whats the best pocket knife brand

You seem to want a more traditional knife like a Case or Queen. That is great!

Pretty much anything from Spyderco (I like the Manix 2 and the Para Military), Benchmade, Kershaw/Zero Tolerance, and a few others mentioned will do well for you.
 
Maybe a Spyderco? If you want THE BEST pocket knife get a Chris Reeve Sebenza it goes for $300-$400. Or you could go with an Ontario Rat 1 it is a cheap yet still reliable and well built knife.
 
well i got a kershaw skyline. didnt get to hold it just look at it in a package seems well built. i think the thumbstuds are useless but it has the flipper so who cares. thought the handle is a weird feeling very grippy. weird. what would you guys prefer skyline ,mini griptilian 440c or buck vantage?
 
knarfeng - will you recommend me a brick and mortar, PLEASE. i've lived here for a little now, and have not found a knife store >.>

i saw dakota ask about SOG, but no one really responded, does anyone have a good run down as to why they wouldn't recommend them. My main collection is SOG, all US, and Japan made except one.
 
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i just went to walmart , ace didnt have much had a few case knives and coast...... orshelns had mostly winchester and walmart had gerber buck and kershaw. i guess a gun store may have knives to but im not sure.
 
Hey Dakota14, I remember you mentioning your from Washington state, about 80 miles from a Cabela's. The only one I know of is in the Lacey area. Can you give me more detail on where in Washington you're from? I might be able to help you find a knife store if your anywhere between Bellingham to Seattle.
 
thanks but im from washington missouri. i thought i put (mo) if not my bad .... everyone mistakes it but its just a town close to where i grew up its pretty big 9,000 people. its about 8,800 to many for what im used to :)
 
My bad Dakota14, totally misread the state. Hopefully this new advice will be more helpful :D.

Also, the Kershaw Skyline is a great little knife, I've had mine for about 2-3 months now and it holds up to moderate use just fine. It sharpens up really well even for beginners and is really just a handy knife to use. Keep in mind though, the blade is bead blasted and if your unlucky like I am, the knife will develop surface rust extremely quickly sometimes. I ended up polishing my blade and I have no more problems, and it looks awesome too. The handles are made of G10, and I also found them to be kind of weird feeling at first, but they are awesomely grippy and you won't really lose grip unless your trying to.

If you do end up getting a new BM Griptillian, I think you might like it. I've handled and lightly used a friend's Grip, and it works fine for everything I need it for. A lot of people don't like the handles, but since you've used an older version, you'll probably be okay with it. The 154CM that they use for the blade holds up really well in my BM 520 Presidio and the edge seems to last pretty well. Personally I love the Axis lock for being both left and right hand friendly, and I've never had any issues with lock problems and I've never broken an Omega spring yet.

Finally, the Buck Vantage Pro is pretty awesome small folder. It really feels substantial and pretty well built for a 50 or so dollar knife. It opens smoothly, has a pretty decent lock, and the S30V with hollow grind seems to cut extremely well for me, even a beginner. My only issue is that the blade is slightly off to one liner and the blade is extremely tight. I can't loosen it up any more in case it starts rubbing liner, but it should break in after more use, so I would recommend looking at one in person to make sure you like it.

Hope this helps you out man. Good luck finding a good knife for yourself :D.

김원진, hey man, its good to see another Korean on the forums.

In my experience SOG makes some awesome looking folders, but most that I've handled didn't really feel like they were worth the price, especially in comparison to some other makers. When I first got into knife using/collecting, I wanted a SOG Flash I/II really badly, but when I got the money together to buy one, it was a different story. Every time I checked one out in person, they had some pretty noticable play in most directions and the handles felt kind of flimsy compared to other plastic handles. Also, I didn't like the fact that they had bladeplay right out of the box. I would understand if a knife developed bladeplay after it got beat on, but to have it out of the box is enough to make me doubt the knife from the beginning. Even if it's not going to close on my fingers, the fact that it moves around a bit is enough to put that thought into my head.

For the price the shops wanted, I would have rather paid a little more and gotten myself a BM, Spyderco, or Kershaw. Even though SOG is based in Lynnwood Washington, which is literally a 10 minute drive from my home, I ended up not buying any due to the really inflated prices even at their retail shop, and even some of the models in their display had some noticable play.

In the end, I ended up saving up about 50 more dollars and bought a BM 520 Presidio. In my opinion, the upgrade in quality of blade steel, anodized aluminum handles over Zytel, and general quality in terms of F/F, no bladeplay, and great lock made the knife worth paying almost twice the price of a SOG Flash.

Sorry for being a downer about SOG, but this is why I don't really buy their stuff anymore. To be honest though, my opinion doesn't really matter in the end with your knife purchases, so I hope you have fun buying whatever knives fit your style :D.

