What's your limit.........

P

Paratrooper

Joined
Dec 7, 2002
Messages
154
price wise I mean.

If you were to buy a large fixed-blade knife, one that you would want to serve you well, and maybe for the rest of your life, how many $$ would you be willing to pay?

Assuming $$ = high quality!
 
Currently I'm hovering around the $300 price tag, I'm tryin' to make it to the $500 range.

Basically though it's based on available funds, so it could wind up in any range, this year I've spent less on knives than in the last 10 years, but I've been outa work since Feb.

Yet the knives I biught this year mean more to me than the previous years cause i got my best deals this year.
 
Most I've ever spent on a knife was around $850.

I think there's more to a knife than price though. At the >$500 range you are usually getting into blades that should probably be collected. That's not to say you can't use them but at that point you are paying for premium materials and scales and probably the name of the person who made it.

Possibly two of the most expensive folders I've owned by big name custom makers were not as dependable or as well made as some of my favorite production knives.

Fixed blades are hard to judge because there are not as many details that need to be dead on to make a great fixed blade. Really all that needs to be judged is steel, heat treat and blade geometry, all things being equal in this area and you're just paying for name and style.

In a folder you have about twice as many aspects that need to be considered when evaluating quality. These rules change again when looking at slip joints vs. locking folders...

There are several high end production knives that will compete with custom knives in most aspects, but they will never have the hand made character of a custom.

In my experience, there is not a production slip joint made that rivals even an inexpesive custom. To me this is where the biggest bang for the buck improvement in quality is in the knife world. In most cases a $250 custom slip joint is 3-4x's better than a $75-$100 production piece.

Sorry for the ramble but I have a lot of thoughts on this matter :)
 
A few years ago, I might have said $1000. Then I bought a Gene Ingram knife. I'd say I'm closer to $350 now. I'd go even lower than that if it weren't for my CRK Project 1.
 
Since I don't have a need for a fixed blade, I'd have to think hard about spending more than $35 to $45.
 
For a fixed blade, $350 or so. That's a super rare occurance, though. Unlike some of you who routinely dump that on knives, I require a need to spend that amount on one. Redundance is something I try to avoid. So if I had a very capable Ranger RAK, such as the one arriving in the mail today;), I wouldn't have a need to spend three times as much on a similar knife.

Warthog
 
If you are talking strictly a fixed blade then I would say it is actually pretty low as I sit here now. I don't have much need for a large fixed blade, and thus wouldn't spend the money on it. Currently my most expensive FB is a Dozier Personal, $175. Now if I were to see something that I really liked, or ever had a need for one then my limit would change.

Now if I can include folders, it is a whole nother story. Currently I have a Large TNT that is very high on my edc list, and a DDR EDC on order. SO I guess speaking of what I have my limit would be $500 - $600 on a folder, and a user at that. That limit is really pretty much because of my limited funds, not any problem with finding nives I like at a higher price point. If I really like a knife, and don't feel the price is totally outrageous, and can afford to spend the money on it I have no problem buying it. But I only buy users so that does set something of a cieling in reality.
 
All the PX's sold Buck's in the 1970's, and almost EVERYONE in indian country had a Buck Special on the web gear. It was most likely the most carried knife in the Republic Of South Viet Nam, and it got the job done for about 30 bucks. No pun intented.
 
I donno...I once spent $350.00 for a Bolker I couldn't stand and gave away and $20.00 on a Pakastani Ford fender that I love and never leaves my side in the field... I guess it boils down to what your looking for, how your going to use it and budget. If it were something I really had to have I suppose price wouldn't matter...I'd get the money somehow.
 
$100, give or take a bit, for a working folder or fixed blade. For toys like a UTX 70 I can go a bit higher.
 
$200 max (Very max I'd say). More than that it will become an accessory, not a tool. IMHO.
 
I've never spent more than $100 on a folder(and thats a rare occurance, I use one knife till its worn out and then move on to another most of the time), and feel about the same about fixed blades. My users get beat on pretty hard and while so far I haven't ever lost or completely destroyed one I go for stuff that can replaced with as little pain as possible.
I might stretch that to $150 for a big knife, but that mostly depends on whether I can make it myself cheaper or not ;)
 
I "try" to keep my knife purchases under 100.00 most of teh time, I have broken that rule twice with Buck Custom Shoppe 110's.

For a fixed blade, I find it hard to believe that knives costing 300-500 dollars are going to actually perform significantly better than my 50.00 Becker CU/7.
 
Wow, people are willing to spend a lot less than I would have thought. The most I've spent on a fixed blade is about $220 for a Dozier, $350 for a custom folder that I never used and traded. For a large, user fixed blade that would last forever I probably wouldn't go much more than $125. I'm not really interested in large, non-user fixed blades.
 
I think there is a threshold, lets say $3-400, where, after that you are really paying for things like ornamentation, the prestige of the knifemaker, special inlay, etc. For instance a Cold Steel SRK would be a knife I could really depend on but if I wanted the same functionality in a nicer package I would get a Dozier, CR, or Randall. Thats as far as I would go.
 
I have a $300 Busse on the way, with a sheath, so it all came to about $370 USD. I would say that is definitly enought money for a knife. And for a 16 year old. :D Oh, ya, and is gonna be a user, even though it is one of 28 serial numbered. My most expensive folder is a $150 CUDA Maxx.

Thor
 
Hmm..I don't really have any use for a large fixed blade myself but if I did, and if I was looking for a lifetime sort of knife I would probably be willing to drop in the area of $1000 for a nice Mastersmith blade. Is it more then is needed? Of course it is, but if I used that sort of knife a lot and wanted something to keep long term then I wouldn't have any trouble dropping that sort of cash for one. I also appreciate the work that goes into a hand forged knife and I've always wanted one, but....like I said...I have no use for that sort of knife.

For folders I've gone up to $600 so far for a Mayo TNT and yeah, it's a user.
 
200/300 $ tops, if i can't get it done with that amount the knife goes into the "art/collectibles" section and i don't buy knives as art or as a collectable. That is something i see a lot in the Busse knives, every two weeks another knife, with another steel, with a slightly different colour, or blade lenght. To pay 600 $ and then put it in a vault because it is precious or collectable is not my piece of cake. Not to diss Busse knives, i would love to have one, but i just can't afford a 600 $ knife, that i can not carry or use in MY living enviroment. This is MY conviction and it does not give any comment on people who buy a Busse when they can use one. I know a lot of Busse buyers live in rough mountainess area's like Alaska, or Montana, or work under war conditions so i can perfectly place that knife in that pricerange in that enviroment. I can not put that same knife, carried by me , IWB in a SD urban enviroment. So for me they are too expensive.
 
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