How does the Price of a Knife Affect You?

coolbreezy37 said:
I will possibly make a CRK purchase at some point. I’m not into folders. I’ll spend between $250-$500 on Bussekin or CPK no problem. It’ll take a while for me to spend that on that on a folder. The only one that I semi like is CRK and I don’t know that much about them.
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I've lusted after more than a few Bussekin in my time, but the simple fact was, I will never carry a fixed blade as often as I will a folder,
and that put that desire to rest.
 
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Bob Denman said:
If we were ALL billionaires: think how wild the buying frenzy in here would be! 👍
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Perhaps not. One of the things that holds most of us back is not the price itself, but our comfort level with the particular item. At a hundred dollars or less, you may not care what you buy; you may decide to experiment with an unknown brand if the item looks interesting. But, we all have a level that we would not cross, not so much because the money isn’t there, but because we are uncomfortable with the subject. For instance, after 50 years of collecting, I have yet to purchase a historical Japanese Tanto or Katanna. It is not an area that I am comfortable with and I have no confidence that I could tell the difference between a $500 sword and a $50,000 sword. Nor have I bought many “Civil War Bowie’s”, in part because at the point that I had entered the hobby, these were priced well above my experimental range and already 99.999% of the available stuff was either a fake or a misrepresentation.

None of us want to feel ripped off. It hurts even if you buy a $20 knife and then discover that it is a knock off. We don’t want it in our collection, we don’t want to give it to anyone, I simply label it fake and toss it aside so I can reference to it at a later date. It not the money, those types of errors go to our credibility and damages our pride. Mistakes happen, it is a normal cost of our education, but we all try to stay within our comfort level. We want to buy what we are familiar with. You can slowly work up to buying a $500 Chris Reeves or $400 Benchmade, but still pass over a $200 Buck because you are not comfortable with Buck products at that price range.

The short answer to your question is: “it’s complicated”. We tend to increase our spend as we learn to value an item; but, only with, those items that we are confident we understand.

n2s
 
sgt1372 said:
When I started buying knives to "collect," my spending limt was $100/knife. Then it was $150, $200, $250, $300, $350, $400 and then $450.

$500 is currently my limit and I've already exceeded that limit once. So you can see the problem. LOL! ;)
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Same for me. Now I’ve found that I would prefer to sell 6-8 $200 knives and buy Rockstead, Hinderer, CRK, Shiro, Koenig etc. I’ve found that my appreciation for extremely well made knives has taken over my reasonable dollar amount of $200 I’ve had in mind for quite a while. We all love knives, get what makes you happy, as long as you can afford it….YOLO
 
I would have trouble paying over $150ish for a knife I was going to use and possibly lose. So that is my limit.
Now that I've discovered buying from the Exchange, I've increased the buying power of that $150 which is fantastic.
 
Bob Denman said:
Once I discovered Chris Reeve, Rick Hinderer, and Olamic: my goose was cooked!
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I've purchased 3 Hinderers and 2 Olamics. Still have 1 Hinderer and 2 Olamics. They all cost under $500 each. ;)

Never been interested in buying a CRK. All of the ones I've seen have either been"too expensive" or unappealing to me if they weren't "too expensive."
 
Ajack60 said:
It really doesn't matter what the price of a knife is as long as someone has the disposable income to enjoy this hobby. Everyone is going to be different on why they buy what they do, but the most important thing, IMO, is to have fun, enjoy what you have and show it off regardless of what anyone thinks.
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Well, my "problem" is having too much disposable income, which is why I have to stick to a limit.

Otherwise, I'd just buy ANYTHING w/o any effort or thought. What's the "fun" in that? :rolleyes:
 
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Always try my best to limit to $100 or lower. Luckily my choices have been satisfying. Steels have been middle of the road or slightly above. Buy em to use. Only safe queen I won't use is a German S/A dagger my dad brought home from WW 2. Would make a lousy EDC anyway
 
Bob Denman said:
I wasn't sure how to approach this topic; so I apologize in advance...
When you are looking at another knife to buy: is the price a "static" barrier that you will not cross?
Or is it dependant on the make of knife, and Country of origin?
When I was first gripped by this madness; my stomach would hurt if I spent over $130 on a knife. (Those were the days!!)
Now I look at the knife, and if I can justify the price based on it's attributes: it will end up in my grubby little paws.
Are you guys setting a firm barrier; or do you have a sliding scale for your purchases?
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Entirely dependent on the knife, but I start losing interest at about $110. There are still a lot of interesting sub $100 knives that I don't have. Expensive knives don't really appeal to my nature. I'm an "empowered user" as opposed to a "collector".

