My developing knife 'philosophy' and recent purchases

[JAB]

Kershaw was my favorite brand for awhile, until this goofball named Willis68 forced me into buying all these sweet Protech knives.

 

The Protechs are definitely nice but way, way, waaaaaaay (did I mention way?) out of my price range.  I know they say, "You get what you pay for," but for my needs the knives in the $50 and under price range fit the bill just fine.  In fact, in my case, I think I would pretty quickly start seeing diminishing returns when paying much more than that for a pocket knife - especially if I were too nervous to carry it out of fear of losing it because of the price tag.  I just can't see me carrying a knife that costs as much (or more) than I paid for my pocket pistol.  That is just me, of course.

[musicman]

Every purchasing decision comes down to two things, imho: available funds (more broadly, general income bracket and what a person's affordability range is for a given class of items) and how much value you put into refinement, tactile sensation... generally how keen you are on paying for a better experience with an item.

Bic ball point pens can be had for cheap to free all day every day. Some people choose to spend $1 or so each on a nicer rollerball (I fall into this camp) while others love and will pay over $100 for a Waterman or Parker instrument. All of them will perform the same task, and most folks will never know what pen was used once a document is completed.

Same with Fiat vs Ferrari (oddly enough, the same company... for now.) It all comes down to what you can afford first, and then how willing you are to pay for perceived value second. The Protechs for me are worth the additional cost as I enjoy using and carrying them. I have made decisions not to purchase other things (opportunity foregone) to be able to spend disproportionately more on a few knives than my generally median income should allow. We all make those choices every day. Ever chosen a nice prime cut steak over a hamburger? :-)

On another note: sadly, my LG101 was not hiding in the couch. :-(

[hipower]

The Protechs are definitely nice but way, way, waaaaaaay (did I mention way?) out of my price range.  I know they say, "You get what you pay for," but for my needs the knives in the $50 and under price range fit the bill just fine.  In fact, in my case, I think I would pretty quickly start seeing diminishing returns when paying much more than that for a pocket knife - especially if I were too nervous to carry it out of fear of losing it because of the price tag.  I just can't see me carrying a knife that costs as much (or more) than I paid for my pocket pistol.  That is just me, of course.

 

I understand exactly what you say and how you feel about it, JAB. 

 

To paraphrase what  musicman said, some "goofball named willis68" tempted me with something shiny and "Limited." I have a very real weakness and problem with those two words. lol

 

"Shiney" and "Limited" seem to awaken a thirst in me that can't be denied. And it seems to run in cycles of about 8 to 10 years before it wanes and I find something else.

 

I certainly hope this knife fetish I've developed doesn't get that far along. But as you say, with the cost factor involved with these knives, I always had an upper limit of 50 bucks, and was quite content with my Gerbers and the occasional Kershaw or Benchmade.

 

I won't lament the purchases I've made here with you guys and willis, they have been some great knives. And I probably will get more. lol

 

Money allowing. But have to feed the firearms desires first.

 

That probably isn't going to happen though.

 

As I sit here at my desk, I see several knives within reach.

 

 

the Kershaw Blackwash Flipper my Secret Santa gave me(great knife, btw), a 5 blade Tree Brand, an HK Epidemic that I overpaid for at SMKW, a little 2 blade Case XX still in the box I was given it in.

 

And several other cheap ebay Bokers I got. Big mistake there.

 

Anyway, the point is that I'm with you in spirit if not in deed, JAB. 

[JAB]

The two knives i ordered most recently - The Ontario Rat and Spyderco Resilience - arrived yesterday, as expected.  Some pics and comments:

 

 

The little piece of foam in the bottom of the Spyderco box to really help protect the knife was a nice touch, I thought:

 

 

 

 

A group pic with the Kershaws from last week:

 

 

I really expected to like the RAT a lot more than the Spyderco but once I had them in hand I was surprised at how much I gravitated toward the Resilience.  I said, before, that I wanted a fairly large blade while staying within the realm of something that is practical to pocket carry and use for every day duties.  I know Cold Steel makes some really big folders but, to me, they are too big to carry and use practically not to mention that they seem to be designed as folding fighters, not edc use knives.  The Resilience blade size, IMO, strikes an almost perfect balance between "large blade' and 'practical edc'. 

 

Both the Resilience and the RAT have fairly thick blades (for a folder) with the Resilience being maybe a little thicker at the spine.  Both have ergonomic grips with a finger choil and jimping at the top rear of the blade.  I find that, for me and my hand size, the Resilience fits and fills my hand better and more comfortably than the RAT or most other folders.  For that matter, despite the flat nature of the scales, the Resilience fits my hand better than some fixed blade knives.  I still like the blade shape of the RAT a little better but the Spyderco blade shape is plenty good enough, for me, to be worth the trade off in other features.  Neither have an overly tactical/tacticool blade shape which is something else Iike about both of them.  I think a RAT the size of the Resilience (and maybe with assisted opening) would be just about the perfect edc pocket knife, for me.  As it is, the Resilience is pretty close.

