What knife brands have you changed your mind on?

B

Balls Deep

Joined
Jan 2, 2014
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342
I've been wanting to post this thread for awhile. Like many of us I've been big into knives well before joining the forum and I always had my ideas about what I did and did not like in a knife. That being said I had a big distaste for Spyderco knives for probably the past 10 years. I thought the finger hole looked goofy, the handles were cheap looking, and the needle points looked like they would easily break.

Fast forward to the forums. I've seen a ton of posts from very happy Spyderco owners. Then I started doing some in depth research. Turns out the materials you get for the price are some of the best value to material knives you can find period. They also incorporate several different locking mechanisms which I think is awesome, from their compression lock, to their AXIS style lock and their liner locks. Even that thumb hole I though was kind of goofy looking I now view as the perfect solution to ambidextrous opening.

A little more research and I found some spyderco knives I do like the look of. The tenacious, the Manix 2, and safe 3 are all fantastic looking knives IMO (and all have received exceptional reviews). The icing on the cake is that Sal Glesser himself posts on the forums which was a huge boost to my interest in Spyderco.

That being said, I've changed my mind about spyderco knives. I plan on buying some in the near future and I recommend them to my friends who are looking for a good solid knife at a specific price point.

I'm curious to know if anyone has ever had similar experiences? Where you've thought a knife looked silly, cheap, or ugly and then you changed your mind after research and handling?
 
Strider, ignore the internet bs and try one.

I stayed away believing they were 'sharpened prybars' until I actually carried and used one for a while made me appreciate them. :thumbup:

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Probably Kershaw knives for me. I'm more interested in budget knives lately,and kershaw seems to have a great lineup for 2014. I have an CQC-2K on pre-order and I also like several of their other offerings.
 
Well, I still don't like a lot of Spyderco models, although more for the blade shapes than the thumb hole. That said, I bought a Ulize that I really dig, and is one of the truly unique knives in my collection. Other than that, it's less about brands than about specific features or types of knives. For instance, I used to dislike assisted opening knives, regardless of brand. I personally felt I had no use for them, and would avoid knives whose designs I liked simply because of the assisted opening feature. However, I finally caved and bought one - a Kershaw Drone from Woot, as I recall - and came to the conclusion that the right knife with a design I liked could actually be made better with assisted opening. That basically changed my attitude toward knife buying, plus it opened my eyes to the value of a well-made inexpensive knife versus a poorly made expensive one.
 
Gerber.

My how they have fallen.

I received a DMF as a gift.
Garbage.

I held them I high regard because of the older
obsolete folders I have.
Magnum folder, paramelum, lst, bolt action.

Did I tell you that the DMF is Chinese made.

Now for the biggest surprise
a $20.00 Chinese benchmade clone .

GANZO.

remember that name.
I'm impressed. It's a keeper
 
I reluctantly separated from Benchmade, maybe we will reconcile some day. The company went in a direction that I cannot support.

Cold Steel and Kershaw are probably to brands that I have a better opinion of now than a few years ago. They make workable products for a very affordable price.
 
Kershaw. I had a few that I was never impressed by. Then I received a skyline as a gift. I'm back on the team.
 
I often look for high value for the money I spend on knives. That is one reason I have a continuing interest in Spyderco which makes the best values on the market. Until recently I had a similar interest in Benchmade, which weren t the bargains that Spyderco was, but still provided a very fine knife for the price. Now Benchmades are too expensive to be attractive to me. Hopefully that will change in the future.
 
Spyderco for me, too. Thought they looked like a lizard. Hated them.

Then I saw the Ulize in a magazine, had to have one. Liked it so much, look at my avatar.

Then came the Civilian, another knife unlike anything I have ever seen. Love it, too. Then a Native5 fully serrated DLC.

Then came a PM2, black on black, solely because everyone loved it. Thought mine was pretty cool too, and the hole no longer bothered me. And an orange Endura, same reason. Rave reviews. Then a waved Martiarch2 as a user, to keep the Civilian pristine because it is so cool. Like a wicked brother to the Ulize. I carry them together occasionally.

