anotheruser said:
Several of you have talked about how well it performs in actual use. That's a really good thought.
I've been basing my opinion on visual differences. Maybe the real difference between is in how they perform and hold up in actual use.
You've hit the nail on the head here. How a knife looks certainly has some importance, more so for some than others, but the real test is not only how it performs in every day use and over the longer period but, most importantly, how it performs for what YOU want it to do. The cheaper knives, and here I mean the really cheap POS knives, MAY look OK at first and may even do things like open nicely and have highly polished blades, (if you like that sort of thing), but after a while you will discover they get blunt really quickly, the "good looks" start to disappear, the blades start to wobble and bits may start breaking off and locks fail and so on. It's only after use that you will see this though. A knife like the Sebbie, and other high end knives, will usually not suffer these problems or certainly not to any major extent.
You will also, as your experience grows, discover somewhat more subtle differences between knives when used in YOUR situation. I'll give you an example from my own experience. My $US400 Strider SnG is a great knife IMHO but it's not perfect and does have a couple of minor flaws but I use it regularly. However, my $100, (or thereabouts), BM 806 slices up apples much better.
So, in the end, what knife appeals to you the most can be a rather complex set of factors and you are unlikely to find any simplistic answer that will tell you which is the best knife. My advice would be to use the Sebbie hard and, possibly, you will appreciate not only the quality of construction but also the quality of the materials.
BTW, I also carry a Spyderco Calypso Jnr in my pocket every day and it's an EXCELLENT little knife. Price is not always an indicator of worth.
