Knife you weren't expecting to like so much? Or, the OPPOSITE?

One knife I am still trying to love is the Victorinox Farmer. For many, it is THE bushcraft folder. There is nothing wrong with mine, and I can see why people swear by it. I can't get used to the feel of alox, and find the saw to be tricky to use. The AWL, however, is awesome. I don't think I will ever get rid of mine. I'll just keep trying to get used to it and reach that higher plane of bliss.
 
Quickly grew to love the Morakniv basic in stainless
[The following is my opinion, and I won't argue it, you can have your own If you want 😉]

The day you deem a knife a beater is the day you truly start using it as the tool it was, you no longer care what stuff or garbage you cut with it, maybe you're not entirely bothered with cleaning it off completely either, it's a beater after all
It's suppose to get ugly and be useful
You can cut tires, and other stuff that will leave residue and hard to remove smears and you don't even care, I believe you will Even sharply prefer the knife over others that you baby and won't use on certain material because of what they leave behind on the blade.
The morakniv basic stainless is my most used knife.
Hmm, I should deem all my knives beaters then
 
ShaiHulud said:
Quickly grew to love the Morakniv basic in stainless
[The following is my opinion, and I won't argue it, you can have your own If you want 😉]

The day you deem a knife a beater is the day you truly start using it as the tool it was, you no longer care what stuff or garbage you cut with it, maybe you're not entirely bothered with cleaning it off completely either, it's a beater after all
It's suppose to get ugly and be useful
You can cut tires, and other stuff that will leave residue and hard to remove smears and you don't even care, I believe you will Even sharply prefer the knife over others that you baby and won't use on certain material because of what they leave behind on the blade.
The morakniv basic stainless is my most used knife.
Hmm, I should deem all my knives beaters then
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Yes, when someone calls a knife a "beater," I think that it must be a good knife.
 
To a point I can agree re the "beater" element but as a carpenter I always at the end of the day oil and sharpen those planes, chisels I've used, clean my power tools etc... Maybe I'm a bit OCD my mates joke I can't be doing much work, because my tools look so clean😏 I treat my knives the same although yes I will use as intended.
 
This Petrified Fish was a big surprise. I heard people talking good stuff about them and wanted to try one. I kind of randomly chose one one day in a fit of knife madness without really looking into where to get a different model that I liked better. I got it and was very pleasantly surprised. Although the design is kind of blocky, the fit and finish rivals knives costing 200 or so and it even has a milled g10 backspacer, something I've always liked. This thing has been my main beater for around the yard and working on vehicles and all that. The original edge lasted way longer than I thought (D2), and I've never even reprofiled it like I normally do. Ive just touched it up on the sharpmaker with a few swipes a few times and it's always back to razor sharp. It costs $27.
Petrified Fish.jpg
 
SomebodySomewhere said:
This really seems like one of the big underrated knives of the moment. Extremely solid, USA made, carries well, very reasonably priced…I’m surprised people don’t mention it more.
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Yeah it's certainly flying under the radar. A lot of folks were wanting a screw together Buck knife, and Buck delivered a fine example of a budget folder with that feature, along with a 4 way position clip and a neat blade stamp. All made in the US.
 
Victorinox 74mm Executive, did not expect it to be my favorite SAK model. Usually carry a 3-5 layer 91mm, but this one has an extreme charm about it, near perfect tool to weight ratio. Four edged tools on it, thin and thinner Kruppblades, scissors, and serrated package opener, but you could cut small stuff forever with this thing using the tip of the file to poke. Ideal minimalistic EDC for light duty. Cut through rubber with it.

The standard Endura is not as great as expected, the handle shape just misses me and I prefer a Police 4.

Wanted to like Case.
 
Agreed, the SAKs and a couple Buck slipjoints are seemingly the only guys not from China who are doing traditional, budget, multi-blade/tool knives. Sucks to see that Case cannot do for $60, what RR does for $20.
 
I bought a Kershaw Highball XL from an online retailer just because I was curious, as it was a “special” with S35VN & a Ti frame. Wasn’t really expecting much as it was relatively inexpensive considering the steel & Ti. I received it and I love it. I’m actually carrying it more often than most other knives in my collection.
 
