores but i always carry a beater blade for scud work. I can't exactly put a dollar figure to where the line is between beater and nice for me. Possibly because I've never had a knife I've gave more than $65 for... Yet...Probably just my limited experience preventing me from giving the proper input to this thread. In my mind, if i have a $75 knife that won't hold an edge or i just ain't real stoked over it it'll get busted down to beater status and the $35 Case from the hardware store will be treated with more care, as an example.
 
I won't buy a knife that I don't intend to use. So far, my most expensive knives have been around $100. I could see paying up to around $300 but that will probably be about my limit.
 
Peroni1973 said:
I have just taken possession of my first and only CRK Sebenza (small, with cocobolo inlays) and whilst I have had it in my possession for a couple of weeks, I have yet to use it...

Maybe that's my price point?!!
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- The real question is why you have a fear of using it? Are you afraid of damaging the knife beyond repair? Are you afraid of scratching it? What happens if you scratch the knife? Are you going to sell it and buy a brand new one? If you damage the edge, can you not sharpen it?
 
my highest two price point knives were 1300 - used it and still will, and 1800 - could not bring myself to use. (both strider customs)

Most of the knives I use on a daily basis (strider productions)are in the 550 range.
Currently the least expensive knives I own are my Winkler fixed blades in the 350 range.
All of those get used as needed.
 
I don't have the disposable income to buy a knife that is not usable. I'll gladly pay more for a knife that performs better, but much like my watch obsession, if I have to think twice about wearing or using it, then I won't spend my money on it.
 
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Bottom line here is some of us are spoiled in this ridiculous "hobby"....it's like a dope habbit.

There was a time when a buck or schrade was as good as it got for me as my funds were for stuff like baby food and mortgage and those knives served me well, now I rotate knives that some would consider expensive and none perform "realistic" tasks better than my Spyderco.

It's all about the cool factor everyone has their comfort zone , i have friends that are serious warriors that rock buck fixed blades. :)
 
tokerblue said:
- The real question is why you have a fear of using it? Are you afraid of damaging the knife beyond repair? Are you afraid of scratching it? What happens if you scratch the knife? Are you going to sell it and buy a brand new one? If you damage the edge, can you not sharpen it?
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It is a great question - I guess I was just trying to be completely honest (with myself as much as anyone else). There is something special about a pristine, new knife and my first CRK fits that bit (right now!). I also get the huge appeal of a well, used knife and honestly many of mine really are;

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Not sure how well that picture shows it but each of those knives has been well used over a reasonable timescale. I love that they develop character and when I first started buying decent knives I told myself that every one of them would be a real user. The truth is that now I have more than 21 fixed blades and 35 folders which is waaay more than I 'need' * (but right in the wheelhouse of what I like!) - it also means that actual usage levels for each knife has dropped.

So whilst I get the notion of using them all, I really don't need to and that means that if I need to horse on a knife, it'll likely be an Emerson folder (or almost any of my fixed blades - although, I do reserve two exclusively for skinning) not my brand new CRK. I'm sure that I'll get over it and really don't want to keep any knife as a safe queen.

*Feels like it might be time to thin the herd... painful but probably overdue.
 
What I own I use within the limits of the blade, or knife. I try not to purposely abuse, as I want it there to do for me when I ask it to do the job it was intended to do.
 
400 and under. Right now my edc consists of the kershaw launch 1 and the boker vox f3 at 100 and 160
 
There is a better chance that I will baby a knife if it is no longer in production. For me, the price point is not the main issue, I can baby a knife at just about any price range.
I have noticed though, I do baby a knife that I can't afford to replace a little sooner than a knife that is cheaply priced and easy to find.
 
If you like to go to art exhibits and spectate over what it is you see, well that's cool. That just means you're a collector.

For myself, there is no substitute for touch. Once you have that blade in your hand using it for what you had in mind, that's priceless.

As for the price point, I don't feel a need to spend more than $500. Anything over that is art.
 
Really depends on a few things.

I tend to try to take care of my tools, irrespective of cost.....but some tools I buy to whack around.

Anything above $100 gets treated a bit better as that's where I start hemming and hawing about replacing it immediately if I break/lose it.

Below $50 is my sweet spot for buying beat-around knives (utilitac II and Rat-1 are both sub $30, and are my preferred beater blades).

Between $30-100, there's not much gain to be had for a knife in that class. You might spend more, but that cost nets relatively little gain if the use is going to be of the "this is going to require a resharpen no matter what" type.
 
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