Did CHEAP Knives Reel You In?

C

Confederate

Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
2,826
Okay, I admit it. I got turned on to knives by buying really trashy knives. It's true. I bought my first real user a few years ago at a dollar store somewhere. For a buck or two I got a cheap linerlock with a blade almost three inches long. I liked it because it had a pocket clip and because it locked.

Later I saw a nicer knife at a Target store. Ugly thing, but a full three inches of blade. The reason I bought it was because my Chinese knife had paint flaking off the plastic grips. I figured the one at Target was a bit better and it had serrations. Within two weeks I saw a shiny wood and stainless Winchester el cheapo and then, well, I don't know what happened. I just sort of ended up with a lot of really good knives over a short period of time.

Looking at one of my Benchmade knives now, I can't help but think of those earlier days (not so long ago, actually) when I was carrying the Chinese garbage I was carrying. (I got into shooting by buying a cheap .22LR single action revolver to plink with at college, then...well...it might just be a trend with me.)

What about you?


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One of my first — a Winchester...uuuh!
 
Hey i still got that knife up in my room somewhere.:thumbup:

Not anything spectacular but i would say that cheaper knives got me involved because i didn't know any better.

When i got one of those winchester knives i thought it was great, but how wrong i was. LOL
 
I was fortunate that I started off carrying a 112. I've never carried any cheap or knock-off knives. I'm willing to pay for a quality blade.

Andy
 
Flea markets, all the way. I started with $5 crap, then went to $35 smith and wessons, and from there to eBaying for cold steel.

Now i'm a spyderhead, and i almost bougth my first custom recently (stupid money-not-having-ness). I fully anticipate eventually startign on sebenzas and busses. I've already picked up a minor case of bali-itch since joining BF. Guess where I got the first one?

the flea market.

Gotta start somewhere, right?
 
Damm Sho Kusugi started it all for me. After my first Sho Kusugi movie the mall ninja spirit in me was free! For a long time I only bought cheap knives as I was always doing things that one normally should not use knives for such as hammers and prybars and can openers and ect,ect. I had already used Kbars but never really liked the blade style though I did like the leather handles and they were hard to hide and did not fit into my image of what was cool.
Somewhere along the way my taste in folders matured and I actually bought a thirty dollar folder followed by my first BM about a year later but, folders were never really my thing because I really always liked fixed blades so I started with United moved to S&W onto Ontario/Rat's and then to customs.
 
Actually hunting got me started with knives. For hunting I always carried a high quality knife from Germany or a Case locking folder. When I got older and money was tight I would buy cheap Japanese Frost knives from Smoky Mountain KW or similar knives from Kmart, etc.

Back in the late 70's the quality of Frost knives were hit or miss and some were not too bad. Years later when Frost switched production to Taiwan/Pakistan I stopped buying them. But I always knew they were low end knives.

Back then, production Knives from Gerber were considered modern higher end knives. Buck, Shrade and Case (and some others) were considered higher end traditional knives. I got my first Gerber knife in the early 80's.

I think the only time I can say I was fooled by marketing was with a mail order company in the 80's named "EdgeCo". Their catalog had a look and feel that made the product seem more exclusive than it really was. Their pricing strategy was very clever, so in essence I bought a few pieces that aren't all that special and I probably paid too much.

Modern Chinese Flea mkt knives are mostly bought on impulse , to me they're disposable....

Now I buy only name brand production knives ( after checking here for a review), I wish this site was around back in the EdgeCo. days.
 
my first was of unknown origin called......THE PROTECTOR.....it had a chrome looking 4in drop point with a lockback and a black vinyl handle.i added a flipit attachment and carried it daily till i had to toss it down a storm drain.the year was 1980....
 
Back in the 1970's I bought a few buck 110 knock-offs, they looked okay but they wouldn't hold a good edge and one of them litterally fell apart. Then I bought a Shrade old timer and I loved it. I bought a few Shrades, their folders, but I really liked their fixed blades. In particular the Deer Slayer with the 6 inch blade, and the Sharp finger, which can be described as a little deer slayer. After having used these good knives I never went back to those imitations.
 
Funny thing is I have a $15 Winchester that I treat like the total piece of crap that it is---while a $20 SAK One hand Trekker is one of my most prized possessions.:confused:
 
One of the great differences between guns and knives is this: a crappy gun generally will look and feel like a crappy gun. There are many knives, on the other hand, that are attractive to people who don't know the difference and these knives sell. That's why most of these manufacturers carry fairly heavy models that suggest quality.

K15.jpg


This Maxam is a strange knife in that except for the
blade, it's a pretty good knife! It opens with a solid "Click"
and the lock engages the blade more positively than many
quality liner locks. I mean, it's a great little knife until they
actually put the blade in!
 
Confederate said:
One of the great differences between guns and knives is this: a crappy gun generally will look and feel like a crappy gun. There are many knives, on the other hand, that are attractive to people who don't know the difference and these knives sell. That's why most of these manufacturers carry fairly heavy models that suggest quality.

K15.jpg


This Maxam is a strange knife in that except for the
blade, it's a pretty good knife! It opens with a solid "Click"
and the lock engages the blade more positively than many
quality liner locks. I mean, it's a great little knife until they
actually put the blade in!
Click to expand...

Yes Chinese knives have come a long way, I have several Maxam knives that I bought about 5 or 6 years ago and they are garbage. The blade is stamped " Mfd. in China, Natl Headquarters,USA"

Here's the little beauty....

maxam.jpg
 
What is the price range for a "cheap" knife??

