What do you expect from a blade costing $??

ddean

ddean

Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Messages
3,397
Considering your personal preferences
and what you would spend your money for,
what do you expect from:

$20 blade?
$50 blade?
$90 blade?
$150 blade?
$250 blade?

Answer any or all as you please.
Describe it any way you like.
 
20$ or less would be a decent quality stockman or the like. i really dont want a lock because i wouldnt trust it at this price range. exception being a vapor
50$ here i expect a decent quality locking blade. a delica or endura can be had for here abouts and i consider them to be excellent quality. so anything on par with those is fine.
90$ here i expect a really high quality knife. it should lock up with no blade play at all, it should be made of ATS-34 or better, and it should be backed by a really good warentee
150$ this is about as expensive as i would like to get with a knife. steel should be cpm 440v or better. blade should be able to take a serious beating, i should have an absolutly no questions asked warentee, and, i feel it must be said, it needs to be made in the U.S.A
250$ at this point, the knife had better be self sharpening, self cleaning, take out the trash for me, be unbreakable, and capable of becoming any tool i need on demand. i kinda doubt im gonna find that...:D
 
$20 blade? decent slipjoint, or a good find on a factory knife(just got a frn se cricket for 20usd)

$50 blade? vast majority of factory knives are in the 40-60usd range when you buy online.

$90 blade? 4", decent belly, no movement in the lock

$150 blade? perfect fit in the handle(lockup, play, fittings, centred blade), mirror polished blade, hair popping(or close to) out of box

$250 blade? better be getting me a custom if I'm putting 250usd out. That means 90%+ perfect, good balance(handle heavy for me), good sheath.
 
$20? Decent Slip joint or SAK
$50? Decent beater (Mini-grips, Delica and Endura are at this range)
$90? Quailty folder, should be no blade play at all, ATS-34/154 CM or better.
$150? High end folder or entry level American Auto.
$250? Better be a custom or a small shop made knife (Microtech, Dalton etc.)
 
O.K heres the deal, I've been in the knife using arena for a little while, at first I thought if a knife cost 60.00 dollars it should be the best knife on the planet, Which at the time I thought was a gerber knife that could be had at walmart. In 10 years I slowly found better and better brands, ie benchmade, microtech, ect.
Today I at only 24 years old will tell you that, the best folders I have found are chris reeve sebenzas, so Here is my opinions on the following:

20 Piece of crap, pick one up at the walmart for a scrapping tool to clean the propeller fins, or grass from the mower.

50 cut, pry, and dig. Lock up will suck and blade play will too. However, It should have a lock back mech that you feel comfortable with.

90 The knife will be a user. We have to be carefull the lock wont fail, because this knife will have to go through a few paces, if it is a liner lock, I would spine whack it because there are a lot of lock backs that are safer, keep your hands out of the way!! I am not responsible for your cuts!!

150 Regular user abuser knife, lock up should be pretty solid, not perfect, and there will be blade play.

250 This seems to yield a little better folder for an extra bill.

However if I'm going to spend 250.00 I'll jump a bill to the sebenza. For 350.00 retail, you will get a folder with NO blade play and NO lock play at all.

Plus a superior steel, Blade grind and fit. If your looking for a real high performance using knife I can recommend no other than a large plain sebenza. My 5.60

Jeff
 
Just read the other post, cool, I was going to be real jealous:D

And THANK YOU K.C. FOR SIZING:D :D

Can you say Jen Lopez:D
 
I've had some bargains, and also overpaid on some purchases, but in general ...

$20 is a "throwaway" - I don't have many more left but those would be some el-cheapo Taiwanese made versions of popular folders that no longer buy 'cos I know better. I have a few SAK's (small ones with tiny scissors) that cost that much - they're good value. $40-$60 can get me some of the utility one-handed folders like CRKT's for all-round daily use. My Kershaw Vapour II is that price range.

I generally don't buy much anymore, and I probably wouldn't buy an EDC-user for anything over $100. Over $100 I'd be looking for lower end custom's and handcrafted pieces these days. I'd never buy a factory knife for over $100. Well... maybe a Busse or CRK. There are many fledgling knifemakers who are doing phenomenal work for under $200 and I think these are worthn sampling if that is your cup of tea. The $250 blade types would be collector-grade ones, but even then exeptional pieces at that price are rare. I'd expect things in the $100-$200 range to have good (maybe not nearly perfect) fit and finish, with decent, but not necessarily fantastic materials. Anything above $200 better be pretty generous with materials and the quality of F&F.

Just a few ideas. Jason.
 
I expect it to be functional, like a SAK or an entry level slip joint from a good company. It will not be perfect but I'm okay with that. My EDC is in this range. If something happens to my trapper I will get another. The last knife I got in the $50 range was a JKM-1 from HI. It was by a new kami and wasn't flawlessly finished but it is very stout and will push cut paper without effort. $90-$150, I expect a blade imbued with the spirit of it's maker, much like my WWII or sirupatis. I don't own a blade in the $250 range, nor am I likely to in the near future. For that kind of money I could put a roll cage in the Baja or dual exhaust on the Plymouth. YMMV

Frank

"50 cut, pry, and dig. Lock up will suck and blade play will too."
I don't recall hearing too many complaints from the dozens of guys who carry Delicas and Griptilians.
 
