Really cheap knife ends up being really great

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GD74

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Mar 15, 2014
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Has anyone ever bought a really really cheap knife and had it end up being nicer than a really expensive one you've bought I know I have just wondering if anyone else feels that way
 
i wouldnt necessarily say nicer than more expensive knives i have bought but i really like my boker nano. really cool and functional knife for being so small.
 
I've bought an $8 dollar Bowie knife that will hold a sharp edge forever no matter what messed up stuff I chop with it and a $3 cooking knife which hold an edge better than my global
 
I wouldnt claim, that they are better than much more expensive knives, but I find myself using my OPINEL knives a lot.

When it doesnt matter what kind of work they are put to, its often the one that gets chosen, as it merely gets resharpened and is good as new even after abuse.

Further more, I have more expensive folders, but often find myself choosing a SAK to carry all day.
 
Yeah, I have a Oneida paring knife that is just the bomb. It's $8 on the manufacturer's website all the time. It gets sharp enough for me to do anything I want. I can bone out a dozen raw chicken thighs quickly, cut zip ties, use it as a steak knife, cut up broccoli/cauliflower florets, trim the fat off corned beef briskets, whatever I need done it will serve well. If I hadn't pulled the trigger on the Paula Deen steak knife set during her period of difficulty for a SONG then I would probably buy as many of these paring knives as would sit in my knife block as dedicated steak knives as I could. Frankly, it makes a better steak knife than the Paula Deen set does.

I also picked up an Asian style 9" chef's knife at Ross Dress for Less a few years ago that does the job for me like nothing else. It gets super sharp and stays that way for a while. I always know when it's time to touch it up when it takes any effort at all to slice overripe tomatoes. Normally this thing will slice overripe tomatoes super thin. I like to slice tomatoes as thin as possible for my homemade burgers, and I do the same with pickles. I like to have a really thin layer of tomato slices interlaced with pickle slices. This knife was what gave me the inspiration to make them that way. Before I had sharp kitchen knives I would hack off a slab of tomato and would buy pre-sliced pickles.

Seriously, I bought pre-sliced pickles. How absurd. I didn't buy the pickles I liked, I bought pickles that were processed a certain way. You might not be a pickle guy, but I just really like pickles. There is one brand that is sold only to food wholesalers and can't be bought by the public from a small farm in Washington that I just LOVE. They're so good. There is one grocery store in my state that carries them, and they're only sold in the deli section along with sandwiches. They're not advertised or sold separately, I have to ask for them one at a time and it's a buck a pickle. Best damn pickles I have ever had. I would still make my burgers with boiled Nally pickles if I hadn't decided to cut up my own darn pickles.

Don't get me started on sauerkraut.

No really, a couple of nice kitchen knives really helped me get started with home food prep and enjoying higher quality produce.
 
My Case Sodbuster is a great knife but I can't really say that cheap knives are better than my expensive ones. I don't part with large sums of money without doing my homework so when I do it's a damn good knife,
 
The Rat 2 is certainly my favorite "cheap" knife, for under 30 bucks it gets a heckuva lot of pocket time.
 
Many many times I've had a low cost knife perform just as well as a more expensive knife. Opinel, Douk-Douk, Mercator, Mora's, and Victorinox/Forschner kitchen knives have been eye openers in the past, and taught me lessons in efficiency per dollar.
 
None of my carry knives cost over $20, and they're all great. Opinel, Victorinox, AG Russell, and a pearl-handled vintage Utica from an estate sale. :thumbup:
I have plenty of knives that cost more, and I'm confident that nearly every one of them would also be a fine user. But they wouldn't cut any better.
 
For me it was the Mora, I got one 30 years ago from a vendor at work as a gift, I used the heck outta that knife, it always kept a sharp edge, it was tough as nails and it actually felt good in my hands even after using it all day.

I didn't even realize what brand it was too I started reading about them here and I started to realize that the pics I was seeing were variations of my cheap knife.

Sad to say this is one of the few knives I lost,(had stolen by a contractor who borrowed at work and never returned it) :(
 
I have bought some cheap knives that really surprised me and were better than much more expensive knives. But I dont think in the majority of cases you get what you pay for thought there are some exceptions to that rule. And in many cases where the cheap knife was better than a more expensive offering wasnt really because the cheap knife was anything superlative. But rather that the expensive knife was way overpriced and in no way shape or form should command the price it was demanding. I have though found a few diamonds in the rough that really surprised me.
 
Got a Mora that is my truck knife, and I'm pretty impressed with it though it came with the faintest of a couple tiny nicks in the edge. Rat 2's are pretty great, except I wish the factory lockup wasn't so extremely late.
 
BladeScout said:
I wouldnt claim, that they are better than much more expensive knives, but I find myself using my OPINEL knives a lot.

When it doesnt matter what kind of work they are put to, its often the one that gets chosen, as it merely gets resharpened and is good as new even after abuse.

Further more, I have more expensive folders, but often find myself choosing a SAK to carry all day.
Click to expand...

The knife you use most is the better knife IMO. Fancy this and fancy that on a tool doesn't mean squat if you never use it. ;)

I use my knives pretty often. All day at work and then I also have a bit of a bushcrafting habit. :D The SAK has been superior in every way except in edge retention than every other folder I've had in regards to edc. My moras consistantly out pace my other high end factory and custom fixed blades. A 6 dollar machete kept up with fancy gransfors and large chopper knives. You can literally buy a set of cutting tools for 50 bucks and never feel like it's not enough. In fact if I wasn't into knives I wouldn't even bother buying the fancy ones.

Edit: Forgot to add that my 5 dollar kiwi chef's knife outperformed my dad's shuns. It remains the best knife I've used in the kitchen.
 
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I don't know about"nicer" b/c that's pretty subjective. But, objectively speaking, this is the best $12.95 I have ever spent:

 
Recently I got a Buck 110 for a trip, didn't want to spend a lot on a blade that might be stolen. Over the last 2 months, this thing has been solid, and is on par with blades that are triple the price.
 
Rough Rider knives surprised me quite a bit. They're cheap and looks good. Fit and finish is great for the money. The 440A they're using is not half bad. I use mine more than my Case knives.
 
But cheap knives do not work as well for egos. You have to pull them out of your pocket when no one is looking.

I need an expensive knife to slice paper slivers and resharpen every other day to be shaving sharp but I don't shave with it.

:D
 
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