Your Opinion on the BEST overall knife Company?!

Spyderco and Kershaw, I love Benchmade too but Kershaw deserves 2nd place for their excellent customer service and latest improvements in materials and designs.
 
Spyderco, then benchmade. Kershaw is coming up fast. If they'ed start putting as much into better blade steels ( AUS 4,6, and 8 aren't quite up to VG10 and CPM SV30 ETC. at edge holding ( you know, the reason we have knives) then they will be in the top tier also. They are showing signs of doing just that too recently , coming out with a ZPD 189 laminated Leek ( I think?) and IIRC some SV30 bladed knives coming out. The M16 design still scrapes and bites me when I carry it in my pocket, not at all like a smooth spyderco design.

Benchmade dropped their M2 steel models, and theTitanium liner Specwar, AFCK, and Boge* "Spike* but they still have D2 ( and CPM 154) and excellent designs, and good quality control. I still like their older designs better I have to admit.

Overall I have to pick the Glesser team and Spyderco company for reasons listed above. Joe L.
 
none other compare to chris reeve. I like my busses better. But for sheer quality in design, and great customer service chris reeve is the one to beat. At this years blade he got his 6 manfacturing quality award, And they dont just give those out.
 
I prefer benchmade. I'm waiting to add spyderco back into my collection, but the waiting is one of the things I hate about their practices. Kershaw is getting a lot of praise these days, and I'm thinking about getting a stud lock folder from them. Hopefully they really have improved, since my Vapor had better QC on it than my random task (working lock and a sharp edge from the factory).
 
The ones that keep me happy are the ones mentioned already.

Benchmade, Spyderco and Kershaw.

For production made folders.


WR
 
proguide said:
I think Spyderco and Benchmade are the standards for the modern folder market.
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I 1000% agree>> and necessarily in that order too. The GREAT SPYDER FACTORY is a high, high standard of quality and variety that few will ever even get near. Some of my earlier high end folders were Benchmades that I still have. Quality, innovation & integrity will be the definition you find for Spyderco if you look it up in your Merriam Webster's ;)
 
Man, I am sorta suprised...I havnt heard anything about Cold Steel ? are they not as great as they claim to be ?

inpaticularly their balisong line folders etc...
 
Cold Steel sells a decent product, but don't consistently use materials on the same level as the others, and some people take issue with their marketing.
 
Spyderco is definitely king of the hill. They set the trends. BenchMade generally has really good products, but customer interaction is lacking. Kershaw will quickly take number 2 spot if BenchMade doesn’t start talking.
 
I also agree

1. Spyderco.
2. kershaw
3. Al Mar
4. Emerson
5. Byrd/Spyderco line
6. Buck
7. Gerber
8. Benchmade


seems like a good list for people to go by.
 
Knife companies.

Well, I want to say Benchmade or Spyderco.

BUT...

Overall?

2 companies come to mind

1. Kai Cutlery, which makes the Kershaw line, incredibly high quality kitchen cutlery in a wide variety, and all kinds of medical cutlery like precision scapels, etc. A huge Japanese company in Seki City that goes back something like 700 years.
2. Ontario Knives up in Franklinville NY, which not only makes all the great Ontario knives - military and others, but also Queen, Schatt & Morgan - (are there nicer production slipjoints?), Old Hickory carbon steel kitchen cutlery with 1095, plus they do private label stuff, they used to make the Winchester slipjoints for Blue Grass under license, I think Moore Maker too...

So because of the definitions in the original post, I'll say Ontario Knives as the "best" overall knife company; even though I really don't think there is a true best because the industry is too fragmented

Meaning - looking for example at Spydercos like the Millie or Chinook or Manix - - no one else is making them!! So for some people, the fact that they make those knives, plus their great customer service, innovation, etc. - Spyderco might be the best knife company.

But overall? Good question.
 
1. Spyderco

2. Al Mar

I've lost confidence in Benchmade with their lack of new products and the new knife they have out called "The Infidel". They have discontinued the best knives and kept the "mediocre" ones.
 
Flapjack said:
I've lost confidence in Benchmade

They have discontinued the best knives and kept the "mediocre" ones.
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It seems as of late that Benchmade like to replace G10 handled knives with Aluminum. I don't know why that is, but they're moving in the opposite direction I want to see. Not to say they're a bad company, but they aren't the company I used to know and love.

Best wishes,
3G
 
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