Going back to cheaper knives.

yamsi12

yamsi12

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I started my knife obsession with Kershaw knives which of course led right into ZT. I currently have 12 ZT knives and probably the same amount of Kershaw knives if not more. Lately Ive been carrying my Blur/Cryo/Blackout instead of my ZTs. I prefer ball bearings to speedsafe but I still find myself carrying them more and more. Its almost like Ive gone back to the basics. Anyone else gone through a similar phase? At this point I almost feel like I may never go back to carrying higher end knives.
 
I wobble. I love me a top-shelf knife, but I also appreciate the hell out of my value knives. I still regularly carry my blurs as well as my ZT's, including my 0606CF.

I love the lack of concern I feel when carry a less expensive knife; lost my Sebenza in IKEA once and ever since then, I've been acutely aware of carrying my high end knives. I love there quality, but alas, I always find myself checking on the blade in my pocket, and even worrying about it to some degree. This will never prevent me from carrying them, but like I said, I love carrying my sub-$100 knives because the quality is still solid, but I'm also not worried about the thing at all


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100% agree. I love to carry cheaper knives that I know can be replaced if lost or damaged. I love to carry high enders too.

There is something to be said for having absolute confidence in your knife that stems from a place of not worrying about harming it or snapping the tip etc.
 
no way would i ever go back to speedsafe or cheaper knives in general. the only time i carry a cheap knife is if i go somewhere, where they may ask for me to remove it. then i can toss it somewhere and get it later. or a SAK which is often usless for me, but it is non offensive to most and gets into almost everywhere.
 
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Cheaper to me means under $1000. So yes, I've been returning to cheaper knives.
 
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Unless I'm at work, I'm carrying the nice stuff.
At work it's a Pac Salt SE....what a GREAT work knife...Native, Link etc.
Walking the dogs or going out, Sukhoi 2.0, Para 2 sprint, BM 581, BM 761 etc.
My cheaper ones don't give me 'that' good feeling I get from the sexy ones.
Joe
 
Personally I'm all about value. I have a lot of things I'd like to put my dollars towards and so I stretch them to cover as much ground as possible. There are strong values at every price point, but definitely a higher abundance of them in the sub-$100 range. Heck, I have a $500 Microtech I got years ago when I was still buying high end knives, and I carry a $4 Italian slipjoint that I reground as my EDC. I just don't find high-dollar knives worth it for me and haven't for years now. I buy to round out what I can do with my tools, and once I have one area covered it's on to another niche.
 
Nope, once I started buying ZTs my Kershaws sit for the most part.
I do like my Launch 1 and my Knockout though. They are nice blades for the money..
 
I don't gots no love for a speedsafe. However knives like my Cqc7k or even my cqc7 often find their way into my pocket when I'm lookking for a tough utility knife that has SD properties too.
 
Tried it before as a way to cut spending on knives, but it ended up backfiring and leading to even more expensive purchases.

When I started, I was mostly carrying $50-$100 knives like the kershaw od-1, delica, or bm barrage. At that time they were considered expensive to me and I babied them and worried about losing them.
Got tired of that and how much I was spending after a while, so I forced myself to try carrying nothing but a cheapo $20 ss zing. I used the crap out of that knife and rather liked the freedom from worry, but being cheap the zing eventually needed to be replaced after a little over a year.
Decided to treat myself to a sebenza for not spending any money on knives for so long, which ended up setting a much higher standard than I had previously, and now almost all of my knife purchases are >$120. :eek:
 
I only carry my cheaper knives(blur, rat 1)at work(plumbing)
Wish I had an adamas for work.
The higher end ones which I love way more, I carry everywhere else.


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I'm all about value. I don't need my knives to be fancy or expensive, because they don't actually work better than the high value low cost knives that I edc.
If I ever did start to edc expensive knives it wouldn't be exclusive as what I have now still works.
 
No, since I never stopped using cheap knives for abusive tasks ex: cutting plastic bottles and packaging for recycling, construction tasks, etc.
I use high end knives for finer cutting tasks ex: food prep, opening and dismantling cardboard packages, etc.
 
I tend to carry high/higher end knives as my usual carry knives during most times (work, out and about, etc.). These tend to be my CRKs, Olamics, Emersons or Spydercos, and so on. However, when I go camping with my Den or friends, I reach for knives in my drawer like the Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter, or my XHP Recon 1.

And admittedly, that UH is one of my absolute favorite knives, and whenever I get back, it always takes a few days before it goes back in my knife chest, and a Seb or Wayfarer takes its place again.
 
If I like a knife, I don't care what the price is. It's not uncommon for me to carry a $400 Brous and a $35 Utilitac or a $200 ZT and a $15 Opinel at the same time (and often in the same pocket). Yesterday I was carrying a $160 Cold Steel Colossus and a $35 CRKT Hootenanny. :thumbup:
 
This going to sound like blasphemy but I actually sold my zt560 because I just never carried it. I have an irrational fear of losing knives over $70 so I don't really carry them. Ive also found that while higher end knives certainly offer better edge retention, stropping, steeling, and resharpening just don't really bug me all that much. And for around $70 you can still enjoy cpm154 (launch 5) s30v (manix 2) and d2 (new rat1 and avispa knives)
 
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