Quite a few have been disappointing over the years, most recently a Curtis Warhawk 325 comes to mind. Seems to have the "lock rock" so many have noted in this model. Honestly there's a lot of "mid-tech" knives that IMO don't come anywhere near living up to their price point/hype. I wouldn't say disappointing but it's hard to pay some Benchmade/Spyderco knives at the price points now. BM especially, $200+ for S30v steel and plastic handles....no thanks. Is it bad steel, no..... but when I can get 20CV and M390 with G10 in blades costing less, no thanks. Looking at black friday sales it was $180-$200 for a Shaman with S30, or $175 for a PM2/Para3 with maxamet, $140 for a PM2 with S90v, $118 for a ZT0357 in 20CV, $83 for a Spartan Astor in XHP.....that was an easy choice.

A couple that I liked, but ended up liking so much more than I thought I would. CRKT M16, Benchmade Rift, The Civivi Mini Praxis.......what a ridiculous deal for $30 with D2 and G10. The strider SMF, didn't like it at first but after taking the sharp edges off the handle and re-profiling the edge I'm quite fond of it now. I really thought the Civivi knives were going to be junk fit/finish and they're not. I'd also say the hogue knives overall impressed more more than I thought they would, the Deka series is really nice. The level of quality in lower priced options has come so far the last 5-10 years it's hard to justify $150+ prices for s30 knives now.

I'll say one thing if Kershaw made many of their designs with better blade steel (think something that slotted in-between Kershaw and ZT, S30/S45 $90-$120 prices) I think they could take a HUGE market share away from Spyderco/Benchmade. I'm always amazed how many really great designs they make, but the steel is often a deal breaker for me. I realize it's their price point and goal to take over that market segment, and they are doing some higher end steels now, but man if they offered S30v/S45v steel in many of their designs I'd probably own more of them than any other brand. Reverb, Cargo, Debris, Inception, Platform, Endgame, Method, Seguin, CQC series, Decibel, Chill, Misdirect, Salvage, Drivetrain, Dividend, Airlock, Cyro, RJ tactical, the list goes on and on. Actually never mind it's good they don't, I couldn't afford it. If you take blade steel out of it, their designs/ergos on average IMO are much better than either Spyderco or Benchmade.
 
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The Spyderco PM for me. I got a good deal on this D2 version back in 2010 or so and it stayed in my pocket until I got my Bugout and ZT 0350 back in 2020. Was not expecting it to be nearly perfect or to surpass my BM 910 Stryker the way it did.

And honestly the knife or knives I was hoping to like but were such utter disappointments that I completely have written off the brand... the SOG Trident folders. The only knife to have such catastrophic failure that they injured me. Will never buy another SOG. Only one I will ever trust is the Seal Pup.
 
LimpCroissant said:
This Petrified Fish was a big surprise. I heard people talking good stuff about them and wanted to try one. I kind of randomly chose one one day in a fit of knife madness without really looking into where to get a different model that I liked better. I got it and was very pleasantly surprised. Although the design is kind of blocky, the fit and finish rivals knives costing 200 or so and it even has a milled g10 backspacer, something I've always liked. This thing has been my main beater for around the yard and working on vehicles and all that. The original edge lasted way longer than I thought (D2), and I've never even reprofiled it like I normally do. Ive just touched it up on the sharpmaker with a few swipes a few times and it's always back to razor sharp. It costs $27.
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I feel the same way about the PF818. I did two modifications that made it even better. First, I went around with an emery board and smoothed over a few crisp edges on the scales. (Use the coarse side first and then the fine side. Sure, you can use sand paper but I find the shape convenient to use. The grits on a standard two-sided board like the Revlon 08646 are well-suited to the task.) Second, I swapped the stock bearings for 5mm, 1/16", 11-ball ceramic Skiff bearings. Yeah, $12 bearings might seem a bit much in a $27 knife but it really takes it to the next level.

Speaking of Petrified Fish, I got this on a whim during the release sale and ended up liking it much more than I expected. It is surprisingly practical.

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