Cheap knives are a bad idea.

[Hackenslash]

Blanket statements are a bad idea.

 

[leghog]

Cheap knives are a bad idea.

Not necessarily so. Don't be a knife snob with such statements. It just proves your ignorance. Just so you know, many will consider your ESEE a cheap knife. I paid less than $15 and less than $35 for my two daily carry knives.

Ulster 180/Craftsman 9507 and Victorinox Farmer.

 

[JBoone]

My first thought was that the delica and endura are sub $90 which are both awesome, but I agree with what you are going for. I believe you are saying don’t buy crap knives.

Best not to put a dollar value out there as there are too many exceptions such as the above, SAKs, etc.

 

[22-rimfire]

There are lots of well made sub-$90 knives. I carry and use a Vic SAK every single day. None of my SAKs cost $90. I draw the line at about $30 for "inexpensive". Most people would never consider dropping $500 on a CRK knife for any reason regardless of how "good" they are. Generally not a fan of ESEE knives in general.

I started with an inexpensive Imperial slip joint as a kid (one was $0.25 and the other $0.50) in the first and second grade. Guess my Dad should have bought me a Case? But I bought my own knife, because that was all I could afford and those initial knives worked great for me until I could afford a Case Barlow. Since they still are less than $90 for the most part, I guess they would fall into your "cheap" category. My stag Case Peanut is far from cheap either in cost or construction.

 

[TheEdge01]

A high price tag doesn’t necessarily mean your getting an all around better product than one that costs less. I have experienced issues with premium knives as well as ones folks would label as low end. There are many reputable manufacturers out there that produce quality products for budget conscious consumers. If your budget allows it, feel free to spend you hard earned dollars on what you like, just don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the price tag regardless of how high or low it may be.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Most major brands in recent years have improved their quality with advanced manufacturing techniques like CNC, better steels and materials such as G10/FRN, IMHO. You can get an excellent knife that will cut for decades for well under $100.

 

[Rykjeklut]

And the OP was never seen again.

 

[GronK]

Wrong wrong wrong! The cut-off point for worthless, inexpensive knives is actually $97.43. Anything lower than that is cheap crap.

 

[GronK]

And the OP was never seen again.

No problem. Like you never made a Friday night wasted midnight post that you regretted?

 

[soc_monki]

I've got 30 dollar knives (carrying my crkt caligo right now) and nearly 200 dollar knives (zt and spyderco). I use them all. I like designs, ergonomics, and different lock types, regardless of cost. Price is not what constitutes a good knife, quality does.

Just my opinion.

 

[Rykjeklut]

No problem. Like you never made a Friday night wasted midnight post that you regretted?

Not on this forum at least

 

[rogatsby]

I've got 30 dollar knives (carrying my crkt caligo right now) and nearly 200 dollar knives (zt and spyderco). I use them all. I like designs, ergonomics, and different lock types, regardless of cost. Price is not what constitutes a good knife, quality does.

Just my opinion.

I'm loving and using this $30 knife. The Kershaw Atmos. Tremendous design and action for that price. Yes, I know it's 8cr13mov, but it works fine, and it sharpens up easily.

And these cheapo knives are also pretty good lol. None of my more expensive knives slice like them, anyway.

 

[James Y]

Cheap knives are a bad idea.

It's true that not everyone can buy a Paramilitary 2 or an Esee knife. Even fewer people are willing to put half a grand on a Sebenza. Some have families, some have low-income, some don't like to spend much on things and I'm not here to judge. Still, from my personal experience and after a lot of thought and testing, I strongly think cheap knives are a bad idea.
What do I call a cheap knife ? A low-price knife, basically. Everything sub-90$ is a cheap knife for me.

Sure, Esee knives are expensive, especially for 1095. But what you get is a solid knife, with great design and a close-to-perfect heat treatment. It's a knife you can actually rely on. A good heat treatment is a key when it comes to prevent the blade to snape on your eyes or fingers for exemple. Heat treatment is often overlooked by cheap knives companies.

A knife isn't a typical tool, like a prybar or a pair of sunglasses. It's an insanely sharp object that you must trust. It's like a gun. You can cheap out on everything, but playing it cheap on knives or gun isn't something I'll recommend.

