What price knives you would normally buy? For what purpose?

afishhunter said:
craytab craytab I stick with multi blade traditional knives for the most part. Steels are usually limited to 1095, T10, 420HC, 440A, 440C, and whatever the 7CR??MoV and 9CR??MoV "equivalents" (note quotes) to 440A and 440C are. Oh, and my offshore made Buck 300 series have 420J2 blades, from what I understand. In my unscientific opinion based on day to day use, they take and hold an edge as good as any of my other knives. Must be the heat treat Buck uses?

Marbles did come out with a line of traditional knives with D2 blades recently. I did get one of those in the Sow Belly pattern, and Rough Ryder came out with a short/limited line with VR10 blades. I'm not a fan of the Trapper pattern, and the stockman at 3.5 inch closed is a "medium" size ("Tiny" would be a more accurate description, IMHO) so I will not be getting either of those Rough Ryders.
The D2 Marbles was under $20 including tax and shipping.
It came with good fit and finish, no gaps, sharp enough to shave arm hair out of the box, and no blade wiggle wobbles.
I did have to do a little work on the Budding/Spey blade on my example, to get the pull down to what I consider an acceptable level. Others who have the same knife that I've "talked to" here on the forums report even pulls of around a "5" to "6" on all three of their blades.
The old "obsolete" (note quotes) steels used in traditional knives works just fine for everything I need a knife for. :)

I did get the D2 Marbles (and a couple SK Blades "SMOKE JUMPER" Buck 110 LT's with CPM154 (the Buck 110 and Old Timer 6OT/7OT are the only single blade traditional knives I buy.) to see if they live up to all the hype.
The jury is still out.
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I get all that. We should obviously buy and use what we like and what works best for our individual needs. But that doesn't change the fact that increased cost often leads to better materials which, given proper geometry, can equate to better cutting performance that will last longer. Just because a "lesser" and inexpensive steel works just fine for you does not mean that it can't be out cut by a "better" more expensive steel. Nothing wrong with liking more simple stuff, you just can't say they are objectively just as good or better at things that we can empirically disprove.
 
DangerZone98 said:
Dang. I assume it’s partly because of the shipping? That’s why things get expensive when they reach our areas?
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Nope, it's the import tax. And also very expensive shipping.

US is much closer to Europe than China, yet China offers free shipping and doesn't ramp up prices for us.

But most popular brands here are Mora, Fallkniven, Boker, Condor and Cold Steel which is by some miracle still affordable here (made in Taiwan tho). Now we also have Chinese brands like Real Steel that are getting big here.
 
Most of the knives that I use, I never bought and didn't cost me anything.

They're all kitchen knives that I inherited from my parents and are mostly cheap carbon steel or stainless steel. My father was a professional sous chef so his knives have sentimental value to me. Some look like sh*t and some are extremely worn due to excessive sharpening that my Dad did, but they all still cut and can hold an edge well enough for kitchen work and are easily re-honed w/a steel or sharpened w/a stone.

Those knives that I have purchased to use in the kitchen and elsewhere generally did not cost more than $50, including the 4-5 Swiss Army Explorers that I own and have distributed around in various places where I am most likely to need them.

While I carry a knife from my "collection" every day, I never use any of the 300+ knives in my collection to cut anything, except paper/tape occasionally.

They cost as little as $20 and as much as $475 but most of them cost between $100-250. $500 is my red line and I will not pay that much in cash for any knife, because that's about the cost of most guns now and I'd rather spend $500+ on a gun than a knife. However, I have traded several less costly knives for a Kershaw Tilt, which is the only knife in my collection currently "worth" more than $500.

I collect knives purely as a hobby and the types of knives vary widely from fixed blades to folders to automatics to balis. Knives designed for SD are a particular interest of mine and I have a lot of those.

The main brands are Kershaw/CRKT/Cold Steel on the cheaper end and Spyderco/ZT/Benchmade/Protech/MicroTech/Hom on the higher end with a lot of other brands sprinkled in here and there based on my personal interests, like my vintage Gerber Mark I & II's.

I don't care where a knife is made. I have a lot that were made in China (mostly cheaper ones) but many more made in the US, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.

My only condition for buying a knife is if I like it's appearance, design, feel and price.
 
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Historically, $20-$750, although I am only personally willing to spend $250+ on a knife if I feel that it will still hold a substantial portion of its value even with usage, and/or in unused condition it will likely appreciate over time. I'll buy for both collectable and EDC purposes--I find sprint runs cool and sometimes buy them, although CRKs are generally hard to evict from my pocket and some of these sprints I've intended to carry but never do. Generally I prefer a 3-inch folder for most of my life activities as the people who surround me would likely poo if I busted out a 4-inch blade. The priciest folder I carry is a basketweave damascus CRK Mnandi. (I would definitely purchase another basketweave damascus knife, but it won't be a new one from CRK as they no longer offer it.) My willingness to buy also increases if the knife blade is made of CPM-154.

I am extremely biased here as I make them for a living, but this would have been really cool to see in a survey and subsequent dashboard. Perhaps also be able to see brands, blade size, handle size, locking mechanisms, steels, handle materials preferred, etc. (Data excites me. [As you can see, I live life in the fast lane.])
 
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I have never paid more than $160 for any knife and my comfort area is $50-80 dollars. One hundred dollars (or thereabouts) is about where I start getting extremely critical about what I get for my money.

It is hard to find knives that meet my desires. Just give me G10 or FRN for the scales. That is fine for my needs. I don't need some super fancy scale material. What I do need is decent steel and quality heat treatment. Many times I have found the perfect blade with top quality steel only to have it paired with over the top scale material and higher prices. I have lost count how many times I have passed on a knife that I wanted due to scale material.

I know that certain steels are normally used at certain price points but, I would be willing to pay a little more to get the steel I want without all the bells and whistles.
 
I mostly stay in the $2-300 range but I'll splurge for some knives (Shirogorov, Koenig). I have the Megatherium and GPB from Kizer and they've both been solid knives.
 
... Looks like I'd spend anywhere between 5 and 800 US dollars to hold down a shelf or cut down a tree and anything in between.
 
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