 

Speaking of assisted opening, I can open the RAT using nothing but my thumb on the thumbstud.  No wrist movement required.  In fact, the RAT opens so quickly using just the stud that a casual observer would probably think that it is an assisted opening knife.  I am more used to a thumb stud or flipper on the top rear portion of a blade than I am to the thumb hole type setup the Spyderco has.  Because of that, I can't reliably open the Spyderco blade quite so quickly every time.  I worked with it some yesterday evening and have already seen a lot of improvement in my ability so I think I will eventually 'get there'.  As it is, I can open it plenty quickly and easily enough one-handed for most needs.

 

Both came sharp but neither seemed truly 'razor sharp' out of the box.  Since I planned on carrying the Spyderco for a while to see if I liked it, I decided to hone the edge to razor sharpness.  Well, being me I got a little carried away and ended up reprofiling the blade.  It came with pretty much a continuous flat grind with a small, secondary flat grind (bevel?) right at the edge.  My favored edge is a convex grind as that seems the best and easiest grind to maintain a good edge for me so the secondary bevel line ended up pretty much going away to be replaced by a convex grind.  Unfortunately, I did scratch the blade up a bit doing this but I figure it is a carry knife, not a show piece plus I can probably polish the worst of the scratches out at some point if I decide to do so.  Anyhow, by the time I finished the Resilience had a shaving edge that easily passed the 'paper test'.  Works for me.

 

Just for the heck of it and to give an idea of the real size/sturdiness of this blade, here is the Resilience with the Boker Magnum Survival knife I ordered a few weeks ago (after seeing peejman's post about it) :

 

 

Here is the Resilience between the Boker Magnum Survival and my SOG Aura Camp fixed blade knife:

 

 

Here is the Resilience with my four inch Ruger GP100.  Yep, that is one hefty pocket knife:

 

 

I will probably order a few more pocket knives as time goes on, especially some of those that have been suggested by others in this thread.  That said, between the four I have just ordered I think I will probably find my 'as close to perfect as possible" edc.  I think that the Spyderco is currently the front runner for that position and may well order one or two more of them before all is said and done, just in case.

Edited April 7, 2015 by JAB

[hipower]

Every purchasing decision comes down to two things, imho: available funds (more broadly, general income bracket and what a person's affordability range is for a given class of items) and how much value you put into refinement, tactile sensation... generally how keen you are on paying for a better experience with an item.

Bic ball point pens can be had for cheap to free all day every day. Some people choose to spend $1 or so each on a nicer rollerball (I fall into this camp) while others love and will pay over $100 for a Waterman or Parker instrument. All of them will perform the same task, and most folks will never know what pen was used once a document is completed.

Same with Fiat vs Ferrari (oddly enough, the same company... for now.) It all comes down to what you can afford first, and then how willing you are to pay for perceived value second. The Protechs for me are worth the additional cost as I enjoy using and carrying them. I have made decisions not to purchase other things (opportunity foregone) to be able to spend disproportionately more on a few knives than my generally median income should allow. We all make those choices every day. Ever chosen a nice prime cut steak over a hamburger? :-)

On another note: sadly, my LG101 was not hiding in the couch. :-(

 

Sorry about that, mm. Keep looking for it.

 

I lost one of my Gerbers, one of the first LST models for almost 20 years. Actually found it in a dress drawer under clothes. No clue how it got there.

[JAB]

Every purchasing decision comes down to two things, imho: available funds (more broadly, general income bracket and what a person's affordability range is for a given class of items) and how much value you put into refinement, tactile sensation... generally how keen you are on paying for a better experience with an item.

Bic ball point pens can be had for cheap to free all day every day. Some people choose to spend $1 or so each on a nicer rollerball (I fall into this camp) while others love and will pay over $100 for a Waterman or Parker instrument. All of them will perform the same task, and most folks will never know what pen was used once a document is completed.

Same with Fiat vs Ferrari (oddly enough, the same company... for now.) It all comes down to what you can afford first, and then how willing you are to pay for perceived value second. The Protechs for me are worth the additional cost as I enjoy using and carrying them. I have made decisions not to purchase other things (opportunity foregone) to be able to spend disproportionately more on a few knives than my generally median income should allow. We all make those choices every day. Ever chosen a nice prime cut steak over a hamburger? :-)

On another note: sadly, my LG101 was not hiding in the couch. :-(

 

Sorry to hear that your LG101 is still MIA.  I certainly get what you mean about quality, refinement, affordability and perceived value.  To use a completely non-knife related referenceI, I will pay more for Boar's Head brand lunch meat because it is simply so much better, to me, than any of the other brands I have tried.  I will also pay more for good provolone, havarti, asiago, etc. to put on sandwiches with the Boar's Head meat over cheaper American slices.  Finally, I will pay more for some kind of good sandwich roll over regular white bread because I simply like them a lot better.

