knife snobbery?

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bladeboss

Joined
Mar 6, 2012
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ive seen alot of reccomendations on here. all stuff like Cold Steel, sebenzas, spyderco, benchmade, stryder... etc.
these may be nice knives, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE!
whats wrong with brands like:
Buck
Gerber
Kershaw
Case
Schrade
Winchester
and knives along that whole spectrum. i guess i dont see why people wouldnt wanna have just a normal knife listed here. i carry a Victorinox, so i guess im in the middle. are these middle-priced knives just hated?
 
Personally after moving from knives in the CRKT range (nothing wrong with these) to BM/Spyderco, I can notice a difference. My first knife was a Kershaw blur and I've had it for 6 years this coming april the only thing is that it has developed some vertical blade play. It is a solid knife for the price and I personally would place it with BM/Spyderco. Granted Kershaw makes some lower end knives, but have you handled a Crown? It's amazing a company could put that out for the price point.

I own a Buck, Gerber, Case, and Winchester. They are all good knives but I just prefer others over them.
 
Those brands you mentioned tend to be made in china and have lower build quality and poor materials (Except Kershaw, Buck, and Case)

I think the minimum I would drop for a folder would be in the 40 dollar range, and if you aren't willing to shell out that much for a tool you might depend your life on, well, that's too bad.

I highly recommend the new CS Voyager series, right under 40 bucks, if you are looking for a economical but dependable knife series

Spyderco also has the Byrd series in the ~40 dollar range, and Kershaw/Buck/Case are all within that range too.
 
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Meh, this phenomenon is not just limited to the knife world but virtually every hobby there are always just a few select people that believe that just because they have a certain brand or make of something and that it is theirs that it is somehow inherently better than whatever somebody else has. I view myself as a jack of all trades in the knife world and in a weeks time can and have carried everthing from a CRK LG 21 sebenza to an 8 dollar rough rider I try and appreiciate quality and value in my knives and keep an open mind. whith that being said you usually have to pay a bit more for quality but there are always exceptions but you have to keep in mind most of the brands you list are "middle of the road" so to speak and not really made to compete with semi-custom and custom knives.
 
bladeboss said:
ive seen alot of reccomendations on here. all stuff like Cold Steel, sebenzas, spyderco, benchmade, stryder... etc.
these may be nice knives, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE!
whats wrong with brands like:
Buck
Gerber
Kershaw
Case
Schrade
Winchester
and knives along that whole spectrum. i guess i dont see why people wouldnt wanna have just a normal knife listed here. i carry a Victorinox, so i guess im in the middle. are these middle-priced knives just hated?
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buck and kershaw make good knives, and i recommend models from those companies all the time.

other good value companies you didn't mention are byrd (made by spyderco), mora and opinel.
 
You have not spent enough time on the forum. All knives get mentioned sooner or later depending on budget. The more expensive knives are usuall mentioned because they are the cream of the crop.

Many of the questions go 'recommend me a GOOD........ Knife'

Usually good means quality. Blade magazine did a survey years ago and found its readers average price bracket was $ 100-200 for price, good performance and good material.
 
Yes there is a lot of knife snobbery on this site. This is a site dedicated to those who love cutlery! Almost any piece of cutlery steel will take and hold an edge that will satisfy 99% of consumers. What you have on this site is the other 0.1% (the missing 0.9% are unsatisfied, but not here). Check the traditional forum and you will find a lot more people talking about case, buck, and even- yes- rough rider (Chinese, but apparently a great value). The swiss army knife, kershaw, and Buck all have their own dedicated forums here too.
 
bladeboss said:
ive seen alot of reccomendations on here. all stuff like Cold Steel, sebenzas, spyderco, benchmade, stryder... etc.
these may be nice knives, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE!
whats wrong with brands like:
Buck
Gerber
Kershaw
Case
Schrade
Winchester
and knives along that whole spectrum. i guess i dont see why people wouldnt wanna have just a normal knife listed here. i carry a Victorinox, so i guess im in the middle. are these middle-priced knives just hated?
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Nothing is wrong with those :D
 
I appreciate knives of any price that are well made and reliable. Have a few cheaper CRKTs that are awesome, especially for the price. Most of the companies make at least SOME knives that are pretty good, but there is a very noticeable jump in quality from low to mid/high end knives.

Buck makes some good knives and so do CRKT, Case and Kershaw. I don't know about Schrade or Winchester since I have no interest in them, but I know Gerber's quality dropped of a cliff when they got bought be Fiskars and moved production to China.

I have a Gerber Gator I got in 1995 that is US made. I love that knife and it was my first no SAK that my dad gave me when I was like 11. However, I also have a Spyderco Economy from 10 years before. Spydie is about 1000 times tighter (granted, it didn't survive childhood with me, so odds are it had an easier life) It's pretty scratched up and the blade is definitely worn down. but lockup and operation make the Gerber look like a piece of crap.

