Cheap Thrills-confession time

Will Power

Will Power

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Jan 18, 2007
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I hesitate to post this, an avalanche of fury might engulf me but here goes...traditional folders and slipjoints tend to be expensive and tend to be more collected than used. But is there a way out of this? I mean CAN treasured knives be used or must they be condemned to a life in silica gel drawers or safe deposit boxes?:confused:

Today I got two cheap as in inexpensive knives through the post and both have surprised me a lot! One is a Chinese made Rough Rider and for just 8 euro you get a very useable knife, the quality is not as bad as you might suspect, far from it a bit garish rather than shoddy. This Barlow is going to see some real work around the estate and garage. I even want one of their green bone canoes now...OK I realize there are economic ethics here, loss of western jobs&trades and some probably horrible work practices in Chinese factories.

The other discovery is very different. My first CASE Sodbuster yellow handle. Because I live in the EU this is an unfamiliar knife but what simple beauty. This is a timeless American classic, simple, elegant and FUNCTIONAL again at about 15 Euro this is a bargain. I like the sodbuster as it is similar to the French Opinel-timeless and undated. This is going in as an EDC and all duties knife. Alright, I opted for stainless...I know...but I can't stand all that cleaning and maintenance carbon steel demands for an EDC.

Any other cheap but good experiences that CAN be used and not museuem case stuff to be looked at but not touched?
 
Sodbuster is on my list too. I have 3 or 4 Rough riders and they aren'y made too badly in my opinion. I don't mind using them and they come out of the box with a pretty good edge on them. I've got a couple of barlows, a trapper and a small canoe. Not too fond of the canoe. Too small to do anything with.
 
I'm going to agree on the Rough Rider. I have two, a copperhead and a muskrat, and both are very good quality for chinese made. Decent edge right out of the box, F&F were good, no blade play, strong back springs. They're very good for a inexpensive user knife that still looks halfway decent.

I just recently recieved a Kissing Crane sodbuster in a trade and it is definitly becoming a favorite. Good simple design that just looks like it's made for working, and it does it's job well.
 
Sodbusters and Opinels are much better knives than their price would indicate. I've been meaning to pick up an Okapi. I got two Rough Riders in a trade. A little razor jack and a red bone sowbelly. I traded the razor jack because it was too small for my hand and had a weak spring and a nail breaker spring. The sowbelly was really nice all the way around. My wife claimed that one because it was "pretty". The yellow handled Case CV are a good deal in working knives. Maybe the delrin Queens. I had a Boker stockman that was a good user & it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Plenty of cheap knives that aren't cheap.

Frank
 
freekboi said:
I'm going to agree on the Rough Rider. I have two, a copperhead and a muskrat, and both are very good quality for chinese made. Decent edge right out of the box, F&F were good, no blade play, strong back springs. They're very good for a inexpensive user knife that still looks halfway decent.

I just recently recieved a Kissing Crane sodbuster in a trade and it is definitly becoming a favorite. Good simple design that just looks like it's made for working, and it does it's job well.
Click to expand...

Any pictures of that Kissing Cranes sodbuster? Or any other sodbusters? Other colours than yellow? Opinel is certainly a workmanlike cheap but likeable knife.
 
Willgoy, yeah, I'll get a pic of it up a little later tonight once I fire up my old scanner.
 
OK, here's my Kissing Crane Sod Buster. It's the Coal Miner pattern instead of the usual KC Brown Mule, I think the only differences are the blade shape and the handle material. The Brown Mule has wood handles, and the Coal Miner has black plastic I think. Sorry for the crappy scan, it's all I've got at the moment. The blade isn't that dark in real life. It has the words Coal Miner and a picture of a miner etched on it.

kissingcrane.jpg
 
For the price I've paid for the Rough Riders and Steel Warriors they've been decent knives. On the RRs there always seems to be something a bit off here or there. Of two SWs one is well executed, the other a little gritty and not up to the quality of the other one. I dallied with a few, but still prefer the American and European knives. Just a little difference in feel that doesn't cost much more.

