Favorites knives under $30?

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benlg

Joined
Jun 7, 2009
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Been on a cheap knife binge lately since I haven't been on BF in awhile, fun! I started looking for a small EDC and ended up going overboard :) Also have a Benchmade Mini Griptilian 556, green Cold Steel Mini Tuff Lite on the way. I find it awesome how many cheap knives I can get vs. what I paid for one Sebenza/Strider or Spyderco. So what are you favorites?

Quick pics



 
You can get some really great Swiss Army Knives for $30 or less.

A few nice products at AG Russell: Hunters Scalpel, Woodswalker. The FeatherLite starts at $35, if that's not too far out of bounds.

Condor knives!

Marttiini Lynx and Lumberjack!

Most Mora knives, even the nice ones with wood handles and leather sheathes, are under $30.
 
Boker Plus Chad Los Banos XS
Boker Plus Subcom
Boker Trance
Kershaw Crown
SOG Sogzilla
CRKT Pazoda
Buck Nobleman
Kershaw Shuffle
Kershaw Nerve
Kershaw Chill

There are wayyyy too many to list.
 
enlan el01
cold steel bowie machete
council tool hunters hatchet
old hickory 7 and 14 inch butcher knives
tramontina machete
kershaw tremor
 
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CRKT drifter, it is surprisingly a great knife! Decent steel, very easy to sharpen great blade lockup and no blade play.
 
Moras, Opinels, Douk-Douks, A.G. Russell's Woodwalker (I've got an old VG-10 one), SAKs, several good machetes, Case CV slipjoints, Mercators, Svord Peasant folders, Aitor Castor, Taramundi pocket knives (Spanish friction folders), etc.

For some reason, I love inexpensive traditional knives but I can't warm up to budget modern folders. I've got some good ones from Spyderco, Cold Steel and Kershaw, but I just don't carry them. I guess I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to modern folders.
 
My "cheapest" knife is Spyderco Dragonfly Salt. Nonetheless it has nothing to do with "cheap" in quality. I carry it everyday when I'm out for a run. For under $30, the only thing comes into my mind is Victorinox. Buck 110 used to be in this range, but it's $40 now. And I agree, one can have many quality blades for the price of one CRK/Strider/Hinderer. That's exactly what I did. I sold off most of my "high end" stuff over the years, and replaced them with a bunch of Spydies. I kept my Hinderer though.
 
I have EDCed the Byrd Cara Cara 2 FRN for over a year now. Great knife for the price. It is 8CR steel and does quite nicely. The ONLY problem I had was I had to Loc-Tite the pivot screw. It would loosen over several day of use.
 
I tried one of the Byrd knives, and it wouldn't fully open up, was off center and in general seemed very poorly made (no QC)!, I sent it back and ordered a Kabar Dozier, which I really like (I do the wave mod to the Dozier with the thumb hole).

I really like the Kershaw Volt II (non stainless handle), it just fits my hand perfectly...

My brother really likes the Kershaw Zing...
 
Any of Kershaw's "budget" line, aside from the more recent 3Cr13 models(personal fave being the Oso Sweet), Ontario Utilitac 2, various SAKs, Moras, the Byrd knives I've had are nice budget options, Imacasa and Tramontina machetes, or for that matter, recent Cold Steel machetes can be had in this range too, and come much more functional than the older ones(though I'm pretty sure you can get the older ones Special Grade from Ben for under $30 too, so may as well count them as well), CRKT aluminum Ripple...
 
I'll just list the ones I currently have and would recommend.

Enlan el01
Utilitac II
zancudo
Aegis mini (off the exchange)
Any one of my Vic Saks
Crkt heiho (why knifecenter has these over $40 I dont know, my local big box home improvement store has them for under $30)
 
Case Sodbuster
Cold Steel Kudu (under $10!)
Cold Steel Tuff Lite
Mercator K55K
Opinel #8
Mora Companion
Byrd Cara Cara 2
Spyderco Grasshopper
Ontario Rat 1
Ontario Utilitac
 
Opinel - Of course!
Ontario RAT 2 - You owe it to yourself to try one, great value.
Spyderco Tenacious (got mine for $25 five years ago)
Byrd M'Lark and CaraCara - If you like Delica/Enduras, these are solid performers.
 
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