I have gone higher on occasion. But I normally find that when I go much over $100 the bang:buck ratio suffers. I get more joy out of an inexpensive knife which performs surprisingly well for the price than an expensive knife that performs just a bit better.
 
There was a time where anything over $100 was just not going to happen and that knife salesman trying to get me to buy a $400 bushcraft knife that was all that and a bag of chips was barking up the wrong tree (I bought a Spyderco Walker).

Nowadays I don't think anything of spending up to $300 on a knife, but just not all of them all at once. Between $300-500, it's definitely going to give me pause and happen rarely. For that much it had better be something I really, really want (like an older Zero Tolerance model). Anything over $500 and it's probably not going to happen unless that knife is a must have for the collection and the money is there for it. I've only veered over that limit once (for a Hinderer sale I was stalking) and don't plan to make a habit of spending that much on knives. There are no must have knives worth bankrupting yourself for. At the other end of the scale, cheap doesn't appeal to me the way a bargain does. I'm all for buying a Morakniv fixed blade, QSP Penguin, Ontario Rat 1, or Cold Steel Tuff Lite for a great bargain, but I'm not buying cheap junk that I won't want to use and that goes for overpriced junk too.

It also depends just as much on the knife company and what it is. I like Spyderco knives, but I'm not going to pay that much more for a sprint run or special release for the sheer joy of it. Every knife needs to be weighed by designer, materials, and company reputation (heat treatment, quality control, and customer service) to see if the price adds up. At a certain point you're paying for a designer's name and the company standing behind it, but if everything lines up that's not such a bad thing if you can afford it.
 
It's all about priorities. Think about Maslow's hierarchy. Right now I am spending my disposable to update the home stereo system (not trying to cut corners, it sounds awesome). It will provide a lot of enjoyment and be useful in ways a knife can't be.

Even though I am completely happy with my knife collection I still like this Borka Stitch - it's so expensive, I didn't even bother to find out its actual price.
But I would still buy one, but only when all other, more basic needs are taken care of. If that means never, so be it.
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POCEH KOCEB said:
If I like it, I’ll look for cheaper seller. If there is no one, I’ll make the $$ for the purchase.
The point for me is to acquire the knife I want if I can put together the funds without affecting my more important finances.
‘I guess, I prioritize to some extend but usually I get what I want…
I just pulled the trigger on Police 4 LW K390 yesterday :cool:
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I can certainly identify with this; for me it's also about remaining disposable income after taking care of the important financial matters in life.
 
sgt1372 said:
When I started buying knives to "collect," my spending limt was $100/knife. Then it was $150, $200, $250, $300, $350, $400 and then $450.

$500 is currently my limit and I've already exceeded that limit once. So you can see the problem. LOL! ;)
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Haha, I can also identify with this, that's more or less the same "progression" with me 😄
 
$250 for manual folders, though I will go higher on OTF.

At this point, I own plenty of folders in premium steels. Most of my tasks are light duty, and I've come to find that I enjoy the lower cost high fidget factor of Civivi, in particular their damascus ones. Beautiful, and have good enough edge retention. If I need something heavier duty, I can grab something in M4, M390, S90V, etc. Or a fixed blade.

My last several purchases have been under $100, and I'm cool with that. Having just bought a car, spent money on ammo and gun stuff, as well as not finding many knives over $125 attractive currently, I'm happy.

One day, when life is more settled, and financially secure, I will probably spend $1000 on an Alan Davis custom.
 
It is a hobby to me for the most part ( but no buying to sell).. So since I don't gamble or have other vices not satiated I induldge myself.
If it is going to get banged up I limit the cost otherwise there is no limit if the knife calls my name loud enough.
On the rare occasion of buyer remorse it becomes a gift.
Plus Bob D. is a BAD influence.
 
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