Do y'all still carry cheaper knives once you've bought higher quality ones?

Yes and know. I like all my knives and I carry both expensive and inexpensive. I may hard use my lesser expensive knives more so than my expensives ones. But price is all relative and the knife itself warrents how much abuse I would give it. I have no problem thrashing on my BMs, stabbing metal with them, prying things open with folder. Cutting through stapes really whatever needs doing cause they have an awesome warrenty and I can send it back to get fixed up after it break. and they all have broken on me.

That said knives are like watches to me as I collect both. I own expensive watches and inexpensive watches because I like watches and want to enjoy them all. I am slightly more careful with my expensive watches but dont baby them entirely. I am concerned about smacking them all against hard metal/stone/glass surfaces but Ill chop wood with a 10k watch, or wear a $200 watch out to a fancy dinner. Knives same thing, if I like it that day Ill use it within reason of the particular item. Your not going to pry something open with a dragon fly hard ( cause I snapped two in half before ) or at least until you know the tolerances of the knife.
Also, right tool for the job. Dont baton with a folder, its just stupid. If its all you have then i suppose. But why baton if you can just pic up twigs for your fire. Or why dull your blade cutting card board if you could easily tear it with your hand?
 
Yes, it all depends on the mood. The last few days I've carried my Spyderco Mantra, occasionally pairing it up with the Kershaw Lahar or a RAT 1. Today I grabbed the Sanrenmu 702, overall cost of which was around $10. Still just as useful as any other knife, except I won't be as pissed if I lose it.
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Blues Bender said:
I sure do!

Today I carried a $1,200 Rockstead and a $30 SAK Super Tinker, and guess what? The SAK was way more useful than the Rockstead:D;)
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Exactly. The Super Tinker is a favorite of mine, too. So much utility resides in "the other tools" on a SAK.
 
I used to. I was the guy that set myself a budget of $100 and said that Id never buy a knife over that amount, ever. So I didn't at first, for quite a while actually. I got a great deal on a PM2 and Manix 2 and was on cloud 9 because of how much I stared at these things online over and over, and now I finally had them! Never was I going to carry these as an EDC knife, these would be my special occasion knives. Well, I started finding myself pocketing these more and more and leaving my rat folders, tenacious line, and CRT knives at home. I picked up a few others along the way (Kizer, Cold Steel, etc) trying to find something less expensive to pocket that gave me that same feeling of joy as my "high end" folders. Couldn't make it happen. I had the urge to buy more, but I kept being disappointed in the choices I had available to me within my $100 budget. So many Titanium knives, so much carbon fiber, stupid youtube. Stupid BF! Everyone has to post up their awesome videos, and badass pics. I couldn't take it anymore, and decided the only way to get rid of this dumb urge was to go up, not down. 8 ZT's, 4 spydies and 1 hinderer later, I still haven't gotten rid of the "itch" yet. I did, however, get rid of all my lower end knives. I pocket, carry and use knives that are upwards of $200 on a daily basis and it makes me so happy to do so. Stupid knives, the struggle is real.
 
Yes, I still carry my $25 SAK even though I own some more expensive knives.
 
FanBoy86 said:
I used to. I was the guy that set myself a budget of $100 and said that Id never buy a knife over that amount, ever. So I didn't at first, for quite a while actually. I got a great deal on a PM2 and Manix 2 and was on cloud 9 because of how much I stared at these things online over and over, and now I finally had them! Never was I going to carry these as an EDC knife, these would be my special occasion knives. Well, I started finding myself pocketing these more and more and leaving my rat folders, tenacious line, and CRT knives at home. I picked up a few others along the way (Kizer, Cold Steel, etc) trying to find something less expensive to pocket that gave me that same feeling of joy as my "high end" folders. Couldn't make it happen. I had the urge to buy more, but I kept being disappointed in the choices I had available to me within my $100 budget. So many Titanium knives, so much carbon fiber, stupid youtube. Stupid BF! Everyone has to post up their awesome videos, and badass pics. I couldn't take it anymore, and decided the only way to get rid of this dumb urge was to go up, not down. 8 ZT's, 4 spydies and 1 hinderer later, I still haven't gotten rid of the "itch" yet. I did, however, get rid of all my lower end knives. I pocket, carry and use knives that are upwards of $200 on a daily basis and it makes me so happy to do so. Stupid knives, the struggle is real.
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You my friend, have the exact same experience as me. So what's next? For me it's a Todd Begg suncraft Reate kwaiken, black wash preferably. And a Brous T4 with ti liners if I can ever find one.
 
I carry my CRKs and Hinderers because it makes me happy to have them in my pocket, and sometime in the past I admitted that that is the main value knives have for me.
 
I carried a $30 CS Large Voyager for years and never knew I needed a 'better' knife until I found this site <sigh>. I have bought and carried many 'better' knives purchased on the fourms and other places ... sold my old Voyager ... and now am back to carrying less expensive knives. Right now I have on me an Ontario RAT 3 in D2, a Spydie lightweight something (cant remember the model) and a Buck Hartsook. Each of these cost me less than $50 (the Buck was free).
 
