Because a watery tart threw a sword at me.
[off topic = having fun with fanboi]
If I went around claiming supreme ZT Fanboi power just because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
[/off topic]
ZT makes a fine knife that will do any task for which a knife would typically be used. The blades have, in the past, been thicker in general, and the knives are rugged and dependable. You can find ZTs in a variety of blade steels if you look for limited edition or short runs that have higher end / more expensive steels.
Benchmade knives are also high quality with their own style look and feel - nice knives. Typically they are a little thinner at the edge as compared to a ZT.
Spyderco also makes a high quality knife, one that is advertised as function over form styling. The quirky styling can grow on you, if you own one for a while you start to understand the reasoning behind some of the odd design queues. You can get a nice variety of exotic blade steels from Spyderco as well, sometimes in standard runs like the Manix 2 with CTS204P, for example.
Emerson makes a great knife, again with their own take on styling and blade geometry. I think no collection is complete without a CQC-7 of some sort.
Have some fun and read around the forum, as you said "get your learn on" and enjoy.
Also - start saving your money - you'll need it!
best
mqqn