 

I often say that something isn't a bargain - no matter how low the price - if it doesn't taste/work/hold up as well as a slightly more expensive item.  That said, the knives I have ordered have decent blades that either have or could likely be sharpened to a razor edge, seem to have solid lock up and ride well in my pocket.  No doubt I would like the Protechs knives even better and no doubt that they are likely more refined and a pleasure to use.  That said, I must confess that while I want a good, capable blade in case I find myself in an unusual or possibly even survival situation, most of the duties my edc blade sees include things like peeling/slicing an apple or other fruit, slicing cheese or something like a whole salami, summer sausage, etc. for lunch, opening the occasional bubble pack and things like that.  To be honest, it would seem almost a waste to use something like a Protech for such things.  I certainly don't fault others for carrying them, however.  As you said, a lot of it comes down to, "Do I really want it?"  or "Do I really need it?" and "Does it fit my budget or can I/do I want to budget for it?"

[peejman]

The two knives i ordered most recently - The Ontario Rat and Spyderco Resilience - arrived yesterday, as expected.  Some pics and comments:

 

Just for the heck of it and to give an idea of the real size/sturdiness of this blade, here is the Resilience with the Boker Magnum Survival knife I ordered a few weeks ago (after seeing peejman's post about it) :

 

 

 

 

 

That's a good perspective (for me, at least).  And that's a darn big pocket knife, much larger than the Kershaw I normally carry. 

[JAB]

Sorry about that, mm. Keep looking for it.

 

I lost one of my Gerbers, one of the first LST models for almost 20 years. Actually found it in a dress drawer under clothes. No clue how it got there.

 

When I moved after my divorce I couldn't find a knife that had a lot of sentimental value to me.  It wasn't anything super special, just an Edge Mark hunting knife that I had put a really good edge on (with help from one of my uncles.)  Thing is, it was my first 'big' knife as well as having been a Christmas present from my dad when I was in my very early teens.  Along with my .410 single shot it went on a lot of woods walks with me back when I was a teen and the area around where we lived was still wooded and had no other houses on it, leaving it wide open for my walks (with permission from the guy who owned the land around ours back then.)  I looked through all the boxes of stuff from my move, looked in places where I had put other knives and so on and just could not find it.  Finally, one day when looking in a box for something else there was my old hunting knife, just laying there almost on top of everything else.  Now, this was the box I thought I had put it in so I had been completely through it at least ten times to no avail yet there it lay in plain view.  Weird but I'm glad to have it back.

Edited April 7, 2015 by JAB

[hipower]

Yes, JAB. Things do go off in a different direction when you're hunting them.

 

My wife really hates this little Case XX I have. Not the knife so much as the circumstances of how I came to have it.

 

It was a High School Graduation Gift from the father of my then girlfriend/fiancé. It was pretty much assumed that we'd get married.

 

But that's another story that's not getting told here.

 

Anyway, the Case is still in the orginal wrap and box with a small label on the bottom telling who, when, etc. But I can't get the label off without ripping up the rest of the box.

 

And I absolutely must keep the orginal wrapping to be a true fanatic of "collecting."

 

Isn't that right?

[JAB]

That's a good perspective (for me, at least).  And that's a darn big pocket knife, much larger than the Kershaw I normally carry. 

 

Yep, it's a big 'un.  The blade is not only long but also fairly thick and wide (which is exactly what I was looking for.)  It isn't unwieldy or heavy, though.  In fact, it is in my pocket right now and I don't even notice it being there.

[JAB]

And I absolutely must keep the orginal wrapping to be a true fanatic of "collecting."

 

Isn't that right?

 

Of course! :pleased:

Edited April 7, 2015 by JAB

[hipower]

Of course! :pleased:

 

And you will come and defend me as wifey comes in while I'm cleaning all them?

 

She's cool with the knives...except for that one.

[JAB]

And you will come and defend me as wifey comes in while I'm cleaning all them?

 

She's cool with the knives...except for that one.

 

Maybe just explain to her that the knife is special in its own right, not because of the connection to the old flame.  Explain that you can't remove the sticker without decreasing the value of the whole package.  Then go into some cheesy - er, I mean - romantic explanation about how it doesn't matter where the knife came from because she has your love, etc.

 

Then, again, I am divorced so what do I know? 

[hipower]

Maybe just explain to her that the knife is special in its own right, not because of the connection to the old flame.  Explain that you can't remove the sticker without decreasing the value of the whole package.  Then go into some cheesy - er, I mean - romantic explanation about how it doesn't matter where the knife came from because she has your love, etc.

 

Then, again, I am divorced so what do I know? 

 

OK...Good advice.

 

I don't , however, think she will buy it for one second.