Looking for a knife to last a lifetime.

I

Ipistol

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Well thanks to everyone who helped. I ended up spending more then i wanted too lol. I got a stainless steel spyderco police for my big knife. A spyderco delica with green handles for my small knife. I also decided to surprise my wife with a little knife for her to keep in her tiny woman jeans or her purse. A Spyderco dragonfly tattoo.

How did i do guys. Got the police for 95. The delica for 60 and the tattoo dragonfly for 58.
 
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I would say Kershaw leek and shallot. Great warranty and nice knives. Easy to clean and if you don't want to do it yourself; I believe they sharpen them as well.
 
Maybe Benchmade Griptilian and Mini Griptilian. If you look around you might be able to find each for around $60, but it might be just a little more.
 
I know it isn't what you asked for, but would you consider an AG Russel woodswalker? It's a fantastic little fixed blade jobby and comes with a nice leather pocket sheath. They are about 20 bucks, and work great for food.
 
Goosey said:
Mind automatically goes to Delica + Endura.
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+1for this! They are both lock back knives. If you want a different lock type (axis) look for the benchmade grip and mini grip as also said already. If you are looking for traditional slip joints you could get a sodbuster regular and jr for a lot less than $120. You don't get any more traditional than Case knives.
 
I think you have good intentions, but your budget is a little low for something that will last a lifetime. There are a lot of $60 knives that will do just that, but if you can afford internet and an computer, you can probably buy a $60 knife at least once a year for rest of your life.

With that being said - The Mini-griptilian is the best small knife I have ever held in my hands. My wife hates my knife collection, but she always goes for the mini-grip to open her Amazon boxes. It's a special knife. It useful and fun.

Since you're able to ignore the politics. You might also like the Cold Steel Large Voyager.
 
I am using lifetime more of a figure of speech for something that will be of better quality then what I'm used too.
 
There is typically a big difference between a $60 knife and a $120 knife. But there are certainly a LOT of people who would never even care to know the difference. You're here because you admittedly don't know the difference. Knowing first hand can be costly but most of us here enjoy this hobby enough that it is a non issue especially with the ability to buy/sell/trade with like minded individuals. If you're looking for advice and are willing to take that advice (at least from the most convincing of us) my recommendation is to pick up ONE higher quality knife. (I'd imagine you have a Leatherman or SAK to to fill the "this will do" roles.) I recommend you pick up a Spyderco ParaMilitary 2 or a Benchmade 940 (or 943). At least watch some YouTube reviews on these two.
 
I think Griptilian and Mini-Griptilian are the answers. American made great knives. Contrary to HotSwat I think that these could EASILY last you a lifetime. Many people in the past have made knives that were worth far less and made with far less quality last a lifetime. Grips rock hard.
 
David Lowry said:
Many people in the past have made knives that were worth far less and made with far less quality last a lifetime.
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Yep, if you ask knife nuts about a knife to truly last a lifetime, I expect most of them will probably answer with midtech or custom knives in the $400 to $1000+ range... and up. And the funny thing is that those knives won't really do things too much better than a $60 production blade, it's simply the law of diminishing returns...
 
I would also suggest against a 60/60 split, and instead put more into 1 than the other. Then you could upgrade down the road without replacing both.

I mainly use a Spyderco Paramilitary 2 (PM2) and Spyderco UK Pen Knife (UKPK) which almost perfectly match your criteria except for being slightly more expensive.
 
Do you really require 2 knives? For $120 you could get yourself one quite nice knife... maybe get one around 3.5" or so, and just compromise with that. If that's the case, PM2 (as others are suggesting) is prolly the best choice. Or the ZT 0566 if you can wait for it and can bump up your budget by like $30 or so.
 
the Douk-Douk is the only knife to last a lifetime, everybody know it, it's just common sense :D

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Illegal to have over a 3 inch blade where I work and where a lot of my friends live. I spend a lot of time there so having a legal sized knife would be nice. The bigger one is for home and out to places around home where there is no limit.
 
Here are some I can think of in the size and price range you listed that are essentially a small and large version of the same design:

Kershaw Injection 3.0 + Injection 3.5
Kershaw Cryo + Cryo II
Spyderco Delica + Endura
Benchmade Mini-Griptilian + Griptilian (will likely run a bit over $120 though)
Ontario RAT-2 + RAT-1
Case Sodbuster Jr + Sodbuster
Buck Small Vantage Pro + Large Vantage Pro
Buck 112 + 110

Here are some of them. Grid is 0.5" squares.
Left to right: Sodbusters, Griptilians, Vantages, Endura/Delica, RATs, Cryo, 110
1115551_comparison_800x472.jpg

I don't have either Injection, Cryo II, or a Buck 112, so I only included the ones I do have.
 
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I really like my Caly3/3.5, available in a few steel offerings/handle material/prices. Ergonomics work splendidly for me.
 
I vote for the Spyderco Endura 4 & Delica 4. They're lightweight, easy to maintain, can be had in a variety of blade steels, but the standard VG-10 is pretty darn good stuff in it's own right. You can have the full flat grind, which is awesome for slicing & fine cutting, and a saber grind for a stronger edge. Serrations are available too.

You can find both on the exchange here for around $60. or less. I've bought planty of used ones, and even after hard use, they're still tight & solid.

~Chris
 
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