fireburn, some advice, if u are not certain about the spelling open another window with google, if u do a search with the word u are not certain about google will give u the right way to write it by saying "did u mean ......", easy fast to use. Because i speak Dutch i sometimes check some English words with Google before posting .
Inhere there are people who can afford knives that costst 1000 of $, most of us can't, if u want to make a nice colletion, we go to one of the good retailers online like New Grahams
http://www.newgraham.com/index.html
or
http://www.knifeworks.com/
U will see on the left a list of manufacturers wich all fall into the "quality knives" category. U can see what is available, and try to save up to a basic knife (between 50-100 $) this will do what 90 % of the 300 $ knives do they are just less fancy. Inhere 90 % of the people buy from one of these firms, and feel comfortable about it.
Once u have a idea about the type and brand of the knife u can go searching for that knife on Ebay to get a bottom price, or buy them from these firms , both are topnotch, very trustworty.
IMHO good firms are SPYDERCO, Benchmade, Camillus, CRKT, Kershaw, SOG, Buck.
Whatever u choose from these firms will give u probably a knife that will last more then 10 years of normal daily use.
U can always ask our opninion about one of these knives, we will try to give a honest answer.
Greetz