What can your cheap knife do?

B

Bobadilla004

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Mar 8, 2016
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I have a few cheap knives. They don't hold their edge as well as my higher end knives, but they get the job done. So I'm curious, what do you guys do with your less expensive knives. I mean knives under 45 dollars.

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$20 and sharp as most of my better knives.


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This is a good thread idea. There are always folks coming to BF looking for suggestions about knives who don't know where to start. This will help them get a picture of what tasks they may do with budget options. Today, my sub-$30 Buck 110 will be cutting open hay bales, trimming leather scraps, fitting tool handles, and cutting up apples for horses. Maybe it will open a beer tonight.

Zieg
 
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How about, bottoming using a rock? How about spin whacking multiple times on solid concrete without fail? How about multiple times of throwing without fail as well? The Cold Steel Kudu, i got it for $20 dollars in my country, but you probably could get one around US$8 in the US. This tough folder can do many things several $200-300 knife can't do in terms of strength and durability. I'm sure of that. Check out my tread under Cold Steel Knives about the Kudu's destruction test.

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I find sharpening to be an enjoyable, almost therapeutic task at times. Even if I'm using a knife with great edge-retention, I'd likely touch it up anyway, it's just the kind of user I am. Which is to say while I am glad to have some options--I only have a couple with great edge retention--in case I'm out and about on some long journey, holding an edge honestly isn't a priority for me. Blasphemy, I know.

But for various reasons I have only a couple mid-range knives, most of the rest are budgets. For example my Ontario knives, the Rat-1 and Utilitac II, are both under your price point but hold an edge quite well indeed and see lots of use.

It's probably fair to say I have mostly cheap knives actually. I have an Adamas, and a great ZT that was a generous gift from a fellow member here, just because he is a nice guy. :)
 
Yep. The Kudu was around $7 on the secondary market here last time I bought one.

I used to own like 30, and gave them away in various giveaways on the forum since I wasn't using them. But they are an excellent inexpensive beater knives, and for how much steel and toughness you get at that price they are absolutely worth it. Yes, I gave them away, but not because they are a bad knife, they just weren't seeing use. I have high praise for this knife and still have one left.
 
My Mora has done everything I have asked it to, and suffered the abuses I've forced onto it in stride. A little loose in the handle (it's a wooden classic) but I'll be fixing that with some epoxy soon. Three years of outdoors work, two week-long disaster relief trips, dozens of branches trimmed, chopped, split, and feathered for fires, and several houses built with only a patina and some nicks in the edge to show for it. I'm buying these for life.

Connor
 
Personally I think you guys are out of touch with what most people consider a cheap knife. 40-50 is what most average consumers would consider an "expensive" knife, since most are not even aware of 100-300 midrange knives and certainly not the 300+ ultra premium knives.

A CHEAP knife to me means under twenty bucks. If I can't get it for as much as a case of beer and a bag of jerky then it's not that cheap. So with that in mind, usually little rough riders and stuff, and I only use them on stuff that's destructive. Scraping and prying and stuff I wouldn't risk damaging anything I paid good money for.
 
Durable, and one Mora took all that and in the interim, cheap enough that you can still stock up if you want. :thumbup:
 
KennyB said:
Personally I think you guys are out of touch with what most people consider a cheap knife. 40-50 is what most average consumers would consider an "expensive" knife, since most are not even aware of 100-300 midrange knives and certainly not the 300+ ultra premium knives.

A CHEAP knife to me means under twenty bucks. If I can't get it for as much as a case of beer and a bag of jerky then it's not that cheap. So with that in mind, usually little rough riders and stuff, and I only use them on stuff that's destructive. Scraping and prying and stuff I wouldn't risk damaging anything I paid good money for.
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This is a fair point, although I consider around $30 to still be cheap, just my opinion and you're right, not many non-knife people would think that I guess. Some knife people don't. My dad is a knife buy but over $50 would be pushing it for him.

I think I would still use my $30-ish knives for destructive tasks, depending on the knife and availability if replacement became necessary.
 
My cheap knives are my moras. Bought a handful of them and put them in random places so I've always got a beater knife on hand. If its something I don't want my expensive folder to do in grab a mora.

