- Joined
- May 27, 2009
- Messages
- 274
There are so many but I vote Benchmade
-
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Best knife brands?
- Thread starter MyNameIsJoe
- Start date
That was my first thought when I read "like CRKT and Cold Steel"
Not American, so I vote Victorinox, followed by ESEE, Spyderco and Kershaw.
If I was American I doubt my vote would be different
You've chosen a word, "best," that has 13 definitions on Dictionary.com.
adjective:
1. of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.
2. most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.
3. largest; most: the best part of a day.
adverb:
4. most excellently or suitably; with most advantage or success: an opera role that best suits her voice.
5. in or to the highest degree; most fully (usually used in combination): best-suited; best-known; best-loved.
noun
6. something or someone that is best: They always demand and get the best. The best of us can make mistakes.
7. a person's finest clothing: It's important that you wear your best.
8. a person's most agreeable or desirable emotional state (often preceded by at ).
9. a person's highest degree of competence, inspiration, etc. (often preceded by at ).
10. the highest quality to be found in a given activity or category of things (often preceded by at ): cabinetmaking at its best.
11. the best effort that a person, group, or thing can make: Their best fell far short of excellence.
12. a person's best wishes or kindest regards: Please give my best to your father.
verb:
13. to get the better of; defeat; beat: He easily bested his opponent in hand-to-hand combat. She bested me in the argument.
My guess is, for that very reason, you'll never get to the heart of the matter you are inquiring about. There are too many variable, too many product segments, too many styles & too many manufacturers.
Is the "best" manufacturer the one that makes a single knife that is widely accepted as a jack of all trades, up to any task or any environment?
Or......
Is the "best" manufacturer the one that makes 200 different models, none of which are particularly outstanding, but all of which are well made, sell well, and serve their owner every day for a number of years?
Maybe the question should be:
If you were limited to one manufacturer for the rest of your life, which would you choose to meet your needs from weddings to work sites, bar-b-que's to back country trips, and everything in between?
adjective:
1. of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.
2. most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.
3. largest; most: the best part of a day.
adverb:
4. most excellently or suitably; with most advantage or success: an opera role that best suits her voice.
5. in or to the highest degree; most fully (usually used in combination): best-suited; best-known; best-loved.
noun
6. something or someone that is best: They always demand and get the best. The best of us can make mistakes.
7. a person's finest clothing: It's important that you wear your best.
8. a person's most agreeable or desirable emotional state (often preceded by at ).
9. a person's highest degree of competence, inspiration, etc. (often preceded by at ).
10. the highest quality to be found in a given activity or category of things (often preceded by at ): cabinetmaking at its best.
11. the best effort that a person, group, or thing can make: Their best fell far short of excellence.
12. a person's best wishes or kindest regards: Please give my best to your father.
verb:
13. to get the better of; defeat; beat: He easily bested his opponent in hand-to-hand combat. She bested me in the argument.
My guess is, for that very reason, you'll never get to the heart of the matter you are inquiring about. There are too many variable, too many product segments, too many styles & too many manufacturers.
Is the "best" manufacturer the one that makes a single knife that is widely accepted as a jack of all trades, up to any task or any environment?
Or......
Is the "best" manufacturer the one that makes 200 different models, none of which are particularly outstanding, but all of which are well made, sell well, and serve their owner every day for a number of years?
Maybe the question should be:
If you were limited to one manufacturer for the rest of your life, which would you choose to meet your needs from weddings to work sites, bar-b-que's to back country trips, and everything in between?
As a longtime reader but first time poster here on Bladeforums (thats right a semi noob) I will go ahead and throw in my 2 pennies on this subject lol. I have used alota knives I'm sure not every brand out there but those that I did use got put through the ringer doing just about everything from choping wood to in times past... cutting shingles and even in some cases sheetrock on a near daily basis. Today the brands and knives that I trust and consider the absolute best are these (I will post links to the exact model if I can find them):
The Case cheeta (but just about any model case will do).
http://www.wrcase.com/knives/search/knife.php?Family='Orange Blaze Bone'&Item='55912'
Old Timer knives (Just classic little knives that I grew up with, I have not found one that I dont like or that dont last).
http://www.taylorbrandsllc.com/uploads/images/Schrade%20Large%20Pic%202007/Page-04-LARGE.jpg
Custom Mountaineer MIII knife and Little skinner LS1 (both of them hold extremely sharp edges even after workin hard!)
http://www.tradknives.com/default.aspx
Ontario 18 inch machete (very sturdy and keeps a pretty good edge)
http://www.ontarioknife.com/catalog/item/52
The Eastwing Sportsman's axe (another boyhood classic)
http://www.estwing.com/product.php?product_id=1600
And that pretty much sums it up for me!
