Why would I spend $300 on just a knife?

[brucegodlesky]

Good response Gary!!

 

[JVoutilainen]

Custom knife performance.

It is not a straight forward issue, and you can not boil it down with a simple edge retention test. The reason for this is clear; a customer might prefer a blade with a "softer edge", let's say about HRC 56-57, because it makes the knife quicker to re-sharpen. I have ordered one exactly like that, although my toughest knife (that I made myself) has a blade hardness in the range of HRC 61-62. I have experimented with even harder materials (63+), but I don't like them because re-sharpening is, in my opinion, a real pain after that point. Then again, maybe later in life I will master the necessary skills to easily maintain, and thus, enjoy, such outlandishly hard blades... If you are comparing knife performance you must understand that we are talking about "potential" crafted into an item - in real life true "performance" depends greatly on the skills of the user.

Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that good proportion of the custom knife scene does not actually revolve around performance, at all. You can easily purchase a 300 dollar knife that is outperformed by #10 opinel. If you want performance, you need to specifically ask for performance - and more to the point, know what KIND of performance it is you require.

 

[Sniper X]

DAYHIKER WROTE:

John, I think the real answer is Nothing. In VERY extreme uses that none of us here will ever see, a 300 dollar knife might not break like a 60 dollar one but as said, that would be VERY extreme.

Nonsense. My "extreme" use knife didn't cost $300. It cost $118 shipped ,add about $75 or so for the custom sheath and I carry a little over $200 in today's prices in steel and leather.


I cut, baton (cross grain, and with grain), pry, dig, chop, and anything else I need to do with it.

Stating that none of us here use our tools hard is an outlandish assumption on your part.

If you really think a $60 Gerber Ultimate knife (for example)is going to take the same "extreme" use my $120 Fallkniven F1 does, your a sadly mistaken.

Funny how you said exactly what I said but prefaced it with a response to what I said with Nonsense......Granted I said NONE of us will ever see, and I should have said Many of us will never see. But that is beside the point....no pun intended.

 

[kamagong]

12C27 steel is 12C27 steel, for example.

Not true. There is much more to a blade than the steel used. The maker also has to grind the blade. Sometimes the blade grind makes for a nice and efficient cutter, sometimes it is little more than glorified pry bar. Then there is the heat treatment, which brings out the full potential of the steel. If you do it right you will end up with a strong, sharp knife. Get it wrong and the result is a blade that is too hard and weak and brittle, or too soft won't hold an edge. Then there is the level of polish that is put on the knife. The higher the level of polish, the less friction the blade encounters as it cuts. The majority of users probably don't care or know about this. As a result, manufacturers often save money by bead blasting or coating blades. Taking the time to do all of this right adds to the cost of a knife.

Finally 12c27 is not the be all, end all of steels. It's a good choice for folders, but there are better, but more expensive alternatives available.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

All the non-knife people need to ask themselves a question...

... what does a Colt, Sig, H&K, S&W, Ruger, Dan Wesson, Les Baer, or Wilson Combat do that a Hi-Point doesn't do?

 

[dayhiker]

Funny how you said exactly what I said but prefaced it with a response to what I said with Nonsense......Granted I said NONE of us will ever see, and I should have said Many of us will never see. But that is beside the point....no pun intended.

Not really. I said my $120 knife will outperform a $60 knife. Twice as good? IMHO opinion yes.

The same is true with some higher price knives. The Busse Active Duty in the OP's first post will outperform my F1.

INFI is superior to my Laminated VG-10 which is superior to Chinese mystery steel used so much by Gerber these days.

As well Busse's limited production practices are a higher standard than my Japanese manufactured F1 which is better than Gerber's Chinese manufacturing.

See my point?

A $300 dollar knife WILL do things a $60 knife doesn't. And keep doing it for much longer.

 

[Sav .250]

"If" you are a collector, then maybe $300 is not bad for something of quality.
If your not, then $15 gets you a knife of questonable quality and your out of your discretionary funds. Broke again.....

 

[Gunfighter]

All about quality. My Benchmade griptillian with partially serrated blade is a workhorse.The lock withstands ALL pressure and never fails.Ive cut tin, wood, skin deer, used it as a screwdriver many times, as well as a mini pry bar.The blade doesnt have as much carbon as a cheap knife.I own quite a few bucks and after years of use and sharpening the blade wears down to nothing.The better knives hold an edge so much better and longer.I carry (when not at work) my benchmade osbourne with S30V steel , which will cut the average buck or case blade into by placing it on top or bottom of my benchmade and using some hammer force.Im the same way with a knife that i am with a gun, im not gonna own it if i can't completely trust my life with it.

