We could probably make a list of 50, so everybody's list will boil down to their personal favorites. Depending on your preferences in handle, blade, lock, etc. you can narrow it down a little bit.
I'm pretty cheap so I don't buy real expensive knives, many of mine are right around the $100-150 mark used. My list would be:
Spyderco Para 2
Spyderco Gayle Bradley
Benchmade 913 Stryker
Benchmade 581 Barrage
Benchmade 890 Torrent
Spyderco Military
ZT 0200
Benchmade 275 Adamas
Going from $150 to $300, in my opinion you dno't gain as much because of the rule of diminishing returns. In terms of Spyderco limited editions, you can get a different scale material and you can get different blade steel, but the standard models are pretty good. For most of my buying I try to stay closer to $100. I may deviate from this rule for a couple of upcoming Spyderco sprint runs. OTOH you can go a little under $100 used and find good models by Spyderco with FRN handles instead of G10, as well as the Benchmade Griptilians and mini-Griptilians. I'm willing to pay a little more to get G10 but a G10 knife probably doesn't perform any better than a FRN knife when you're actually using it.
I'm pretty cheap so I don't buy real expensive knives, many of mine are right around the $100-150 mark used. My list would be:
Spyderco Para 2
Spyderco Gayle Bradley
Benchmade 913 Stryker
Benchmade 581 Barrage
Benchmade 890 Torrent
Spyderco Military
ZT 0200
Benchmade 275 Adamas
Going from $150 to $300, in my opinion you dno't gain as much because of the rule of diminishing returns. In terms of Spyderco limited editions, you can get a different scale material and you can get different blade steel, but the standard models are pretty good. For most of my buying I try to stay closer to $100. I may deviate from this rule for a couple of upcoming Spyderco sprint runs. OTOH you can go a little under $100 used and find good models by Spyderco with FRN handles instead of G10, as well as the Benchmade Griptilians and mini-Griptilians. I'm willing to pay a little more to get G10 but a G10 knife probably doesn't perform any better than a FRN knife when you're actually using it.