Yes. It's a hobby so why not? I own CRK, Hinderer, and Strider but I'll take a Delica any day of the week. As much as I'd like to be a one knife guy and buy one $400 knife and carry it for the next 30 years, I just find that kind of boring. There are way too many cool knives out there now to experience. I think I've got about 14-15 good folders from 5 good brands I'd say are "in the rotation" excluding SAKs, and feel like I've got plenty, maybe too many, as it's impossible to carry them all, but I see some offerings from Spyderco and Benchmade I might just have to have this year. If I get them, I'll carry them too.
I've come to the realization we're going to accumulate "stuff" in this life so it might as well be cool stuff that you like. About half of my folders were gifts so I can't sell them (with a clear conscience) anyway. I'm sure I'll be given several more over the years so I'm cool with having a few whether they get used or not.
 
utahsam said:
I carry my CRKs and Hinderers because it makes me happy to have them in my pocket, and sometime in the past I admitted that that is the main value knives have for me.
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This. The #1 reason why I carry a knife is that its a tool, and one that I use everyday. I think most of us carry one for this exact reason. And the second reason, which isn't far behind the first, is the happiness a nice shiny, sharp, flip-able blade brings me throughout my day. Whether its slicing right through something (am I the only one that says to myself "you didn't stand a chance"?), flipping it open and closed a million times because there's nothing better to do, or maintaining its awesomeness (strip down, clean and lube, sharpen, etc), I love knowing the fact that I have a knife that can handle it all. I also enjoy being the guy that has a knife readily available when someone needs it, and I always like watching their faces when they see the titanium/carbon awesomeness (generally followed by a just-saw-a-ghost expression when I tell them how much it cost). Carry what you enjoy, otherwise there's no point to any of this.

@Sillyship. When I first started getting into knives, a Large Sebenza 21 w/ micarta was my grail knife. It might not be today, but I still want one, so Im gonna get one.
 
Sebenza sebenza sebenza, everyone talks about the sebenza. One of these days I will own one too. And no, you are not alone, I get a maniacal look on my face and say weird shit when I'm about to use my knife. Just like Luke, and prolly Darth if we could see under the hood, do when they light it up. I like carrying a knife for the same reasons you stated. First as a tool, second as man jewelery/tool.

Here's a reason to carry a quality knife that I don't think anybody has mentioned yet. If something ever went wrong, like really wrong, and I had to run for my life, maybe from the fed or something like that, I like knowing that I have something on me that's worth a few bucks. Between my watch and my knife I can at least get some food and a bus ticket or hotel room. That's another reason I like to carry a pricier knife. But not at all the main reason, just something I keep in the back of my head.
 
A word about expensive knives: when I caught the 'knife bug', I was buying a lot of budget blades. I wanted to try 'em all, and that proved to be an impossible fantasy. Soon, I realised that I already had several hundred dollars sunk into more knives than I could realistically use. When it dawned on me that I was already past the point of sanity with my collection, paying big bucks on a single blade no longer seemed so silly. Or at least, just as silly as owning a drawer full of more knives than I could possibly use up in a lifetime.

tl:dr

Don't fill up on candy when you really want a steak dinner. :D

-Brett
 
Yep, it's easier to spend $300 on a knife once you realize you've spent $600 on a pile of $40 knives.
 
Of course! I actually ended up selling my CR Sebenza because I couldn't bring myself to use it. There's not much point in carrying such a knife in a workshop just to get it scratched and dirty - I couldn't afford to do that. A Spyderco FRN Delica's almost perfect for my applications - cheap and functional.
 
I do carry the expensive stuff from time to time. But, for the majority of my EDC, I tend to go with more reasonably priced knives (under $100).
 
timberweasel said:
A word about expensive knives: when I caught the 'knife bug', I was buying a lot of budget blades. I wanted to try 'em all, and that proved to be an impossible fantasy. Soon, I realised that I already had several hundred dollars sunk into more knives than I could realistically use. When it dawned on me that I was already past the point of sanity with my collection, paying big bucks on a single blade no longer seemed so silly. Or at least, just as silly as owning a drawer full of more knives than I could possibly use up in a lifetime.

tl:dr

Don't fill up on candy when you really want a steak dinner. :D

-Brett
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Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I went through the phase of buying a lot of inexpensive blades quick and moved onto being ok with carrying a $400+ knife. Now I'm wondering why I'm buying multiple blades in the $150-$400 range and steppin' towards Hinderers and CRK and Strider when I could just save up and get a custom. Will I get sick of my ZT's and Spydies and BMs someday? I do kinda like the idea of a knife made for me by someone else, and I'm tempted by the idea of just making my own. But for now, it's production blades. But not for long.
 
No, took me forever to even think about carrying a 1k knife for EDC...now i do with all of them...you get to enjoy it more as opposed to sitting on the coach playing with it;)
 
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