 

[Valkman]

Yep the Griptilian is a great knife.

 

[Zeke/PA]

I am of course a collector of sorts and my knife"collection" amounts to no longer made Schrades/ Old Timers and Case stuff, bought from failing Mom& Pop stores.
Of course, I have MANY duplicates.
E.G. for YEARS I have furnished Case Sodbusters for Christmas Gifts.
YEP!
There is AT LEAST 500 knives in the rack behind me as we speak.
MOST are in the origional factory packaging.
I guess it's one of the perks of being Old,Dumb and Retired.
I just LOVE knives!!

 

[northark147]

I use el cheapo Smith and Wesson Knives myself, but then again I'm not a big knifer, just as my best friend isn't as big a gunner. We go hunting together normally so I can shoot the deer and he can clean it.. lol My extent of knife use is normally opening the adult proof packaging on some new gun toy, but I can certainly tell you that A benchmade will out perform my S&W. I cannot tell you if a 300+ knife is better than either, but I'm sure those that have them can.

 

[451 Detonics]

To me it is similar to art, some folks are content with a print hanging on the wall basically a poster, others prefer a Canvas Transfer, a very high grade copy on canvas, I just prefer owning an original, a one of a kind.

And if you want an original you have to be ready to pay for it.

 

[TimboKhan]

Solipsism is a word that pops into my head

LOL! While I agree with your argument entirely, that is a word that never, ever just pops into my head!

Here is my additional two cents...

I frequently tout the Spyderco Endura as my favorite knife, so let us use that as an example. I paid right around $65 bucks for it several years ago, and I use it pretty hard. Not as hard as some people do, as I work in an office and am not a longshoreman or something, but harder than most people do. It has never let me down, and if I were to return to the field, it would be the knife I would take. In fact, I discovered Spyderco when I was in the Marines, and it replaced entirely the need to buy knives that I could "lose and abuse without worrying about it". The fact that I got regularly mocked for carrying a pink knife (easier to find, you see) had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that my knife outperformed every single other knife that any of my platoon, company, and battalion mates carried. That knife opened everything from MRE's to ammo boxes, and never let me down.

Would I purchase, use and abuse a Sebenza or something similarly priced? Yup. Knives are tools, and I figured out a long time ago that for me, money spent on good tools stretched a lot further than money spent on cheap tools. It's a lesson I learned growing up on a farm with a farmer step-dad that understood and practiced maintenance on his equipment to the extent that our tractors literally never broke down in the field. My dad, a carpenter for over 40 years, is as frugal as they come and while he always bought (and still buys) used tools, he never buys a cheap tool. Neither my Dad nor my step-dad are rich men, but they understood that paying for demonstratable quality is better than buying junk that you have to replace. I will admit that at one point I argued the basic tenet that super-expensive knives were dumb, but a little research and education taught me that while I will likely never own a Sebenza, they are worth the price. I also realized that for my particular needs, I would be overpaying just from a pure utility aspect.

Now, am I advocating everyone who uses a pocketknife to go out and spend $400 bucks? No. Clearly I am not, though I personally wouldn't think twice about it if my finances were such that I could afford that luxury. Utility wise, I don't need one, but if I had the dough pride in ownership would trump utility. Nor am I saying that expensive is good just because it is expensive. What I am saying is that buying junk is not wise.

I understand fully that most people don't need a $150+ knife. I am not wealthy, and I understand making a dollar stretch. Spend $20.00 on some crappy knife if you wish, but I know that my Endura has cost me a little less than a buck a month at this point, and it shows no signs of breaking or failing me anytime soon, and with every passing month, it's value goes up, not down. You can find quality at reasonable prices, dudes. You can also spend some coin and buy a Sebenza and be secure in the knowledge that you have possibly the finest production knife in all the land. Buy wisely, but don't buy junk.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I have some fairy expensive knives, like the Cold Steel Magnum Tanto with their San Mai III blade; Cost me nearly $400. I have nice Case XX's, etc.

The knives that I use every day, though? US-made Kershaws in the $50-$70 range. I've found that there's nothing a knife costing 3 or 4 times as much will do better from a functional standpoint, and the Kershaws are affordable enough that I don't mind marring them (and occasionally losing them).

I can certainly appreciate high-end blades. But for the same reason that I carry a $350 CA bulldog instead of my $1,000 Witness Limited, I carry a $60 Kershaw instead of a $200+ semi-custom. They're gonna get used, and they're gonna show it.

 

[JVoutilainen]

Well said, TimboKhan.

