CIVIVI Baby Banter vs. Kizer Lieb?

toddbradleefurniture

toddbradleefurniture

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Anyone have experience with the action on these two inexpensive out-of-country made knives? The new CIVIVI Baby Banter and the Kizer Lieb? They both have 2.3" blades but one is a flipper and other uses a thumb stud. Different blade steels. Banter is lighter and thinner blade stock, which I like. 59/55 dollar knives.
 
I own the leib and just purchased the baby banter because I loved the Original banter so much.

Just by my preferences and from looking at pictures of the baby banter I’d go for it for the leib any day.

The Leib is really nice, action is fantastic but, I can only get 3 fingers on the handle and my hand feels far away from the edge so I feel like I have less control. The baby banter has a nice finger choil which I tend to prefer on small knives as it adds more control which is one of the many thing I enjoy about them.
 
I also love a good finger choil on a small knife, though the Lieb is a good looking thing that I've been passively interested in for a bit. I'd probably go Baby Banter just because of the choil. I got a Pintail this week and the handle is fine, the ergos are nice, but I instinctively want to choke up on it like my Falcon and Crux.
 
Somehow you just knew, given that Ben Peterson is such a champion of tiny knives, that there would be a mini version of the Banter. I do really like my Blue Banter though.

It's a tough call between the two, but I'd probably go with the Lieb, unless I'm buying to to have a Ben Peterson design and don't want to shell out for the Banter. The Lieb's steel just has a bit more edge retention. That and at that size a flipper is more appealing than a thumb stud. Still tough to walk away from that generous choil.
 
The Grendels said:
Somehow you just knew, given that Ben Peterson is such a champion of tiny knives, that there would be a mini version of the Banter. I do really like my Blue Banter though.

It's a tough call between the two, but I'd probably go with the Lieb, unless I'm buying to to have a Ben Peterson design and don't want to shell out for the Banter. The Lieb's steel just has a bit more edge retention. That and at that size a flipper is more appealing than a thumb stud. Still tough to walk away from that generous choil.
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Yeah, I normally like a flipper over a thumb stud as well. The Baby Banter has Nitro-V blade steel, the Lieb N690. None of my current knives have either of these steels- you prefer N690 over the Nitro for edge retention? I agree the choil is appealing.
 
toddbradleefurniture said:
Yeah, I normally like a flipper over a thumb stud as well. The Baby Banter has Nitro-V blade steel, the Lieb N690. None of my current knives have either of these steels- you prefer N690 over the Nitro for edge retention? I agree the choil is appealing.
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It's always going to come down to a personal choice of what features matter most or what fits your collection desires best. One steel has a bit better edge retention and the other is a bit stronger, so how it's going to be used matters. With the size of my hands, having a flipper vs thumb studs on a smaller knife might be more important than it is to someone else. I'm always a big fan of creeping up the knife to make use of a generous choil though.
 
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