ALL THINGS BUDGET KNIVES

Wow, KS, that is a gorgeous knife! Do it!

I wish you folks who provide pictures or links of stunning knives available only at AliExpress have some compassion for those few of us who can't receive anything from any of their stores. My home State has no escrow services for AE.

Any of the larger Cold Steel knives can be inertia opened, the Voyager XL Tanto having a thicker and slightly heavier blade than its flat ground siblings is very good. Spyderco knives are popular for the Spydy drop, hold the blade and snap the handle out which can also be done on the Buck 110.

As a rule of thumb, a 4” blade with a liner or frame lock should have enough blade mass compared to retention strength to inertia open.

You might be able to do it with a Timber Rattler Scarab.

That’s an 8 and a bit inch long blade. Made in Pakistan so probably a no name stainless, the pivot is a bit too small for the blade size, and I don’t think it has much of a heat treatment, but for Crocodile Dundee’s pocket knife it’s mercifully cheap at about $15-$25 plus postage.

^ Now that's a knife. Thanks for sharing. Something about the picture gives me a sensation of motion. Maybe the crazy proportions and the reflections of the venetian blinds on the table.

@jerm03: I agree. I believe that the most important part of any knife is learning how to sharpen it. There is no magic steel. Long time between sharpening means long time spent sharpening, Knowing that, I can be happy with just about any blade steel so long as I can keep it sharp.

Roger that.:slight_smile:
Jerry

I have this knife, it’s a decent quality budget knife.
I bought it because I really liked the blade shape and machined G10 handles, it turned out to be pretty good quality for a truly budget price.
8CR13 Blade steel (supposedly a decent quality Hi Carbon steel)

$15 from several sellers on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meyerco-Darrel-Ralph-7-1-8-Spring-Assisted
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meyerco-MAXX-Q-Assisted-Opening-Linerlock
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meyerco-Darrel-Ralph-Maxx-Q-Assisted-Opening

Pro’s:

  • Low price
  • Spring assisted opening
  • Blade steel 8CR13 Stainless
  • Nice CNC machined G10 handles
  • Nice lockup and nearly zero blade play
  • Sturdy, useful & cool looking blade shape
  • Blade is very thick all the way towards the tip
  • Lightweight because there are no metal liners

Cons:

  • No “Flipper” on the spine of blade for opening
  • Thumb wheel (instead of studs)
  • Clip is thin & not “Deep Carry”
  • Knife is overall kind of thick

It’s not my EDC but I thought it was worth mentioning here since it is truly budget priced but way better quality than the M-Tech/Tac-Force type stuff.
I thought someone else here might like the design/shape, which is why I was drawn to it.

I have a lot of Kershaws plus some SRM and Ganzo that I EDC, but it makes a great truck knife or backup knife for utility use if I’m going to beat it up when I don’t want to risk messing up my EDC.

As many knives as I have in the collection,…I keep going back often to the Spyderco Ambitious for daily work/office carry. It is one of those big…little knives. A lot a blade and capability in a small package. It is the little brother to the widely popular Tenacious (which everyone should own).

I ran across this guy that made custom scales for his Ambitious and selling on the Bay. I can’t justify throwing $75 down right now….but it sure is tempting. If it had a custom wire clip,…I would probably have pulled the trigger on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spyderco-Ambitious-C148GP-with-Custom-Steel-Scales-/321654293038?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae417022e

Hi guys, I’m into budget knive too!!
Would like to buy some Kershaw (now I have 4 original items) because they are nice knives and cheap, but the shipping cost kill me. Buy it in euros is a pain in the ass (Kershaw Chill 12$ in USA, aka 20 euros + 10 euros shipping cost!). Same think with Ontario Rat 1 and so many other well know brand.
So, the question: maybe do you know some place very I can find some nice Kershaw not so clone/copy/crappy? Amazon don’t sell knives in Italy. Ebay have shipping cost/duty too high. I have buy from Exduct and Fasttech…thank you so much!

I don’t know nothing about it, but it seem have the same blade of Kershaw Chill. BTW, it look very nice:

New Zero Tolerance

Heinie Haynes carries Kershaw and has a good selection of other blades too. I can’t speak for the pricing but they will ship for free to the EU if you spend enough.

When I am outside of the USA, I have a freight forwarding service ship to me. I pay by the pound and they fly it to me. Of course that means that I usually buy about 2 kg or more stuff at a time.

Here are some old kitchen knives, maybe 10 years ago, sharpened and with shape restored.


The machete at the bottom is a real relic. My first wife and I bought it near Acapulco in 1971. The blade is forged. You can see hammer marks on it. I have much sharpened it. The handle is cow bone. Inch scale ruler for scale.

This shows it more clearly.

Below it are very good but very modest looking knives labeled “molybdenum vanadium steel Taiwan”.
Also notable is a “carbon steel” stag handled carving set.

Here are four ivory handled traditional non-stainless table knives from a flea market in Geneva in the mid 1970s.

(These were definitely not budget knives when new and may not be now, but they were when I bought them.)

+1
Although blade steel type does play a major role for sharpening, in so much as (easy or hard) to sharpen and (how often) sharpening is needed.

Here’s a pretty good reference for most of the popular blade steels.

The Lexicon of Blade Steel list

That link went to a resouce I was entirely unaware of.

Thank you for this resource, and all of your other contributions to us and our hobby/addiction!

A large slip joint is always a grin raiser when you open it up.
I have a Boker Magnum Majestic .
Blade Length (cm): 16.2
Blade Thickness (cm): 0.31
Closed Length (cm): 20.30
Overall Length (cm): 36.5
Weight (g): 487g



Not cheap at $43 but a lot of very sharp knife.

I have the G10 version. After a little fine-tuning/tinkering it became one of my favourites.
I’ll try to shoot a couple of pics at the weekend.

Thanks, Beam. That is helpful.
Jerry

There’s a #9 and a #10 to add to those as well. All in beech.

T :slight_smile: hey are not pretty, but hey are good for the job.
Jerry

Hoping that many of you on this thread recognize the Kizer (Chinese) brand of knives. Typical arguments aside, they appear to be a producer of high-value products (S35VN steel and bearing pivots in some) at mid-market prices. I'll forego the discussions about whether they are "budget" or not - only you can decide. I own one, finding it to be the best overall valued knife in my collection. Suggest that you check out their products, even if just to get to know of them.

I sent an email to Kizer inquiring into their sketchy website and whether or not any of their unnamed models contained bearing pivots. Wanted to pass along their brief replies: 1.) We are a growing company, undergoing growing pains. The website will definitely be upgraded. 2.) Models KI4455 and KI4431 are just two of the models with the bearing systems.