Best Gentleman's folding pocket knife

F

froggy the gremlin

Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
16
Years ago, I bought a Kershaw 5100 gentleman's folding knife. Stainless all around.

First, I'm not a gentleman. I use mine for work. I don't know why they call them a Gentleman's knife. I suppose that this one is on the upper end of pocket size for office types.

It has a good work blade; 2 3/4", and measures 4" closed. Locking blade of course.

The best feature: it has a nice thin handle, about 1/4". That means you can put it in your pocket and isn't uncomfortable to sit on. They say the best knife is the one you have with you.

I simply don't care to own a knife that has a thick handle or looks like a Rambo knife for no reason. When I work in the woods, I carry a sheath knife and/or machete for larger tasks.

I'd like to buy several for gifts, but Kershaw doesn't make them anymore. I've looked all over the 'net, and I can't find anything like this, the closest are smaller blades, and anything less is short of doing an everyday job.

What's out there that you guys know of?
 
AG Russell Titanium Lockback with VG-10 steel. Lockback, nail nick, 1.3 oz, 2 1/2" blade, 3 1/2" closed, $50.
 
I'm guessing you want to keep the price kind of low since you are buying several. Maybe case mini copperlock? The blade size is spot on, they are nice and thin, and they can usually be found for around $50ish.
 
I am a strong believer that a knife should have a screwdriver, especially important for time a gentleman must use some mild prying on a chastity belt. Anyway I carry a Trestle Pines Grand Portage, it doesn't have as many tools as a SAK, but it's a Barlow, 'nuff said.
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Very partial to the Case/Bose stuff. I rotate between a Tribal Spear and Lanny's Clip.
 
My suggestion is to first get something really small like a case peanut and try it out for a week.
I'm willing to bet you'll find out that small blades can actually be pretty capable, once this happens you'll realize there actually quite a bit of options.
 
Spyderco chapparral is super slim, non threatening and comes in some nice fancy variations. The.lil nilakka is my new favorite for "gentleman's" but it is actually a bit thick for its size. Doesn't bug me, but that was a specification for you. Also, Benchmade 531 and 940 are nice gentlemanly blades IMO.
 
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentiined:

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The Case Executive. Same basic idea as the Kershaw 5100, high quality, inexpensive and comes in various sizes.

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I carry one of the smaller variants a lot, but there's a 3" and a 3.5" model as well.

You might also consider a Victorinox Cadet. It's not noticeably thicker and provides more utility. The silver and black variants look very gentlemanly imho.

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The American-made Benchmade 482 Megumi is a super "Gent's knife", with it's 0.104" x 2.48" slightly hollow-ground S30V blade, cocobolo & carbon fiber handles over SS liners and backspacer, and has a "Nak-Lok" blade lock, a push-button operated liner lock. It's OAL of 3.28" x 0.46" thick and 1.85 oz weight take it out of the tiny knife selection, but it still gets lost in my pocket. It's semi-ludicrous list price of $245 puts it over halfway to a CRK small Sebenza's cost. Now, that small Sebenza, is the ultimate "Gent's knife". Seriously, perhaps my Megumi was priced wrong, but I bought it from a local store (It's #XY of 1,000 - 'First Production Run'.) for ~$139 - which seemed fair. It is a nice knife - and today gets 50% of my EDC. I am more guarded of it's use than I was of it's predecessor, an also American-made, and similar-sized, Buck 503 Prince, ~$24 at WallyWorld... 'in the day'. Those days are gone!
 
The kylzer supreme gent's knife has been one that has been intriguing me lately. I'm kind of holding out for the forum knife in the works at the moment though.

Chapparal seems like it would be a nice option or maybe a spyderco cat for the more budget option.

Looking up a picture, the closest thing that comes to mind is a boker trapper with cocobola handles. It's a flipper but still keeps the thin aesthetics. I think there are several sizes now.
 
It was a good knife day, score for the day, an engraved Connecticut Shotgun Galazan Sidelock folder. Stopped at a flea market and ran through real quick. I found a table of knives from a collector/accumulator who was askin' stupid prices for Chinese knives. Looked like he bought one of those dealer boxes from what's his name on late night/early morning tv and was askin' the MSRP which was 50X what it was worth. He had every wannabe biker and bada** buyin' like crazy from him.

