Better to Have One Premium Knife or Several Good Knives?

I am not collecting to trade, but to use, so I am not investing money so I can profit later.

I can buy a good stockman in a bone stag for 50 or a premium for 100.
Given that the $50 knife is very good, I would rather spend the next 50 on a different pattern, steel, or brand.
I could be spending 35 on a similar knife with delrin, but I will spend the extra money for beautification, not functionality, of the knife.
But doubling the price is too much.

So, I prefer several good knives to one premium.
 
At this juncture in my life...... im doing a lot of travel.. Especially oversears where i go for a few months at a time. So for me Id rather have one really good knife that i can take with me and depend on. It also cant be too expensive looking or to scary looking because i need to get it in and out of many countries.

However this might all change if i was more "stationary"
 
Quality first, then quantities of quality!! That's why I'm broke.

BTW Omaha, if your migration to digital TV is like ours, you can add a 'set-top box'--a digital receiver--and pipe the signal into your existing TV. I just bought one that lets me watch one channel and record another onto an inbuilt hard drive (up to 120 hours of recording!)--price--A$129.
Use the money I just saved you to buy knives. ;)
Greg
 
A small quantity of "good" knives is the best for me. I appreciate the high-end stuff a lot, but if they're too nice, I've found I just won't use them, no matter what my intentions were when I bought them, and I don't really like having a box full of knives hidden away. The problem with being around BF all this time is that my idea of what is "good" changes over time and I wind up with that dang box somewhere anyway.:o
 
I have a tendancy to buy the higher quality production knives. I feel that I get almost custom quality but w/o paying the higher price. Kinda the best of both worlds.

Of course, if you ask the average person, $200 for a production knife is just crazy.
 
I have A LOT of knives---from used SOG's that I got for $20--to new Bill Siegles and Busse's,Matt Lamey that Cost over $300(most are in the $175-225 range):)

These are some of the ones I own(or used to)--and I have just that many I have not photographed(not to boast-but to state my opinion is based on using knives-not reading about using them)

The major difference in them(and I use 99% of them) is when your using a knife that does not cost a lot --you are not so worried about scratching it up for example(or losing it-loaning it-etc)..


However--less expensive knives do not give you the confidence you get from using a WELL MADE knife--almost without exception--you get better ergonomics,better steel and heat treatment,etc.(not always--but much more likely).

My advice--decide what you want the knife to do(Camping use,Self Defense,Kitchen Duty,etc)--then look at what's available.

Your problem(to most of us here--it's an addiction) is you will have MORE CHOICES than you can ever believe to choose from...

and you can always re-sell a knife you do not like--and start over:)

Hell---most of us here do that ALL THE TIME:D:D

click on each site below...

Later
Dr.Bill

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I'm a user first and foremost, a user with hundreds of knives, but a user nonetheless. That means that I look for good quality, if that quality can be had for a good price, then that's even better.

There are lots of great knives for an affordable price, SAKs, FRN Spydies, Opinels, Case slippies, most Scandinavian knives, etc. When I started getting seriously into knives I accumulated a few of these sorts of knives (Delicas, Enduras, Moras, Barkies, SAKs) and that covered my needs pretty well, so I focused on customs for a while, then I got the slippie bug and bought lots of them, most of which were around $50.

I tend to be more willing to spend big bucks on custom fixed blades than on custom/semi-custom folders, it's not that I don't appreciate the quality of something like a Sebenza, but I just use and like fixed blades more. Production folders are just fine for me.

So the answer to the original question would be: it depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll spend $200 on a bunch of different Scandis, sometimes I'll spend $200 on a single nice knife.
 
My recommendation would be multiple knives to cover different uses but be sure to buy high enough on the food chain to get reasonable quality. There will be times when a fixed knife is the ticket and times when a small folder works best.
 
I prefer both and have been able to accomplish pretty much that. I have a few real cheap knives but 99 percent of my knives are very good knives. That would be knives like the Carbon V CS knives, Knives of Alsaka D2 knives, SOG knives and Many of the better quality Buck knives. I have some Kershaw knives that I consider very good knives and a good value. Quality or Quanity? Serch for the good values and enjoy both. Never think that high cost always means high quality, often YOU DO NOT GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
 
In general, I have never regretted spending the extra money for the highest quality that I could afford without incurring debt:

Nikon Camera
Boston Whaler Boat
Leica Binocular
SIG and Colt
Busse, Chris Reeve, Ralph, Bladerigger

My wife and I have a basic difference on this. I had rather buy one good piece of furniture and do without other pieces until we can pay cash for them. She, if I would let her, would fill the house with stuff that will fall apart in a few years.
 
If Chris Reeve and, say Busse were "Premium"..
and, say, Swamp Rat, Fällkniven and BRK&T only "Good" I would rather own a bunch of good knives then a couple of premium knives...

:D:thumbup:
 
Moras, Okapi, And Opinel. All good, working knives, that are not expensive. I use my Moras as kitchen knives. I have to admit though, I am a knife fanatic, and am always buying knives that don`t need.
 
This has been a good thread to read. It's funny the price point setting included in the posts and how it follows then we are talking factory knives. As far as I know Factories are trying to make $$$$ much more than they are trying to make good knives. What I mean is if there is a choice to be made or a decsion to come to $$ wins everytime...am I wrong? Look at Puma back in the '80's and look at them now. Time is not on OUR side here with more and more slide away from quality. It builds up! I like to buy a knife from someone who is trying to make a knife good enough to be recognized by those who know good knives....someone with MORE than $$ figuring into the equations. I never found more factory defending- low price dealing snobs that cuss out custom and bench made knives than I have found around here..you know the guys that sing praises to Cold Steel for being low in price and "high in performance". -----Joe
 
For me quality is far more importiant than quantity. I do not have a large collection of knives but all the ones I do have are of very high quality.(to me) It would be beyond retarded for me to trade any quality knife and replace with a bunch of lesser quality knives, see I only use knves one at a time... so one knife that excels at what I need is alot more important than having many that don't perform.
 
Would you rather have one Rolls-Royce, or a dozen Kias??:p

I have a lot of knives. But if I had to make that choice, I'd rather keep one of my Bob Dozier's than all the KaBars, Bucks, Cases, Gerbers etc ever made.,
 
Somewhere around 6 to 8 months ago I decided to get rid of all the pieces I had that I knew would never be carried by me. This left me with a total of 2 knives! I decided to use the money to buy only the knives I felt I would carry in my edc rotation. Ended up selling 30+ knives, mostly folders, and have since gained back 10 folders (counting the two I originally kept) and 2 fixed blades. I have purchased back mostly top shelf production and a couple customs. While I don't have as many knives as before, I feel like I have "better" knives now.
 
Confederate said:
Not everyone has money to have both, and when I was a college student wanting a gun to shoot, I didn't have enough to buy anything but a lousy RG .22LR chrome-plated revolver with brown plastic grips that needed constant tightening.
Click to expand...
Say ... your name wouldn't happen to be John Hinckley? ;)

Seriously, if knives are your hobby, you don't need to justify buying and owning whatever you like, and doing whatever you want to with 'em ... even if it's just keeping them in a safe and admiring them once in a while.
 
Thats just it. What is excellent quality to one might be cheap junk to the next guy. Knives are made to cut and most any knife will do just that. There is a point to me where you are no longer buying quality but only name recognition. I find great quality in what many would consider cheap knives. Like the Sog North West Ranger. Are there better knives? Maybe, but 200 dollars better? I think not. We tend to collect what we like and what we can afford to collect.
 
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