Top 3 bang-for-your-buck blades

Spyderco Manix 2
Scrap Yard Regulator- best value medium sized fixed blade of all time. I think it was $100 when it came out. That is beyond a steal for .333 thick of differentially tempered SR 101.
Scrap Yard Dogfather- Best value chopper of all time. I believe it was 139 bucks when it came out and will outperform absolutely any chopper in the under 250~ price range.
 
sak or lm
mora
opinel
You should be able to do anything you should do with a knife with those. And there among the cheapest good quality knifes you can get. There is no need to spend more for functionality. Looks and f/f is another issue.
 
Tenacious (Very sturdy and quite EDCable)
Mora (almost any flavor)
Leatherman kick (all the tools you need)
 
My 3 favorites are
Ontario RAT 1 for $20
Mora knives for < $15
swiss army knives (especially alox)

Honorable mention to the Buck Night hawk, Ontario SP line of knives, Cold Steel 1055 Machetes and 4116 Krupp knives
 
If you want a fixed blade then you can't go wrong with:
1. Condor (bushlore or machete or anything from them really)
2. Mora (great for wood carving, easy to sharpen, great ergos)
3. Becker (dearer than the other 2 but they are high quality full tang knives at a reasonable price)

If you are after a folding knife:
1. Victorinox (they are all good value and there are models to suit anyone, if you don't know what to get then grab a Farmer and go from there)
2. Opinel (they are really good, take a wicked sharp edge and slice better than most knives of any price)
3. Ontario RAT-1 (for a one handed opener it's hard to find better for this sort of money)

The other day I needed to drill a hole in some plastic and decided to try out the awl on my Farmer - it made a neat hole, exactly the right size. When you look at how useful and capable the Victorinox Farmer is and then look at how cheap you can buy one - you realise that Victorinox really does offer great bang for the buck. Everyone should EDC a SAK of their choice - then the world would be filled with much better equipped people!
 
1. Queen Country Cousin - D2 knife under $30
2. Victorinox SAK - quality knife plus variety of tools depending on what you want
3. Opinels - very low cost and fun to modify
 
Spyderco Tenacious ($30) - The fit and finish are on the level of knives two and three times the price. The blade-centering kind of blows my mind. This is probably the first knife I'd recommend to someone looking to get started on folders.
Kershaw Skyline ($30) - Another top-notch value. Best out-of- box sharpness I've seen personally. Probably better suited for EDC than the Tenacious in terms of weight/size-- for me anyway.

Cold Steel seems to have some great value folders in the $50 range though I don't personally own any (yet).
 
Victorinox Huntsman, a lot of options in a small package for about 25 euros.
Opinel #8, excellent slicer, costs about 9 euros.
Mora Classic #2, bought it for 5 euros and served me well on several camping trips, now I use a Mora 2000.
 
Case peanut
Sak camper or farmer
Mora allround

Honorable mention to the esee 3 for awesome toughness and versatility, and benchmade 527 for a cheap and cheerful axis lock folder that's a lot stronger than it needs to be.
 
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