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- Apr 27, 2015
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A quick look on bladeHQ (I love their search features) turns up 2919 total "folding" Knives under $100... Less then 1/3 (762) are made in the USA, but the Lion's share of those are your basic Buck and Case in 420hc (trusharp), and Gerber's (?)... Undet $50 thats pretty much it, slipjoints, bantams, vantage, sodbuster, all very basic "vanilla" designs... Not that they're bad knives, I have owned and still do own a few of them, but when I get the "itch", and funds are tight, do I get another vantage pro, or look at Kershaw's or Boker's made in china lineup?
They're just simple with limited variablity...
It's not until you start getting closer to and around the $50-100 mark you see the Kershaw skyline, basic spyderco, and a few Bear OPS and Queen's appear, and around $80+ you see a few more basic spyderco and benchmade models show up, steels like s30v and 154cm are more prevelant over $60, but all in all, still all pretty basic stuff... Good knives but, For around that price you can also find a Nice looking (arguably equally quality made) kizer in s35v with anodized finish and machined handle inlays...
At $20-50 there are a ton more options and designs by Kershaw, CRKT, boker+/magnum, etc. Some even With top designers names attached to 'em, using micarta, g10, wood, everything under the sun, and the quality of those products are typically (arguably) right on par with a buck Bantam and/or a case sodbuster, none of which are, " great" knives, but all serviceable for the price, and in my experiences a well treated 8cr (even 7) is right on par and even better in some aspects then 420hc; so unless you're a strictly traditional type of guy/gal, when aesthetics start coming into play, esp. for those who like Knives but have skinny wallets, it's tough competition to just settle for the limitations available by "made in the USA", when so many of us here in the USA are struggling middleclass, of worse, (but still love sharp objects).
There are a lot of great USA made blades, but the really nice ones also come with really nice price tags, often up around and well over $200, whereas for just north of $100 (which is some folks upper most limit, stretched already, and was my own personal limit the past few years), aside from your basic BM grips and a couple others like Queen traditionals and a few Spydies, simple and effective and certainly with their share of fans, for the most part if you're on a limited budget, and/or simply can't/won't justify much more then " a bill" for a " tool", you're pretty limited in the america only category, esp. In terms of aesthetic designs; great knives for doing knife stuff, but not necassarily the "prettiest" for lack of a better word... And certainly not everyone's cup of tea, for example i personally dont love the way spyderco feels, and I hate the way they look, so while i handled a few over the years, i'll never buy one... I liked my benchmade grip, a lot actually, but not enough to buy another one after I lost it because I always felt it was missing something in the "looks" department, and performance wise, the 154cm didn't blow me away... The axis lock wasnt a deal maker/breaker for me since i don't really ever hard use my folders, and I'd rather have s30v or ELMAX blurs, they feel better in "MY" hand and the steel in my experience is a notch or two above BM's 154cm.. In that same price range though, aethseticslly speaking, you also have some beautiful mcustas, Kizers, Bokers, Enzo's, Vipers, AlMar, rugged cold steels, its just so many, and the styles are much more diverse, and at the end of the day they still do knife stuffs pretty darn well...
I do wish there were more options in US made Knives in regards to designs and options (handle materials and blade steels and such) in that $80-$100 range, aside from your standard Grips and spydie designs, (and other plain jane lookers), because I would certainly have bought more of them. Every $100 purchase I make eventually have to explain to the wife, lol, and "another knife" never goes over all the best, as it is... I can swing $50 purchases a lot easier without notice...
I can't wait until I do start having to explain why I "needed" a $200+ knife coming in 2016, as I do plan on stepping up my game a bit, as i have a plethora of "cheap" options available, and there are quite a few US made blades in my sights in that range so... Here's to the future!
They're just simple with limited variablity...
It's not until you start getting closer to and around the $50-100 mark you see the Kershaw skyline, basic spyderco, and a few Bear OPS and Queen's appear, and around $80+ you see a few more basic spyderco and benchmade models show up, steels like s30v and 154cm are more prevelant over $60, but all in all, still all pretty basic stuff... Good knives but, For around that price you can also find a Nice looking (arguably equally quality made) kizer in s35v with anodized finish and machined handle inlays...
At $20-50 there are a ton more options and designs by Kershaw, CRKT, boker+/magnum, etc. Some even With top designers names attached to 'em, using micarta, g10, wood, everything under the sun, and the quality of those products are typically (arguably) right on par with a buck Bantam and/or a case sodbuster, none of which are, " great" knives, but all serviceable for the price, and in my experiences a well treated 8cr (even 7) is right on par and even better in some aspects then 420hc; so unless you're a strictly traditional type of guy/gal, when aesthetics start coming into play, esp. for those who like Knives but have skinny wallets, it's tough competition to just settle for the limitations available by "made in the USA", when so many of us here in the USA are struggling middleclass, of worse, (but still love sharp objects).
There are a lot of great USA made blades, but the really nice ones also come with really nice price tags, often up around and well over $200, whereas for just north of $100 (which is some folks upper most limit, stretched already, and was my own personal limit the past few years), aside from your basic BM grips and a couple others like Queen traditionals and a few Spydies, simple and effective and certainly with their share of fans, for the most part if you're on a limited budget, and/or simply can't/won't justify much more then " a bill" for a " tool", you're pretty limited in the america only category, esp. In terms of aesthetic designs; great knives for doing knife stuff, but not necassarily the "prettiest" for lack of a better word... And certainly not everyone's cup of tea, for example i personally dont love the way spyderco feels, and I hate the way they look, so while i handled a few over the years, i'll never buy one... I liked my benchmade grip, a lot actually, but not enough to buy another one after I lost it because I always felt it was missing something in the "looks" department, and performance wise, the 154cm didn't blow me away... The axis lock wasnt a deal maker/breaker for me since i don't really ever hard use my folders, and I'd rather have s30v or ELMAX blurs, they feel better in "MY" hand and the steel in my experience is a notch or two above BM's 154cm.. In that same price range though, aethseticslly speaking, you also have some beautiful mcustas, Kizers, Bokers, Enzo's, Vipers, AlMar, rugged cold steels, its just so many, and the styles are much more diverse, and at the end of the day they still do knife stuffs pretty darn well...
I do wish there were more options in US made Knives in regards to designs and options (handle materials and blade steels and such) in that $80-$100 range, aside from your standard Grips and spydie designs, (and other plain jane lookers), because I would certainly have bought more of them. Every $100 purchase I make eventually have to explain to the wife, lol, and "another knife" never goes over all the best, as it is... I can swing $50 purchases a lot easier without notice...
I can't wait until I do start having to explain why I "needed" a $200+ knife coming in 2016, as I do plan on stepping up my game a bit, as i have a plethora of "cheap" options available, and there are quite a few US made blades in my sights in that range so... Here's to the future!
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. I do have some HEST that are well made and a lots of Spyderco that are made in Taiwan and Japan . Great knives . 
No earthly steel allowed in my lunar knives.
