If your willing to use a slipjoint there are also quite a few good slipjoints to choose from. For starters you can take a look at Buck's website and switch it to 420HC and non-locking and take a look at the options they have, their known for being pretty much tanks in terms of build and the 420HC is a good all around steel while still being nothing special. Than there are the Sodbuster pattern knives such as the ones coming from Case, but if your worried about rust don't get their Case CV as that's a carbon steel and not as rust resistant. And also the Queen Country Cousin which is a D2 blade which some people refer to being as semi stainless or another words it's a bit rust resistant but not as much as other options. The real downside is that you may have to reprofile the blade on the Queen upon getting it which may take awhile depending on your sharpening setup, but I heard that they started working on that more recently so you may not have that issue.
Than as a general rule most Spyderco's and Kershaws will fit the bill, just try to avoid the ones using the lower end steel which start with 3cr (forgot the rest of it). Buck makes some good knives but try to stick with the USA made knives, so avoid the ones with 420j or 420j2 steel I can't recall what it was called exactly steel as those are the china ones.
I hear good things about their Buck Advantage, which include 3 differenet steel choices 420HC, 13C26 Sandvik, and S30V (Select, Avid, Pro) all of which are quite respectable steels. The first 2 are more easily sharpened, the third is a bit more difficult and by difficult I mean it will take longer as it requires more repetition while sharpening due to it being more wear resistant. Only bad things I heard of were that the fit and finish of the knife when it came out wasn't up to knife enthusiast standards but they have since stepped that up.
The list goes on for quite awhile for knives that can get this job done but one thing I didn't notice till I just reread your post was how you mentioned you will be cutting up wire. If your doing that I would say pick up a multitool. Wire will destroy the edge of a blade in no time. The Swisstool may be a bit out of your price range but from what I hear they are very high quality, and I haven't heard of one person tell me otherwise. If you want to stay in your budget a leatherman will get the job done but I've seen my share of those break at the pliers. Personally for a leatherman I'd pick up a Skeletool CX, though that's about $10 out of your budget but I think it be worth it.
Than as a general rule most Spyderco's and Kershaws will fit the bill, just try to avoid the ones using the lower end steel which start with 3cr (forgot the rest of it). Buck makes some good knives but try to stick with the USA made knives, so avoid the ones with 420j or 420j2 steel I can't recall what it was called exactly steel as those are the china ones.
I hear good things about their Buck Advantage, which include 3 differenet steel choices 420HC, 13C26 Sandvik, and S30V (Select, Avid, Pro) all of which are quite respectable steels. The first 2 are more easily sharpened, the third is a bit more difficult and by difficult I mean it will take longer as it requires more repetition while sharpening due to it being more wear resistant. Only bad things I heard of were that the fit and finish of the knife when it came out wasn't up to knife enthusiast standards but they have since stepped that up.
The list goes on for quite awhile for knives that can get this job done but one thing I didn't notice till I just reread your post was how you mentioned you will be cutting up wire. If your doing that I would say pick up a multitool. Wire will destroy the edge of a blade in no time. The Swisstool may be a bit out of your price range but from what I hear they are very high quality, and I haven't heard of one person tell me otherwise. If you want to stay in your budget a leatherman will get the job done but I've seen my share of those break at the pliers. Personally for a leatherman I'd pick up a Skeletool CX, though that's about $10 out of your budget but I think it be worth it.
