What is a budget knife?????

As others have said, it is subjective.

Myself, I find that "most" knives under $20 or so aren't very good quality, and so while they may be inexpensive, they are also not a good value in my mind. Budget knives to me are are ones that have pretty obvious strong value, and tend to be $20-50ish, with an emphasis of under $35 or so. Any over that (~$50) I wouldn't personally call "budget".
 
As others have said, Budget is defined by the the size of one's bank account. That being said, I think the majority of people would generally agree with $50 being the top of the category. Some may say anything below $100, but I think that is a bit much for most.

Another definition of "budget" is the low end model of a product. A "budget" pickup truck would cost far more than $50 but would be the no frills version of the truck. Likewise budget knives can also be thought of knives with the lowest grade of options, scale materials, lower end steel, no decorative work like jimping. So a "budget Sebenza" would be without Damascus, Inlays, scale tooling.... Context in how the term is being used is the determinate.

That being said, it can be logical to call a $5.00 "Gas station knife" expensive, in the sense that the knife isn't worth anywhere near $5, making it way over priced. Best way to decide that is to ask yourself, which will cut this apple better? This garbage knife, or the $5 bill I would give up for the knife. If the $5 note has a better chance of cutting the apple, that is a very worthless "expensive" knife you are looking at. ;)

As others have said here, the kick for me is hunting down great value in the sub $50 price range. Since being on BF I have learned a ton and become aware of great makers who are doing exactly that. Making a good or even great product and selling it at a very good price. Thanks to BF, I am now aware of makers like Mora, Rough Rider, Kershaw, Enzo, Boker, and Ontario. All make some great knives for the money. Which is not to say all they make are great. There are turkeys in most of those product lines as well. But they are a great place to start hunting for a great value (aka budget knife) for the money.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
@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.
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Problem is when you keep passing those barriers.
 
A budget knife as you said is a knife that fits easily in the budget.
For some that is a "mere" $1200.
For some it is a grinding $50.

For me : if it comes with M4 it is a pearl beyond price.
If it has other steel . . . well . . . herumph . . . cough . . . fidget . . . what do they want for this ? How much ! ! ! !
er . . . I might save up for that but not right now.
 
My opinion, budget knife means one that you personally aren't afraid to use and relatively easily replace if needed .
As stated, that'll be different for everyone and they're disposable income.
For me, my Steel Will Modus D2, ESSE Izula 2, Boker Autos & Tenacious are budget knives. All quality IMHO, but budget. My Contigo & Rift are boutique. knives. Sure, I'll use them sparingly ,but for me they were larger purchases and not budget. Others will have a different opinion based on they're need and income.
 
To me a budget knife is a knife that is cheap enough that you can lose or break it without worrying over the financial aspect of replacing it. I can buy another ~50$ knife no problem, but replacing another 200-300$ knife without thinking it over more than once not so much.
 
Depends on your income.
For someone retired and on a low fixed income, it might be under $20 - $30, and preferrably under $20. (Thank goodness for Opinel, Mora, Rough Rider and Marbles!)

For a big name rock star, Billy Gates, or Prez. 'The Donald', $100,000 might be considered "chump change" by them.
 
or
if the knife comes with a handle like these I don't hardly look at price
IMG_5252.jpg


If it comes with these sorts of slab sided handles below I have to think long and hard and try to shoe horn it into the old budget ( unless M4 is involved; see my previous post).

It's complicated.
IMG_4873.jpg

If we ever see M4 with a nice handle like my first photo . . . well . . .
That'll never happen right ? ! That would be a real knife and we can't have THAT.
But if it ever did . . . boy oh boy oh boy ohboy ohboy Oboy Oboy Oby ObyObyOby
 
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Pointy81 said:
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.
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I've only been into knives about a year but I've learned that budget knives tend to be under $50.00, made in China and have 8CR13MOV or AUS8 steel. Examples include Ontario Rat II, Kershaw Cryo II and the SpyderCo Tenacious.
 
For me, budget is under $20. Over $100 is expensive. I have very few that I paid over $100 for, and none that I paid over $150 for.
 
“Budget” and “value” are words used interchangeably for the purpose of ad-copy. Quality and crap are pretty easy to distinguish once you use a knife for the purpose it’s been designed. Frn is a “budget “ material but spyderco has made some fine, affordable knives with this handle material.
 
To me, there seems to be a fine line between "budget" and "garbage." Normally, I won't even consider knives in the $20 price range because of quality issues. Jumping to $35 can get you a better product with $50 offering a huge increase in design, materials, and workmanship. It is amazing what you can get for $35-50 in today's market.
 
Other than Rough Rider slippies, I tend to immediately bounce to the $35 or so range for value or "inexpensive" knives and top out at about $50. Honestly though, I haven't really purchased anything under $50 in a couple years other than a a couple Vic SAKs. I tend to like the Rough Rider slippies, but I have a lot of higher end slippies and don't have this overwhelming need to just buy a couple Rough Riders for the fun of it. I did that with Mora's just to see what all the hype was about as I just generally am not prone to use "kitchen knives" outside the kitchen. Yeah, I know, they have beefier models now, but they still have the injection molded plastic handles for the most part. As they say, they are what they are and Mora's are a very good value overall.
 
I don't know about 'budget', but I still find my Victorinox SAKs to be my highest-VALUE knives. And most of them are under $40, and some considerably less than that. I own, carry and use other knives (such as CRK and Spyderco, for example), but in a given day, my SAKs tend to see more use, unless there's enough heavier cutting tasks required.

I remember as a kid (late 1970s), the most expensive knife I bought was a Buck 303 Cadet. It cost $15 back then, and I thought that was a lot.

Even today, I would imagine that, to most people who aren't into knives but might go shopping for a pocketknife for work/camping/climbing, etc., much over $20 or $30 for a knife might be considered too expensive.

Jim
 
In my opinion a budget knife is a knife that is relatively cheap but for it's price it is worth buying.
an example of this would be my former edc knife,the Bk-17,compared to a Mora the Becker is pricey
but compared to a FallKniven S1 it's inexpensive
TA7SUtz.jpg
 
Yes, Victorinox is the king of value knives.

They must have some voodoo magic going on or something, how the hell can they offer these with the quality they do for $12 $15 $17 and $20 ?

And to think for the price you're getting more than just a knife blade, you only get a secondary knife blade with that pocket pal but damn that's a lot of knife in a such a compact package and it was only $15.
 
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