Prices losing touch with reality?

No and no. If I'm going to pay "premium" prices, I want premium materials.

There is no "best" steel. I just happen to have had very bad luck with S30V. I've paid the price, literally and figuratively. Let's see...

Arrgh, my memory is so bad now from the stroke I can't remember all of them. I've bought and sold so many knives since I joined in 2013. It's not just Spyderco's.

S35VN is a vast improvement imo. I have three knives with it. CTS-XHP has been my favorite thus far. My Manix 2 in xhp is like a Timex.

 

From what he posted years ago, Taiwan is a much newer facility with newer/very modern machinery than the US and especially the Japan facilities. They were/are able to produce high precision tolerances. Taiwan facility is privately owned and was considered state of the art with (like Golden) is family owned by people who care about their product.

They finished expanding the US facility last year and it shows by the increase in production.

 

Case in point, the titanium engraved Chaparrals and the one piece Nirvana. Excercises in precision. Japan can barely put a backlock on consistently (granted, investing in new equipment in Japan would be very costly to the maker, to a point where the $200 Stretch would be marked up even more).

 

Well maybe a Salt flipper is in the pipe.

 

That would be wonderful. I don't do anything particularly harsh with my folders. I was a desk jockey for 15 years. Now I'm on the disabled list. I can barely walk. The hardest use I ever put them though was straps on the quarterly delivery of copy paper.

I'm hoping to be able to be able to walk on trails by summer, but I usually carry a fixed blade on those occasions.

Northeast Illinois can be brutal on knives if you spend a lot of time outdoors, which I used to. High humidity summers. I live less than a mile from a lake, but the salt on the roads in the winter can take its toll too. Those trucks spray rock salt around like candy at a parade.

I love the Salt series though for when I go see the family in Galveston. Talk about corrosion! But my Aqua salt is perfect for fishing at our bay house.

We fish from the pier at night for specks, but catching small sharks occasionally makes the Salt great. Great, now I miss fishing. Oh well.

I stray from the point. Too many knives with inflated prices.

But among the multitude of knives out there, there is something for everyone. It's what people perceive value as.

Spyderco will always be my favorite brand regardless, but I'm liking this trend less and less.

 

Well I have so many knives that if something seems too expensive I just buckle down and buy it.

Just kidding, I try to decide if I'll use the knife or if I already have one. I don't have a bunch of PM2s because I have a nice one in M4. I don't have a lot of the halo knives because they don't seem like I'd use most of the time but I did get a One Eyed Jack last year and then the year before a Lil Nilakka, and then the year before that a Fluted Ti Military. So maybe one a year works for me.

So far this year I"m betting it's a Respect becaue I dont' have any fixed from from here yet. The nice thing I find about these is that they have a longer lifespan in the retail world so I can track one down, get it in hand and say yes or no to. When you're standing there in the store holding the knife it give good feedback on if it's "worth" $400 or more to me.

And that's what it comes down to. Its it worth it to me. Not like well the steel comes out of the ground free so that's a ripoff and the scale material is only pennies and punch all the parts into some werid formula to reverse engineer it's price. For that from what I've seen anyone who has that math is always going to say "this is too expensive".

 

And just as a coda I do that same thing with $100 knives too. Pick it up and hold it then decide if it's a user or has other benefits.

I really liked the look of the Manbug Rescue. But when I held it and compared to a Hawkbill Ladybug it wasn't what I wanted.

Visiting brick and mortar stores even just to window shop and shoot the breeze is never a bad day for me.

 

Hey, Danke42:
I'm glad you had a good experience with us. In the interest of transparency, I cannot take credit for your experience as I'm not involved with Warranty & Repair. That would have likely been Charlynn. I'll be sure to share your positive feedback with her.

Make it a good day!

Kristi

 

For sure please pas this on. I"m pretty sure at that desk there's normally just doom and gloom.

I will will pull up those old emails and re-read them so the next time I have to relate my opinion I'm naming the right person.

 

It was Christy with a C.

 

Haha! I'm 54 and I spent over 50 years in the NW Chicago suburbs. You're not kidding about the high humidity. (especially when the corn is up) and the amount of salt they use on the roads during winter. I never really had a problem with knives are guns rusting but I also made sure to wipe those down before they were put away.

Sorry for the brief thread derail. K.O.D. has me thinking about home.