Also have a Gerber I got for free some where that's a little framelock. The lock is absolutely terrible and very easy to fail. I would be PISSED if I spent money on it.

There's more than one Kershaw that's US made for under or around $40. Between those, the cheaper Spydies and SAKs, no reason to buy crap.
 
Knife snobbery is good.

Winchesters, at least those ones Queen made are very good pieces. The snobbery doesn't necessarily mean a taste for expensive knives though. Plenty of Schrade snobs around here :)

But I agree with a lot of the replies here. The brands you name can turn out a lot of crap, usually through QC failings, granted, but crap nonetheless. There's a reason a cheap Case is like 25USD.
 
marthinus said:
Blade magazine did a survey years ago and found its readers average price bracket was $ 100-200 for price, good performance and good material.
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Survey was from Blade....I wonder what the results would have been if People magazine had done the survey???
 
I wouldn't say that their hated. There just not the choice pieces in people's collections. You got to remember this is a forums people come here for advice or to sts about the latest and greatest or the best piece in their collection. Its not snobbery we're just knife enthusiast doesn't mean people don't own and use these knives as edc's. They usually talk about knives they bought from someone who put time and care into a handmade knife. Like say for instance I like Les George Knives he's one of my favorite knife makers. Overall people talk about their hopes,dreams, and wants not really what they can get right now or what everyone else has. Its kinda like people not talking about their cars in a country that only has 4-5 to choose from.
 
It's really like anything that we buy, there are going to be different levels of quality, materials used and craftsmanship.

Along with those different levels there will be price differences too.

So all I can say is get what you like and or can afford then use it.

The snobs as with any hobby will be the same, theirs is better than the rest no matter what it is.

The flip side of that are the ones who try and make their choices seem better than all the rest even to go as far as bashing the more expensive better quality items, the key word to watch out for are just as good as or not really needed. They will even go as far as trolling the forums making up stories to bash those items every chance they get as we have seen so many times. We normally see this with the more expensive knives because those trolls can't or just won't afford them and a lot of really bad information is passed on as truth because of it.

Bias will always have a part in this also, everyone has their favorites I suppose and or opinions, but that doesn't mean they are correct or everyone else is wrong.
 
Buck. Absolutely nothing wrong with these. I own many, and recommend them regularly. BladeForums even has a special Buck Knives forum section.
Gerber. They aren't discussed often, but particular models do have cheerleaders here (I'm a fan of the Silver Knight line). Overall though, Gerber has fallen behind in quality when compared to many other brands and even their own past knives.
Kershaw. Kershaw knives are recommended and discussed here daily.
Case. Check out the Traditional forum. Case-this, Case-that, almost constantly.
Schrade. The Imperial-Schrade Corporation went out of business in 2004. Check out the Schrade Collectors forum area. Schrade, Schrade, Schrade. That's really all we talk about in there. ;)
Winchester. I've seen and used a few of these, multi-tools and knives. Complete junk. :thumbdn:
 
Buck, Kershaw and Case put out fantastic knives. Gerber, imo, doesn't make decent knives and hasn't for a long time. I don't own any Benchmade knives and don't plan on getting any. I own a couple Spydercos and they're excellent.

There are quite a few brands that put out amazing knives for under $50. There are traditional slipjoint folders and modern folders out there in that price range that will satisfy just about anyone. Victorinox makes high quality knives and I don't think many people here bash them. The majority seem to appreciate Moras and people who have tried Opinels tend to like them. There are excellent bargains out there and not everyone owns a Sebenza, contrary to what you may think.
 
Maddogg774 said:
$1200 Hinderer or $60 cold steel....I'll keep the extra $1140.
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From a utility stand point, you can get good quality knives to fill any roll for $100 or less. Nothing wrong with higher end knives, there is a product and price point for everyone.
 
It's not so much that people dislike middle-priced knives, more that people dislike junk knives.

If you do some reading around the forum, I'm pretty sure you'll find that Case, Victorinox, Buck, Kershaw, Opinel, Svord, and a lot of other brands along those lines have outstanding reputations. I can't recall anyone really bashing those brands off the top of my head. Any time someone asks for an inexpensive folder recommendation you can always count on Vic, Buck, and Opinel to come up.

Odds are good you won't see as much support for Shrade, Winchester, Gerber, SOG, or S&W. This is probably because folks feel that they churn out poorly made or overpriced knives and just aren't as dependable.

So, it's not so much that 'middle priced knives' are 'hated', it's just that in the five minutes you've been a member here you didn't happen to notice that there's tons of love for less expensive knives among the forum users.
 
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