What is a budget knife?????

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Pointy81

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May 22, 2018
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I’m not really new to knives, but I’m relatively new to expensive ones. While doing a little research, I found a category that were considered budget knives. I am a little curious about the label “budget knives” because a price that seems expensive to me, may not appear that way to someone else because we all have different budgets.
To me, I would consider the price range 75 dollars and below the budget category, but to another person, 50 dollars could be a premium price.
I know this may appear to be a strange thread considering this is my second post. I’m just curious about your thoughts on this subject. Please feel free to educate me.
 
Pointy81 said:
Thank you!!! I was just curious if there’s a category that falls into the “budget” section.
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Not really. One could easily argue anything beyond $20 is "pricey." Most of my knives are actually in that range.

Some of the folks with more expendable income than me, will drop $250 without blinking an eye.

Its all fine....there are great knives in every price range, and, in fact, I find it more challenging and rewarding to find and buy the real low budget, but really great knives. Anybody can spend $250 and get a very good knife....but not anybody can spend $12 and get a very good knife! :)
 
I tend to agree with marcinek(never thought I'd say that before, haha). About $50 and below are what I consider "budget" knives.

At this time I'm willing to spend roughly $250 on a production knife if it really appeals to me. Mostly I tend to stay under $200 though. So my budget is pretty low or really high. It all depends on who's taking it into account.
 
Depends on the budget, but I generally consider "budget" knives to be decent knives, but lacking extra bell and whistles.

So you probably won't have the newest steel, or some thing like natural or high end synthetic handle material, or perfect fit and finish. Budget equals small trade offs, but nothing serious that would cause it to be a bad knife.
 
I tend to view budget knives as being well under $50. $50 would certainly be an upper end of anything I might call budget. Yes, everyone has their own financial constraints they live under and "budget knife" is very vague. Trump might consider a CRK knife a budget knife if he likes knives? I don't. Pretty much what Tltt said....
 
marcinek said:
...its all fine....there are great knives in every price range, and, in fact, I find it more challenging and rewarding to find and buy the real low budget, but really great knives. Anybody can spend $250 and get a very good knife....but not anybody can spend $12 and get a very good knife! :)
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I agree, I like to find well made knives that are "cheap". It makes the hobby fun.
 
Budget materials and budget construction. Generally under $150. Always exceptions more often then not budget will be under 100 but some will come in above that.

Price isn't really a factor as much as what I stated above that.

Generally it's cutting corners, poor qc, low end materials, poor heat treatment on budget steel etc.

Some budget options just do it well enough others not so much.
 
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What is it that you call "budget " ? In France, Opinel has covered all needs for a disposable, cheap knife aimed at everyday tasks. They perform to the best and more. But I am still hunting for "better" knives...
 
There are definitely design features that are suited to making cheap knives better.

Assisted opening, for example, started out as a fairly prestigious feature in custom knives. Now, though, manufacturers most often use it to improve the reliability of flipper-opening designs that would require bearings and careful tuning otherwise. Kershaw pretty much built their brand on AO flippers in the last 15 years.

Liner locks are taken for granted now as the default design choice, where they were once a hallmark of innovative design.

Nylon handles are still one of the big price breaks for manufacturing; it's still rare to see anything else (other than cheap metal handles) on bargain-price folders.

Actual blade shape/knife function follows purchase trends, sometimes taking cues from big manufacturers but not always. There are still a million Spyderco and Buck clones in truck stops all over the country, but now there are bright green "apocalypse" knives beside those.
 
M marcinek pretty much nailed it. Now, if someone asks for a budget folder without setting a specific price range I'll usually try to keep my recommendations under about a $50 max, under $30 even better.

Now, there is a social phenomenon in which people have a bit of a mental barrier when certain prices are hit, and most companies know that and make knives to hit particular price points. $50 is one of those, so a lot of folks that aren't quite as jaded about dropping the kind of cash many of us do on a knife will balk a bit at anything above that.

You can see it in action here. The Cold Steel Voyager line are very nice, durable knives that are really quite affordable, but they cost about $55 now and are almost never mentioned when budget folders come up in conversation. Meanwhile, some Steel Will, Real Steel, Bestech and Ontario models will hit between $40-50 and see a lot of love in that category.
 
I consider a budget knife to be $50 or under. If someone asks for a recommendation and doesn't give a price range or max price, I will ask for one.

The Ontario Rat 2 (or Rat 1) in D2 has been my budget recommendation since they came out. I hear good things about the Steel Will Cutjack/Modus/Tenet.

Kabar Dozier and Spyderco Byrds are good values at $20ish.
 
I call them value knives.

To me a value knife is $50 or less and is priced as such because it's not fancy.
It's a good knife for the money being everything it needs to be and nothing more, and it's not simply inexpensive.
 
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" Budget knife " is very relative and subjective . I don't associate a particular price range , but more about the priority of a shopper NOT to exceed some specific maximum , which might vary greatly as to economic resources and purpose of the knife .

For the sake of domestic tranquility , I definitely try to stay within my " entertainment budget " which limits both the price and frequency of my toy buying . But I focus more on "value " for any given purpose .

A junky , useless knife or one you just don't really like is not really a bargain at any price . There are just too many great , yet inexpensive alternatives available .
 
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