Calling Frugal Knife Lovers!

D

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Jan 23, 2011
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Any cheapskates like me out there who refuse to pay lots of $$ for a good knife? What are your favorite knives and brands?
 
I buy higher priced stuff from time to time, but when I go cheap I buy Buck & Kershaw for folders and Mora & Condor for fixed blades. Going below these guys is not worth it, in my opinion.
 
i find that my 42-dollar case chestnut bone peanut, which fits nicely in my watch pocket, meets all my daily cutting needs. the twice-as-expensive zdp endura, which carries the official title "EDC," rarely leaves my waistband when i'm outside.
 
Kershaw's got great value folders for $25 and under. I bought a few but at this stage they do not appeal to me anymore. Still worth a mention though as they got plenty to offer at that price point. Spyderco's value line and byrd line still does it for me though, A good value I suggest is a G10 or FRN meadowlark2, overlooked but its a sleeper and totally worthit. I owned a Buck Vantage Avid, I felt it was a fine knife for the price.
 
After buying 8 EL-01's for gifting, I find that it's all the knife one can need for 90 percent of EDC tasks. All of $12 for a really solid knife.
 
I find lotsa cheap$, well made older USA knives here where I live and in findin' 'em here, (I live in North East PA, near to many of the Knife Manufacturers of old, Case, Schrade, Camillus, to name a few of the more well known ones and quite a few smaller shops and purveyors.

I regularly find pre 60s USA and German made knives, gently to reasonably used, (sometimes even new ones) at $10-$20 and many are in the $2-$5 range.

I guess what I'm sayin' is I'd rather buy a well known well built older used knife for 40-80% off the original price and here ya can still barter, bargain and horsetrade.
 
Douk douk, Mercator k55k, SAK, opinel, take your pic all can be had for under 30 bucks.
 
Columbia River Knife & Tool.

Yeah, I know, they're not for everybody. What I like is that they have a wide variety of knife styles, and even though the MSRP is high on some, I can buy them for about sixty percent of retail.

CRKT also makes a good transitional step between the shiny so-so stuff at the bottom of the spectrum, and the eighty dollar and up range, which is a lot of money for something you know is going to get scratched.

I like Cold Steel, too. Again, not for everybody (tacti-cool), but the Triad lock is able to take a shocking amount of abuse for the money.

The Benchmade Griptilian is getting into expensive territory, but the thing about the Grip is that it should cost more.
 
its not so much that i refuse to pay its just that my financial situation doesnt allow it, as posted by others i scour flea markets and once in a while get a diamond in the rough, but i have three really excellent knives that ive gotten over the years that really impressed me and all were under $23 bucks or so...
Opinel #7, Cabon steel, wicked slicer! ring lock works great too, customizable, perfect pocket size
Case Yeller Sodbuster Jr, CV also a nice slicer and all around excellent knife one of my all time favs, perfect pocket size
Svord Peasant, rustic, interesting design, great steel, customizable too! although a little large for pocket carry
regards
gene
 
Svord now has the peasant mini. Still a fairly large knife, but smaller than before.
 
Condor, Mora, Opinel, Svord, Douk Douk, Mercator, Victorinox, F. Dick, Imacasa, Tramontina...the list goes on and on! Tons of great companies out there for folks demanding a strong price-to-performance ratio. :):thumbup:
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I regularly find pre 60s USA and German made knives, gently to reasonably used, (sometimes even new ones) at $10-$20 and many are in the $2-$5 range.
I guess what I'm sayin' is I'd rather buy a well known well built older used knife for 40-80% off the original price and here ya can still barter, bargain and horsetrade.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I've found some great knives for under $20. Most of what I've found are from the 70's and early 80's but still a bargain.
 
Cheap ($) is relative to what you earn, but as stated above knives like Opinel, many SAKs and Moras seem to actually be worth "quality wise" several times their asking price.
 
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