Long story short, disliked them tremendously, now they are tied with Benchmade as my most-purchased brand. Go figure.

And turns out folks were right after all IMO, including you, and Sal's involvement was big for me, too. Class act!
 
The first brand I had an affinity and loyalty for was Benchmade. I own more Benchmades than any other brand. Their recent move to MAP has me buying from other brands. I did pick up a 710 last month, but I think that will be the last for the indeterminate future. Still really like their product, but I think there are other made in the USA options with better value. Just one man's opinion...
 
I was mostly a Spyderco guy when it comes to modern folders. Then I saw the Benchmade 755 MPR. I love this knife. I may have to try another Benchmade.
 
I often look for high value for the money I spend on knives. That is one reason I have a continuing interest in Spyderco which makes the best values on the market. Until recently I had a similar interest in Benchmade, which weren t the bargains that Spyderco was, but still provided a very fine knife for the price. Now Benchmades are too expensive to be attractive to me. Hopefully that will change in the future.
Click to expand...

+1 this philosophy. I really like the benchmade lock and blade steels/shapes but for over $100 there's so much other potential out there.
 
Bugout Bill said:
I reluctantly separated from Benchmade, maybe we will reconcile some day. The company went in a direction that I cannot support.

Cold Steel and Kershaw are probably to brands that I have a better opinion of now than a few years ago. They make workable products for a very affordable price.
Click to expand...

Right there with you :thumbup:
 
I have turned my back on gerber since fiskars bought then and moved them overseas. Now that are crap. I have moved on to kershaw as a great folder. I have a cryo and I love it.
 
short answer- Kershaw and Spyderco

I've been collecting knives for over 20 years. I was buying Benchmade folders 20 years ago, and still have my original AFCK and mini-AFCK. I had bought a few Spydercos for various reasons but didn't find any that I was interested in for my EDC group. Similarly 20 years ago my impression of Kershaw was that they made mostly ordinary slipjoint knives. Well now I still like Benchmade but Kershaw and Spyderco are both making knives that I like and that can compete with anybody. In the past 2 years I have bought a lot of Spydercos for my EDC rotation, along with a good amount of Benchmade, Kershaw and ZT.

I almost forgot- another one would be Becker. They have been making the BK2 for a long time and I originally thought that it was a stubby knife with a blade that was too thick, and I was more interested in the latest steels such as ATS34. Now I have been properly re-educated as to the virtues of Becker design and Becker steel.
 
CRKT & Benchmade - in opposite directions.

I have found that some of the CRKT models are actually very nice at their price point. They have come a long way in the last few years. At one time, I would not have been caught dead with a CRKT. Today I own several that I like very much. Now, if they would only start using some better steels on some models... ;)

Benchmade used to be a good buy for the price when purchasing from certain dealers using the checkout coupons. I bought about 20 various models last year. Since Benchmade has made these dealers stop that practice, prices have gone up for me and I don't think that they a good buy at their new/current price point. Spyderco has been the recipient of the money that was going to BM.

So - those two changes are the ones that come to mind immediately.
 
Spyderco was the biggest surprise so far. I used to think they were ugly and gimmicky (I still think they are ugly), but I bought a couple for dirt cheap at a gun shop that was going out of business and really liked them (an AUS8 Vielle and a Walker). Up to that point, I'd thought that synthetic handle materials and clips were awful. Those two Spydies opened my eyes to a whole bunch of modern folders, I started reading about steels and new locks, etc.

My second big change of heart was with Cold Steel. I had a very snobbish of the company, until I tried a few of their knives. My gateway knife was a Camillus made Master Hunter in Carbon V. Then came an old Japanese VG-1 Voyager, an ultralock Recon-1 and so on. Now I've got a dozen or so of their knives. The ads are goofy, but they make a solid product for the price.

The opposite happened with Boker and Puma. In my country they had a reputation for being the best of the best, and prices at stores reflect that. I've found most of their current products mediocre. Puma uses crappy steel that it doesn't even label clearly on each knife, Boker has some good stuff but a lot of their catalog is not half as good as their reputation. A lot of knife enthusiasts in my country still think that having "Solingen" stamped on a blade makes it magical.
 
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