The good thing about carpenters tools is that very few carpenters actually know how to use the "old stuff" - mainly because many of them would not know how to sharpen anything to save their life. Modern carpentry is basically machining. Why is that a good thing? Because then people with skills can buy absolutely brilliant carpenters tools, now deemed obsolete, for peanuts from the ebay...

About solipsism. I'm surprised that doesn't pop into your head, because it seems to be the leading ideology of the day. Apparently people think they can "choose" or "create" reality instead of experiencing it. Also, they think they can party their way through troubled times. Yes, it is funny that the leading ideology, at least in the western world, is a mental disorder.

 

[Snowbandit]

For working knives I only buy American made. Kershaw makes great knives, in the US, and they don't cost no $300.00 either. Plus their warranty is pretty much unbeatable. They're good enough for my needs.

 

[Pete D.]

If a knife (or a car, or a rifle, or a pistol, or a watch, or a pen, etc.) is only to be measured by functionality, by utility, then the less expensive versions will do.
How does one explain the pleasure of owning something like a custom knife, or a fine watch?
Twenty-five years ago, I had this made for me by David Boye, it has been on my hip ever since and given me a great deal of pleasure. Given the expense back then, I suppose that it more than qualifies for this discussion.

While this is on my hip and gets used every day, there is also a Schrade Stockman in my pocket. It will cut just as well but I reach for the Boye knife first.
It's not "just a knife".
Pete

 

[Brian Williams]

Quality, The reason I took all of my Klein tools and some Craftsman wrenches and a good hammer with me to Cambodia. It is the reason I wear Reef flipflops, I never thought I would pay $50 for a pair of flipflops. The reason why I wear Gortex raincoats. The reason why I have a few good knives including a Douk douk, an Opinel, and a Wheeler along with others. The reason why I write with sets Cross pen/pencil in Sterling silver, 10k Gold filled and Black/gold. I have found that my Dell Latitude is holding up better than most laptops in this heat and dust because I bought quality.

 

[EvilGenius]

I'd never pull out a $300 knife to pry at something sketchy, I'd go get a screwdriver like I'm supposed to.

Whoa whoa whoa.

You mean you use your $50 snap-on flathead to pry on something?

That's a job for a $3.50 give away from harbor freight. But it'll never be able to handle the same jobs as the snap-on with its trade mark handle shape, blasted tip for less slippage and quality time spent manufacturing with signature box from the manufacturer and owners manual with serial number and proof of purchase next to the signed letter from the company owner.

 

[EvilGenius]

Same knife here.

Abused daily for 5 years now and just as solid as the day I got it.

I respect the expensive stuff for what it is, but I can't see why you'd buy something you never really plan to use. What a waste.

 

[Sniper X]

While not a NICE knife, it works great and I carry it daily...well until of course I change again to something else in my safe since I love to carry a different gun and knife every other week or so!

 

[wheelgunslinger]

I go back and forth on this topic. I like to be practical and always consider how much I can help other people with the resources I have, including spending less on something so I can redirect that money to more rewarding uses.

But, I do like quality items and believe that quality is worth paying for, if you're buying a serious piece of equipment. Knives are not much different.
I'm one of those people who use sharp tools and has to know how to resharpen them. So, the lessons of quality cutting tools aren't lost on me.

 

[12gaugeTim]

Solipsism is a word that pops into my head, for some reason.

Pretentious is a word that pops into my head, for some reason.

 

[alaskanativeson]

I respect the expensive stuff for what it is, but I can't see why you'd buy something you never really plan to use. What a waste.

5 years ago I spend a little over $300 on a Randall model 25, the one posted here. I knew the money would be well spent if I bought the knife to use or not to use. Today, the knife is unused, and I could put it on eBay for a 5 day auction and double my money on it. A Randall Knife is a solid investment. That said, I don't buy knives as a part of a portfolio, I do it because I love knives. It's nice to know, however, that the level of quality in something like a Randall is such that its value will go up over time. That says something about the Randall family's creations.

 

[EvilGenius]

5 years ago I spend a little over $300 on a Randall model 25, the one posted here. I knew the money would be well spent if I bought the knife to use or not to use. Today, the knife is unused, and I could put it on eBay for a 5 day auction and double my money on it. A Randall Knife is a solid investment. That said, I don't buy knives as a part of a portfolio, I do it because I love knives. It's nice to know, however, that the level of quality in something like a Randall is such that its value will go up over time. That says something about the Randall family's creations.

And it's certainly a matter of opinion.

It would just irk me to death to buy a tool (especially an expensive one) and never use it, even if it did go up in value.

Whih doesn't really mean much unless you actually intend to sell it.