440a is what most of the China-mart stores sell. Very low quality steel. Gerber, in fact, is just a legend. They once made top quality knives that you could depend on. Now, most of what I see is crap made in Tiawan. The Applegate folders seem to still be of good quality, but I haven`t seen new ones. Any of the other knives you mentioned sound good. I like the griptillian folder too.