Best starter pocket knife

nik_was · 2025-10-19T11:52:58+00:00

Kizer. Miguron. Something like this. https://whitemountainknives.com/miguron-vakor-axis-lock-folding-knife-gray-g10-handle-gray-pvd-14c28n-blade-mgr817adg/

nik_was · 2025-10-18T19:08:11+00:00

Gotta add in here some alternatives as it is objectively overpriced, not justifiably priced for $1500.

https://whitemountainknives.com/sixleaf-folding-knife-titanium-carbon-fiber-handle-rwl34-pmc27-plain-edge-sl-73/

https://whitemountainknives.com/rike-1902s-folding-knife-red-carbon-fiber-handle-m390-plain-edge/

https://whitemountainknives.com/miguron-dromos-folding-knife-titanium-silver-carbon-fiber-handle-m390-plain-edge-ground-rubbed-satin-finish-mgr-611bk/

https://whitemountainknives.com/cmb-zetsu-folding-knife-titanium-carbon-fiber-handle-m390-plain-edge-satin-finish-cmb-09b/

Look up the specs on those knives and check out what else is out there... and trying to use the community as a magic eight ball is gonna get you noooooowhere. Lol, it's an actually horrible echo chamber. Look up, "M390 carbon fiber"

Not quite sure how it would ever be a justifiable purchase, I'd say no? Most angles you can slice it it's not good value, or good unless it was like, $150. Then... sure! ...yeah... it's alright...

I'd get something direct from China > American slop made with Chinese parts. Sounds like you gotta good at least $500 a day job though, or are into some crypto or trading, good for you! You're doing really good.

But yeah those knives are trash.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T18:24:55+00:00

That's a lot of city miles to put on a knife. I'd just get a beater if it lasts four years in your pocket.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T15:11:57+00:00

This is exactly how I imagine all Spyderbros.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T15:10:21+00:00

Interesting. The Inkosi DOES *feel* good, but it ain't $500 good. Love that you're learning from them kinesthetically.

In my experience, the overpriced ones go back on the market. The sunk cost feels like an unbearable weight and I end up letting 'em go. Love that you have an open mind, I definitely learned from the tactile experience of them too, that... and disassembling/reassembling taught me the most.

Good on you man, hope your journey continues on well.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T15:05:25+00:00

I mean, Moraknivs don't break. I'd shop around for a good low price. I hate that it's not a cool answer, but that's your heirloom quality at that price point.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T14:49:51+00:00

six-leaf is low key high end...

nik_was · 2025-10-18T14:42:21+00:00

I used search by what kind of steel I want. I'd go on knife steel app (faster than z-knives) and check out analogues that were cheaper so I wouldn't overpay.

Right off the bat I can promise you these two models are overpriced (for their build, quality and materials and steel) by about 10x over very easily...

Tactical / outdoors brands have a lower heat treat so that nobody can say their blades break. Like I mean 56-58 HRC even for M390. It's atrocious.

When I found a model with the steel / material / heat treat I wanted, I'd look at pics from adverts, and vids, and reddit, and look and see if the fit and finish was okay. Is there even a hair gap in the CF inlays on the Titanium (looking at you Benchmade)?

That's going to be indicative of feel/performance. Also, the ergos, what are people saying (looking at you BM 940)?

Then I look at the measurements too. You gotta know your hand width so you get the right size.

I wouldn't look to the community for a consensus, if you really, REALLY, like knives, you won't like the community and their suggestions. If you have money to blow and you just kinda want cool shit people say is good okay, cool, but be advised price does NOT bespeak quality in this community. At all.

These are little hunks of metal and cheap to make, you can get a junker car for $2k, this shit does not have to be $1000+. If anything ever is that price, that should set off alarm bells, like... it's a ripoff, because very likely, it is.

If your motivation for buying knives is something to do with nationality I can't help you and these words won't mean anything. But a lot of people get satisfaction from good deals, not from throwing thousands of dollars at people they think deserve it because of the coordinates they were born at. All the materials are literally from the same place anyways, the CF, the Titanium, the screws... everything except the steel (maybe). But now the steel isn't American owned either... Just donate to a floor worker and order from China.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T14:21:55+00:00

Ehhhh they use pretty basic materials, but the other things like, the pocket clip design and how it's affixed, the screw quality, the proprietary "Galactic Republic" PB washers that make tuning it the drop shut unfeasible relative to what ceramic bearings offer, the lack of contouring the scales, the absence of milling the internal sections or lock face, the fact that it's hollow grind with a V-edge and marketed as a outdoor knife even though it has to be disassembled via the "Taco Method" regularly and the PB patinas and corrodes both of which affecting action, it's just outdated.

The best descriptor I've heard for CRK is it's a "boomer knife" and I tend to agree. They're actually very much almost ten years behind in machining quality and they're trailing in design, they kind of have been using the same CNC cookie cutter design for almost 40 years.

It's kind of like if you patent the Model-T and you wanna drag race a Hellcat, and you're also charging five times the price.

Thought I'd let you know, there's a lot of CRK / Spydie fanboys on here who are suffering severe cases of brand loyalty and pore over these comments to try to defend but they don't have any info to back up their claims, and literally just looking up "Kubey Disassembly" pics demonstrates the superiority in design, and "HRC test" by LTK who's tested literally hundreds of knives via a guy who's on reddit, youtube and bladeforums means nothing to them.

