Did CHEAP Knives Reel You In?

yeah I have a micarta small 3 blade stockman...rough rider is infact a decent company for cheap knives...I hear good thgins about Frosts "steel warrior" line of knives too...I never liked frost knives, but I am tempted to try a steel warrior...
 
Ok I'll admit it.
I had a maxam and beat the hell out of it. It wouldn't hold an edge but it was indestructable.
 
Well, it used to be that Maxams and S&Ws had horrible reputations, but that may change now that most of the good knife companies (CRKT, Gerber) have shamelessly gone to using cheap steels. I have a Smith & Wesson "Tactical Ops" made with an aluminum frame and "440C" steel. It's a bargain basement type knife you can get for about ten or fifteen bucks, but it's gotten much better lately as these other knives that go for much more are made with "400 series" stainless steel. Chances are, my el cheapo 440C blade is better than whatever garbage that goes into making the "surgical stainless steel" blades in more expensive knives.
 
Confederate said:
In all fairness to CRKT, if one does one's homework, one may still get a very decent knife. Just make sure the blade you're getting is AUS 8. Some M16s (like the M16-13z) are made of AUS 4 crappola steel and I wouldn't waste my money.
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It's a shame, though, because the M16s used to be made from AUS 6, then dropped to AUS 4. Now I don't know what it is...BUT they used to be decent knives. Steel prices and just plain greed have caused these companies to do this. Most products now are coming from China, but China has a lousy reputation for making good steel blades.

Gerber's the one to stay away from.
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Yep, at Gerber knives have to be safe enough for babies to play with. It's the only company where the false edges are also the working edges.
 
Bought cheap on purpose last year - 3 Fury, tanto style blade ($9.95) in Sportsman's Guide. Perfect for emergency knife in all three vehicles and though 420 steel is often put down, adequate for our needs in vehicle emergency kits for the famiy.
 
I started with handmade turkish folder, which don't have any lock.
It cost only 2 €.
After that I mostly bought chinese cheapies and finish Retki company's products.:o
 
yeh, im just like u guys.. i bought a multitool from a dollarstore for 6 dollars and realized that I needed a better knife when the blade flung back(cutting my thumb to the bone and taking me to the hospital for 3 stitches), so i got a buck folder for thirty-somethin dollars.. still have it - after researching on bladeforums and various reviews (thanks to bladeforum members), i just bought a 100-dollar knife and planning to extend my collection-to-come. :D
 
I started off with Gerber, worked up to a more expensive Gerber, and eventually abandoned them altogether for much better knives!
 
Yep. I've got a shoe box full of swap meet knives that entertained me in my youth.

Only "real" knife I've got at this point is a classic ka-bar. Maybe one day I'll have the dough to expand my collection. :(
 
One of my first knives was a huge Jaguar copy of the CRKT M-16. I quickly got into much higher quality knives after that.
 
ever since i was about 8 years old, knives fascinated me. i watched in glee as my older cousins played with various folders and all sorts of sharp stuff, of course they didn't bother sharing the wealth me. but when i finally got the chance and the cash to get my own knifei started off with one of those cheapo slip joints at a thrift store for about 3 bux. this was waay before i knew about the internet, knife steels, grinds, handle materials and spyderco and various other knifeknut knowledge. yet i was still very happy and used it everyway i can, i took it everywhere it wasn't supposed to go and did stuff with it that even i would now frown upon. as i learned from this knife i began to want more, subsequently moving up to 7 dollar swap meet folders.
this represented a whole new class of knives for me - they have locks! i bought these swap-meet knives without the knowledge of my parents and took great care in hiding it from them :p i marveled at my new treasure opening and closing... stroking it, all while in the shadows and away from prying eyes :jerkit: . i did not care about the materials, heat treat, who made it or where it was made, all i cared about was that it was a KNIFE, it CUT STUFF and IT WAS ALL MINE.

in time my interest plateaued and i had thought that i'd seen it all when it came to knives. i did not knifesturbate as much and the appreciation really left me as many of the swap meet knives, as i had experience and discoverd for myself, were not the great machined marvels i had once thought them to be. i began to see teh flaws of many of the knives i purchsed - lateral blade movement, failure of lock during spinewhack secondary to poor lock execution, excessive weight, poor edge-grinds and difficult steel. many of these problems manifested in the knives ihad paid the most money for. so i was a bit bummed.

the rebirth;
one day prior to starting my work shift visited a magazine rack and i saw somehting that completely surprised me - a magazine devoted to knife enthusiasts. i never knew such a thing existed. in it i was exposed a higher level of knife conciousness, bladeforums.com and rekindled the thirst for knowledge. BM Emerson CQC-7 knives with blood groove handle was the popular tacticool knife at that time... This led to the first of MANY well-informed knife purchses.

