Brother's first knife. ideas?

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GABRIELC97

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So my brother isnt much of a knife enthusiast, but he's heading of to college soon, and i wanted to give him a knife as a gift. as of now, hes been looking into the Opinel No. 9 Carbon steel blade. ive explained to him the difference between stainless and carbon. I'm not sure if that knife will get him interested into the whole collection of knives, so i want to give him a knife that is durable, easy to maintain, can keep an edge, and is fairly light. any recommendations?
 
So my brother isnt much of a knife enthusiast, but he's heading of to college soon, and i wanted to give him a knife as a gift. as of now, hes been looking into the Opinel No. 9 Carbon steel blade. ive explained to him the difference between stainless and carbon. I'm not sure if that knife will get him interested into the whole collection of knives, so i want to give him a knife that is durable, easy to maintain, can keep an edge, and is fairly light. any recommendations?
 
I am partial to spyderco as of late but my non enthusiast friends prefer the look and feel of my Benchmade and Kershaw knives. Kershaw is more budget friendly; furthermore, people who aren't used to one handed opening love the assisted opening feature.
Check out the Kershaw knives: Piston (big, light, fast), Cryo (small, heavy fast, deep carry), Leek (perfect edc size and unique lines). My favorite all around Kershaw is the skyline, it's so light and slim i forget i'm carrying it, has a lot of blade in that tiny package, kershawguy.com still has the coyote brown handle/ black blade one I think if you're looking for something different.
If spyderco is an option I would say delica or endura hands down. Lots of cool handle colors and a lot of knife for the money ($55-100 depending on what if you stick with vg-10 or opt for zdp-189 blade steel...just estimating)
If you wanna splurge on a benchmade I would stick to the griptilian line.
 
Kershaw blur. You can teach him about the assist mechanism and he will think its the coolest thing in the world
 
I would get him a Victorinox Rally or Rambler so he always has a bottle opener and toothpick so he can get rid of any unwanted stuck food on a date. Than pair it up with a bigger knife like a Victorinox Cadet/tourist/spartan, kerhsaw cryo/chill/leek/skyline, kabar dozier hunter (regular or small size), CRKT drifter

Though honestly if he wants an Opinel get it for him, if you want to try to get him addicted to knives as well you can also give him one of the many others we have suggested.
 
GABRIELC97 said:
So my brother isnt much of a knife enthusiast, but he's heading of to college soon, and i wanted to give him a knife as a gift. as of now, hes been looking into the Opinel No. 9 ....i want to give him a knife that is durable, easy to maintain, can keep an edge, and is fairly light. any recommendations?
Click to expand...

when you wrote opinel,
i was compelled to chip in and say,
what an excellent first choice it would be.
mainly because, it's a reasonably good and affordable knife.
and it's also cheap enough for a non-knife enthusiast to lay waste to.
but if you're keen on getting him a trouble free knife,
take a look at the victorinox
one-hand sentinel with a non-serrated clip blade
file_1_14.jpg
 
I love my Buck Vantage select. It's around $25 and Bucks 420HC gets razor sharp. It is actually my sharpest knife.
 
I would recommend either a Kershaw Skyline (3.125" manual flipper) or a Kershaw Leek (3" assisted open) from the Kershaw line.

One other suggestion might be a Benchmade Mini-Grip (2.97" manual folder, axis lock) , to keep in line with any state laws with the school he's attending. (a suggestion, not sure if the Mini-Grip would make or break any laws of any state, I just know it's safe for me to carry to work functions!)
 
If he likes the Opinel you could gift him the box with the Opinel collection. It'll also be cool that he can pick what knife to carry for the day depending on what he'll might need.

The assisted Kershaw suggestions are also good. My first "name brand" knife was a Kershaw Leek in G10, and the assisted really got me hooked. Learning about G10 and s30v and all the other options also made me more interested.
 
Alox SAK Cadet or Pioneer/Electrician. Man's going off to college he's going to need a good bottle opener.
 
I'd go with a Stainless Opinel.

I remember my first SAK...the way it snapped closed scared the bajeezus out of me. This is why I shy away from slipjoints for a first knife.
 
Depending on the budget, I think for a non-knife-enthusiast, giving him a multi-tool of sort will be a good start. Any kind of SAK will be a good starting point, a swisschamp(or a SAK with few handly features) will probably make him a popular handy person in the hallway :) The blades on SAK don't rust easy and is easy to sharpen, and with good warranty, it's pretty low maintenance.
 
College = SAK. Half the dorm used my SAK can and bottle openers during my college days. A few even used the saw.
 
I really dig Opinels and carry one most days. But, out of the box they're a bit rough. I gift them regularly but not until I tune them up.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28597626/tuning-opinels.txt

I love carbon but agree that the Inox is the right way to go for starters. #9 is a better work knife and #8 is better EDC pocket knife IMO.

The other knife I carry all the time is a Leatherman Micra. Bottle opener. Good scissors.

Tuned up Carbone 9 and Micra.

edc-pair by Pinnah, on Flickr
 
Kershaw skyline or spyderco delica bot are superb knives. They are easy to maintain and both hold great edges. These 2 get the most pocket time for me even over all my more expensive knives
 
I gave my brother a kershaw skyline last year as a gift. He doesn't take it to work (he's an airline pilot), but I've seen the pocket clip showing in a lot of his recent family photos. Warms the heart to know he's carrying it. :) I hope you have a similar experience.

Chris
 
Since nobody said it yet, I will say get your brother a Sebenza!

Okay now to the real thing. A stainless Opinel is a perfect option. Easy to maintain steel, highly rust resistant, and stays sharp pretty well. Also super cheap. I love my Opinel, I just wish it had a thinner handle. Another decent option would be a Svord Mini Peasant. Just make sure that if you get the Svord to put a heavy patina on it and tell him to keep it oiled.

Or you could just get him a nice Alox SAK, like the Soldier. The SAK always pleases.
 
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