I purchased my first knife about 1979 to gut deer, clean squirrels and rabbits, and to pick the dirt from under my fingernails. It's a Buck with original shealth and it's probably my most valued knife. It's been around the block at least once, maybe even twice, gutted lots of deer and I'm not afraid to take it into the field tomorrow.
Price new in 1979: $8.00
What it's worth to me today: Priceless
To someone else....it's probably a piece of crap, but it's got memories! So if it's "cheap" at $8.00 and it's in great condition after 27 years......did I get a deal?

Scott B
 
My first was a POS Gerber LST that I spent MANY hrs of my life trying to sharpen til a buddy told me the HT was FUBARed..
 
I have to agree with Condeferate. Maxam knives look and feel great but, the blades put them right into the crap catagory. I always have to fight with myself not to buy these kinds of knives. They are just so appealing. Even tho i own many nice factory production folders made by major U. S. companies the attraction to cheapos is always there. Is that a problem that other knife nuts have?
 
My first knife was a SAK and my second was a Kershaw folder. I have not gotten anything cheaper than that. I hate cheap knives and cheap things in general. Quality goods are always worth saving for and will make you happier. Quality not quantity.
 
Yes - I bought two of those $9 Fury Chinese made 'tanto' blade, wood handle in 420 steel from The Sportsmans Guide (I love that company) - BUT, I have them in each our vehicles for either use to cut a seatbelt or defense in an emergency and one doesn't need a $250.00 knife for those purposes.
 
Wonderful that those same wonderul 420 blades are now ending up in so many new Gerber and CRKT knives, isn't it? I'm still waiting for someone to do a comparison review of various 420 blades. Can one 420 be substantially better than another when using it for knife blades?

Has anyone bought an el cheapo Chinese knife and then had a horrible experience with it? Or, for that matter, a good experience? I remember buying a tanto cheapo knife that was cool looking on one side and flat on the other! The only side they showed in the catalog was the side that wasn't flat.

I just got my Sportsmans Guide catalog. Time to stock up on tactical knives!
 
My first knife was an 8$ bastard that stole my heart and left me in the pouring rain.

It was called the Meyerco Paradox and at best was completely forgettable before it even came off the assembly line. It featured a >3 inch blade of AUS8 with a skinny but solid liner lock and a chunky FRN handle that had a fold-out pliers/bit holder/screwdriver tool that actually worked pretty well.

The knife never left my side for an entire year. I carried it while washing dishes til 3am at the local diner. I carried it on the dark, cold December walks from the library, moving as quickly as I could towards the warm, comforting palace of my girlfriend's cramped studio apartment. I carried it when I drove 900 miles in one day to see my father in the hospital.

I cut everything with it and the pliers/screwdriver combo still influences my EDC to this day.

I lost the knife on a flooded Alabama dirt road during a hurricane while I was attempting to wince my best friend's car out of a ditch before it was washed away. The rain was coming down in angry torrets of water, like the fists of Zeus himself. After the car was all tied up my driver attempted a preliminary pull but fed the engine too much gas. My ears filled with the roar of the powerful V8 as rich red mud splattered my face and chest. Stunned and in pain, but trying to stay on my feet, I slipped in the mud and while scrambling to regain my balance the knife seemed to jump from my grip and land in the flowing river of mud and rock that had filled the ditch, making a sickening bloik as it disappeared forever in the raging current. My heart screaming after it, never to save it.

Sometimes on the way home from work I take the long way home and drive down that same cursed road. Sometimes I imagine I see a sparkle of AUS8, or the beautiful void of black FRN sitting there in the mud waiting for me. But I never stop, I never really look, I just imagine that someone will see the same perfect sparkle. That someone will stop and look around, asking their buddy "Hey! What's that?" before bending on one knee and becoming the rightful owner of an 8$ knife. An 8$ knife that I could never pay enough money for again.

I was for the knife but the knife was not for me.
mp.jpg



I earned more than 100 dollars for that winch job and before the mud had dried on my boots I had ordered three new knives. They were more expesive, more practical and all-around better products than the Paradox but they never really felt right to me. To this day I search for a replacement, afraid to re-purchase the Paradox for fear that it will be different than I remember. Or even worse, better than I remember, prompting me to throw the rest of my knives to the four corners of the globe in an orgy of reunification with the only knife I ever really loved. If you ever head into East Alabama look around for some of the dirt roads that parallel highway 280, specifically for County Road number 88. That knife may yet cut another line in the rain and the mud.







Wonderful that those same wonderul 420 blades are now ending up in so many new Gerber and CRKT knives, isn't it?
Click to expand...

Quite. I have resolved that to the best of my ability. I wrote them a stern letter remarking that they had lost a customer who routinely purchased 10-15 knives every year, for gifts and crew use, over their choice of downgrading their steel but making no effort to inform the customer. Pass off 420J2 as a respectable blade material to some other schlub, Im taking my money elsewhere CRKT.
 
Well over the weekend I impulsively bought a CRKT Crawford Falcon folder for $25.00. The blade steel is listed as AUS4 and the frame as 420J2.

I know.... the bladed steel isn't that good, but I couldn't help it.

But I have to say for $25.00 it's a well finished , full sized folding knife.
 
Confederate said:
One of the great differences between guns and knives is this: a crappy gun generally will look and feel like a crappy gun. There are many knives, on the other hand, that are attractive to people who don't know the difference and these knives sell. That's why most of these manufacturers carry fairly heavy models that suggest quality.

K15.jpg


This Maxam is a strange knife in that except for the
blade, it's a pretty good knife! It opens with a solid "Click"
and the lock engages the blade more positively than many
quality liner locks. I mean, it's a great little knife until they
actually put the blade in!
Click to expand...

Hmm , that knife looks very , very famaliar... FL001
http://www.knifekits.com/store/s-pages/kk_store_1mainframe.htm?kk_products_folderkits_main.htm~smain
 
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