Do you buy cheap knives anymore?

I still buy, carry and like less expensive knives.

I recently (last 2 weeks) ordered and received a Cold Steel American Lawman and Rajah 2. I got 2 knives for a very reasonable cost - and they are good knives - I've been having a lot of fun using them around the house.

Every now and then I get the itch to pick up a few "semi-custom" knives - but I still look hard at the sub $150 knives. I cut my teeth in the folder world on Benchmades.

When I am in the B&M store I always check out the latest Buck and Kershaw offerings.

I think we have all become spoiled with the variety of steels, materials and designs that are now offered. It's incredible. I try to keep in mind that the only knife in my pocket for years was a Victorinox SAK, and I didn't ever find myself "underknifed".
 
I generally look at the cheapest models that fulfill my requirements, then look at how much over that I have to pay to get cool little features that I like.

At the moment, my requirements are:

- A blade with a suitable steel (will hold the edge I need, hold it as long enough that sharpening requirements don't annoy me, and within my ability to sharpen efficiently).
- Solid construction (enough to deal with being in my pocket every day and deal with cutting tasks without feeling weak or loose)
- A comfortable size (3-4" blade, 3-5" when folded)
- A comfortable "squarer" handle cross-section than the pancakes I've seen on Spyderco's and a lot of Kershaws lately.
- Not an auto, as I live in Australia.

Armed with that, I found my ideal upgrade to my Gerber AR3.0 to be the CRKT Ignitor.

It cost 50 bucks from a brick/mortar store. To put it in perspective, I was given an as-new Extrema Ratio Fulcrum II, which is undoubtedly a "better" knife, and it'd want to be, for 6+ times the price, online.

That said, it doesn't fit the bill as well as my $50 Ignitor, so I gave it to a friend who would find it more useful. I'll continue to buy quality budget knives as long as they keep up with the work I'm doing and the more expensive knives don't offer much more that I care about.
 
Excepting the SRM 710's I bought for curiosity and now serve as mail & parcel openers - The cheapest knife I own is what was once the most expensive knife I owned, a CS Large Voyager, and they're pretty darn good for a pinned, polymer, lock back folder.

The rest are what I'd have considered "insane," in price, many years back. I still pack my large CS Voyager once in awhile, it's an old and trusted folder.

I recently (last 2 weeks) ordered and received a Cold Steel American Lawman and Rajah 2. I got 2 knives for a very reasonable cost - and they are good knives - I've been having a lot of fun using them around the house.
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I've been wanting a Rajah 2 for awhile but resisting that itch. They're well made from what I hear and the price point is very fair. :)
 
I use a CRKT M16-10Z as my check-in baggage knife. I got it for 10 bucks so if the sticky fingered TSA gets ahold of it, I'm only out a small sum.
 
cziv said:
Excepting the SRM 710's I bought for curiosity and now serve as mail & parcel openers - The cheapest knife I own is what was once the most expensive knife I owned, a CS Large Voyager, and they're pretty darn good for a pinned, polymer, lock back folder.

The rest are what I'd have considered "insane," in price, many years back. I still pack my large CS Voyager once in awhile, it's an old and trusted folder.



I've been wanting a Rajah 2 for awhile but resisting that itch. They're well made from what I hear and the price point is very fair. :)
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You definately get a decent knife for the money with the RAJAH 2 IMHO. I resisted also. I watched as they closed out the Rajah 1 model and should have picked one up on clearance. It's one of the "fun" knives in my collection. It just proves to me that you don't always have to spend $400++ to get a knife that brings a smile to your face.
 
I've started collecting SAKs so I'm on the quest of getting all the various colors, etc, so "inexpensive" knives are still bought by me.
 
Other than wenger and victorinox SAKs, I stay away from less expensive stuff; I'm sure there are good quality knives out there that are cheap its just I haven't found them yet...all the cheap stuff I bought was a waste of money. I'm not brand loyal, but I have a liking of spydercos and a few buck models. Any company that uses newer steels/pseudo steels reasonably priced is alright with me.
 
Cheap knives rule. There are all sorts of awesome cheap knives out there. Check out worldknives.com for a decent selection.

Oh, and the Douk Douk is the best folder ever. Just don't pay more than $20 for one.
 
With Kershaw's 2011 line-up I'm surprised no one re-awakened this thread. I just bought a Kershaw Asset for $19.98 shipped and a Kershaw Tremor for $28 shipped. Both are great knives. Blade centering is perfect on the Asset, jacked on the Tremor but no complaints here for the price. I like the SpeedSafe Kershaw uses and 8CR13MOV is a quality steel for the price.

Other knives I have at the $50ish price range:

Endura 4 FFG, Grey FRN handles
SOG Aegis Black TiNi blade
CRKT Kasper/Polkawski (long discontinued)
 
Ill buy a cheap knife just as a beater to supplement my nicer knives, I believe in giving every knife a chance.
 
I buy stuff under $30 usually
not crap tho , well not what *I* consider crap anyway , this week just gone I replaced my okapi , got a couple svords , a RAT1 , and another philipino hand made machete ( giving it to my cousin who is a chef .. I wanna see his reaction to 1 1/2 foot of razor sharp steel when I give it to him is all )
each knife tho is under the $30 mark , most are old fashioned hi carbon steel , cept the RAT , I figured it was time I gave some modern stuff a go :)
 
An often overlooked yet oh so very convincing affordable folder is the Swedish-made EKA 88. Depending on the handle variant, you can find them below $40. Very different from the tactical designs, yet not traditional either. Also nicely ergonomic.

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I still buy some cheaper Spydercos and have a few SRMs. What I do is I carry a higher end heavy duty folder and compliment it with a smaller cheaper one.

Today I carried a WDZ flipper coupled with a pimped SRM 710.
 
Well....yes, I do. But, you really cannot call them cheap....maybe inexpensive. I buy Spyderco's value line, and pick up older pocket knives from flea market's, now and then. I'm trying to break the two-hundred dollar mark, still.
 
Oh yeah. Yesterday, I finally tracked down a Navy k502 for about $14 -- a little more than the $10 or so it could be had for when more available. (My Spyderco Military in digital camo also arrived yesterday, so it was a good day.)

I have the luxury and the curse of seldom -- if ever -- actually "needing" a knife. I went for years not carrying any knife and got along just fine. So good but inexpensive knives work fine for me, and the better more expensive knives do the same. Frankly, the most I've ever spent so far is $180 for a BM 940. My high end budget for knives will likely keep going up, but my low end will stay low since there are lots of good knives that look cool and work fine for me in the $20-30 range (like the Kershaw Three-Quarter Ton and One Ton cousins to the Half Ton that should be coming soon).
 
I won't buy a crappy MTech or something like that.

$30 is about my cutoff. You can get a Tenacious for that, great knife.


Before I got into knives I expected them to be more expensive so everything under $100 seems like a steal.
 
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