On the far end was a box full of old colonials and cheap US made tin shell knives, Chinese SAKs and the usual garbage you see in such places. I tried striking up a conversation but he kept talkin' down to me like he was all the wannabes. At one point he said the one thing you should never say to me, He told me I didn't know a good knife when I saw it. I tried again and he dismissed my comments as those of an uneducated knife wannabe user/collector.

I was just about to leave when I saw this with a $30 tag on it, I talked him down to $10, (I think he just wanted to get rid of me) he looked at the knife and said he didn't recognize the name and said it was probably from Pakistan and he'd take $10. I knew lookin' at it that it was worth more than I paid, I could see the marks from the engraver's tools on it, it was hand engraved and although it wasn't Ray Cover's level of work nonetheless there was a lot of work went into it.

He was an idiot and as I left I pulled out the large Ebony inlay Sebenza 21 and cut the string off the price tag and before I left, he told me he can get me all kinds of Sebenza s for $50 each. I shook my head, pocketed my new treasure and left him to wallow in his ignorance.

This is a web shot of what I got, I'll post some real pics later.

k0501-2t.jpg_thumbnail0.jpg


ETA, after closer inspection I stand corrected, both sides are identically engraved so I'm fairly sure it was laser engraved and then run uncertainty a surface grinder to bring out the highlights. Still for what I paid for it, I'm thrilled.

Here's a pic I took.

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William Henry is the epitome of a modern Gentleman's folder, here's mine a first gen T10-P Lancet in Pearl.

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T. Erdelyi said:
It was a good knife day, score for the day, an engraved Connecticut Shotgun Galazan Sidelock folder. Stopped at a flea market and ran through real quick. I found a table of knives from a collector/accumulator who was askin' stupid prices for Chinese knives. Looked like he bought one of those dealer boxes from what's his name on late night/early morning tv and was askin' the MSRP which was 50X what it was worth. He had every wannabe biker and bada** buyin' like crazy from him.

On the far end was a box full of old colonials and cheap US made tin shell knives, Chinese SAKs and the usual garbage you see in such places. I tried striking up a conversation but he kept talkin' down to me like he was all the wannabes. At one point he said the one thing you should never say to me, He told me I didn't know a good knife when I saw it. I tried again and he dismissed my comments as those of an uneducated knife wannabe user/collector.

I was just about to leave when I saw this with a $30 tag on it, I talked him down to $10, (I think he just wanted to get rid of me) he looked at the knife and said he didn't recognize the name and said it was probably from Pakistan and he'd take $10. I knew lookin' at it that it was worth more than I paid, I could see the marks from the engraver's tools on it, it was hand engraved and although it wasn't Ray Cover's level of work nonetheless there was a lot of work went into it.

He was an idiot and as I left I pulled out the large Ebony inlay Sebenza 21 and cut the string off the price tag and before I left, he told me he can get me all kinds of Sebenza s for $50 each. I shook my head, pocketed my new treasure and left him to wallow in his ignorance.

This is a web shot of what I got, I'll post some real pics later.

k0501-2t.jpg_thumbnail0.jpg


ETA, after closer inspection I stand corrected, both sides are identically engraved so I'm fairly sure it was laser engraved and then run uncertainty a surface grinder to bring out the highlights. Still for what I paid for it, I'm thrilled.
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I just gotta say, the those colonial and Imperial shell construction slipjoints may not be built like tanks but they have great steel. I probably wouldn't want to overpay for them from a guy like that, but in good shape they're worth any price under 10$ as a good user.
 
I'd vote for the benchmade 943 or zero tolerance 0450cf. Both are 10/10 blades.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I just gotta say, the those colonial and Imperial shell construction slipjoints may not be built like tanks but they have great steel. I probably wouldn't want to overpay for them from a guy like that, but in good shape they're worth any price under 10$ as a good user.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I've been tellin' people for the last 10 years that if they were just gettin' into collectin' Colonial and Imperials were the way to go. I have some older premium knives by both those companies and you're right I never pay more that $10, usually more like $3-$5.
 
I have been watching this thread like crazy. I am off tomorrow and will be posting some pics of my gents knives, which for better or worse, is the majority of my collection.
Thsnks for being awesome guys,
Mike
 
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