is there a decent $20 knife out there?

Try an Opinel. Nice carbon steel blade with a wooden handle. One about 3 inches or so costs about $10. They take a beating and keep on cutting.
 
Originally posted by brownshoe
Try an Opinel.
Click to expand...

Great suggestion.

The Opinel #8 is the most popular size and available in both plain carbon (OP113080) about ~$8 and stainless steels (OP123080) about ~$9 - with reliable safe locking collar.
123080.jpg

But be careful there is a series of Opinels that do NOT have locking collars.

The Swiss Army Knife - both Victorinox and Wenger are amazing values - I have a preference for Victorinox - for a "minimalist" configuration try the Victorinox Waiter (US#53891) about ~$11
53891_l.jpg


A more stylish/elegant SAK is the Vic Alox Bantam (US#53949) is about ~$13 -
53949_l.jpg


Thinking of it you can buy BOTH an Opinel and a Victorinox SAK for about $20.

The trouble comes in the objective of practising sharpening -
both these come PD-sharp and don't really need sharpening and if one touches up and keep them sharp by V-hone crock-sticks and/or stropping - unless there has been gross abuse one probably need never have to resort to drastic resharpening........
 
If you're wanting to learn how to sharpen, I don't recommend an Opinel or SAK. A chimp could keep those knives sharp (which is not to say I think they're bad knives - I like 'em a lot! I like chimps too). But you should get some knife with a hard-to-sharpen steel. Queen makes a Sod Buster that has D-2 blade steel, which is known to be very very hard. I've read comments on this forum saying these Queen D2 knives can be a pain to make sharp (though once sharp, they do have a good rep for edge holding). Take a look here.
 
Another vote for Opinel, I believe for $20 U.S. you can get one in HI-C and one in stainless and have some money to spare, I think the standards #6 and up have the locking rings.
 
Originally posted by Don Luis
Another vote for Opinel, <snip>, I think the standards #6 and up have the locking rings.
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I didn't even know Opinels came without locking rings until fairly recently from a discussion here -

Opinel without locking ring

Opinel's own on-line catalog shows the non-locking ring versions as the first group of knives all the way up to a #8 size:

http://www.opinel.com/FR/catalogue/index.htm
CODE DESIGNATION LONG. LAME
111020 N°2 3,5 cm
111030 N°3 4 cm
111040 N°4 5 cm
111050 N°5 6 cm
111060 N°6 7 cm
111080 N°8 8,5 cm
 
I´ve handled Opinels without locking rings and I definitely recommend against them.

Vincent,

You are right, I just saw those non locking ones up to #8 at their site, never saw them before, as I mentioned in that other thread, I think they are accidents waiting to happen.
 
That Queen D2 is beautiful! A real American Opinel -- a basic, sharp, simple knife. Thanks for the link!

We still haven't found him a cheap knife with a clip, have we? What's the cheapest Cold steel Voyager? A little over his budget. I already said Trail Guide, I think. Here's a good, big working blade of AUS6, not too expensive, the CRKT Alaska Bwana.
 
yeah, I would really like to stick with something with a clip, otherwise I just don't know that it's going to get used enough to need sharpening.

the two things I've looked at that I like the best so far are a Kershaw Vapor and the Kabar Dozier folder. I might just pick up those two and call it a day.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
I just received my Dozier folder today. It is a great knife for $20 or even twice that much. Kabar may steal my business from Spyderco.
 
I bought two of the Dozier folders recently and can't fault them at all for the price. You won't have to sharpen it much as it comes wickedly sharp. Only stroked mine a few times on the crock stick since I got them. Also I found them for $16.33 each at the link below. I plan to write a review once I use them a little more. Great bang for the buck, with a clip too! Thank you Mr. Dozier!

http://www.outdoorsuperstore.com/st...nufacturer=KA-BAR&model=DOZIER+FOLDING+KNIVES

U
 
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