Quantity VS Quality

M

Mechanical Advantage

Joined
Nov 1, 2017
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64
When it comes to your own collection, would you rather have a greater variety of good but budget-friendly knives, or just a couple high-end pieces?

On one hand I like to change it up and have a few different knives to carry on different days, but on the other hand I sometimes think it might be nice to have one or two really nice knives that I carry every day.

What's your opinion?
 
I'd rather have a couple of knives that would serve me well, hold up without any issues for many years, bring a smile to my face each time I use it and prove to be reliable tools. So, for me, it's quality over quantity.
 
I'd rather have quality over quantity, no question. I have sold a lot of knives over the last several months, narrowing my keepers down to good users and a few sentimental pieces.
 
I've gone both ways. My collection has been down to a few midtechs and/or customs at times, but I find I get the most enjoyments from a collection of 25 or so knives, mostly in the $125-$200 range that I rotate and change up depending on what I will be doing.
 
Quality.
I am very picky and prefer to have a few knives I really like.
I would be happy to have just a Case Sod Buster Jr. and a custom frame lock knife.
But I cannot stop my cravings anyway.

Case_MacWasil.JPG
 
The problem with this is it promotes the myth that higher price means higher quality. This is not a correlated relationship. Conversely, cheap knives are too expensive to own, regardless of price.
For example:
Have a recently purchased knife from a well respected big name production maker. $220.00
Also have one of my favorite EDC's from a different big name "value" producer. $40.
These 2 knives are extremely similar. (not a clone issue) Both are non-assisted flippers, with CF scales.
Only appreciable difference is the steel and it is not a $180 difference. The expensive knife cannot do one thing better (excluding edge retention) than the low cost knife. They might as well be twins.
I understand and appreciate the quality and workmanship that goes into a Sebenza. But as to whether that attention to detail and craftsmanship makes for a better, and more effective tool? I don't see it making it "more of a knife". More ego gratification? Possibly. More confidence in a solid lockup? Probably. Better warranty / customer service? Maybe. But higher price does not guarantee higher quality. Junk knives come in all sorts of price ranges. The only ones easy to spot are in gas stations for $100 / ton. The higher the price, the harder they are to spot.
For me, I like to have lots of quality knives. I look for quality at a fair price.
 
I'm not going to load up on truckloads of ultracheapo crappy knives just because I can get a huge "quantity ". :p

But it doesn't have to be one extreme or the other . There are plenty of good quality and perfectly functional knives for less than $100 .

I'm sure that a relatively few users actually have some functional need for a special steel &/or other features that may drive prices above $200 . Mostly aesthetics and ego . Nothing wrong with that , but not automatically equal to increased performance "quality " .
 
For me, both. I drove by that fork in the road and went straight. I got pretty deep into the world of customs and my collection has been slowly moving up but I still keep and carry a lot of the cheaper knives that I've hoarded over the years.
 
There's an awful lot of different types and styles of knife out and I haven't tried them all yet. I guess I'll keep buying quality knives that fit my budget in different styles until never find 'the one'. I don't especially care about bling or bragging rights, focusing instead on usability as a tool and suitability for the job at hand. Interestingly enough this explains how I feel about different knife steels as well.
 
I have alot of knives... If I were to slim it down my large sebenza 21 would absolutely be one of them. As a user.

Honestly don't like budget knives. They lack alot in what I seek in user knives.
 
I like knives. I like buying knives, so I try to buy decent quality at an affordable price. That is between $100 to $250 (Canadian).

With what I spent over the last 2 years, I could have bought 5 or 6 CR knives (at a starting price of around $600 each), but don't know that I'd be happy. Buying knives that I researched makes me happy. So I will continue to buy good quality knives at an affordable price until I can no longer.
 
When I first started into this hobby, I was all about quantity and having as many knives as I could get. As time goes on you find what works and doesn’t work, and what you really like. Now quality is all that matters, and you can dwindle your collection down to the few that you absolutely love to use and admire.
 
When I became a member here I thought I needed to get my numbers up, mostly being exposed to what’s actually available out there and a little bit of keeping up with the Jones’s.
Without running a spread sheet I’d say I’m about $5,000 in, across approximately 100 knives, obviously average is $50 per piece. Ranging from a $15 Mora to a $400 Spyderco Nirvana.

Now that I have tested the waters I feel I would be better served by that same $5,000 spread across say 20-25 knives bringing my average up to the $200-$250 mark.

At least that’s how I feel today.
 
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Quality over quantity. Always.

I'm in the process now of assembling a new set of about a dozen-plus users.

From multi-tools and folders; utility knives and bushcraft, ever present Chef's knife and slicers. Even matching table folders for my wife and me.

All carefully selected (and a couple custom made) but not necessarily all expensive, from $40 up to $700 apiece. Probably $3K all in.

It's taking me about a year to put together to use at home, and with a new light knife roll to take on cooking holidays with. Have knives, will travel.
 
I’m with the majority vote here -- quality over quantity. In my book, quality starts out somewhere north of $100. I have some ~$150 knives that I bought new and a couple ~$110-130 used knives (that originally cost twice that new) that I got on the exchange here. They’re S35VN, M4, etc and they’re all good. When I sliced two bagels in half with a piece of gun show garbage knife I used to have and it needed to be resharpened, I got soured on cheap knives. Never again.
 
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