Quality vs. Quantity

G

Giunta

Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
46
Hi all,
Relatively new knife nut here, I'm up to about 10 or so knives now and yet again I've been bitten. For a while now I've been eyeing off Bradley Cutlery's Alias II, SOG's Tomcat 3 and a Buck Strider. All my knives have so far been under $50-$60 US(around that, I'm an aussie so prices are mixed up). I've been wanting to get something expensive for a while but I'm having trouble following through with it. Mainly because the knives I own have served me very well, more than I expected and to be honest there really isn't a need(yet) for me to get something better. I got a price for the Alias II.... $168, so I went around seeing what I could get for that price.

Here's what I came up with...
Buck Mayo Northshore 173
VTech TitanX
Buck Nobleman
Byrd Meadowlark
Spec Ops T.H.E wallet

Mind you I first discovered ALL of these items from this forum. :P

The reasoning behind building up a collection of knives that aren't expensive is
I get to see what the style is like before I sink a massive amount into an expensive one. I'm sure I'll love the Alias II but will I love it as much as the above 5 items? I can fully understand why people spend so much on one knife, you've probably seen everything there is out there. But more importantly you've handled the knife before you bought it. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury here in Australia, that's why I fill my collection with different types of knives to get a feel for them all.

I'm primarily looking at a slim folder which is around 7" overall, can be a bit more or a bit less and preferably has a thinnish blade. I have two folders which are over 8" and a fixed which is 8" and I don't like their length/bulkiness. Lets say you had around $170 to spend on a knife/knives. How would you spend it?
 
in your price range i would buy something from emerson or benchmade.

but given your requirements, i think a chris reeve small sebenza would be perfect. slim, simple, excellent craftsmanship, fit, and finish.

the bradleys are nice, ive handled the alias and alias II. very similar, some say too similar, to the sebenza.
 
I just looked into my collection list this weekend and found out that I am now over 200!! Most of these are in the 40-80 dollar range. One main reason that I choose this route is so that I can have the most variation possible in my collection- a new knife has to have a new feature to add to the collection before I buy it. As an amateur aspiring knifemaker I can take out 20 or so knives and biuld a new design around the features that I feel work best out of what is in front of me.
This is not to say that I do not want more expensive knives just they don't work into my plans very often!
 
Well, i am not collecting knives even though some have gathered around here..:D .

You can get many cheap knives for one, which is expensive, so there can only be two reasons, that should come together in buying a high priced knife:

The design is,w hat you are looking for and constuction, fit and finish are good and made solid.
 
I would go for a Benchmade or a Buck Mayo in S30V(the high end version). I almost always go with the better folder. I am a stickler for F&F and many of the lesser knives are lacking in that. The warranty is another thing as well, most higher end knives have pretty decent limited warranties like benchmade. I really like spyderco's myslef and you can usually get a pretty darn good spyderco for under or just at 100 dollars, same for benchmade. If an Alias is what you want...the worst that could happen is your dissapointed right?
 
In my experience , Benchmade consistently puts out a quality product and that would include Bradley since BM makes them....

I don't think you would be disappointed in any of their products.
 
At that price you might want to consider the Buck Mayo TNT which in my mind is one the best buys for the money.
 
Giunta, there are some very good knives available here and elsewhere that don't cost much money, but I'm not sure what you have access to in Oz. Besides all those good Mora fixed blade knives (Swedish), I like the Victorinox Farmer, Pioneer, and Soldier in that order (Swiss), the Opinel knives in the #6 to #8 size range (French), the Douk-Douk in its original size with about a 3.8 to 4 inch blade (French), and the Mercator or "cat knife" that only comes in one size (almost identical in length to the Douk-Douk) as far as I know (German). In my opinion, these are all very good quality knives for not much money. Except for the Moras, they are all pocket knives that are sturdy, cut very well, and have time tested designs that go back for many decades. The Opinels come in an astonishing array of sizes, they probably have the most comfortable handles of any folding knives, and they are almost certainly the least expensive. Their blades lock open by means of a ring you twist after opening them.
 
Thanks all for the advice.

I pretty much buy stuff from newgraham, knifeworks and the odd ebay store. I can get pretty much anything except auto and assisted openers, though I've been told some easy opening knives have been seized by customs(griptilian in particular I think). The biggest problem though is shipping, I have to bundle orders which means I have to pick knives all from one shop. The douk douk is definitely something I want to get my hands on. Mora look pretty good, can't find anyone to sell them to me though hehe. Opinel I can pick up from a guy locally so might go take al ook. :)

The sebenza is a bit out of reach at the moment. I guess it comes down to the Alias and Buck Mayo.
 
I have sold off or traded ALL production knives. (EXCEPT the ones that were gifts.) My focus is strictly custom knives. So, I am all about quality over quantity.
 
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