what's your experience with cheap #$(#* knives?

C

cognitivefun

Joined
Oct 24, 2004
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Do you have an experience or story about a cheap knife, purchased perhaps before you knew better? Or given to you?

I hate cheap stuff like knives. The only cheap knives I use are when I vacation and cook with someone else's knives, and even then if I can I bring my own chef's knife.
 
Yep, I have a few. I think every accumulator or collector has a shoebox of junkers (mine are in a velveeta chees box). "I found this under my truck seat. I saved it for you, since you collect knives." Keeping it company are a few junkers I found, and knives I used as a kid.

Interestingly, one of my junkers recently received an upgrade from the shoebox to the main 'accumulation'. A very-used Remington RH-32 with a very-worn original sheath, someone bought at a rummage sale and gave me. They probably paid 50-cents, knowing them. At the time, I tossed it in the shoebox and forgot about it.

If a free junker is NIB, what the heck, it can join the main accumulation too.

By "Cheap" I hope you don't mean "inexpensive." There are tons of sub-$20 knives that would be excellent daily users, and are perfect for a beginner/young person to collect. Most of the knives I've bought recently are OldTimers and other Schrade closeouts, priced $10-$20. Most Opinels are priced from $8 - $15, and are my first choice for backpacking/hiking. The Mora knife gets excellent comments by owners at these forums.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
oh yes I have had my fair share of junk knives. Of course all while I was young. One in particular was a black handled knife that for its cheapness had a very sharp blade. Well It is difficult to explain but the knifes handle was all hard plastic. No metal ran through it. The only part that was metal was the hinge and small metal ring at the joint. I remember performing a hard cut (I think through some very thick rope) and the handle started to bend.. That relagated it to the sock drawer. The lock was also very cheesy. The metal ring rotated and allowed you to turn it and wedge the blade into a locked position.
 
I have a couple of current inexpensive knives, a Ka-Bar Dozier folder and a "Columbia Sportswear's" branded folder that were about $20 each but are well made and easily worth the money so they aren't "cheap".

When I was a kid in the early '50's I had a bunch of $.98 (yes, less than $1) Imperial made "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Lone Ranger" pocket knives that always lost their handle scales and broke their pivot pins after a few months. I got my first good knife about 1957. It was a Case folder bought from a local hardware store for $3 and it was a revelation. Nothing fell off and nothing broke in 10 years of daily carry.
 
I bought a cheap knife known as "Da Nuke" once.

It broke in a week.

Then I ordered a Benchmade, and havn't had a problem since. :D
 
ZeonZaku said:
oh yes I have had my fair share of junk knives. Of course all while I was young. One in particular was a black handled knife that for its cheapness had a very sharp blade. Well It is difficult to explain but the knifes handle was all hard plastic. No metal ran through it. The only part that was metal was the hinge and small metal ring at the joint. I remember performing a hard cut (I think through some very thick rope) and the handle started to bend.. That relagated it to the sock drawer. The lock was also very cheesy. The metal ring rotated and allowed you to turn it and wedge the blade into a locked position.
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It was an opinel style lock. It may have been a CS Twistmaster.
 
I tend to think that most everyone here will have some sort of experience with cheap junk knives, whether they admit it or not. Though there is a very big difference between a knife just being cheap in price, and being a POS cheap knife. As has been mentioned it is possible to find a decent quality knife for a low price.

Anyway I will admit to having owned and bought some cheap junk knives before learning what good knives were. I recall being about 8 - 10 years old and buying small SAK knockoffs at the 99¢ store. I would buy half a dozen at a time, as you use it once and it would fall apart. Then I graduated to a Buck 110 knockoff my dad gave me. I will admit to owning one junker knife now, and that is a Stilletto that I got just for kicks. It was cheap, and tons of fun to play with.
 
I'll admit to owning cheapies.I get that urge every now and again.I searched high and low to obtain a chinese 007 POS a while back.I also bought a kgb watch just because.tom. :cool:
 
Goodland Martial arts store here in NYC had quite the cheapie collection.

The store owner realized that I was a frequent customer (books, videos, etc.), and gave me one of the "junk" knives.

The darned thing fell apart in 2 weeks. It just...fell...apart. No use, nothing.