From a twenty dollar knife all I expect is that it will hold a decent edge, be easy to sharpen and comfortable to hold. If it is a folder, I want as little blade play as possible and a decent lockup.

At fifty dollars I want better edge holding, less blade play and a solid lockup.

When it reaches ninty dollars I want to see better materials used for the blade and the handle and little if any blade play. On a fixed blade I want to see a very good sheath.

At one hundred and fifty bucks I can start looking at some pretty darn nice custom fixed blades so a production knife is going to have to measure up and to this point I have not come across many that do. This is probably as much as I would spend on a production folder and it had better have no blade play, a rock solid lockup and use top end blade steel.

For two hundred and fifty smackers I am starting to get into a better range of custom fixed blade and can get some nice custom folders as well. The only production knives I would possibly consider at this point would be something from Chris Reeve, Busse, WH and the folders from Strider and Extema Ratio.

Also, at the top end of this price range there are some very nice mid-tech knives from makers like Kit Carson and Rob Simonich (probably others as well). These knives offer incredible value, top end materials and excellent workmanship.
 
Speaking strictly folders:
$20...Victorinox SAKs. As far as I'm concerned there isn't anything else in this price range worth considering. Nobody else seems to be able to pack this kind of quality into such an inexpensive package.

$50...FRN handled lockers. Spyderco, Benchmade, A.G. Russell. These are some truly great bang for the buck pieces.

$90...Low end mid range blades. Dressed up beaters. Not much here that interests me.

$150...High end mid range. High quality materials and construction. Minimal to no blade play. Solid lock up. A little more attention to detail.

$250 and up...Small shop, mid tech, and "customs". Here's where you step up in quality. You get the latest technology and materials. Fit and finish should be near perfection. Knives in this price range should show a certain "smoothness". The only sharp parts are the edge and point.

Paul
 
Same answer to them all, "That I like it and it does the job".

Anything else doesn't matter.

I have a $50 knife that I wear with a suit, because it looks nice, doesn't frighten other suit people and makes fine cuts like a razor that's just won first place in a hair splitting competition ;)

Whereas I've just got back from site where the scrub and brambles were twice as high as me and a lot of tough clearing was needed, so I took my $400 Strider SNG (which saw pleanty of use).

The short version is, work out the best knife for the task, and pay what you are comfortable with.

I've seen really cheep production pieces with excelent fit and finish, and I've seen really expensive "customs" that I wouldn't give away as a present.
 
20 would buy me a SAK, thats all i would buy at this price range I would say that anything else wouldnt really be worth it

50 the only thing i have around this price range is an old lockback. nice string lock up but not too tight and poor steel. good dependable knife but not the best made. I want to pick up a spyderco or something in this price range as a user, abuser, not-too-bothered-if-I-loose-her kind of knife.

90 gets me some nice knives, something like a fallkniven mod p or an A1, maybe something a bit out of the ordinary like a ceramic from boker or someone. the boker is good but the liner is too thin and the clip isnt removable, the fallknivens are flawless and easily the best value knife i own

150 can pick me up something pretty sweet like a TOPS fixed blade. Here Im looking for something pretty darn strong and reliable and some nice steel and blade geomerty thats well matched to the task. a decent sheath too if its fixed blade

250 starts to get to the real sweet stuff. some pretty high end steel and a flawlwss solid lockup. razor sharp blade design pretty flawless build quality and some serious slabs of titanuim for liners. Maybe expect something slightly exotic here like carbon fiber scales. Currently the only knife I have at this price is a Microtech Lightfoot which pretty much sums this up. knives at this range need to have that 'feel' that the microtech has. sold and dependable.
 
At $20 I have a Kershaw Vapor, a Vapor II, and a Kabar/Dozier folding hunter that I would recommend, but the definition of value is the VG10 Spyderco Navigator, the Vic one handed Trailmaster, and the Schrade Sharpfinger.

At <$50 the Spyderco Endura and Delica are good, the BM Griptillians are excellent, the Becker BK7 and 9 are terrific buys, as are the Buck 192 Vanguard and 191 Zipper. Come to think of it, I've never had a bad Buck fixed blade and they are all (almost) under $50.

At <$90 my standouts are the Gerber Yari, Spyderco Military, and, um, well I don't have many expensive knives. There, I've said it, but I don't feel any better. Do two GB axes count?

At <$150 I got a box full of Henckles 5 star cutlery. I am considering a SR Camp Tramp or Battle Rat, and the Cuda Maxx.

And at $250 it better be a self lubricating auto hob knobber. Honestly, I just can't fathom spending that kind of dinero for a user...yet.
 
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