Calling Frugal Knife Lovers!

Thanks for the broad spectrum of ideas. I appreciate them. I currently buy Victorinox and Buck, but will look into your suggestions when I feel like branching out.
 
dogstar said:
Thanks for the broad spectrum of ideas. I appreciate them. I currently buy Victorinox and Buck, but will look into your suggestions when I feel like branching out.
Click to expand...

A year or so ago I was out of town for work and had forgotten to bring a pocketknife. So I walked from the hotel to a Lowe's store and found a Victorinox Recruit (?) for $13. Seriously, thirteen dollars?!? I don't see how they can afford to make, ship, and sell something for so little money. And beyond that, the knife is really nice.

Buck, their fixed blades, sure. They have four different phenolic-handled fixed blades that sell for under $50, and some folks would consider that frugal.

Inexpensive knives are no bargain if they're not good quality.
 
I was just thinking I don't have any mid priced knives. I have either expensive and cheap. Still trying to find an expensive knife to kick the mora off my belt when hiking. The mora does everything but I'm a knife guy so I want something fancier. The search continues.
 
Kershaw is my favorite company these days because they turn out so many nice designs for less than $30. I also love that they make so many American Maude's knives between $30-$80. Early on I bought a ton of high end and custom knives, but credit card bills slapped me back to reality!:eek: I also think that collecting can warp your perspective; I actually laughed when reading comments about the new BM 300SN. Folks were dogging 154CM and saying that one cannot complain too much about finish on a $100 knife!:confused:
 
Look for Bee knives, and Sanrenmu. I have one of each, and the Sanrenmu (710 with carbon fiber) is amazing. The Bee is very nice but has a weird pivot screw that doesn't come with an adjusting tool, and the blade has some play.
I don't have experience with Navy knives, but people seem to like them too.
 
Shotgun said:
I was just thinking I don't have any mid priced knives. I have either expensive and cheap. Still trying to find an expensive knife to kick the mora off my belt when hiking. The mora does everything but I'm a knife guy so I want something fancier. The search continues.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, my solution is to rehandle one of mine...its a slow work in progress
 
I know that they get a bad rep here for being Chinese, but comparing quality vs. price its really hard to beat the SanRenMu/Land/Bee/Enlan/Ganzo knives. Yes, they all have 8CR13MOV blades, but so does the Spydie Tenacious line and most people LOVE them. I picked up about 20 of them a year or so ago to try out the different models, and was VERY supprised at the quality of most of them. Some were just 'OK', but most of them had AMAZING fit and finish for sub $15 knives. None of these were direct copies of other knives, although several do have arc locks. In general, almost any of these knives would sell for two or three times as much if they were sold by a major knife brand.
 
I guess my $9 Mora #1 is still one of my most-used knives. Still would't be concerned if that was all I had on me if stuck in the wilderness somewhere.
 
That's gonna be Mora for fixed blades. No need to bother going beyond that.

For folders it's tougher. Ontario makes the RAT-1.
 
In addition to the usual suspects (SAK, Opinel, Mora, Svord, Spyderco Tenacious family, Ontario RAT-1, etc, etc...) just thought I'd mention these two:

pikakiwi01.jpg

Benchmade titanium Mini Pika 2 ($30) and Spyderco Kiwi 3 ($20)
 
One word...... Opinel. They come in numerous varieties and price ranges from $9-15 for most of them.
 
For the money you can't beat the Mora Companion, unless its with another Mora
 
+1 FOr Enlan EL-01 and also EL-02B!
Solid Solid freaking knives! I will also dare say you cannot find a more stout knife for the money! ($12)
 
I only have one knife that cost more than $50, and I actually just sold it to help cover any unexpected expense.

Top bang for the buck knives in my book, are: anything by Victorinox, several Buck models (I have a Bucklite 422 that cost me $11 total on the 'bay), Case yellow-handled cv knives, and of course, Opinel. My main source of inexpensive knives, however, is the second-hand market. I just love picking up a lightly used, deeply discounted knife on that big auction site or here on the forums.
 
Condor and Aranyik for choppers.

Aranyik is an interesting company, where else can you get a handforged E-Nep chopper for less than $50? They are ugly, but in a cool tool sort of way.
 
Cheap for me is under 50 bucks I'd say.
Victorinox and Wenger
Opinel
I love kershaw
Spyderco has some good cheaper knives.
Buck
Gerber
All the slip joints like case and schrade
And as stated above they aren't very well liked for various reasons but I can't leave Sanrenmu out of this. Especially the 710, yea it kinda looks like a sebenza but it isn't labeled as one and no one could mistake it for one so there is no issue. There are other reason I don't mind sanremu and enlan etc...but I'll leave those out of this thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top