Popular Source To acquire cheap knives

R

Rhodies

Joined
Jul 27, 2017
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Looking for an online vendor to acquire cheap knives so I can practice my sharpening skills (or lack of).
 
There are lots of good places, many of them support this forum too. In no particular order (I've used them all): Knifeworks.com, Knifecenter.com, Dlttrading, TheKnifeConnection, BladeHQ, Knivesshipfree, GPKnives. If it helps, a while back I bought a few carbon steel fixed blades (Schrade, Mora), and a few inexpensive folders (Schrade, Smith & Wesson, Kershaw, Buck) from the BladeHQ site. And a super cheap set of stainless kitchen knives, I think brand was "Utopia" or something like that, from the big river site.

Here's a few examples of some affordable ones I got from BladeHQ. They still end up being useful knives too, surprisingly good, but if I wreck one I won't be broken hearted over it.

  • Buck BuckLite MAX (420HC fixed blade, good inexpensive hunting blade at $24, made in US)
  • Schrade SCH221BK folder ($6.99)
  • Kershaw Injection folder
  • Buck Vantage Select (420HC) folder. This is actually US made and really nice folder for the price. But won't break your heart if you hork it up when sharpening. :-)
  • Morakniv Companion Carbon Steel Fixed Blade
  • Schrade has a bunch of carbon steel fixed blades in all sizes/configurations that are reasonable
 
In the current Christmas issue of Smokey mountain knife works and probably on their eknifeworks.com website, they have 12 packs of frost cutlery folders for $19.99.
I doubt you'll find anything cheaper, and having had some of these particular knives I know they're capable of taking an edge which is important for sharpening practice.

I would recommend a supporting dealer, but I doubt they have this stuff and they're not loosing business when you just want dirt cheap knives to practice on before going to their websites to buy good knives to actually use.
 
I would say aquiring a knife with a decent heat trear might be important. Terrible steels sometimes do not sharpen well.
 
joeldworkin307 said:
Go to a flea market or thrift store. You can buy kitchen knives at goodwill for a dollar
Click to expand...

You definitely can, but the problem is that ( in my experience anyways ) they only ever seen to have cheapo old made in Japan stainless stuff or recent made in China junk. How do you know it's not just you when you can't get the knife sharp if you don't know whether the blade will even take an edge ?
 
Dude, why not just offer to sharpen knives of family and friends or neighbors?
If you are uncertain of your level of sharpening skills just yet,
Try asking folks for their unwanted knives.
Since you're in it for practice, there must be lots of
Junked Kitchen knives for the asking.
 
if a knife comes sharp then you know it's capable of taking an edge, so this is something to look for when buying knives to practice sharpening on.
 
Get any SAK and a carbon steel Opinel.
If you can get your technique down on them you should be able to sharpen most anything.

Actually imo some of the hardest knives to sharpen are cheap kitchen knives and junk folders.
Some will keep a burr and never seem to get sharp.
They can be a good tool for learning to use a light touch though.
 
^^

You can easily find basic Victorinox SAK models, such as the Spartan, for cheap on Ebay thanks to TSA confiscations.
 
I can even send you a bunch of blunt cheapo kitchen knives if you want. Me and my wife are about to invest in some new nice ones.
 
I really like the Opinel idea. I'd go a step further and say why not get both a carbon and a stainless version. That way you can see how each steel type acts. My stainless #7 taught me a lot about sharpening, actually.

Plus they're great knives for what they are and the price is pretty tough to beat. If you want to try out your fixed blade skills you can go with a Mora(again in both stainless and carbon).
 
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