Cheap knives...

Absolutely!

Any of my 5 Moras (No 1, No 2/0, Companion, Bushcraft Black, and Fillet knife).

My Victorinox Tinkers and Farmer.

My 2 Case Trappers.

Several used pawn shop find Leatherman multi tools.

As far as locking clipped folders go, I am no snob, but it costs more than $50 to impress me with those. I have had dozens of cheap locking folders over the years and was not happy with any of them. Stepping up into the $75-100 range seems to be the way to go for me when it comes to locking folders.
 
Absolutely, SAKs, some Kershaws, Rough Riders, Moras (prefer the older ones), some Schrades, Colts in D2 steel. Lots of good inexpensive knives around.
LLAP
Rich
 
Ontario RAT 1, Kershaw Thermite, Spyderco Tenacious & Persistance... folders.

Mora Heavy Duty Companion & HighQ Robust... fixed blades.
 
collim1 said:
Absolutely!

Any of my 5 Moras (No 1, No 2/0, Companion, Bushcraft Black, and Fillet knife).

My Victorinox Tinkers and Farmer.

My 2 Case Trappers.

Several used pawn shop find Leatherman multi tools.

As far as locking clipped folders go, I am no snob, but it costs more than $50 to impress me with those. I have had dozens of cheap locking folders over the years and was not happy with any of them. Stepping up into the $75-100 range seems to be the way to go for me when it comes to locking folders.
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I have to really agree with this all the way. All of the Mora knives I have used I really did like, and my love for Vic knives was recently rekindled by a good friend here. I had forgotten how insanely good and useful they really were. The pioneer is my personal favorite model, but it is a little harder to get than most. The farmer is very nice too though! Just haven't found the perfect one in the right color ;)
Case is just one of those knife companies that makes a good little knife that will take a beating. I don't have to worry about my little CV trapper when I use it, because I know it will sharpen up nicely, and will take almost anything you throw at it (that a non-locking knife will handle).

I will say that I don't use a lot of Leatherman multi-tools, but only because they don't really fit into my current EDC, and most of the time I might use one, I am at work, where there are generally an abundance of tools, just not really knives that are good. On a weekend or something like that, I would certainly think about a Leatherman, but I honestly might have to grab one of the nicer ones to really scratch the itch ;)

And for "modern" folding knives that I carry...well, I usually have either a Diskin Flipper custom or a Shirogorov knife on me...so a little above the $50 mark...just a bit ;)

I have had several people call my carry "bipolar" before because of that weird set of extremes :D
 
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Ontario RAT 1 ans 2. These knives are simply awesome for the price. what impresses me the most about them, besides the fit and finish of a $30 knife, is the perfect detent. The knife flies open with very little effort. If you dont own at least one of these you should do yourself a favor.
 
perchjerk said:
Ontario RAT 1 ans 2. These knives are simply awesome for the price. what impresses me the most about them, besides the fit and finish of a $30 knife, is the perfect detent. The knife flies open with very little effort. If you dont own at least one of these you should do yourself a favor.
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I used to have a RAT1 and loved it for the exact same reason!
My friends mostly use RAT folders now because it ended up mainly becoming like a mini pass-around knife for them and then ended up finding a home with my best friend. Then everyone had to buy one too because they liked them so much :D
 
To add:

Opinels! - The $10 knife that will outcut just about anything out there. Get one in carbon, because carbon steels have soul.
 
Yes, The Old Hickory boning knife that, with use and sharpening, is slowly being transformed into an ice pick.
 
Richbat said:
Ever had a cheap,say under $50 folder or fixed blade that really impressed you?
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No. I have had well-made inexpensive knives under 50 impress me. Kabar Dozier Folder Hunters are one example.

But I have never been impressed by a cheap knife.
 
BenLong1018 said:
Everything from Victorinox, the Ontario Rat 1 and 2, and most of the Chinese Kershaws.
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Mr. Long speaks the truth. And there are plenty of others like the Buck 110. There are really very few objective reasons to buy a knife costing more than $50. Getting marginally better blade steel, and having fun are at the top of that list. But I get my jollies largely from budget knives.
 
Ka-Bar Dozier and the Rat 1 and 2 make every list like this.

Had a Case SodBuster Jr. way back when. Kinda impressed, but it had no lock, so I aced it.

Had a Gerber Bolt Action knife that impressed me too. Don't know why, it was nothing special. But it just kept going.

Some of these little Kershaws I get on sale at Cabelas are impressive for the price.
 
Opinel, Victorinox, Mora and a few Sanrenmu. Recently got an Srm for $15 that had great centering, fairly even grinds and needed only a bit of work to get it cleanly slicing phonebook paper. I set the pivot screw tension with blue thread locker. So far it's impressed me for the price. It's nowhere near my Domino for smoothness but the fit and finish are way better than I expected for the price. The steel does just fine too.
 
I love my Opinel 9 and 8 with the walnut handle. I use em for everything and any thing and they really take a wicked edge.
 
Well, I've had more than one inexpensive knife that pleasantly didn't turn out to be a cheap knife, which is what I think Marcinek was getting at. My go-to hiking/camping folder is a $25 Coast FX350 that I really like, especially for use in cold conditions. Similarly, my main office EDC is a Kershaw One Ton that also cost around $25 and has proven itself time after time. There are others that have impressed me too, but necessarily overwhelmingly so.

It's different with fixed blades, I think. Assuming a knife is properly made of good materials, I find myself being a lot pickier about ergonomics and sheath quality than fit and finish. I suppose my old Schrade XT2B has impressed me most, and it was under $50 as I recall, although a custom leather sheath put me over that mark.
 
I recently purchased a Boker Magnum Smooth Operator and have been super impressed by it. It is a newer offering from them. I was looking at the boker pens at a local knife shop when I saw it in the case, and when I was handling it in the store I was shocked that the price was so low for the level of fit and finish. It has machined g10 scales with a pocket for the clip milled in. Everything lines up like a $100+ knife. I know the blade steel is fairly basic but it is still hard to imagine they are not losing money on every one they sell. I have seen them as low as $16 online, I paid $25 for mine locally and still feel like I got the better end of the deal.

I also like spyderco's Byrd line of knives for good budget blades, especially the meadowlarks.
 
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