2 or 3 days ago I dug a fire pit in the backyard. We had limbs all over the yard and the city takes weeks sometime months to pick up your limbs so inbuilt a fire pit.

Mora did everything from cutting the branches to fit into the fire pit to breakING down a ton of cardboard I decided to burn as well.

There isn't much I wouldn't do with one of these knives . They are pretty tough, get ridiculously sharp with minimal effort and I got 5-6 for 50-60 bucks.

If you haven't tried a mora do yourself a favor. One of the ones I bought is now my wife's new favorite kitchen knife.

On another note cheap knives aren't all that cheap anymore . The cheap crap you find in a chain sporting goods store can run you 50-100 bucks . Average Joe not knowing knives has no idea what he could get for 100 bucks and settles on some cheap crap..
 
I haven't been to a brick and mortar in some time as the ones in my area have decided, for whatever reason, not to stock knives as much as they used to.

What kind of stuff are you seeing for $50-$100 in stores that you would not consider good? Just curious.

Unrelated: Do you gather branches into some kind of central location that is then picked up by city employees? In my youth I always lived outside city limits on various farms, and although I live in the city now, the apartment has maintenance staff that are responsible for groundskeeping.
 
Around here if you have branches or whatever in your yard you can gather them and put them in your ditch and call the city and eventually they will come pick them up. When I say eventually I mean couple a weeks to a couple of months. Guess it comes with your fees you pay every month for water, garbage etc. Problem is they don't make a special trip . The lot across the road is vacant ,but been cleared and the same brush pile has been sitting there since at least June when we bought the house. I've always had a fire pit and enjoy it so it's a win win really

Knives in your big chain stores say academy for instance . It's been awhile since I've been in there too but they have kershaws and gerbers mainly from what I remember and they are compared to Internet prices expensive for what you can get online .
 
Yeah, I've got a rock solid buttonlock in 14c28n with excellent fit and finish, handsome aluminum scales, a 3.5" blade that weighs 3.5oz that cost $42. Oh, almost forgot the bearing pivot. So, yeah, that sucker will do a LOT.
 
Oh, you can also score a Rat 1 with D2 for under $35 that will hold an edge longer than some knives costing $200+.
 
So I'm guessing we're talking about knives with an MSRP of under $45, rather than SAK deals we find at pawn shops and ebay?

My cheap knives are my:
Buck 110
Spyderco Tenacious
Spyderco Byrd CaraCara2
Spyderco Byrd Meadowlark 2
Becker BK14
Cold Steel Kobun
Cold Steel Shanghai Shadow
Cold Steel GI Tanto
Cold Steel Tanto Lite
Cold Steel Tanto Spike
Mora Number 2

But to be properly accurate, there's also my Cold Steel and Ontario machetes, all under $45. So maybe we need to set out some ground rules for this.

As to what my cheap knives will do, it's hard to tell. I've only had the opportunity to use a few of them in rotation, but they're all capable of cutting what I need them to cut just fine, and holding a decent edge during use.
 
I usually use my less expensive knives for the tougher things like prying, trimming trees, and cutting cardboard. My more expensive knives I use for food prep and opening packages. Though in reality, I think that any sharp knife can be used for any of those tasks.


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Insipid Moniker said:
Amen. Honestly, I'm firmly of the opinion that an AUS8 Rat 1 and some rudimentary sharpening skills are honestly way more than the vast majority of people will ever need from a folder.
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I agree. A rat 1 or even a cold steel voyager or other cold steel model since they really are a good deal for what you get . I think cold steels aus8 is a little better than the rats, but neither are bad .

I'm telling yall if you haven't tried a mora you owe it to yourself. A mora and a rat 1 or cold steel folder is all you would ever need . I could go rest of my life with 2 of the 3 folders I mentioned and a dmt coarse diamond and be good to go. I don't need the other knives I have but I do enjoy it

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Insipid Moniker said:
Oh, you can also score a Rat 1 with D2 for under $35 that will hold an edge longer than some knives costing $200+.
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Whoa really? Is that, normal? I only ask because my Adamas is D2 and sure, I am also paying for Benchmade and the Axis lock and all this stuff but, whoa. I am not a steel junky but D2 would have been a steel I would have called "premium", at least for my needs.
 
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