Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades New favorite cheap knife?

That is a good point and really never gave it much thought. What would be quality kitchen knives ?

I use my custom "hunting" knives in the kitchen.

me, too......

I bet your rifles add up to $10worth of dog schit.

Same here.

I use my custom and my cheap ass knives in the kitchen. I bought some of the Russel Green River blanks and put micarta scales on them and love them.

Hunting knives aren't kitchen knives. Can certainly be used, but not ideal for almost anything on a cutting board. That's why there's such a thing as kitchen knives, and why they're not ideal in the field on game. Different tools, different uses.

Kinda simple, but whatever...

You just asked a question that could lead you down a 10 year rabbit hole of exploration.

To simplify, it comes down to the quality of the steel, the blade shape and grind.

Do you want stainless? If so which stainless? Carbon? If so, which carbon? Do you want the blade mono steel or perhaps stainless clad or carbon clad? Quality factory or handmade? Do you want European or Japanese shaped knives? Maybe a Chinese cleaver?

And on, and on, and on...

Last year we were skinning my elk and our meat cutter friend was helping. I paid close attention to the blade he chose for the chore since he's a pro - skinning more in a few days than most of us will all year.

Much to my surprise he pulled out a Schrade "Old Timer" Sharp Finger....


When asked about it, he said that he likes it because the blade is perfect for the chore and steel is soft enough to easily resharpen. He has used it on hundreds of critters both domestic and wild, for many years now.

So, I bought one. They're dirt cheap and I had to admit it worked perfect on the cow elk I shot the other day. I bought the red handled one - because I tend to lay stuff down and lose it!

The old ones are much better than the new ones.

Unless they've changed the steel again. The old ones were high carbon.

Not a knife in my opinion, but if you want something real handy to keep around, the Milwaukee 6-1 is about the best $20 a guy can keep in his pocket.

I need to grab one of their 5-1 with an actual blade. Might be nirvana.

You got me to looking.
The 5-1 is part serrated.
Been down that path, don't care for it.

Most “hunting” knives are honestly horrible. I’m convinced most of their designers have never hunted.

I don't doubt that a bit... there's a knife forum that has 43 pages dedicated to the history of the little thing. Made in China now.

I dressed the cow elk with my Knives of Alaska "Alph Wolf" and it did fine. But for skinning the SF was a much better tool. I hit them both with the work sharp when I got home and it's ready for a deer now. For $19 bucks, I'm impressed.

Cold steel SRK. You get a 400 dollar knife for 40 bucks.

BWAHAHAHAHA !!!!!!!!

Ok. Ok. You get a knife that performs like a 400 dollar knife, but doesn't look like a 400 dollar knife. Respect your laughter huntsman lol. But, I'll say this, looks don't mean a fiddlers blank when you need a good knife.

Schrade currently built overseas but they're still very good knives. - Sherwood

Good looking knives can also be first class working knives. Being handsome doesn't automatically exclude a knife from being a great cutting tool.

Got the 400 dollar custom job. It's great. But at the end of the day, the cold steel is on par with it. Display wise? No. Collector? No. But it's a cheaper knife that gets the job done and holds a great edge. Also, I appreciate craftsmanship and the talent it takes to make a knife. It's a skill not many have. But for a cheap knife, get a SRK. You won't be disappointed.