What is the thing you value most in a knife?

anthony cheeseboro

anthony cheeseboro

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Aug 8, 1999
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What I love the most about any favorite knife is the handle. If a knife is not comfortable, it cannot be a favorite. Lots of knives feature cool steel, great lockup, neat opening mechanisms, etc. The number of truly comfortable knives is much smaller. That is why I a huge fan of Spyderco and Hinderer. Those two companies consistently make the most ergonomic knives, in my opinion.
 
What is the thing you value most in a knife?
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The heat treat and in the same breath some decent steel to treat.
The way it feels cutting and that it is still game to go again after some work. If it sucks to sharpen (many stainless steels do) fighting a bur is undesirable after experiencing great tool steel that "wants to be sharp" as somebody put it.

That kind of steel is just a joy to sharpen and to use.

What I love the most about any favorite knife is the handle. If a knife is not comfortable, it cannot be a favorite
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I was going to say handle . . . and as far as a favorite that's a big part of it for me . . . yet the steel has to be right otherwise no amount of handle friendliness can make up for a poor edge.
 
Definitely handle for me. Three or four finger, doesn’t matter, but it has to feel good in hand.
I don’t care for overly thick blades either.
 
Ergonomics for me as well.

Thats why my top two favorite knives are a Spyderco and an Emerson.
 
#1 Cuts / slices well and takes an edge in no time.

Edit : I was confusing value and appreciation.

I definitely value cutting performance ,easy sharpening / touch up, and ergonomics the most.
 
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Along with what others have said, decent “pocket-ability” is pretty important to me.

I carry back pocket. Nothing worse than sitting on a brick all day.
 
anthony cheeseboro said:
What I love the most about any favorite knife is the handle. If a knife is not comfortable, it cannot be a favorite. Lots of knives feature cool steel, great lockup, neat opening mechanisms, etc. The number of truly comfortable knives is much smaller. That is why I a huge fan of Spyderco and Hinderer. Those two companies consistently make the most ergonomic knives, in my opinion.
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I have one Spyderco flipper (and one Lum Dang Dao) and three Hinderers. I bought the Spyderco flipper on a whim. It's S110V, which I can appreciate but I do not like the leaf blade shape. I doubt I buy any more leaf shape flippers.

I look at everything. All of the attributes. I'm not in to duplicates so it has to say something the other knives in my collection do not.
 
Wowbagger said:
The heat treat and in the same breath some decent steel to treat.
The way it feels cutting and that it is still game to go again after some work. If it sucks to sharpen (many stainless steels do) fighting a bur is undesirable after experiencing great tool steel that "wants to be sharp" as somebody put it.

That kind of steel is just a joy to sharpen and to use.


I was going to say handle . . . and as far as a favorite that's a big part of it for me . . . yet the steel has to be right otherwise no amount of handle friendliness can make up for a poor edge.
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Well, I love a great handle, but it has to be connected to a great knife. I will not buy a knife that is comfortable, but needs constant resharpening.
 
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Strength, reliability, is that one thing? Comfortable handles and sharp edges go without saying. Afterall who intentionally chooses a dull knife that doesn't fit well in the hand? If you can't trust a knife when you need it most get rid of it and find another.
 
anthony cheeseboro said:
I get happy just holding my XM-18 or my Para 3.
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That is what it's about. A well balanced knife will have the attributes to make you smile. For me, there is no one feature that I look for in a knife, but rather the whole build that makes me happy. From a Kershaw to a Shirogorov and everything in-between, if it makes me smile when I use it, it's the best knife for me.
 
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