Spend $300+ for a SHTF knife, why?

[DoomOnYou]

I only trust 3 kinds of knives. KA-BAR for a big bastard, Benchmade and Gerber for anything else. My kabar just sits next to my bed in a maxpedition sheath as a shtf, along with another knife i wont mention anymore. For personal carry i got a mini covert gerber. Since im just a civi, and in michigan, i can only carry a blade under 3in. Most gerbers are made to come in right under that mark.

[DTHN2LGS]

The high dollar knife I want is the Chris Reeve Neil Roberts Warrior Knife or his Pacific model. But, before I get one of those, I will get an ESEE-3MIL to be my short fixed blade knife.

I would definitely use the expensive knife every chance I got. The less expensive and shorter one will do until I can save up the $$$ for the other one.

[jklaughrey]

You will be very pleased on that purchase sir, overall low to midrange short fixed blade I have found.

[cmiller683]

What it comes down to is STEEL! What steel are they using?

Do you know why they add Carbon to Iron? "To make steel, you idiot!"

Not quite. They do it because if you look at Iron by itself, it's atoms are arranged a lot like a polka-dot dress. Or maybe a rack of pool balls. Even with the atoms touching, there's still some empty space in between 'em. This makes Iron weak. So, we add little itty bits of Carbon to fill that gap, and we get a whole slew of properties that make steel. Ta da, we have an alloy, or steel as we call it.

We do this with several different metals in relatively small amounts. Cobalt, Nickel, Chromium, Titanium etc. All of this is no easy task. You don't just add a teaspoon of Titanium to a pot of boiling iron and call it good. You have to control the temperature, rate of cooling and heating, Exact molecular amounts, yada yada yada. This level of control takes time and money. Not to mention quenching the steel in a liquid of some sort, which must be at a precise temperature and of a certain make-up.

In the Bronze age, you know what they quenched steel with? Urine. The uric acid reacted with the red-hot molecules of iron, hardening it. Granted, they did this by plunge the sword through the belly of a slave, and probably thought it was taking his life essence, but still.

So, when it comes down to it, look at the steel. And just because it ranks 92 million on the Rockwell hardness scale, doesn't mean it's worth shit for a knife. It can be hard as hell, but not carry an edge and be brittle as can be.

Bottom line, do your research. A name is just a name. Steel makes a knife.

[TehLlama]

People don't balk at wearing watches that cost 10x as much, I don't see cost as a limiting factor by itself.
The steel and grip is all that's relevant, and I'm pretty happy sticking with $80 knives, since I'm never unhappy with a slightly dull knife that still cuts whatever I need it to.

[sff70]

A Reeve, Strider, Busse, Grayman, etc. will hold its edge and survive use/abuse that cheap knives will not. They are made to be used, not kept merely by collectors (although I do not begrudge collectors).

I love Ka-Bars as much as anyone (have owned 2 for a LONG time) but there is a huge diff in performance beween knives at this price point, and knives at higher price points.

I want my knives to perform under a variety of uses, and have had reason to use them for tasks other than cutting.

If I wanted "disposable" knives, then I would obtain such, and I can understand those for who this is a factor. YMMV.

Incidentally, recommend you look into how the warranties compare between the various knife companies. You'll see differences there, too. Most companies specifically will not cover damage incurred from chipping, prying, (broken tips) etc. Some companies expect that you will use the knife for things other than cutting, and they build their product accordingly, and back it accordingly.

If possible, do yourself a favor and go in person to a shop that stocks some of the higher end knives so you can see what the differences are.

[sff70]

Also, spend some time on youtube watching the vids from "noss4" and knifetests.com

They may appear to be troglodytes, but they do extreme torture tests on various knives.

[CGoodwin]

I carry a Scrap Yard Scrapper 5 LE with the INFI steel. The blade is shorter than your stated goal, but it is a go anywhere, do anything knife! I can carve and whittle and go straight into batoning firewood with it. Nary a scratch, holds an edge like you wouldn't believe! Comfortable, if a bit undersized handle. Check them out, if you can find one. www.bladeforums.com is a good resource as well.

[sff70]

Just spent some time on Scrap Yard Knives site.

Impressive stuff. Will have to pick one up.

[Det-Sog]

Thanks guys!!!

Dang, there is some impressive stuff out there. Never heard of scrap yard before... Nice. Chris Reeve has some nice stuff too. Decisions... Decisions...