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

I got a First Run Smith & Wesson SWAT for like $30 years ago. The blade was sloppy, didn't hold an edge, the screws actually popped right out of the handle, the liner lock was weak, etc etc etc... I had that knife up till last week when I finally got sick of looking at it and tossed it into the lake. I cannot believe S&W put their name on that POS! :barf: :barf: :barf:

Oh and another POS knife was the Schrade Cliphanger, that thing as I bet all of us know was the worst knife in the world IMHO.
 
have a couple cheapies downstairs, have 5-6 to sell this summer, some kid might like em for a couple bucks. bought a few for around $40 before I found spydies. only a few I haven't managed to give away.

love the cheap tanto though. put a decent edge on with the grinder and polished it, works great for splitting wood and throwing for boredom.

Just made a deal tonight for a couple Eriksson 556... 11usd +shipping. Cheap beaters for the BOB.
 
Anybody out there have any good experiences with low-cost knives? Obviously there are a lot of very shoddy products out there but a few are good and low-cost. My best so far has been a no-name kukri that I got for about $10. It is really good carbon steel and sharpens well. It will cut cleanly through standing vegetation. I have used the spine of it to break ice and it is still fairly solid (despite the fact that it appears to be a partial or maybe a stick tang). It is a short model kukri (about a 9" blade) and this also makes it a personal favorite for the ease of carry factor.
 
Cold Steel Oyabun - anything but 'The Boss' badly ground, dulls easily. Cheqering on handle is horrbie, fit and finish is very poor.

I didn't expect much, but this fell far short of even that.
 
Bowzer said:
Anybody out there have any good experiences with low-cost knives?
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The Ka-Bar Dozier folder is the best $20 I've ever spent on a knife. Way better steel and workmanship than the cost would suggest. The thumb stud and pocket clip are both reversible which is a nice touch, particularly at the price

I recently got a Walker-lock Al handle folder marked "Columbia Sportswear" (the outdoor clothing company) also for $20. It's Taiwanese and marked "440 Steel" so I assume it's 440A. I don't know who really made it but the fit and finish are good and it sharpens and cuts well. I bought it to put in checked baggage for air travel so if it's lost or stolen I wouldn't be out much. It's much better than I expected.
 
i have a s&w pocket protector. and i cant give this little cheap knife enought praise. it never letme down yet in over a year.
Edd
 
Will P. said:
It was an opinel style lock. It may have been a CS Twistmaster.
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Couldn't have been a CS Twistmaster, I have had the large and small, I assure you, those handles will not bend, I've chopped down trees 4 1/2" to 5" with the larger one.

I'd recomend the older Carbon V models as a large survival/camp knife.

31tl.jpg


Picture from NDS Products NDS Products
 
i did have a lot of low-cost knifes.
As everybody, the usual Opinel, but mainly the one that i am still often using called "doukdouk" (french one, carbon steel).
It costs around 10 usd, is not very nice, but very usefull !
It the only one that i could really qualified of "razor blade".
I buy new knifes quite often, i carry them some weeks, but after sometime... i always revert to him !
At present I am quite happy with my BM 940... for how long?
 
I carry a portable office in a catalog case, stapler, tape, yada yada yada. I put one of those cheap chinese folders to open letters, etc. .. It works well enough for that. And if anything happens to it, I'm not really out anything. :)
 
I've posted about mine before, but I still have today the cheap POS survival knife. You know, everyone had one: Plastic hollow handle, bubble compass in the butt cap, black colored blade, honing stone in the sheath. For a POS, it's not a bad knife, and I haven't thrown it out more than 20 years later. I guess I'm a pack rat.

I also got a small fixed-blade explorer knife from Japan with a rubber handle, 440 stainless, nylon sheath. Actually, not a bad knife either, I guess.

All the others I must have sold at yard sales...

