a good 40$ folding knife

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  • booker

    Active Member
    Apr 5, 2008
    776
    Baltimore
    My favorite pocket/work knife is the Ken Onion Kershaw Blackout. Spring assist, perfect in the hand, great steel for the money in my opinion. $46

    blackout.jpg


    http://www.amazon.com/Kershaw-Onion...=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1309045675&sr=1-1


    For a cheapie that'll get shaving sharp and hold a decent edge, Byrd Cara Cara (low-end Spyderco Endura). They were $16 when I got mine, with demand they've gone up to $30+. Wish I had bought three a year ago.

    3395632467_51ab5496d9.jpg


    http://www.amazon.com/Byrd-Cara-Pla...=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1309045723&sr=1-1
     

    matt_b89

    Active Member
    Apr 5, 2011
    900
    Allegany County/Frostburg
    i just bought a cold steel recon 1 and this sucker is SHARP. it's also a nice big 4 inch blade for some heavy work whether it be self defense or what not. I actually bought a little Victorinox the other day though for certain tasks like screwdrivers and stuff that is rough as I want to preserve my cold steel
     
    I've been carrying a blackhawk silent partner for over 3 yrs now and have been totaly happy with it. No corrosian (and I do no PM to it what so ever) easy to use never sharpened and it's still sharp enugh to cut the hell out of me once in a while or what ever im cutting. I think if you search around you can find them in your price range http://www.katerno.com/detail.php?s=85088 (I don't know the seller just googled it) alot of places has it as discontinued.
     

    ToneGrail

    MSI, NRA, & SAF Member
    Dec 18, 2008
    1,397
    Towson, People's Republik of MD
    Another great value brand is Enlan. I have an Enlan EL01A and it's a rock solid knife. It's kind of a poor man's Zero Tolerance. It cost me $17 from Lazy Lizard Outdoor Gear. They also combine shipping. I ordered 2 knives from them and they only charged $3.50 flat rate shipping.
     

    ToneGrail

    MSI, NRA, & SAF Member
    Dec 18, 2008
    1,397
    Towson, People's Republik of MD
    My favorite pocket/work knife is the Ken Onion Kershaw Blackout. Spring assist, perfect in the hand, great steel for the money in my opinion. $46

    blackout.jpg


    http://www.amazon.com/Kershaw-Onion...=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1309045675&sr=1-1


    For a cheapie that'll get shaving sharp and hold a decent edge, Byrd Cara Cara (low-end Spyderco Endura). They were $16 when I got mine, with demand they've gone up to $30+. Wish I had bought three a year ago.

    3395632467_51ab5496d9.jpg


    http://www.amazon.com/Byrd-Cara-Pla...=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1309045723&sr=1-1

    They're back down to $20 on Amazon. It's the upgraded version 2. I ordered one.
     

    booker

    Active Member
    Apr 5, 2008
    776
    Baltimore
    They're back down to $20 on Amazon. It's the upgraded version 2. I ordered one.


    Cool... I'll probably get another. Thanks for the heads up!

    For the OP... you might also check out the Opinel. A cheapie French-made knife that has an iconic design (they were actually featured at the NY Museum of Modern Art).

    The No. 8 is the "most common" size. About $20 delivered. I believe most of the models come in either carbon steel or Inox (stainless). Personally, I'd go with the carbon steel. Not a "tactical" knife by any stretch, but they are extremely light, make excellent slicers, and are fun to bring on a picnic or whatnot.

    http://www.amazon.com/Opinel-No8-Ca...TF8&coliid=I3HDTH7IGH52ZN&colid=1CL07PD0KL43J

    414k8XbF%2BbL._SS500_.jpg
     

    Kilroy

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 27, 2011
    3,069
    I do knife reviews on youtube, and I collect knives as a hobby. Right now, there's a Benchmade 2550 auto in my pocket (legally), I like them a lot. I'm not going to recommend a Benchmade though. OP asked for a $40 knife, not a $150 one.
    I highly recommend Kershaw, SOG, Spyderco (US made models) or Leatherman knives. Any of those should be good. If I was to recommend a specific one, the Kershaw Random Leek would be it. (Because I have a lot of experience with it.) I like CRKT, but the one I had was pretty dull and would quickly revert to dull after sharpening.
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,369
    Cool... I'll probably get another. Thanks for the heads up!

    For the OP... you might also check out the Opinel. A cheapie French-made knife that has an iconic design (they were actually featured at the NY Museum of Modern Art).

