In my life, I've delt with both.
When I was a young guy, I spent a lot of money on high end knives. Swore by Randall's and other customs. I was convinced that I was carrying the best knife available. I eventually sold them all off after a few very disappointing let downs with them. Then in my middle years while raising a family, I used "low end" cutlery and was very pleasantly surprised at the value and cutting ability of them. I think there is a lot of hype and outright sales bull hockey in the advertisement and promotion of a lot of products, especially knives.
A higher grade steel will cost a few more dollars per knife. Better fit and finish would accout for a few more dollars per knife. But when you get to more that three times the cost of a moderate priced knife, you're buying into the hype and snobbery of the thing. No matter if its a car, gun, or knife, function is the main thing. If it cuts that piece of rope, opened that burlap sack of feed, or strips the wire, then it's as good as it gets. It functioned. It did what it was supposed to do.
I see a lot of talk on this forum about "hard use" knives. I doubt very much that a lot of the people talking about that even know what "hard use" as in hard work really means. I had the opportunity to serve in the army for ten years in the combat engineers. We got to work with people all over the world doing construction projects under all kinds of conditions from North African desert to south east Asian jungle. The local people that were hired for labor were not a moneyed lot, and they showed up with anything from a Douk-Douk to a nameless local made knife by a local blacksmith. Opinels, Mercators, Camillus TL-29's, all were put to some "hard use" that went well past the boundaries that the manufactures ever dreamed of. I saw very few ever broke, in spite of outright abuse.
On the other hand my Randall 14 chipped twice on what I thought was mild use. A knot in a branch did some damage on a cold winter day, and it was an enlightening experience. As a sort of experiment I went back to using the more mundane cutlery I saw locals using. O[pinel's, Douk-Douk, Mora's. After a while of hanging on to the high end stuff, I finally admitted to myself that I didn't need them, and off they went to A.G. Russell's to be sold off. I never looked back.
High end stuff in general is an exercise in oneupmanship, pure and simple. Maybe in a single digit percent is there a real gain in performance, like in cars or aircraft. But in something like a knife, or screw driver, the user will never notice a difference in how it works. That piece of rope is never going to be able to tell if it was severed by a high end knife or an Opinel.
But
it it's what you like, then it's worthwhile. It's just like ice cream; if you like rocky road, mint chocolate chip just won't do. If you like scotch, a nice bourbon is a waste of liquor. Buy what you like because that's what you really like. There is no rationalization in spending three or four times the price for bragging rights. The only thing that matters is, is it what you like because that is where your taste is? If so, then fine. But if you're buying it because of the manufactures inflated claims, then you're most likely wasting your money. Way back then, I believed the hype about Randall knives, and later learned that the real world is somewhat different. Buy what you really like, not what you are told you need because it's the best thing in knives since we stopped using flint. You may be surprised at how ell those more mundane knives cut stuff.
Great post :thumbup:. A lot of good points made. I also see some of myself in it. And I found the part about serving in the combat engineers and the locals very interesting.
Regarding knives, and the people who love them, there is
need, and then there is
enthusiasm.
Need, is the stuff we actually need a knife for. But
enthusiasm takes many forms, like the fascination with the metallurgical composition of the steel, how many foot pounds of force the lock can withstand, how fast a knife can be opened with one hand, etc, etc.
I'd wager that for many in the knife community, including on this forum, their
enthusiasm for knives is far greater than their
need for knives. And that fact is reflected in their purchases.
But there's nothing wrong with that sort of
enthusiasm. If it weren't for that type of
enthusiasm, there probably wouldn't be a Bladeforums, and there probably wouldn't be such a variety of knives available to choose from. To each their own. Knives have value far beyond simple
need. Our
enthusiasm for knives gives us enjoyment.
I have
need for quality knives, but I also have my share of
enthusiasm for knives. I own far more knives than I could ever need, and although the Buck 110 that I received over 30 years ago could handle all of my folder needs, I choose to carry and use much more expensive "modern" knives.
As far as fixed-blades, for about the past decade I've been carrying a $300 knife, and it's served me very well. But I recently replaced it with a knife that cost $8.50 new. I didn't sell the $300 knife, I didn't lose it and it's not broken, it's still in perfect shape. I just felt like a change, I really like the $8.50 knife, and through use I have discovered that it serves all of my fixed-blade
needs quite well.
I don't need to impress anyone with my knives or with how much money I spent. I have no interest in owning knives as "status symbols". And I consider myself fortunate that I am no longer afflicted by the belief that a knife has to be expensive in order to serve me well as a knife.
I've only ever needed warranty work on something like 3-4 knives out of all of the ones that I own, and ironically all of those knives that required it cost $100+. Reliability and confidence in the knife are not a problem with inexpensive knives as long as you know what to look for and how to evaluate them. As far as pride of ownership goes, good ol' Yankee thrift makes me beam with pride when I've found a budget-friendly gem. 
