Slicey thin EDC folder

Kershaw Carbon Fiber Leek slices like nobody's business, has beautiful scales and comes in CPM 154 steel. A great gent's carry.

The Spyderco Baby Jess Horn is small, but cuts way above its weight class. Makes a great money clip as well.

The Al Mar Ultralight Hawk and Falcon are fabulous slicers. Don't let their AUS-8 scare you off... it is done exceptionally well and is perfectly adequate for a knife of this size and usage. As mentioned, don't get the Talon blade if you want maximum slicey goodness.

The Spyderco Delica in FFG / VG-10 is a bargain for the performance you get out of one. Dollar for dollar it is one of the finest IMHO.
 
If you want a wide range of scales to choose from I’d say get the 940 and some custom scales. Stock I’d say check the pakkawood spyderco Delica or endura.
 
Some of the knives recommended in this thread (e.g. Benchmade 940, ZT 0450), while lovable in other ways, are not what I'd call slicey. Thick, narrow blades make for broad triangles.

The Bugout and ZT 0770 series both are great cutters in my experience.

The best cutting expensive knives I own are William Henry knives. I know they're out of the stated price range, and they're not very popular on the forum, but whenever I use one of my WH knives I'm reminded how well they cut. I have an E10-2 that looks nice, carries great light and thin, and cuts much better than most of the folders I've ever owned (no magic, just really thin blade stock ground to be thinner still behind the edge).
 
Banter 247 said:
Going to second the Chaparral. A lot of the knives mentioned so far have thin stock, but are .020” or thicker behind the edge. The Chaparral line is typically ground thin (around .014” bte), also has thin stock, and comes with delicious Spyderco treated XHP.
Great call, miso2 miso2
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Good point...many of the good quality folders...even mid-line and custom...will come to you with 0.030" behind the edge. Too bad, but it makes a ton of difference in slicing efficiency.
 
T.L.E. Sharp said:
The end all, be all of thin, slicey EDC in a high end steel for an affordable price(what a mouthful):

20190625-173215.jpg


Spyderco Endura ZDP-189

Mine's dressed up in some custom scales, but you don't need those. The standard FRN scales are great.

It comes in well under budget and even under really heavy rotation with tons of cardboard, zip ties, and other such nonsense cut I only have to sharpen it once every 6 months. A basic strop with white compound will keep it sharp the rest of the time.

I'm almost as bad as that axis lock doofus, constantly yammering on about ZDP-189, but I use it almost daily and haven't found anything anywhere close to that level of edge retention that didn't rust constantly.

MXG sells a great deep carry clip for about $20. A worthy upgrade. If you decide to go fancy later, @BOOMER52 here on the forums made my scales.
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Very difficult to beat ZDP-189...
 
Manly has several models worth looking at, ditto Spyderco (Native 5 is my current EDC), Buck's Slimline 110/112, Benchmade Bugout all come to mind.
 
Sounds like a job for the Benchmade Valet. Bonus points if you can find a Shinola version. Slim, won't scare away any colleagues. Can pull it out in front of anyone. It's still very capable, comes in IMO, very well heat treated M390 and has very thin blade stock and a deep carry clip so there's nothing poking out of the pocket. I don't like the shine of silver clips so I brushed mine to matte with sandpaper. Gave it a cool, vertically brushed look too.
 
I've been quite happy with this WE Practic folder for a few reasons;

All edges of the G10 scales are super rounded smooth, better than about any other folder I've owned or seen, just remarkably well done.

Blade steel is M390 and is also ground down fairly thin and cuts extremely well.

Flipper, has great detent and rocket action when fired with a nice solid lockup as well

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


G2
 
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Lol thanks guys and seriously it is worth a look and mine did arrive pretty sharp and haven't had to take it to my stones yet.
G2
 
For thin behind the edge, which, as has been noted above, is more important than the overall blade stock thickness, I think the following definitely qualify:

Spyderco Chaparral (admittedly with a shorter blade than you want)
Spyderco Caly 3 or 3.5 in ZDP-189
Spyderco Stretch in ZDP-189
Manly knives

Benchmade knives used to consistently come with a thin edge bevel, but all of the recent ones that I have seen have had thicker edge bevels.
 
lambertiana said:
For thin behind the edge, which, as has been noted above, is more important than the overall blade stock thickness, I think the following definitely qualify:

Spyderco Chaparral (admittedly with a shorter blade than you want)
Spyderco Caly 3 or 3.5 in ZDP-189
Spyderco Stretch in ZDP-189
Manly knives

Benchmade knives used to consistently come with a thin edge bevel, but all of the recent ones that I have seen have had thicker edge bevels.
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Interesting, I find many of the BM offerings to be "slicier" than I thought. The Bugout and Valet come to mind.