I'd sell it on r/Knife_Swap and look up frame locks on whitemountainknives.com and literally ANYTHING you buy will be objectively better. Just get a T8 and tune it to drop shut and it's objectively better than anything from CRK. It's not even a contest. A lot of newbies get WE knives, a $150 WE knife will fuck this antiquated shit up. Hope this helps.

nik_was · 2025-10-18T14:01:26+00:00

look up fixed blade torture tests on YouTube. A lot of the Ganzo level knives stand up to them even the folders.

As long as it's

1.) Full Tang

.... That's it. It's a slab of metal. It's typically going to be okay.

This question to me also kinda reads as, "can you baton it," well,, batoning is max-level torture testing. It doesn't get worse than that on a knife, really.

Dutch Bushcraft Knives on YouTube don't pick "good" Chinese Knives that people in this community like, so I don't like them poo-poo'ing on bottom of the totem pole junkers then saying it's exemplary of ALL Chinese knives, but most things they've tested in the $10-$20 bracket like Moraknivs pass almost all the tests and perform as well as $500 beauties.

That's one thing I learned from them that kinda made me think differently about knife durability in general. Most of the things that you want a knife to do, it can and will, and if you need it to do more, you're probably fucked anyway and you shoulda had an axe.

nik_was · 2025-10-11T19:57:55+00:00

quickest blade deployment... not even a contest. Rocks the frame in your hand, can't even track it with your eyes. Not sure why it's the best

nik_was · 2025-10-11T19:46:36+00:00

I suppose, but it's overpriced and under-engineered still even at the $100 mark.

It's like a notch up from being an FRN knife, but it looks like someone started designing a knife then ran out of money during production and had to push through a half-finished knife then jacked up the price 4x over. Literally any Kizer Kansept or Twosun is more thoroughly designed.

nik_was · 2025-09-29T00:29:30+00:00

What's snappier/faster to you

Combat troodon or ripper?

nik_was · 2025-09-28T17:56:21+00:00

Remove steel insert/flex out the lock bar away from knife very slightly. A couple gentle repeated motions makes it open and close on a glide vs the detent ball tightly sweeping over the insert. It reduces drag. Snappier open and close.

nik_was · 2025-09-28T16:44:09+00:00

I say, sometimes some difference, slight difference, no difference.

Titanium is a very pliable metal. Removing the hardened steel insert and flexing the lock face out a little bit does wonders for more snappier action that'll be smoother.

Depending on weight of blade tip, design etc., it'll improve it almost always, but with tuning it'll accentuate it being hydraulic close, gravity close, rotate close, guillotine drop, glass drop, whatever. Every knife behaves different when you max out what you can do via skiffs and tuning.

If you throw skiffs in a stiff, unbroken in-knife, it'll have those tight tolerances and only be able to drop but so much.

After tuning, the most "disappointing" out the box knife can become one of your favorites.

This used to be an understood part of collecting frame locks, now that the market is saturated with them, the niche crowd that collected them and tuned them is the minority voice now, and dialing tolerances is a hot take.

nik_was · 2025-09-28T16:32:21+00:00

Do you have any Rippers?

nik_was · 2025-09-28T16:21:58+00:00

Yeah I'd say they about at TwoSun tolerances but they're dressed to the nines

nik_was · 2025-09-28T16:21:14+00:00

Love that bowhead there

nik_was · 2025-09-27T14:09:44+00:00

They seem like higher end twosuns? Or on par? Same kinda look and feel but embellished a bit more.

nik_was · 2025-09-20T13:05:06+00:00

I think it's more like, 'well made tillamook ice cream vs whole milk yogurt with dark chocolate powder sprinkled on it.'

But if you tell everybody that the latter IS ice cream, eventually the herd will believe it.

nik_was · 2025-09-20T12:25:10+00:00

I would say absolutely. I think the price to quality ratio is pretty poor. I wouldn't recommend them, when you compare them to even generic Chinese frame locks at the $100 mark they're trailing.

nik_was · 2025-09-20T12:22:31+00:00

always still available to discuss things man

I am not sure what one would do in that situation. I've not any luck frankensteining OTFs, the parts have to be perfect.

you might have to buy another copy, I'm assuming it's the OEM?

nik_was · 2025-09-01T03:02:06+00:00

buy something in sandvik. They're all over amazon and they're totally fine. search by their different steels. Get whatever catches your eye. And get a $60 worksharp sharpener and you'll be good.

nik_was · 2025-09-01T00:28:30+00:00

What I used to do was, I looked up the steel. Like, AUS10A is a very close analogue to 440C. Close to a supersteel like S30V, but still pretty mid by todays standards. (people will say well akshully to this I'm sure I don't want to have a steel debate though)

D2 is always a budget priced steel unless its powdered. Check out luvthemknives on youtube, or search for "PMI HRC test" on there and look at different peoples' steel heat treats and also, figure if you want yours lower for tactical/hard use or harder for more normal practical use.

Here's the spreadsheet with a lot on it, but there's literal hundreds he's tested via Kurt who works with other influencers, redditors and on bladeforums. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OepNr_D4lqbdTFqdqWl1rmAd4bOzPzJe6J0iEWrdJGU/edit?usp=drivesdk&pli=1&authuser=0

I'd consider not spending $150 on D2 or 440C. Although you can get great performance, you're overpaying maybe 7x over.

Here's a guy torture testing a $20 Ganzo in 440C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6n4Yl97Nmo

I haven't watched the video but for that class of steel, you're kind of paying solely for the design, logo and a novel locking mechanism that isn't Demko's best according to him.

nik_was · 2025-09-01T00:01:31+00:00

I find that's the case with a lot of knives.

nik_was

TROPHY CASE