Glenn
 
Bowzer said:
Anybody out there have any good experiences with low-cost knives?
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I have very good experience with Kershaw's cheapest models (Vapors) and Opinels :D Good stuff, worth every penny. Definitely positive :)

The cheapest knife (3+" blade length) i own though would be the M-Tech folder i bought just for kicks (review is in the knife testing forum), apart from horribly crafted handle it is actually surprisingly good (blade seems to be really good compared to the handle and quality of finish, it's still very sharp and cuts and slices well) and there is still no blade play or lock failure and it didn't fall apart yet :D I was expecting it to do one of those things by now but it is still holding well, i "flip" it every day just for the heck of it, i whittled with it and cut other (softer) items. Cheapo knives usually cannot cut even when new, this one was quite sharp out of the box (sharper thanKershaws mentioned above). Mixed feelings about this one but you really get what you pay for - $5.50 worth of cutting. I've seen far worse deals out there, it works reasonably well as a throw-away (disposable) knife. If they actually bothered to make a decent handle and make finish a bit better it wouldeasily market at $15 and be a good deal. This way it's just a cheapo that works reasonablly well ... so far.
 
I have a bunch from before I knew any better. I actually love the profile, heft and overall design of this cheap bowie knife I have, but the steel sucks. I can't find one with good steel that looks and feels the same way. I have even considered sending it to a custom maker to have them replicate it with good steel and heat treat.
 
I'll second the Cliphanger. Absolute, unmitigated POS. Heck, when I can force the liner closed under hand pressure on the grips, that's too weak. The grips flex enough that a hard pinch will disengage the lock.
 
Seems every collector has a few clunkers. I'm no different!

When I was younger and poorer and didn't know any better, I'd pick up a cheapie just because I liked how it looked. Even know, I'll sometimes pick up a knife just for it's exotic look. Just off the top of my head: a tiny little Spanish Joker liner lock with horn scales and 1" blade; a Pakistani "pappoose" Bowie set (10" blade + 4" blade, in one sheath) that are built like tanks, and actually take a mean edge; a Darrel Ralph-clone folder with scales made of circuit board (appealed to the geek in me, I suppose); a very long, very thin Spanish Andujar "stylet" in brass and horn, that I use as my letter opener; a Pakistani Randall #1 clone, that also takes a mighty nice edge (for 5 minutes, anyway!); one of those Blackie Collins non-metallic assisted opener tacticals, just because the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity will probably ban them soon; a trio of gaudy-as-Hell Arab knives my grandfather brought back from Beirut (he worked there before it turned into an urban warzone); and a smattering of cheapie autos i bought just to study the mechanisms.

For all the crap I ya about Paki knives, I must've been lucky, because most of the ones I have are shaving sharp, even if they don't hold it well. Fit and finish are crude, true, but they're solid as all get-out, with big ol' beefy slabs of 440 for blades. (Of course, any that I bought that didn't meet those criteria were traded away, too...)

Besides, I think crap knives serve an important purpose: the teach us to appreciate the GOOD knives more!
 
Gryffin, I second you on your comment about the purpose of cheap knives. Good luck finding quality Pakis if you buy any more.

faramir, gotta love those Opinels. One of the best values out there. The M-Techs actually seem decent for the price. I don't own one, but I would bet they are as good as any other cheaper 420-440A bladed knife out there.
 
I always keep a couple of what I call "scubs" around. Quite a few are cheapo automatics. I use them to "save" my good knives. I always take a scub when I'm pier fishing to use as a bait knife. I can just leave it sitting on the rail, so I don't have to keep going in my pocket for it. I don't to worry about it falling in, forgeting to pick it up, someone stealing it or the salt water rusting it up. Usually by the end of a long weekend pier fishing my scub knife is ready for the trash can.
 
A cheap backlock folder taught me that even a crappily made backlock can withstand lots of abuse - and an M-Tech folder showed me that this doesn't ring true for cheap liner locks.
 
It funny how you titled the post, cause cheap knives usually result in alot of %$@#*&%@$! for me.
Opinel is a good cheap knife. I like the carbon steel models better than the stainless.
 
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