    The No. 8 is the "most common" size. About $20 delivered. I believe most of the models come in either carbon steel or Inox (stainless). Personally, I'd go with the carbon steel. Not a "tactical" knife by any stretch, but they are extremely light, make excellent slicers, and are fun to bring on a picnic or whatnot.

    http://www.amazon.com/Opinel-No8-Ca...TF8&coliid=I3HDTH7IGH52ZN&colid=1CL07PD0KL43J

    414k8XbF%2BbL._SS500_.jpg

    2011-07-28 21.25.29.jpg
    i'm beginning to think i have entirely too many knives. I don't think i'd ever consider actually carrying this one for anything though. It stays in the kitchen where it actually does a decent job cutting up random dinner-foods.
     

    ToneGrail

    MSI, NRA, & SAF Member
    Dec 18, 2008
    1,397
    Towson, People's Republik of MD
    I ordered a spyderco tenacious. I'll let everyone know how I like it when it comes in.

    Great choice! It's been my current EDC for over a year now. While I do rotate, the Tenacious seems to get most pocket time due to it's perfect size and versatility. I also love the butter smooth deployment. Who needs an automatic when you got one of these!
     

    52KV

    Member
    Jun 8, 2011
    10
    I have 2 Buck vantage pros. The first was a college graduation gift. I liked it soo much I bought another for a backup/hunting knife. For the money they are great knives. I know there have been problems in the past with blade misalignment and lockup, but it seems Buck has fixed these issues. Both of mine have no problems whatsoever. For A knife with a G10 handle and S30V blade with Bos heat treatment, you really can't beat it. Just a great American made knife. I would suggest it to anyone looking for a new EDC.
     

    RaVis

    Oi!
    Jun 19, 2011
    2,192
    Spyderco Delica 4 - hands down. Can be picked up for as little as $35 shipped NIB pre-owned off many of the knife forums out there. Variety of edge options - now including multiple color handles with FFG grind. Tenacious is also a great option but considerably larger than the Delica.
     

    Maryland Hunter

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 1, 2008
    3,194
    SOG Flash II for me, for the last couple of years. $45 at Lowes. $90 at the Chantilly show.:rolleyes: Holds an edge pretty well, and sharpens up real nice. Once I started using the assisted open knives, I can't go back to a regular one.

    MH
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,369
    For $35-$45 the Ontario RAT 1(AUS8 steel made in Taiwan) is a great value View attachment 38056

    Also the American made Buck Vantage can be found at Wal - Mart ( it's available with several quality blade steels and handle types) costs anywhere from $20 - $60 new and worth every cent.

    2011-08-09 15.43.13.jpg

    2011-08-09 15.43.44.jpg

    I recently picked up a buck vantage pro to give it a try as an edc. Only cost $50 and it has BOS(as in paul bos) treated s30v with cnc cut g10 handle...great value. I'm not a big fan of liner locks(arc-locks of SOG and axis lock of benchmade are my favorites), but it seems fairly solid on this one. The liner lock is a bit sharp and needs to be contoured and cut down a bit to be comfortable.

    The action is fairly smooth due to brass bushings and what appear to be ball bearings that race in the steel liners to double as a blade stop. The carson opener on the back is too rounded and small to really be of any signifigant use, but does act nicely as a choil when fully opened. To activate it when opening, you've essentially got to slide your finger in between the steel liners(pressing in heavily) while flicking your wrist. It's no where near the useful design of my crkt M16-01T. The Cutout in the blade is also of a weird shape that is soooo close to being a good design, but falls short of allowing the user to easily open the knife. I would have preferred standard thumb studs or if they enlarged and rounded it to mimic a spyderco or benchmade bone collector so your thumb could get a better grip when flicking out.

    The pocket clip is something else on this knife that's close to being good, but has it's drawbacks. It's placement on the very back of the handle allows the knife to be carried extremely low in your pocket, but makes drawing it difficult. I'd suggest reshaping the handle, where the buck's anvil logo is located, to create a grippable indentation to facilitate drawing it from a pocket.

    The blade itself is the nutts of this knife. The s30v's incredible wear resistance(largely due to large amounts of vanadium, cutting down carbide size and the partical metallurgy enhancing the alloying elements), near a2 toughness and hardness around 60 hrc, make this steel one of the best currently available. Buck's using the technology Paul Bos sold to them when he moved onsite and then "retired" to give this steel a very nice heat treat as well. It's able to get extremely sharp and hold an edge for a very long time. The one thing i'd mention, is that the machine grinding of the edge from the factory seems to have altered the temper slightly along the factory edge. After hand-sharpening with a lansky diamond kit, the edge has seemed to hold up better.


    so far for a $50 OTD knife, this has been greaaaaaaaat. It's slim enough to comfortably carry(especially when combined with the pocket clip). It's main drawbacks are that it's difficult to quickly deploy...should you ever need it in a defensive situation. Also, the liner lock forces you to put your fingers in the way of the blade closing...while the carson opener blocks the blade from closing until your finger has been moved, it's still not ideal.

    Overall, it's a $100 knife at a $50 price. I'm liking it.
     

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