I do have one "junk" knife that I will keep forever: a Fury folder. It's 440A with a knockoff framelock. I'm keeping it, however, because it belonged to my friend's father, who passed away last year. My friend gave it to me and she said "my father would have wanted you to have it." So for personal reasons, I'm keeping this piece.

Frankly, I did a lot of research before I purchased my first pieces (mostly done on Bladeforums), so I don't really have any "junk" knives that I purchased. The cheapest ones I've purchased are my CRKT Kasper folders, and they're FAR from junk.
 
One in particular was a black handled knife that for its cheapness had a very sharp blade. Well It is difficult to explain but the knifes handle was all hard plastic. No metal ran through it. The only part that was metal was the hinge and small metal ring at the joint. I remember performing a hard cut (I think through some very thick rope) and the handle started to bend.. That relagated it to the sock drawer. The lock was also very cheesy. The metal ring rotated and allowed you to turn it and wedge the blade into a locked position.
Click to expand...

Many modern knives, even high-priced knives, are made without metal liners, or any metal in the handle. Modern plastics and manufacturing methods make it possible to make durable and strong knives in this manner. My first knife like that was a BuckLite. Similar knives are sold by Gerber, AG Russell, and Spyderco.

Regarding the ring lock, it's the same lock type as the famous Opinel knives that have been around for many decades. However, Opinel knives have wood handles. As far as identifying your knife, someone above suggested the "CS Twistmaster." I'm not familiar with that name, but I remember seeing a similar knife sold by Kershaw several years ago.

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
a junker imitation sak and a junker plier knife thing, i reground the blade and stuff for fun, decided to sharpen a spear point onto it, then cut myself closing it because i wasnt paying attention and it was really stiff so now it is called the "evil knife". My friend has a "lockback" with the lockup of a slipjoint (you do not need to depress the lock to close it, didnt look like anything was stuck in there). Thats about all the crap knives i have.
 
I've got a little fake buck from pakistan. I've ground and ground and honed and honed and sharpmakered and sharpmakered this little pot metal knife and cannot get even a little bit of a sharp edge.
 
i bought a jaguar m-16 (knockoff of a crkt m-16) and i love it. It has a sharp blade and is 1/2 serrated. When i go camping i take it because if i snap it or lose it im out $16. It also a very hard steel and a prety good heat treament because i cant get it to dull ;)
 
Pakistani knives are the main cheap knives I remember from my youth. Total junk in my opinion. One can not put an edge on most of them. The little stainless ones won't take an edge. I also own a Pak. Bowie that is claimed to be carbon steel. I purchased it for $13 dollars at a military surplus shop and bent the edge horribly the first time I used it hard to cut down some bamboo. It will sharpen and cut but the steel is so mild or the temper so bad it is useless.

(Red) Chinese made knives are still mostly junk but are getting better. Some will sharpen but most have dings out of the edge when new or a horrible grind or both. Decent for beaters but not much else. Most of these I have received as gifts by those with little knife knowledge.

Junk knives definitely have their place though, in situations where one might lose a better knife or for really damaging or dirty tasks where a better knife might be damaged or rust.
 
When I was growing up in Texas, I lived by a large pawn shop that had huge numbers of cheap knives. The guy liked that I was a 8-10 year old that knew what I was talking about when it came to guns and he always made me very good deals on knives... Like $1 or $2 for knives priced at $10 to $20. I must have bought 50 knives from that place inluding the one that gave me my only permanent scar from a knife.

Right now, I probably have five knives that I would consider real junkers. The worst one is a Smith & Wesson Cuttin' Horse that I think I got for $1 when my father in law made a $100 purchase. It literally isn't even worth $1. Huge amount blade play and I can consistantly shut it without pressing the lock and I got the best one I could find. I really just got it for the blade design.

Shame on you Smith & Wesson!

DCP_4654a.jpg
 
Someone gave me a Zippo knife which was a knock-off of the Gerber LST. I carried and used it for two weeks and the backspring literally fell out of the frame!!

In an effort to replace it, I bought a Spyderco Michael Walker C22 and the rest is history.
 
I bought a 3 dollar cheapo frame lock from this cheap hardware store I knew. Air would seriously dull it. I once got it rather sharp (took about 30 seconds). I never used it, but it got dull. Eventually, all the screws just stripped out.

So I went and bought a Black Out. It's still in my pocket right now.
 
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