What are some great budget knives?

It appears you may have made your decision - but just in case you haven’t I’d recommend the Civivi McKenna. If you’re into front flippers, that is. It’s extremely light weight, a great sheepfoot-ish blade shape, very fidget friendly, and under $100. It is also discontinued so they will be gone sooner or later. I just got it, knowing they’ll be gone soon, and love it. It is however much smaller than most of the knifes you may be used to based on your original post.

W&W has them in stock and it appears one version of it, black/G10/D2 is just under $100CDN; this is also the version that I got.

Side note: If you are potentially going with the RAT-1 vs the Elementum; I’d go with the latter unless you want it to be a bit of a beater (than I’d go RAT-1). Either way, both good budget options.
 
Jerbhola89 said:
It appears you may have made your decision - but just in case you haven’t I’d recommend the Civivi McKenna. If you’re into front flippers, that is. It’s extremely light weight, a great sheepfoot-ish blade shape, very fidget friendly, and under $100. It is also discontinued so they will be gone sooner or later. I just got it, knowing they’ll be gone soon, and love it. It is however much smaller than most of the knifes you may be used to based on your original post.

W&W has them in stock and it appears one version of it, black/G10/D2 is just under $100CDN; this is also the version that I got.

Side note: If you are potentially going with the RAT-1 vs the Elementum; I’d go with the latter unless you want it to be a bit of a beater (than I’d go RAT-1). Either way, both good budget options.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion I've never used a front flipper before ill check it out!
 
No problem. Front flipper are not for everyone, but if you are willing to give them a shot, this is a pretty good one at a good price.


Here it is with some size comparisons. it’s actually right there with the elementum on size but just carries/feels smaller.

Order of knives in the pics are: McKenna, Elementum (Brass), RAT-2, Delica 4.


7F3B3E0C-0DF0-417E-B4E0-870D6064D2C3.jpeg
72B6CAE2-AB07-463C-9CAC-8ABAA2B4F2C9.jpeg
56585CC7-971C-489A-A3D5-ED2FE1727C12.jpeg
 
A few notes before a recommendation.
M.A.M. is Portuguese company.
Knifecenter does ship to Canada (see Shopping Help on their website).
Check out the Kizer Begleiter. I would take this over the RAT folder.
 
jackknife said:
THIS!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

For the past 20 years or so as I ged into the genuine bonafide old fart, I've been going backwards in my knife appreciation. I've been using and reveling in the effectiveness of the Opinel, Douk-Douk, Higonokami, M.A.M., Mora, and Svord peasant knives from New Zealand. Most are light weight, easy to use, cut like the dickens, and are very replaceable if you lean on it and break one. I've only managed to break a very small number 4 Opinel, and that was abusing it out in the garden out back, doing something that I should have just went and got another tool for. I've pushed the metal handle Douk-Douk's and Higonakami well past reasonable use and they came up fine. The larger Opinels are very rugged, as are the M.A.M.'s.

If I had used these in my younger days, I would never have wasted the money on that Randall collection and other high end knives that I sold off when I realized they were over kill. All my fixed blade work has been done with a Mora, and my old Buck 102 woodsman. Both have stood up for over 20 years of heavy use camping and fishing.

For the past year, an Opinel number 5 and 8 has been my go-to folders. They've been used hard with no problems.
Click to expand...
I am still less than a year into this hobby proper, my first "good" knife being an Ontario SP-1 in early December, but I have had my knife-love grow with K55's right alongside PM2s, so I love all of it, and these things, for price and sheer utility, cannot be beat!

Thanks for mentioning Svord, I forgot to mention them and their amazing peasant knife! Opinel has a range of blade shapes now, most of thes guys, like the K55's come in stainless and carbon, pocket clips and jazz, so it can be used even by the more "modern" leaning person, anyone can find something on that list that they like, the RAT1, man? Perfect for lots of people. I'm so glad someone here agrees, I was thinking people get annoyed by this lol

By the way, I use a carbon and stainless, themed no. 8, no. 2 and I just got a no. 6 for myself, and one for my mother, my girl jacked my no. 7. Also got her a no. 8 mushroom knife, which is awesome. I really want to try a no. 13, it is bigger than my Espada XL. That's just so cool! Will be a great BBQ knife...

EDIT: I should take a "good quality cheap knives" photo, but this is close enough, from a dif discussion:
https://imgur.com/a/teXoSZo
 
I personally find front flippers odd to deal with. I guess this old horse is too old to learn new tricks.

I've been looking at the W&W website. Here are a few to check out ..
Kizer Rapids w/ 154cm. Also the Domain and Begleiter.
CIVIVI has quite a few options for you as mentioned before.

A note regarding Rat 1/2s. The were made in Taiwan. Now, apparently, they are made in China. The quality doesn't seem to be the same. YMMV.
 
USMCPOP said:
You should say "You're right, M'aam". 😆

I've been toying with the idea of getting one, but I have sooo many knives already. And at my age, I might cut myself.
Click to expand...
Oh, my apologies, I thought your name meant like "USMC pop" like pop as in dad, My bad!
 
Hashishiin said:
I am still less than a year into this hobby proper, my first "good" knife being an Ontario SP-1 in early December, but I have had my knife-love grow with K55's right alongside PM2s, so I love all of it, and these things, for price and sheer utility, cannot be beat!

Thanks for mentioning Svord, I forgot to mention them and their amazing peasant knife! Opinel has a range of blade shapes now, most of thes guys, like the K55's come in stainless and carbon, pocket clips and jazz, so it can be used even by the more "modern" leaning person, anyone can find something on that list that they like, the RAT1, man? Perfect for lots of people. I'm so glad someone here agrees, I was thinking people get annoyed by this lol

By the way, I use a carbon and stainless, themed no. 8, no. 2 and I just got a no. 6 for myself, and one for my mother, my girl jacked my no. 7. Also got her a no. 8 mushroom knife, which is awesome. I really want to try a no. 13, it is bigger than my Espada XL. That's just so cool! Will be a great BBQ knife...

EDIT: I should take a "good quality cheap knives" photo, but this is close enough, from a dif discussion:
https://imgur.com/a/teXoSZo
Click to expand...

The Opinel's are great, but never, I mean NEVER, under estimate a Douk-Douk. I first encountered them when I was on a TDY job in the Army combat engineers. We got sent down to the old Wheelus Air Force base in Libya, from our base in then West Germany. Wheelus was a tactical fighter base ( in those pre Gadafi days) and they needed the runways lengthened to accommodate B-52's passing through on training missions. As Engineers, we had the gear and personal with re-enforced concrete gear and know how to do it. Spent a few months in Libya.

Most of our labor, was hired local workers, to shovel sand and mix into the cement mixers, and carry whatever. Local Libyan guys. They all had beat up Douk-Douks that were used for any use a sharp edge was needed. Got sharpened on any available rock when needed. I was wondering through the Arab bazaar off duty and they had whole boxes of them for sale cheap. I got one to play with out of curiosity. WOW, enlightening.

A very tough, reliable, low cost knife that can take some real heavy use as well as abuse and come up grinning. No wonder they are the choice of French Foreign Legion soldiers. If absolutely needed as a weapon, the Arab guys would just drop them on the ground and stomp in them with a heel of a work boot. Instant fixed blade. A little prying with a screw driver made it a folder again, if they survived the knife fight.

Douk-Douk's are a tough nut!
 
the crkt pilar 3, ontario rat 1/2, qsp penguin, cjrb feldspar, sog terminus xr, sog stout flk. Civivi brazen, and several other civivis. And fixed blade wise anything mora, And anything condor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top