My first knife

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leofar2

Joined
Jul 22, 2015
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Hi everyone i am new to the hobby of knifes and i am looking to buy my first knife. I want a knife that is under 100$. So i turn to you guys since you have way more experience! So any suggestions?
 
For $100 the Esee 3 and 4 will fill the role of a medium sized fixed blade. The Becker line from KaBar are also good choices around the $100 mark.

As far as Folders go, the Benchmade Griptillian is a great outdoors knife. Along with several options from Spyderco, specifically the Delica, Endura, or Tenacious lines of knives. I'd also recommend checking out the the Ontario Rat 1, for around $40 or so.

Good luck, and welcome to the Forums.
 
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Welcome to the forums!! There are literally thousands of options for knives to use in the woods and outdoors that come in under $100. My suggestion is to browse around the forums for a while and see what all is out there. The information you've given so far is akin to saying that you want a vehicle that can drive on the highway. It's a bit tough to recommend one based on that criteria, as almost all of them will drive on a highway if you're desperate enough to make that happen. I don't say this to be rude or condescending, just to illustrate why I'm suggesting that you do a little research to see what's out there so that you can narrow down your options a bit. Once you have a list of things that you like/want it's a lot easier for people to help you whittle down your list to a handful of knives.

Check out the EDC threads.

Check out the list of vendors and visit some of their sites to see what's out there. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1089879-Paid-Dealer-Members-List

Check out the knife laws to see what's even legal where you live.

Check out the various Manufacturer's Forums to see who has styles and features that you like.

Post back here with specific questions as they come up so that we can help you understand all of the things that you're seeing and reading.

Basically, get a little bit better of an idea of what you want and come back with that info. Then, you'll have a whole bunch of people who will be more than eager to start throwing out there suggestions for what will fill your needs.

Above all, have fun with it. It really is a great hobby, and almost everybody here will bend over backwards to help you out if we can.
 
leofar2 said:
Folding would be best
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Get a Victorinox Alox Farmer. Perfect for outdoors. And its blades do not lock. Learn to use a knife whose blades do not lock, and then you can use any knife.

If you insist on getting a knife that locks, get a Spyderco Delica or Benchmade Griptilian. They are the default "first knife" locking folders. Great knives.
 
leofar2 said:
Folding would be best
Click to expand...

Why buy one when you can buy two? :)
Seriously though, this is a good opportunity to buy two completely different styles and compare. Explore the differences so you can form an opinion on what you like. Personally I think you should get one traditional and one more modern.

For the traditional get an Opinel. Maybe a no9 or 10 for outdoors. They are one of the most well designed objects of all time and after a bit of sharpening, one of the best slicers for any money.

For the modern consider something from Spyderco. Or one of the many options suggested by the others :)

Then take your leftover money and buy a Mora fixed blade too, because a fixed blade may be more useful outdoors and why buy two knives when you can have three ;) welcome to the forums.
 
That farmer that Marcinek suggested would be great, but I'm not sure that alox is necessary unless your bound and determined to spend a hundred dollars on a first knife. I'd say go to victorinox.com and check out the farmer there and others then go to a local store or Amazon if you local store don't carry. I have an explorer plus myself but for a first knife might seem large in a pocket, the farmer would be one you would most likely would keep in your pocket. Put aside the rest of your hundred dollars while you get used to that farmer, cutting cord, peeling apples or potatoes, chopping onions, opening mail, whitling tent pegs, whitling just for kicks and such as well as a numerous amount of cutting tasks and tasks for the other tools.
Learn to sharpen it using differint sharpening tools. Some like stones, others like V rods. After years of using stones I tried a steel rod from housewares at WalMart and not giving it up. Your experience will be differint that most anyone elses. Once you dull your SAK learn to put a razor edge on it. A dull knife is a dangerous knife to use. Takes to much pressure to cut and when it slips it goes where you don't want it to. Once I learned to get a razor edge I discovered that taking the edge to just short of razor sharp that the edge lasted longer. There's some science there but on my Buck 110, being a better quality blade, that gets the razor edge.
Once you get that down, take what's left of your hundred dollar bill and add what you can and get a good fixed edge or a buck 110. In fact whatever you get for your #2 knife, somewhere along your travel just go to Walmart and pick up a Buck 110, they're inexpensive and pretty much anyone into knives has one at sometime or another.
Good Luck
 
bt93 said:
That farmer that Marcinek suggested would be great, but I'm not sure that alox is necessary unless your bound and determined to spend a hundred dollars on a first knife.
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Heh? :confused: A Vic Alox Farmer's about 30, 40 bucks tops, US.
 
For $100 you have lots of different options. I'll throw a few out and you can look into them.

Swiss Army Knife Alox farmer (great folding knife for outdoors, nice assortment of tools including a saw) $30
Swiss Army Knife Alox Cadet (smaller folding knife. A little small for outdoors but VERY easy to carry and still extremely useful) $25
Opinel No 8. (very nice and cheap folding knife. Great slicer. Other numbers are different sizes) $15
Mora Companion (the best deal in fixed blades. You can buy a better knife but you will pay a lot more.) $15
Ontario Rat 1 or 2 (good modern one handed opener folder for the money) $30
Spyderco Delica 4 (good modern folder. Very common recommendation for someone looking for a good knife to carry daily.) $60

There are lots of other options as well but these are all good ones. I recommend you split the $100 up and try more than one. Also, don't forget to look for something to sharpen them with.

Edit: I have a spyderco delica and SAK Alox Cadet in my pocket right now. They make a darn good combination.
 
marcinek said:
Get a Victorinox Alox Farmer. Perfect for outdoors. And its blades do not lock. Learn to use a knife whose blades do not lock, and then you can use any knife.

If you insist on getting a knife that locks, get a Spyderco Delica or Benchmade Griptilian. They are the default "first knife" locking folders. Great knives.
Click to expand...

^^^ What he said^^^^
You can't go wrong with any of those. Also if you look around you should be able to get both a delica, and Alox Farmer (Alox is Victorinox' designation for their knives with metal/aluminum handles) for about $100. The Griptilian alone would put you right around the $100 mark. Although it would be my preference of the 3.
 
Check out the vendors list and see what they have on sale. Might find something you like. A list of vendors was posted above. A ka bar fighting/utility is less than $100. A swiss army knife and multi tool would be pretty useful in the outdoors.
 
I disagree with all of you actually. I'd recommend going the cheap, Chinese auction site route. Stuff like enlan, ganzo, sanrenmu(?), etc. Most of their knives can be had for under $20 and really aren't bad knives. This way you can buy a few at once and try out all of the different features. Get different lock types, handle materials, blade shapes, overall sizes, etc.

Then once you've figured exactly what type of knife you prefer you can put down the money on a good one, whatever it may be and you'll be left with cheap knives to practice sharpening on and to just scatter amongst vehicles and whatnot as emergency tools.
 
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