Introduction: For the hell of curiosity, I decided to add some things up.
Findings: Looks like if you're looking for a knife, the people on this here thread would recommend the following 10 knife makers, and 10 knives, listed in order of prominence using the following format: # of overall mentions - Company Name, (top mentioned knife by that maker, # of knife mentions). Where the company and the knife/knife type are synonymous, it should be obvious.
TOP KNIFE MAKERS
1. 72 – Spyderco (Delica, 16; Paramilitary 2, 13)*
2. 48 – Buck (110 and/or 112, 29)
3. ~41 – Victorinox (SAK, 41 - includes any/all varieties)
4. 23 – Bechmade (Griptillian, 6)
5. 21 – Ka-Bar/Becker (BK-9, 5)
6. ~19 – Mora / Scandinavian-style knife (19+? Includes any brand name/knife type in this category)
7. 19 – Chris Reeve Knives (Sebenza, any type, 14)
8. 17 – ESEE (Izula, 6)
9. 11 – Leatherman (11 - includes any/all varieties)
10. 10(+?) - 'A good kitchen knife'
TOP RECOMMENDED KNIVES**
1. 41 - Swiss Army Knife, any type
2. 29 - Buck 110 or 112
3. ~19 - Mora / Scandanavian-style knife
4. 16 - Spyderco Delica*
5. 14 - Chris Reeve Sebenza, any type
6. 13 - Spyderco Paramilitary 2
7. 11 - Leatherman, any type
8. 10(+?) - 'A good kitchen knife'
9. 9 - An Opinel
10. 6 - TIE: Benchmade Griptillian & ESEE Izula
Top knife maker runners up were as follows, ranked by total mentions:
10 – Kershaw (Blur, 4)
9 – Opinel (9)
9 – Hinderer (XM-18, 6)
8 – Busse
8 – Case
8 – ZT
7 – Carothers
7 - Cold Steel
6 – Microtech
*if I considered Endura/Endela mentions related to Delicas like I did Buck 110/112, the number of Delica/Endura recommendations would be 23; somehow the 110/112 feel more like iterations of the same knife to me than the Delica/Endura, so I didn't. Same deal w/ the Military/PM2/3, which would've been 20 added together. I DID add mentions of others together, like SAKs, Sebenzas, and Leathermen. Because I CAN.
**If you added up all the 'chopper' or 'kephart' mentions etc, that'd be up there too as the runner's up list kinda shows, but splicing this by genre was a step too far in an already hard to justify little project.
Methodology: I tallied most mentions of given knives or knife makers in this thread so far. A lot of responses are difficult to quantify or did not lend themselves to specifics in this way, so I skipped them. A few annoyed me due to facile sexism and/or pleas that this be allowed to be a latently/assumptively sexist space (??? grow up I guess?), or just weird belligerence, so I skipped or selectively tallied from them. Sometimes I added some mentions but not others for a variety of reasons. In short, this is.... not the single most possibly accurate or unbiased list, taken as a strict count. I definitely missed some things, accidentally double counted some things, loosely interpreted some things, failed to combine other things as I watched a movie while doing this. That said, it is strongly representative of the trends on this thread, and I would stand by the conclusions above. Finally, I counted more than are shown there, but didn't include any makers with 5 or fewer mentions. Ofc, anyone else anxiously avoiding their own work tonight is equally free to do their own tally... Anyway, hope this is useful/enjoyable for folks!
Edit: thanks to the OP & other contributors for kicking it off, it's been interesting to read!
