Your first "truly awesome" folder

unit

unit

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Nov 22, 2009
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I was reading another thread (you probably guessed) and it occurred to me that high price or "custom" does not always equate to a truly awesome experience.

A little more to the point...My first high end folder cost about 50 bucks. It was almost more than I could afford at the time, but I needed something better than the knives I was buying previously (that often broke in my hands). That knife served me well for years and was vastly superior to anything I had owned prior. I retired it when I decided to spend 5 times as much on something that was supposed to be "better"...it was better...but not 5 times better.

Now I can afford to spend even more on knives, but I have NEVER experienced a "wow factor" as big as the one that occurred when I bought my first decent knife for about 50 bucks.

Many on this forum probably started this way...they bought a knife (good or bad) that ignited their passion for what an awesome knife could be. I suspect that not everyone had to spend hundreds of dollars to understand this concept. Perhaps a knife was such a POS that it created an awesome experience for you?

Nothing against the CRKs and custom knives typically discussed on this forum. Many of those knives are truly great, but it is hard to imagine that they are really responsible for igniting anyone's passion for knives...may be I am wrong and some of you never cared about knives and one day for some unexplainable reason bought a $1000 custom knife and it all started. I know for me, the passion was started by something much more basic...then it festered.
 
An older USA made Gerber Gator, first single bladed locking knife. Its still a beast of a knife, takes a nice edge, holds it for a very long time. When I know I need a big work knife but a fixed blade would be over the top (read non knife people around) I grab the Gator. Promised it to a younger cousin, just has to get his totenchip.
 
Oh it's sad, but my the first knife that gave me a 'wow' feeling cost me 15 bucks. It still does, even if you compare it to the higher end knives. It's the Rough Rider 66 Hunter, and I still love it. It's just one of those cheap knives that are quality products, for some reason.
 
My 812 truely started the fire, and then when I went back to traditionals it started all over again!!
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I think the first knife that wow'd me was my older brother's Case Mako. He received it as a gift from my other brother, who loved his Case Hammerhead so much he bought one for my brother. I was just a kid, and I was used to carrying flea market knives.

The next wow was probably a year ago, when I bought my first "good" folder, a Kershaw Blur. It was really solid comared to what I was used to, but I grew to dislike the assisted opening. The most recent wow was a BM Griptilian, the action is so smooth, and I really like the lock.
 
mine festered off a benchmade 720 circa '97 or so, it never did fester into $500+ pieces but i do have a slew of sub $500 examples. my benchmade collection is begining to get out of controll.
 
I'm a little late on the scene as far as folders are concerned so my first would have to be the ZT 301. Truly awesome.
 
My Kershaw #1060 Black Horse (the first one), 1990. AUS6 steel, which isn't the best, but certainly a step up from what I was used to. The blade is lightly thicker than the Schrade LB's and the Buck 110 types, and the finger grooved rubber grip DOES NOT move even with gloves on. It wasn't the most refined or the most high-end, but it was one that started me on the road to paying more attention to knives & tools when I bought them.

It was the first knife I bought specifically for hard use - construction work & demolition. Several guys I worked with liked it, and bought them for themselves. I really liked the fact that I could take the cover off and run it through the dishwasher when needed. After one demo job, I literally had to use a high-pressure water hose on it, just to get enough drywall dust out of it to get it closed.

thx - cpr
 
That knife for me was a Buck 317 Trailblazer. I bought that for myself in the 70s when a 15 year old could walk into the Sporting Goods and say "I'll take that one" and nobody batted an eye. I loaned it to a Buddy who was equally infatuated and he lost it but paid me back the $22 it cost. I've been on the knife parade every since.

I did buy the $500 CRK eventually. Sold it as there is just not enough WOW in those knives to justify that price. On the other hand, the BM710D2 I just bought NIB for $100 has enough WOW in it to make a fella do back flips!!

Good Thread OP!
 
I've always had pocketknives (Swiss Army type or similar) and a couple Euro-style folders that weren't really convenient for toting. Anything I did carry was in a belt sheath.

Then I got a Gerber EZ-out so as to have a decent working blade-only knife that could be carried with a clip.

It was that Gerber with a pocket clip that made me start paying attention to knives a bit more. I doubt I'll ever go truly high-end, but the paradigm shift to an EDC-able blade was a notable event. The EZ-out is now gone (stolen, I think), but now there are three clippable blades to replace it.

-Daizee
 
Emerson Mini Commander. I had other folders that where good but the Emerson was just the first one that made me in love with one knife.
 
The first Knife that I bought that wasn't a cheap Chinese knock-off was a S&W swat knife . I loved it and truth be told it held up for a long time. It eventually fell apart, but it paved the way for my interest in other companies like Benchmade and Emerson.
 
I've owned knives since I was pretty young, but my first decent knife was a Gerber LST Magnum. The next was an old Spyderco Endura with the plastic clip(LOVED that knife!) I still own both.
 
Flatlander1963 said:
On the other hand, the BM710D2 I just bought NIB for $100 has enough WOW in it to make a fella do back flips!!

Good Thread OP!
Click to expand...

+1, the 710D2 is awesome! :thumbup:

But my first "truly awesome" folder would have to be my ZT0300.

My Kershaw Skyline deserves honorable mention for being my favorite EDC at a mere $35!

Another honorable mention would be my first (of 3) Buck 100's which turned my onto knives in the first place.
 
By todays standards, it isn't much. However, when I bought my K-bar stockman in 1972, I thought I had the greatest thing ever. It was the first knife I had that I could actually put a decent edge on.
 
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