With the new MAP pricing by Cold Steel, I think OKC may be the best value now. I used to buy a lot of CS, but with their new MAP pricing, I'll be greatly reducing my purchases of their knives to maybe one or two every 4-5 years. Recently, I got an Ontario RAT 7 and I was blown away at its quality. We're talking almost TOPS level quality, for about one-third the cost. I have other OKC knives as well from years past. I don't remember the quality being this good before. Maybe I just got lucky on this one? I'm sure that I'll get more OKC over the next few years. It seems like a great opportunity for Ontario to exponentially increase its market share.
OKC gives one of the better bang for the buck. I've gotten A LOT of OKC knives, usually the larger ones, as I have a need for them and their use. The FEW times I've had an issue their CS was great and took care of any problems. I got one Rat 7 on a whim because the blade was bigger than the Rat 5. I liked the handle so much so for light to medium duty (others I talked to say my medium duty is their HARD DUTY when they flinch seeing how much I use knives) I got another one. With my plethra of RD series knives (mostly out of production knives), the RAT 7s don't see as much duty as they would compared to normal people who get a few knives. The Rat 7 can do a lot and the handle gives to me the feeling of wanting to be used. I just wish they sold a saber grind version is my only complaint about it. But a lot of my knives are "Compromise" knives I get for me, ones I can afford that can do the job dang well even if it don't fit my EXACT ideal what I think it should be. The Rat 7 fills the need for a nice slicy jobs knife that can do the little things and bigger things when needed, which tends to make it a general all task doer of a knife in one blade, to me that's winner combo.
Bang on the money regarding Cold Steel's pricing changes and OKC being in a very good position now because of it, especially on larger blades. The OKC kukri in particular really kicks arse for the cost.
I just picked up a Rat 1 at Walmart. They only had one left, on clearance. Regular price was $28 on clearance for $13. Of course I grabbed it for $13. I gotta be honest, after flipping it for an hour or so today, I am impressed. Excellent centering, lockup and the flip is easy with the thumb studs. Initial impressions tell me this should be a $60 or $70 knife at least. The only minor downfall is the Aus-8 steel, but for $13 it could be made out of pot metal and I'd probably still buy it. 20190823_132035 by poriggity, on Flickr Ontario rat1 by poriggity, on Flickr Scott
would take aus8 over 8cr13mov every day, it's noticeably better all around imho also agree that okc is at the top of the value brand heap now
I think kabar is giving another very good value, but at slightly higher prices, but not much. I think both are stellar values for US made products. If you're looking more into slicey knives, buck has also been doing a lot of good things with their US production and hitting the budget friendly market really hard. But, everything is still hollow ground so a little less hard use oriented than OKC and kabar in general. I think the SP and SP plus series are a stellar value from OKC, and the rat series isn't bad either. My only wish from OKC is that they would ramp up the hardness on their 5160 as I think you have a lot of wasted potential there. You would still have a massively tough knife but with far better edge retention. But, the softer steel does sharpen really easily and there is a place for such things when field maintenance is called for. With portable diamond sharpeners, I see less need for the softer blades now. For folders, I still think cold steel is in good shape and I don't think folders are what OKC excels at, even if the rat 1 and 2 are superb. I don't think they've done much else good in that department sense, but that's just my opinion. I like the recent innovations from buck more, like the lightweight 110's or the sprint line.
