What Knife Has Pleasantly Surprised You the Most?

Camillus "Hustle". AUS8 blade holds a freakishly sharp edge and with minimal thumb movement, the blade fly's open like it was on bearings. For under $25.00, yeah, I was really surprised. Got a ZT 0350 in my pocket and a ZT 0400 and the Hustle in my bag in the office!
 
Jimmy Evans said:
Camillus "Hustle". AUS8 blade holds a freakishly sharp edge and with minimal thumb movement, the blade fly's open like it was on bearings. For under $25.00, yeah, I was really surprised. Got a ZT 0350 in my pocket and a ZT 0400 and the Hustle in my bag in the office!
Click to expand...

I had been recently wondering about the more modern Camillus offerings, I hear just as much good as bad so I was sort of eying them.
 
You may be out $25.00, but if you don't like it , give it away. I've got guys eyeballing my Kershaws and ZTs and that was my intention...buy it and if I don't like it, give it to one of them. Oh heck no! This one's a keeper!
 
Spyderco dice

Looks great but when I got it it was big and a little chunky.


Used it and fell in love
 
CRKT Ken Onion Wrinkle for me. Got it because I was bored and it was cheap, and I wanted to try out the bearings on that knife. It came ridiculously sharp, sturdy, good ergo just a great knife. The wretched pocket clip on the other hand.... Well, it sucks
 
Benchmade Griptilian
154cm is easy enough to sharpen
The blade shape is awesome for an EDC
It's extremely lightweight
Benchmades Warranty is unbelievably awesome

I'm not a fan of the mini griptilians, but the full size is a perfect budget EDC
 
My little TOPS Crow Hawke. I use it at work all the time now. It's the perfect size for office duties, and it doesn't freak out the customers when I take it out of its sheath.
 
RedLynx said:
Hi guys,

We all like our "which knife is best at this price" threads, or I know I do anyway. But I was wondering, what knife (at any price) did you go in having low or no expectations of and ended up pleasantly surprising you?

One of me is the Cold Steel Tuff Lite. It's been a very useful little knife.
Click to expand...

Same man! The Tuff Lite cuts way better than I expected it too!
 
Gerber Harsey Air Ranger. I ordered one on a whim over Black Friday weekend because a retailer had them for 15$ shipped. Blade flies open easily, locks up tight. Perfectly centered. I might've just gotten lucky but I'm pretty surprised with it (although I didn't expect much). Cool little knife.
 
Benchmade 940 my mom was at the sporting goods store as saw a benchmade case and said it was pretty. First it was too light to flimsy to small, I told her thanks and pocketed the knife, started using the knife and trying to abuse it and it took all my abuse , and came back for me. So I called benchmade and got me a splitnarrow clip and i carry that little 940 a lot now , great great knife
 
My new ZT750 Talon. Very nice! My wife freaked when I flipped it and she saw the blade - "you're not going to carry that are you?" :eek:.................. My response :D
 
Ontario Rat 1 and 2. I was really impressed for the price. Currently carrying a spyderco pm2 and like it, but that wasn't a surprise as much hype as it gets on the forum!
 
this quickly became my most carried knife. two carbon steel blades, less than 3 inches closed, waves through any security check (i think the last one is what surprised me the most.)

$_35.JPG
 
I just got a batch of Moras in. I wanted more Heavy Duties in fluorescent orange and I saw that the New PRO series was available. I added one of the PRO Robusts to the order. If I could describe it in generalized terms, I'd call it ''stout''. The entire knife feels more compact. It is different and I kind of like it already with limited use. It has a scruffy stamped out spine but who cares. It's a working knife that I put a file on, to square a shoulder for fire steels. The grey side plastic is hard and slippery, the black surround is soft and grippy. I might be Mora saturated now, but the friggin' things are so cheap that I can't stop buying them. :p
 
Last edited:
The knife that has surprised me the most is the Busse Basic 9.

Sure, it has a great reputation. Sure, it has an ironclad warranty, backed by a solid company. Sure, it is championed by at least dozens of rabid fanboys ( ;) ) ....

BUT, it hasn't always been that way... When I bought my Basic 9, all I thought was that it was going to be a pretty good knife. Busse Combat didn't have anywhere near the following or reputation they have now. There was no Swamp Rat or Scrap Yard, so if you wanted a big chopper from them back then, it was the Basic 9 or the Battle Mistress. I didn't have enough dough for the mistress, so I bought the 9. (I eventually ended up with 2 mistresses and every other E handle, but that's neither here nor there) I kept the 9 because it did everything the battle mistress could do, plus it has the oh so comfy handle!

Using it for as long as I have, as hard as I have, and for such a broad spectrum of uses, I have come to be not only surprised by it, but amazed by it. With all the chit I've put mine though, I'm quite frankly amazed that it still even exists.... Yet it keeps coming back for more. Practically begging me to beat the crap out of it.

It just stays sharp much longer than I think it should, reacts much tougher than I think it should, and keeps chewing up everything put in front of it. It's the first knife that, personally, I thought was really something special. Something on that "next level".
 
Last edited:
The exact same knives as BillyM, I'm actually happy to say that he helped me find info on these two when nobody at my local store knew a thing about them, Thank you Billy.
My H&K Flak
116miqc.jpg


And my H&K Espionage
1qmp3b.jpg


Both have been tough, stayed sharp, and have taken a huge beating with a smile
 
I hadn't bought a Cold Steel knife in many years. The one I had was o.k., but had too much of a 'mall ninja' quality to it for my tastes. I had pretty much written them off till I saw a review of the Demko Tri-ad lock CS folders here on the forum & saw some reviews on YouTube. Despite my prejudices against CS, I thought I'd give them a try. Got an American Lawman and a large AK-47 and they are really outstanding hard use folders. Rock solid lock up. And CS does a good job with their AUS8A steel. I'd love to get a Demko custom, but that's a very long wait. But if I need a hard use folder, often it'll be a Tri-ad lock CS in my pocket. (Gotta Sebenza, but would hate to put it to really severe use unless absolutely necessary.) CS Tri-ad lock folders were a big surprise to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top