What are the modern grails of edc?

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nutellarise

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Sep 4, 2013
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What are the great knives that are truly well designed, affordable to anybody, and available to all?

I don't mean the kind of knife that's 400+, and is super hard to find,

I mean the kind of knife that's easily available on amazon/knife stores, is under 150, well designed.
Note: When i say under 150, I do not mean at 150, I'm targeting a median price point at 60 dollars, and that 150 is the absolute most

Also: Please don't just say the name of the knife, provide a description as well.

In my opinion a great knife is:
Good all around design, easy to put in your pocket for most people (around 3" give or take 1"?), easy to open and close, looks great.

Go!

edit: yeah yeah, I get it. a grail is rare. whoop de doo
Footnote: if you tell me no grail is easy to obtain, I encourage you to stick a rod up it.
 
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Well...considering the root of the term "grail", a $150 knife anyone can track down amd buy wouldnt exactly be considered to be a grail knife in any stretch of the imagination. But if youre asking what knives are the best on the market right now around $150, you'll need to be a bit more specific in your wants or needs because there are literally dozens. I suspect you'll hear a lot of replies in favor of a para2 of some flavor, and for good reason.
 
nutellarise said:
What are the great knives that are truly well designed, affordable to anybody, and available to all?
Click to expand...

A grail is supposed to be expensive and/or hard to acquire. You are asking what are popular, available, well made knives from $60-150.

Spyderco Military - 4" blade and light for the size
Spyderco Gayle Bradley - CPM-M4 steel, excellent F&F
Spyderco Sage 2 - titanium, light, classy, great ergos (IMO)
Pretty much anything Victorinox (under your price point, by the way)
GEC slipjoints
 
Seconding the Spyderco GB Folder. Really the most comfortable folding knife I've ever held with quality materials and manufacturing. Only complaint I have is the weight.
 
Right now I'm loving the BM 940 Osbourne. It's slim, narrow, and light, but packs a long cutting edge and sturdy point. Plus the super smooth Axis lock. Cost is about $130, the Mini-Grip is also good if you're on a smaller budget at about $60.

Also I'm not sure about saying something which needs to be "affordable" and "easy to obtain" is a grail.
 
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Benchmade mini grip. Available in several colours, blade shapes, and steels, small enough to carry easily, large enough to do real work, strong, light, cheap, and backed by a great warranty and customer service. And made in the US. That knife is, for me, the point of diminishing returns, where you have to spend significantly more for a significantly smaller increase in practical performance. Therefore: grail.

And as I've always understood it, grails aren't necessarily expensive or rare, but they do have to be perfect, whatever that means to you. Remember in Indiana Jones, when he picks the simple wooden carpenter's cup? That's basically the mini grip.
 
(I don't have all these, but just by what people post) I'd say:

940 Osborne
Griptilian/Mini-Griptilian
Endura/Delica
Military/Para-Military
Skyline
Blur

There are definitely more that I gather to be what people generally like, but I can't think of any more.

I would add the Spyderco Native. It's amazing.
 
mlanghornes said:
Benchmade mini grip. Available in several colours, blade shapes, and steels, small enough to carry easily, large enough to do real work, strong, light, cheap, and backed by a great warranty and customer service. And made in the US. That knife is, for me, the point of diminishing returns, where you have to spend significantly more for a significantly smaller increase in practical performance. Therefore: grail.

And as I've always understood it, grails aren't necessarily expensive or rare, but they do have to be perfect, whatever that means to you. Remember in Indiana Jones, when he picks the simple wooden carpenter's cup? That's basically the mini grip.
Click to expand...

great reference!
 
But the wooden cup was almost impossible to find, there are mini grips all over. Para 2 or Cryo 2 would be those.
 
mlanghornes said:
Benchmade mini grip. Available in several colours, blade shapes, and steels, small enough to carry easily, large enough to do real work, strong, light, cheap, and backed by a great warranty and customer service. And made in the US. That knife is, for me, the point of diminishing returns, where you have to spend significantly more for a significantly smaller increase in practical performance. Therefore: grail.

And as I've always understood it, grails aren't necessarily expensive or rare, but they do have to be perfect, whatever that means to you. Remember in Indiana Jones, when he picks the simple wooden carpenter's cup? That's basically the mini grip.
Click to expand...
It was a simple wooden cup yes, but it wasn't exactly easy to obtain.

:EDIT: Dammit Maddog, ya' beat me to it.
 
mlanghornes said:
Benchmade mini grip. Available in several colours, blade shapes, and steels, small enough to carry easily, large enough to do real work, strong, light, cheap, and backed by a great warranty and customer service. And made in the US. That knife is, for me, the point of diminishing returns, where you have to spend significantly more for a significantly smaller increase in practical performance. Therefore: grail.

And as I've always understood it, grails aren't necessarily expensive or rare, but they do have to be perfect, whatever that means to you. Remember in Indiana Jones, when he picks the simple wooden carpenter's cup? That's basically the mini grip.
Click to expand...

I think he picked up a Para2..the perfect grail knife IMO..
 
mlanghornes said:
Benchmade mini grip. Available in several colours, blade shapes, and steels, small enough to carry easily, large enough to do real work, strong, light, cheap, and backed by a great warranty and customer service. And made in the US. That knife is, for me, the point of diminishing returns, where you have to spend significantly more for a significantly smaller increase in practical performance. Therefore: grail.

And as I've always understood it, grails aren't necessarily expensive or rare, but they do have to be perfect, whatever that means to you. Remember in Indiana Jones, when he picks the simple wooden carpenter's cup? That's basically the mini grip.
Click to expand...

Of course the grail is rare - there is only 1. And it is supposed to be difficult to acquire. That's what the Arthurian legends are about.
 
Grail implies a prolonged quest for rarity. IMO a Leek 1660PGT, given the OP's criteria.
 
Bah. Here I was being clever and you guys had to go pick apart my pop culture reference. :rolleyes:

I see what you mean about the actual grail being rare, but then again, as the legend goes, there's only one of those. With grail knives though, everyone most likely has a different "grail" , so again, I would personally say that perfection is more important than exclusivity. But you may feel that exclusivity makes your knife perfect, so your grail may, in fact, need to be rare and expensive.

/philosophy

But to stay on topic, I'll echo some of the earlier suggestions:

Grip/minigrip
Endura/Delica
Stretch
940
Blur
Leek
Skyline
Caly 3
Sage 1
Para 2
Military
 
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Spyderco Paramilitary 2's are once again becoming available.
In S30v blade-steel, it's a great knife and can be found, NIB, for $120 or so.
I'm quite loyal to Spyderco, and also would recommend the Gayle Bradley or the Techno.
You can find these as-new on the Exchange, certainly less than $150.
 
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