The Chaparral, while admittedly having a shorter blade than specified, cuts like a longer blade.

I don't know why this is. And I'm not really a Spyderco kinda guy. But the Chap, like the Baby Horn, cuts bigger than it should.

I'm a real fan of the Benchmade Bugout lately. Amazingly light, amazingly slicey. Not gent's knife stuff, but a real easy carry.

Well, maybe it is gent's knife stuff, since it has a deep carry clip and weighs nothing. I dunno.

Look up the thread by cchu518 cchu518 where he was looking for Kershaw Leek replacement. Lotsa good slicey stuff there.
 
Loren Jones said:
I do tend to carry inside the wasteband on my right hip and wouldn’t mind trying a deep carry clip in which case I may carry in the pocket instead.
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Loren, Are you using a sheath for your mini grip? Great suggestions from everyone, and you can get any blade reground in the future for more slicy-ability. After the Dogtooth, I cannot wait for Zinker to deliver some more of his designs in s35vn via WE, as current producer is hit and miss to often. A 940-1401 from Roger (knifeworks or bmknives) is back in stock, with tons of aftermarket support for customizing. I did not see Spyderco's Native 5 lightweight or native chief, but maybe I missed criteria that would exclude. I have been on the hunt for a Native 5 lightweight in s90v to fit my budget. I love my Bugout in Carbon fiber, and I've got my 940-1401 down to 2.33oz; so now they are less different, and I'm not done tweaking either.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Thanks to you all I have two different knives at the top of my liat. After reading through everything my top choices based on budget and what I perceive my needs to be are

Boker Exskelibur 1 with titanium or carbon fiber handle. The front flipper looks intriguing and I like the idea of S35vn (although I’ve never owned it). How is the front flip mechanism compared to a standard flipper?

The ZT 0450 in titanium looks great as well. Very similar to the Boker but a traditional flipper rather than the front flip on the Boker.

These are likely my top two.

BM 943 would be great as well. I do like the axis lock.

BM bugout with custom scales would still be a great choice I think. Where do you get scales from. I’ve googled some but not found anyone with anything in stock this would be a solid knife that I could give my aesthetic to.

Spyderco Centofante 3 looks really great. I love the blade shape. Great value and I’m fine with VG 10 based on my kitchen knives.



.
 
As I mentioned earlier, Boker fit and finish is hit or miss.
I have two, one of which is perfect and the other is not so.
If you can, visit a shop and try a few.
 
holler in this thread and let us know how it goes-

Boker Plus or ZT:confused:... if Boker is from Germany there is equivalency, if not, get the ZT. I noticed that one of the smaller Exskelibur II variations is listed made in Germany over @BladeHQ (typo?).

I am looking at the ZT450 CF along with other flippers for gifting to a son who loves flippers-very very nice.

I'm biased towards axis lock and Osborn blades, but a 943 is an heirloom classic. Get it ground thinner after using it for a year or five if you want.
Between the 940/43 and bugout, in hand and use, the 940/943 series is engineered more robust out of the box, but I think 940's can be customized to approximate bugout weight "(2.15 to 2.20oz), and certainly customized to match its slicy-ness.

SMKW shows 3 pairs of Bugout Roguebladeworks carbon fiber scales in stock:
2 "classic" pattern-Left side clip, or another right side clip pair; (pattern I got from our exchange)
plus one pair "3K" pattern carbon fiber scales with left side clip.
(pocket clip inserts reside on one side or the other, not installed on both for these 3)
They also have some G10 in stock by Rogue as well.
 
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Spyderco Chaparral is the best knife for the uses you describe, hands down.

The Kershaw Leek is nice and thin and you can get it in 154cm or D2, among other steels. Just keep that safety on.
 
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