To everyone who had the patience to read my super long post, thanks, and hopefully it was useful :D.

GAH, also forgot, someone might bring up that SOG knives wiggle a bit due to the A/O spring and mechanisms. I have BM Barrage that is also A/O, but is rock solid, and my Kershaw Speedsafe knives never wiggle either. Not sure what's up. Although, I do like bigger knives with more substantial feeling pivots, so that might be it :D.
 
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thanks for the input man, i hadn't had a good EDC for awhile, and when i was looking around, someone had recommended SOG to me, so my first expensive buy was a flash II a few years ago. I wish i would have known about these forums earlier. i recently upgraded to a sog vulcan which is definitely better than the flash, but after looking around here i feel the need to pick up a sebenza.

are you carrying anything around better than the skyline, or is that your main edc?
 
i meant the benchmade mini grip with 440c and the vantage select with 420. i thought the newer skylines fixed the rust problem? if not i guess ill make sure its taken care of. :)
 
김원진, I'm glad that something I said was useful to someone :D. I carry the Kershaw Skyline when I need a beater knife, not that any of my knives are abused, but I would rather beat up a 25-35 dollar knife than a 100+ dollar knife. I usually carry a BM 940 or 520 Presidio, the 940 because it is a slim and classy looking knife that even non-knife people think looks nice. I carry the BM 520 Presidio when I'm going out at night or if I'm going somewhere where knives are allowed, but I don't know the people. I'm a college student, and I've had knives pulled on me twice by dumbasses trying to look tough and cool in front of chicks (tiny 1.5 inch M-Tech crap anyway :barf:), so if something bad ever happens, I want a tough and reliable knife on me.

Hey Dakota14, I'm not too sure about the Mini-Grip in 440C, I know they don't make them anymore and that the 154CM model replaced them but I don't have any actual hands-on use with the 440C. I read that you already have the Mini-Grip, but that it has 440C and is pretty well used, so I think a new Mini-Grip wouldn't be a bad idea for you, its a bit more expensive than the Buck would be, but 154CM would hold an edge way better than 420 would. Also, some people like to complain that BM has poor customer service, but that is not true in my case. I've called them up about an issue with a knife and about the Axis lock, and they were willing to make sure that I was taken care of.

Sorry about the Buck, but I really can't provide more info on the 420 steel version. I know if you want to sharpen your knife less frequently, you might want to consider the upgrade to the new Mini-Grip in 154CM. Like I mentioned before, I don't think they make 440C versions anymore. The handles on the Vantage seem pretty decent though.

I actually have a newer Kershaw Skyline myself, but the main issue isn't the new steel, but the way that it has been treated. 14C28N Sandvik is really nice, but since the blades have been bead blasted, they seem to attract moisture. I'm not sure if I just have weird sweaty hands that rust things, but this is the first knife that has ever developed surface rust, and I'm pretty sure its due to the bead blast. If you do have a problem like I do, just polish up the blade and surface rust won't be a problem anymore.

Finally, in case anyone is still reading at this point, I would be pretty careful with unscrewing the Kershaw Skyline's pivot point. It has a G10 backside, and even though it seems pretty tough, in my case the torque of unscrewing the pivot made the hex shaped pivot pin strip out the G10, so that the pivot pin won't stop spinning anymore. Disassembly is pretty much impossible for me now, but since its a 30 dollar knife I don't mind, and when I called up Kershaw, they said they could repair it if I sent it in. Just letting you know, and hope this helps.
 
Dakota14 if you are anywhere near Lebanon, Mo try Shepard Hills they carry Case, Victorinox, Buck and others.
 
well in a way it kind of angers me to say this but of all the knives i have had benchmade ,buck, gerber, leatherman, spyderco, cheap china kershaw, wenger, schrade and a old ka-bar this damn 35 dollar knife is better than all of them!! i sliced up 15lbs of beef real thin for beef jerky and when i got done it would still shave. my others knives could do that there was some fat and grissle and i used it a few other times today but it did great and resharpend it because i like a razor sharp knife all the time but didnt need to it would still shave when i was done. you could tell it wasnt as sharp as when i started but it did pretty darn good. im impressed with it. considering i payed over 100 for some of my other knives and this was 35 im sad that i didnt know of these knives sooner. o hada cutco to talk about an awful company anyway. thank you guys alot for listening to all my questions! i do have one more question though. which is better arkansas wet stones or a smiths diamond stone diamond has coarse and fine the wet stone has coarse med and fine. my diamond stone is wearing out on the edges and was wondering what to buy next ? the wet stone was my grandpas but its pretty old should i keep using it or invest in something better and if so what? thanks guys!
 
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