The Case cheeta (but just about any model case will do).
http://www.wrcase.com/knives/search/knife.php?Family='Orange Blaze Bone'&Item='55912'
Old Timer knives (Just classic little knives that I grew up with, I have not found one that I dont like or that dont last).
http://www.taylorbrandsllc.com/uploads/images/Schrade%20Large%20Pic%202007/Page-04-LARGE.jpg
Custom Mountaineer MIII knife and Little skinner LS1 (both of them hold extremely sharp edges even after workin hard!)
http://www.tradknives.com/default.aspx
Ontario 18 inch machete (very sturdy and keeps a pretty good edge)
http://www.ontarioknife.com/catalog/item/52
The Eastwing Sportsman's axe (another boyhood classic)
http://www.estwing.com/product.php?product_id=1600
And that pretty much sums it up for me!
Bigfattyt
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 19,240
Probably a wasted post, but I will post it anyway.
Tons of great knives to be had.
Are you limiting your self to production? Because there are too many custom makers I would love to have.
Are you looking at bang for your buck?
Do you want the toughest at any price?
Best slicer, or chopper, or woodcraft?
Because the answer is going to be different for each use.
Cold Steel makes a lot of "toy ish" stuff. But it sure does make me grin!I have owned a lot of knives from them. They make great, tough, hawks! Lots of really interesting designs. Innovative locks.
An example is the Pocket Bushman. Locking Douk Douk design with a super strong lock. The steel is not premium, but at $30 I love the design. I have an old Recon1 that is going strong after 10 years of actual use (some of it pretty stupid hard use.....that I would not do to a nicer knife).
I wish they would replace the Krayton handles with a different material. Too grabby, and a too soft when it gets warm out, especially as the material gets older, and on choppers. Some of their items are a great bang for the buck. Some are not, and some designs are ridiculous as real users.
Love their "toys" like their blow guns. Super fun with the kids to set up the little toys as targets and shooting for a few hours in the house.
For probably the best bang for the buck and warranty included I would steer some toward ESSE (formerly Rat Cutlery) a great company with the best warranty in the business. They use 1095 which is not a "super steel" but is a good solid performing carbon steel. You just have to know a bit about taking care of carbon steel.
For higher end (but by no means the most expensive) Busse makes solid knives with a premium proprietary steel that is great for hard users. Infi steel is very low maintenance, durable from a wear and shock standpoint. A great balancing act of all the properties that make a steel "super" in my book. Not the be all, end all knives or steel, but great stuff. Great warranty. Great family of knives. The heat treat is what makes it stellar. Retains value very well. If you buy direct, or know what prices to buy at, you can buy one and use it and sell it without really loosing your investment.
For better bang for your buck, still super super tough are the knives from Scrapyard and Swamprat (both "family" knives from the Busse group). They use different steels. Sr101 (modified 51200 with a stellar heat treat), and Scrapyard normally uses S77 (modified jack hammer steel, but also uses other steels including some rare stainless versions, and also Sr101). Awesome customer service and warranty as well, stellar heat treat process to get the absolute best performance out of the steels they use, and a lower price point than Busse. Very value intensive lines. Buy them, and use them, and if you don't like it, sell it for what you bought it for, or perhaps a bit more once they are discontinued.
With all three Busse family knives, they do limited runs of models. Then don't reproduce them (ever some times) or never in the same configuration. They can be much more valuable later if you grab the right model. I just buy the ones I want to use. The old ones go for way more than original price even for users.
I have heard good things about Becker for great value. Also uses high carbon steel, 1095 if I remember correctly.
Too many great Custom designs to even know where to start.
Tons of great knives to be had.
Are you limiting your self to production? Because there are too many custom makers I would love to have.
Are you looking at bang for your buck?
Do you want the toughest at any price?
Best slicer, or chopper, or woodcraft?
Because the answer is going to be different for each use.