It might be controversial, but I'd rather have no knife than a cheap knife. No-knife can't hurt me, having no blade means it won't slap on me, having no lock means it won't fail at the worst moment... Sure, those cheaper knives are fun. It's always fun to think something that cheap can actually be a decent knife to play around. That doesn't mean they're good tools at all.

Disclosure : not all expensive knives are great.

OK, I haven't read the entire thread yet, and everyone can prefer whatever they like. But there is a BIG difference between a cheap knife (as in poor quality) and a cheap knife (as in inexpensive).

For example, SAKs are relatively inexpensive (by your definition, 'cheap'). In more than 40 years of knife usage, I've never had any non-locking folder, including an SAK, snap closed on me. At one point, my only knife for over 10 years was a SAK Spartan, and not once did it ever fail on me or let me down. I had bought it new, during a special sale, at a hardware store in 1981 for all of $5. Nowadays it would still only cost around $20 to $25. It also wasn't a 'one-trick-pony'; it was able to be used for more purposes than just a single-bladed knife. I learned early on to respect my knives and to treat each one (even locking ones) like slip joints. The lock, to me, is simply an added safety feature, but not expected to make a knife foolproof. And I own knives from SAKs, Buck and Case, to Spydercos, all the way up to CRKs.

There are many other types of knives out there that are inexpensive but good to decent quality, and will serve the purposes a knife was designed for perfectly well. In such cases, it's the owner of the knife, and the know-how he/she actually USES it with that determines its usefulness or lack of.

Countless people throughout history and around the world, up to the present day, have used knives that you would categorize as too dangerous and useless to be tools; many of whom often used (and still use) their knives MUCH harder to make a living on a day-to-day basis than a high percentage (most?) of today's 'knife aficionados'). They couldn't have done so if the knives they had were useless as tools.

If you yourself only want knives over $90 and feel anything under that is useless, that is your right, but it is only a perception and an opinion. To say that inexpensive knives are useless as tools is not controversial, but is simply your opinion and preference and is not based on fact.

Jim

 

[115Italian]

There are some good knives available in the sub $90 range. Fixed or folder. Even for $40 you can get a good knife that will function well.

 

[Sergeua]

Lots of cold steel lite products that are cheap and won't slap on you. 20 bucks with triad lock

 

[HappyDaddy]

Blanket statements are a bad idea.

Blanket statements are can be a bad idea. (Saved you from yourself ).

 

[jc57]

I agree that you should put your money into quality tools where it counts. I do that in the kitchen, where I do most of my knife usage. It makes a difference for me. That said, I also have some super inexpensive kitchen knives that have specific use cases (like cutting meat when it is already plated on a ceramic plate), which dull fast and re-sharpen just as fast.

For my other general knife usage, I have pocket knives that serve me very well, ranging from sub-$30 Victorinox SAKs up to ZT, Benchmade, and Spyderco knives that were above the OP's $90 mark. I will use whichever is appropriate to the task at hand.

If I had use cases that demanded a specific level of performance or sturdiness that could only be met by a knife at a certain price point, then sure, I'd pay and be glad of it. But I have plenty of basic uses that don't require anything much more than a sharp blade, and a Case Peanut or Vic Cadet is as good for that purpose as a CRK or $10,000 custom.

So while I don't agree the the sweeping generalization of the OP, I do agree that you should be willing and happy to pay up for quality, when it matters.

 

[Workingsloth777]

While most of the knives I buy now are over $90, I still enjoy some less expensive knives. I have a civivi praxis that is $45 (roughly), and the fit and finish is what you'd expect in a knife well above $90.

The knives people need to avoid are those gas station m-techs or counterfeits.

Also $90 doesn't seem like a good line to draw in the sand for what makes a knife cheap.

 

[willc]

Total silliness.
Price does not guarantee that a knife is well built or how it will perform.

There are plenty of sub 90 dollar knives that is are built great and can actually cut things.

 

[Workingsloth777]

I'm loving and using this $30 knife. The Kershaw Atmos. Tremendous design and action for that price. Yes, I know it's 8cr13mov, but it works fine, and it sharpens up easily.

And these cheapo knives are also pretty good lol. None of my more expensive knives slice like them, anyway.

Whenever I see you bring up how good the kershaw atmos is even though it's 8cr it kinda makes me regret giving mine away. I might have to pick up another one soon .