raccoon city's Favorite Knives, with pics! All Kershaw (except for two) so far.

I own 2 kershaws, a skyline I found on a park bench and a composite blade black wash leek, that leek is a cool knife, not really something for anything heavy but its a looker that’s for sure

I like low-priced high-quality assisted-openers, and Kershaw just happens to own the market.

How long have you been into knives? I loved assisted for a couple of years after getting into knives, but good quality manual knives won me over after I saw good they could be. My Zero Tolerance 0560, 0620cf, and 0450cf are my favorite knives.

I bought my first high-quality knife in 2008.

I have an assortment of nice manual knives, but most are for sale because I don't care for them.

Could it be the Hot Wire? Made by Kershaw, but only sold in Walmart. A fast opener, and a great gift for women.

Pocket Knives. A Stainless skeleton PUMA (forget the model) had for over 40 yrs. $25AUD. the airport scanners got 2 of them. I forget they in pocket…
My Usual pocket/nail picker, Parcel opener. a little Mat black Stainless SOG. 70mm Long with 55mm Blade. Bought x 2 in pack about 6 yrs ago for $10/12US.
Serious knives. apart from My Damascus Jap Kitchens. are a PUMA Prince. Folder.
Bought in ’79 (Name engraved on all my knives) for $30AUD.
And a basic sheath Swedish /Norwegian 5in straight, non recurve Damascus blade, moulded handle. Had around 55/56 yrs from memory. Yet to find anything better for my hand comfort. With blade to match.
Been around a while (77yrs). HAD lot’s of knives, remember few.
The blade material is the Numero Uno…For any knife. No matter how “honky/sexy/YES… it looks.
Won’t stay sharp. Not worth a fiddlers Toss. Endless frustration when you trying to do things.
Sort the steels in blade first. THEN pick your knife.

I prefer Damascus. GOOD Damascus for any serious blade I buy.
They much stronger and stay waaaaay sharper than any single core material except for maybe. Power saw blades.
They make MAGIC serious. (Buff, Cows. Deer) skinners, with the 1 1\2 in deep blades.
Crossman do a nice small skinner too If they still around. (mine ’85)
Had a coupla small Kershaw. Engraved. bone handled skinners decades ago. VERY nice knives but couldn’t hold a decent skinning edge for more than 1/2 a beast. Hence I had 2, plus a round axe stone.
Gave to son after coupla months.

If you want a “the” knife. Use them till you around 40 yrs. so you know what YOU like and want.
Then get a custom Damascus.
You only need one for the rest of your life then. With maybe a skeleton blade in pocket.

The Kershaw 1776 and 1776 are my favorite knives - but only on sale. I like the Kershaw brand because they're decently-built, good-performing, and the quality-to-price ratio is high. The spring-assisted knifes work best for me because they are easy to open with one hand while working - even with heavy leather work gloves on. I never really caught on to using a thumb stud to open a knife. I carry my folders in a belt pouch to keep them handy but out-of-the-way.

I’ve been carrying a Kershaw Shallot for a while, it’s a little larger than a Leek and I like the blade profile better.
It’s a shame it is discontinued.
:frowning:
1840
Anyone going to the Kershaw factory sale in Tualatin the week after Thanksgiving?
Great sales on factory seconds and one of a kinds.
Factory sale
:money_mouth_face:

Thinking about the best knife in 2018 that i got would be… really hard to think. There were some of them awsome.

Found the box. It is a Spoke. Don’t remember what I paid for it a few years ago but, I do see Amazon has it on sale for $16.99 right now. The wife loves it. She never leaves the house without it.

The Shallot was a fantastic knife. I love most of Ken Onion’s designs.

The Hot Wire looks interesting. If it didn’t have such meh steel I’d probably grab one. It’s like a downmarket Chill, which is ironic given it started out around $10.

My favorite knife this year is the Benchmade Bugout. Not really budget but it’s a great knife.

I clicked on your link for the Spoke and decided I couldn’t live without it, so……I clicked again.
I don’t really carry knives much anymore, just a multi-tool of one breed or another—usually a Leatherman. I think my wife will like the Spoke though.

:slight_smile: Glad you grabbed one. I am sure the wife will love it. It opens super fast, came super sharp and so far has kept an edge pretty well.

UPDATE:

I have a knife to add to the list...

Kershaw Vedder 2460

It's just as good as the other Kershaw knives made in the China, but it takes a little extra effort to push the flipper and open the knife.

The extra effort is not a deal breaker, for me, but it is an issue that the other knives on the list do not have.

UPDATE:

I have a knife to add to the list...

Kershaw Seguin 3490

It's just as good as the other Kershaw knives made in the China.

I have a couple hundred folding knives I suspect. About 30-40 or so are Kershaws of various types. IMO, I agree with folks above that Kershaw has the best price to performance ratio across the line of any Mfg. Great product at a great price. My fav. EDC is the Kershaw Blur and I have about 8-9 of them. They come in cheap enough that I don’t care if I happen to lose one (hasn’t happened yet knock wood), They pull out quick, grip well and are non-slip, sharp and flip open easy. The blade shape isn’t ideal for a fight although they do have several blade types, but that crap only happens @ every 30 years anyway (so far), so maybe I’m good. The blade shape is rugged and won’t break under any conditions I would bet. Regardless, I have some better knives, but they cost craploads more (not double or triple -craploads) I get nervous carrying them for fear of loss. My total favorite is the Lone Wolf Harshey D2 D/A. Best pocket folding knife ever and certainly significantly better than any of the “auto” crap Benchmade try’s to sell. But I only have 2 of them. For whatever reason, Benchmade bought Lone Wolf, took pre-orders and then stopped production of them almost right away. I was stoked as I had 2 on preorder with Benchmade for the first production run in D2 steel, and they were less $$ than Lone Wolf had been selling them all day long (list was $215 vs $300) and yet they cancelled the order. I suspect that Bill arshey wanted a residual or something. That guy makes some great product though, it would have been Benchmades #1 knife should they have made them.

So close. Now they go close to $500 for an old Lone Wolf brand …when you can find one.

Love Kershaw, definitely top of the list for price to performance ratio. They also have some of the best usable profiles while maintaining a good aesthetic.

This is my favorite from 2018

Dividend

I thought your favourite brand was Racoon Knives ! :wink:

They look interesting, but I had never heard of them until now.