You will find the Case Soddie Jr. and Sodbuster, especially in CV steel to be one of the sleepers in the knife world. You can find numerous threads across the past here of people who have discovered this simple, superb knife. The same can be said for the Case CV Peanut. This little workhorse cuts all out of proportion to its size.

I'll also raise a hand to the Kissing Crane Brown Mules. Not to be compared with fancier, higher priced knives, but are one of the best price/performance values out there. Like and Opinel or a Mora, just a lot of cutting capability is a downright simple, inexspensive knife.

I've also landed some Boker's, a Case or two, and a few of the last of the USA Schrade slipjoints for not much money and all have been good knives. Not only is Boker's Delrin handled Canoe (1095 steel) to be found for a good price, but Boker also has their Magnum line that is produced by contractors in Asia (mostly China). The one Canoe in that line I've tried was quite a surprise and certainly topped the Rough Rider's and the Steel Warriors I have.

With careful surfing and riding the bay (eBay) you can get some cheap thrills, if you are patient, and still get the good names.

Good luck and good hunting.
Amos
 
Last week I got a $19 Chinese made Buck Muskrat. It's a great little knife. I've been carrying it for the past few days.
 
A great cheap alternative is the Buck traditional series sold at Walmart. I believe that they are sold with wood scales and 420HC, used to be 440C steel, and made in China. I believe its 15 for the small stockman, 20 for the large stockman, they also have a trapper design, a single blade pen knife, and I think I'm missing one model. The new Schrades look great, but, I am partial to stuff made in the USA or Japan. Anyway, the Old Timers that I've seen look great, have great walk and talk, but are a little loose. Frost traditional knives made in Japan used to be very well made, I bought a stockman for my father and he gave it to my little brother, it still holds up under the beating my little bro gives it (trying to make a tree fort with it, gotta get him a FB). There are some cheap Case knives out there, you can pick up inexpensive original Schrades on eBay (I'm looking for a 34OT right now, hard to find). You can pick up a whole host of traditionals, at good prices, at flea markets, farmers markets, garage/yard sales, knife club meetings, and hell, even knife shows if you can wheel and deal. Colonial still makes some good knives for their cost.
 
Still can't get over this CASE sodbuster, a real find and a real worker! Those mules look good too and there's some sodbuster with a bull engraved on the blade from Germany.
 
willgoy said:
Still can't get over this CASE sodbuster, a real find and a real worker! Those mules look good too and there's some sodbuster with a bull engraved on the blade from Germany.
Click to expand...

If you love Case sodbuster, you should try the German Eye-Brand sodbuster. I have both the large and small yellow ones as well as the wood handle one thats the small size. They cut as well or maybe even a bit better than the Case.

As for cheap thrills, I've taken to using European style peasents knives like the Opinel, Okapi, Douk-Douk, Mercator K55, and Kissing Krane brown mules. I've got a Swedish Eka Swede 88 that I bought many years ago for 12 dollars that gives a great bang for the buck.
 
Case sodbusters are the best value in the knife world IMO. They are very good knives.

I have a $8 Rough Rider natural bone peanut that is better than any old timer I have ever handled. They blades were perfectly centered, very sharp, good walk and talk.

I got the cheap knife for my two year old son. I dulled the blades and points and it is his "EDC". He puts it in his pocket every morning and carries it around all day.
 
I have been disappointed with the RR knives and other Chinese knives in general (wouldn't have a good opinion at all except for the stuff that Buck brings in, which has steadily improved). My guilty pleasure knife is a little Japanese Frost Canoe II with multi colored plastic handles that remind me of celluloid. Got it as a gift several years back, expected it to be junk, but it turned out to be both sharp (counter to my experience with other Frost products)and fairly rugged.
 
My dad carried a sodbuster that he thinned the wood scales a bit.
still have it somewhere
I carry one made in1950Been in my pocket a bit.
randy
 
It all goes to show that cheap and simple does NOT have to mean cheap and nasty.
 
I like my Sodbuster. It is a Case, stainless and hence the reason I don't love it. It just doesn't sharpen well.
 
This Rough Rider thing is becoming like a compulsive tic with me....couple of lockbacks have been added to my collection,a single blade sow-belly and a mini keyring lockback. It's becoming a drug and SO FAR no bad trips,far from it!
 
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