I apologize for the long reply-- I had been holding it in for awhile :)

HamAve
 
my first blade was this cheap $20 made in switzerland... wait, that was a great knife :D
 
Good cheap knives keep me in. Sheffield folding utility knife, Moras, EKAs, third world machetes, Victorinox, Old Hickory...there are just tons of good, cheap knives.
 
i think everyone is too hung up on steel type. heck look at what buck does with cheapo 420. bucks are famous for holding a great edge! its the heat treat and level of hardness that counts. a properly heat treated 420 balde will stay sharp much longer than an improperly hardened blade made of better steels like 440c. so what, crkt is using aus 4 or what ever, as long as they are heat treated properly they will hold up just fine. i have several s&w knives and they hold pretty good. they dont stay sharp as long as say my kershaw's or bucks but look at the price of the s&w compared to them. so dont get too hung up on steel type. ,,VWB.
 
My first knife was an Old Timer stockman. I started carrying it in junior high. After that, I bought a Spyderco Endura...that's when the crazy set in.
Wal-Mart knives just couldn't make the grade for me anymore. A Camillus Cuda, a Browning ATS-34 tanto folder with carbon fiber scales (LOST while building a house!), and the current 880 SP. That's the grade of knives I'm into. I still get some cheap-o's here and there...because my family likes to buy me knives...but I'd say that $50 for a folder is the absolute lowest I'd go. $100 is probably where I start looking. What a glorious sickness.
 
I started off carrying SAKs. My first folder with a clip was a Gerber EZ-Out that I purchased at Walmart. I joined Bladeforums 7 years ago, and it really expanded my knife knowledge. The first quality knife I ever bought was a Spyderco Endura. Now I'm mostly into high end production and custom knives. It's fascinating to see how my tastes in knives have changed over the years.
 
I bought my first knife about 7 years ago.. When i was 7. it was a nice camillus knife for boyscouts. It was a nice quality little thing, But still like evry young person does, They go for the coolest looking thing on the marktet. Id sepdn hours looking at cheap knives (WWII Commemmratives, Civil War commemratives. And finnaly i convinced my mom to get me one, I still have it, It was El cheap0 ABS plastic for the handle Cheap stain less steaal with the words "China" Ingraved under that. I finnaly got another Commemrative bowie, I loved it. And then a Samurai sword, Still cheap. I would scavange through my dad's cheap knives as well. Finnaly My dads freind told me about a knife company named.. Youg guessed it "Gerber" I looked on their website but was dissapointed to see the prices, Afterall i was used to buying cheap 20$ knives. So i was kinda sad, And my knife obsession died down a bit. Finnaly for my birthday 2 years later. I had gotten alot of money (Maybe.. 200$) So i said Hmm, Ill buy as knife. A few weeks later i went to rays with aboutr 40 dollars in my hand. My mom so the knives and went berserk! She sternly said no and we left (She though we would be getting a small little knife) I was kinda angry, once again my obsession for knives dulled. Finnaly in 2005 i went to Summer camp in pensyllvania, I saw all the older scouts with nice camillus boy scout knives, I fell in love with knives again. Ofcourse the scouts didnt know a darn thing about knives, Me neither, But in the land of the blind man, The one eyes man is king. So anyways, I finnaly found a 20$ bill stashed in my pack. I went to the trading post and bought my self a nifty little liner-lock, Once again chepo-depot china. but, The week before camp i had ordered a swiss army champ. So the last day of camp my mom gave it to me, I was so excited to get a brand named knife (I knew before i was getting the ow of the low) I loved the Knife my last name was ingraved in it. So My obsession sprung back up like new! The following weeks i went to RAYS, and picked up a gerber Magnum L.S.T. I loved it, And scince the on ive been buying Quality knives like Benchmade, Cold steel, Etc. Bye guys :]
 
Absolutely. I started by picking up a few knives at yards sales and flea markets for a few $ each. Then I saw Gil Hibben's Double Shadow in 1991 which I thought was just about the coolest knife I had ever seen. That started me collecting and I anxiously awaited each years Hibben model from United Cutlery. It also made me consider "what else is out there?"

And so I began my education about knives. As I learned more about knives I started buying and collecting higher end production knives. I bought a lot of limited edition Schrades, Bucks, Camillus and a few Case knives. I continued to collect the United Hibben designs just because I liked them, and still do.

I then discovered that Gil Hibben lives about 30 minutes from me so I went to meet him. That led me to start buying handmade customs and going to custom knife shows. It also led me to take one his knifemaking classes which started me on my journey as a knifemaker.

These days I rarely buy a factory knife and go almost exclusively for handmade customs.
 
I'd say expensive knives reeled me in. I enjoy the fit, finish, design and intangibles that make a more expensive knife so researched them, and drooled over pics thanks to this forum.
 
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