new to quality knives

Best EDC for around $100 IMO is the ParaMilitary 2. New they go for around $120. You can almost certainly find a gently used around your $100 limit. Even new the extra $20 would be money well spent.
 
brutalcamo said:
i looked at some but the only one i could find that i like and i couldnt get from another company made better is the CRKT Nirk Tighe 2 but its a little expensive wen i could get alot of other knife for alot cheaper and just as good if not better
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Just to clarify - CRK = Chris Reeve Knives, CRKT = Columbia River Knife and Tool. One is much harder on your wallet than the other
 
brutalcamo said:
thanks for the help it helped alot i cant decide between cryo or skyline so im just goin to get both since they not very expensive
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The Skyline is one of my favorite EDC knives. Slim, lightweight, fantastic slicer, and handles great (flipper mechanism is very smooth, and it has nice grippy G10 scales). The Cryo is a smaller knife, but it is heftier on account of the whole thing being steel. The assisted-open on it is very fast, and I really like the deep-carry clip. Both are great knives and should serve you well.
 
brutalcamo said:
i looked at some but the only one i could find that i like and i couldnt get from another company made better is the CRKT Nirk Tighe 2 but its a little expensive wen i could get alot of other knife for alot cheaper and just as good if not better
Click to expand...

CRKT and CRK are not the same. Crkt=Colombia river knife and tool. Crk=Chris Reeve Knives. Most crkt knives run from $20-100,crk's run $400-1000...
 
From personal observation:

You get what you pay for with knives, up to a point. No pun intended.

Below forty dollars, it's hard to find quality. Spyderco, Kershaw, and Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) offer some exceptions, but much of what you will find in this price category shows indifferent fit and finish, and poor quality blade steels which are difficult to put an edge on, and do not hold that edge for long.

Forty to sixty dollars could be considered the beginning of "quality" knives, and opens you up to a lot of choices. Many people can reasonably expect one of these knives to handle all their cutting tasks. My CRKT/Lightfoot M1 cost me sixty, and although semi-retired, it remains capable of tackling anything I need to cut.

From sixty to eighty dollars is roughly the next tier of knife quality. These include a number of what might be called "hard use" folders, with strong locks and thicker blades. The major difference between this and the next lower category is not so much one of workmanship, but of materials. Here is where S30 and CPM154 start to make their appearance.

Eighty to one hundred twenty dollars gets you better blade steels, and maybe a slight bump in fit and finish, although with the use of computer aided machining across the industry, all of the big knife companies offer pretty much equal quality. This category also begins to see limited edition knives, and a few (very few) mid-tech knives.

Above one hundred twenty, the market starts to thin out. There are large and very large folding knives up here, simply because they require more material, and more time in the milling machine. This is also the gateway to the realm of mid-tech knives and limited editions from big companies, often with premium or experimental steels.

There isn't much else going on until you cross the three hundred dollar mark. It's hard, maybe impossible, to find a fully custom folder for less than this, and many mid-tech knives dwell above the three hundred dollar ceiling. As I said, exceptions exist, but they are rare.
 
For a first EDC, you have a lot of options at this price. Just about every major production knife company has several (sometimes dozen) knives at or below the century mark. Spyderco, Kershaw, Benchmade, and CRKT all come to mind.

Personally, my first "quality" EDC was a BM 556 Mini-Grip in 154CM, and I can't recommend it enough. If you look around a bit you can get a plain-Jane model (black handles, plain satin finish blade) for ~$60, or upgrade to S30V or an RSK model for a bit more. If it's too small you can also go for a full-size Grip, I'm not sure of your preferences. The 154CM is a great starter steel because it'll take a fine edge and keep it while still being almost as easy as 440C to sharpen (Out of the box, with modest daily use and some intermittent whittling of a half-dozen cedar deadfalls, my first Mini-Grip was still sharp enough to give me five stitches without my knowing it until my pants leg started to turn red, so be careful!). If you go for a higher-end steel like s30v or D2 (about the best you'll see at this price), you'll notice a bit of a gap in the difficulty of sharpening. One of the best features of BM knives is the Axis lock, it's fast, easy, solid (no hiccups in mine over the past 6 or so years), and even fun. If you've never tried it, please do before you decide on a knife. I would also recommend the mini or full-size Barrage, a very similar model.

My second recommendation would be the RAT-1 from Ontario, especially if money is a big concern. At $40 MSRP, it's a great, solid knife that nearly anyone here will tell you is one of the highest value folders out there, and would be a fantastic starter knife.

I'm not a huge fan of Spyderco knives, and they don't have the thumbstuds you wanted, but if you like the looks of them they offer some great options from EDC in s30v and sometimes even better steels around that price point.

Kershaw has some enlightened designs, people either love them or hate them. Try them out first is my advice, if possible. Both the Cryo or the Skyline are good choices, the Blur is a very well-respected design that has received much love from all over.

I've never personally had any CRKT knives, but I hear pretty good reports on them, some research would be healthy there.
 
I think your best bet is to start with something a little better than the Cryo.
The Cryo is a great knife.
But if you're trying to go as long as possible without having to sharpen it, then the blade steel(8cr13mov) is not really what you're looking for.
8cr13mov is a great chinese steel. Gets really sharp easily. And it holds a decent edge.
However the Skyline is $5 more than the Cryo, it's USA made and has the better Sandvik steel. Which is sharp, stays sharp, is easy to sharpen, and hold it's edge for a bit longer than 8cr13mov.

My favorite steel for an EDC has to be s30v.
It's sharp, gets sharp easy, holds it's edge for quite a long time, even if it can't shave it holds it's working edge for what seems like forever. It's also fairly easy to sharpen up once you get started.

I'm going to echo that you should get a sharpening system because you get instructions and they're pretty easy to get the hang of.

The best bang for your buck knife out there for EDC in my opinion would be the Spyderco Native FRN. It has s30v steel, feels great in the hand, and just makes an excellent EDC.
It's a quality knife from a great company at around $60. It's excellent.
That's my recommendation.
 
I got my Skyline today. Picked it up at 5pm now almost 3am have yet to stop flipping it for longer that 15min. I love it cant wait to actually use it and carry it. Still getting used to having a sharp edge, my gas station knives I could beat on my arm and not leave a scratch ( wont be trying that with this edge). Getting ready to order BK11 and Im getting a BM grip for Christmas. I do love this skyline though thanks for the recommendations everyone.

I guess i got the sickness now, O well.
 
kershaw blur in s30v or get a limited in cpm-154 which is my favorite steel atm even more so then ELMAX
 
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