Cold Steel makes a lot of "toy ish" stuff. But it sure does make me grin!I have owned a lot of knives from them. They make great, tough, hawks! Lots of really interesting designs. Innovative locks.
An example is the Pocket Bushman. Locking Douk Douk design with a super strong lock. The steel is not premium, but at $30 I love the design. I have an old Recon1 that is going strong after 10 years of actual use (some of it pretty stupid hard use.....that I would not do to a nicer knife).
I wish they would replace the Krayton handles with a different material. Too grabby, and a too soft when it gets warm out, especially as the material gets older, and on choppers. Some of their items are a great bang for the buck. Some are not, and some designs are ridiculous as real users.
Love their "toys" like their blow guns. Super fun with the kids to set up the little toys as targets and shooting for a few hours in the house.
For probably the best bang for the buck and warranty included I would steer some toward ESSE (formerly Rat Cutlery) a great company with the best warranty in the business. They use 1095 which is not a "super steel" but is a good solid performing carbon steel. You just have to know a bit about taking care of carbon steel.
For higher end (but by no means the most expensive) Busse makes solid knives with a premium proprietary steel that is great for hard users. Infi steel is very low maintenance, durable from a wear and shock standpoint. A great balancing act of all the properties that make a steel "super" in my book. Not the be all, end all knives or steel, but great stuff. Great warranty. Great family of knives. The heat treat is what makes it stellar. Retains value very well. If you buy direct, or know what prices to buy at, you can buy one and use it and sell it without really loosing your investment.
For better bang for your buck, still super super tough are the knives from Scrapyard and Swamprat (both "family" knives from the Busse group). They use different steels. Sr101 (modified 51200 with a stellar heat treat), and Scrapyard normally uses S77 (modified jack hammer steel, but also uses other steels including some rare stainless versions, and also Sr101). Awesome customer service and warranty as well, stellar heat treat process to get the absolute best performance out of the steels they use, and a lower price point than Busse. Very value intensive lines. Buy them, and use them, and if you don't like it, sell it for what you bought it for, or perhaps a bit more once they are discontinued.
With all three Busse family knives, they do limited runs of models. Then don't reproduce them (ever some times) or never in the same configuration. They can be much more valuable later if you grab the right model. I just buy the ones I want to use. The old ones go for way more than original price even for users.
I have heard good things about Becker for great value. Also uses high carbon steel, 1095 if I remember correctly.
Too many great Custom designs to even know where to start.
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Messages
- 53
What's your beef with cold steel and crkt
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 106
Thats exactly what I thought. I must be weird because after narrowing my search, these were exactly the two knives I was looking at.
I wanted the Bez Tine:
but I needed it to be a folder due to Florida Knife Laws and did not feel like getting a weapons permit. So I went with the CS: Black Rhino:
To me they are two very similar knives from two different manufacturers. Its not always about one manufacturer, but rather one particular knife.
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- 1
I mean the "best" knives are going to come from your custom makers or CRK, high end benchmade, striders etc. I love ZT to be completely honest. Not the "best" but my favorite. And I also love bothe cold steel and crkt. Again not the "best" as far as materials and all go but the uniqueness and innovativeness of both of these companies is amazing. I have a few CRKT knives that blow me away. The insane wild design and how well it performs. Same goes for cold steel. I love both of those companies. Come to think of it there are very few companies that I just flat out don't like. But for me Zero Tolerance is the winner for me. I just love the solidity and beefy just badassness of my ZT's.
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- Oct 4, 2010
- Messages
- 1,315
Yeah, but the Consumer Products Safety Commission banned the sale of the side-opening light sabers. It seems people kept slicing off fingers and toes when the saber swung open. And the fact that thousands of folks lost the tips of their thumbs from trying to "flick" open the saber didn't help either...
TedP
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2015
- Messages
- 6
Busse and kabar from my experience
Brian77
Gold Member
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2014
- Messages
- 1,780
I needed some humor today. Is the OP serious? Isn't this just a "STIR THE POT" to get something going type of question?
We all may think something is "best" just because of preference... I don't think that is a proper way to phrase the question...
Best at what? I have my favorite knives but I really don't think I have a favorite brand. I think all manufacturers have models that I find appealing in one way or another. Some because of the price, others because of the design, or steel/materials etc..The variety is what keeps it interesting. If you limit yourself to just one or two brands, you are missing out on a lot.