What is your favorite folding knife?

#51
I’ve had a lot of folders over the years—Spyderco, Benchmade, you name it—but my current favorite is one from Noblie. It’s a bit more custom, but if you’re looking for outdoor knives, this might help. Their folding knives are not just functional but also beautifully crafted. Definitely not hype—just solid performance and great looks.
 
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#52
For outdoor stuff, I used to swear by my Benchmade, but I recently picked up a Shieldon knife based on a friend’s recommendation. Honestly, it holds an edge surprisingly well and feels great in hand. Not as hyped as some brands, but definitely underrated.
 
#53
The one that is in my pocket when I need it.
 

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#55
hino895 said:
Carry all the high dollar knives you want till you lose it or it walks away.
Then go buy a reasonably priced EDC you know 30-40-50.00 one.
Wear it out then go buy another one.
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I agree, I bought a micro tech otf a few years ago , loved the knife but I lost it somehow ,have no idea where it went , so no more 300$ knifes for me , Gerber, Kershaw, buck even uncle Henry, works fine and if I lose one , no big deal, hell I'm carrying a edge industry replaceable blade folder as I type this , comes with 3 extra blades and I resharpen the old blades for later , there great for skinning deer and general use in the shop.
 
#62
TheJeanyus said:
I absolutely LOVE my large Sebenza. I just got the notification yesterday that my Umnumzaan order was released to production. :cool:

I ordered it in November of 2021. :oops:
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Once CPM closed, I decided to order the Tanto a few months ago so I can get the blade in CPM Magnacut which will be gone eventually.
 
#64
CSTactical said:
Once CPM closed, I decided to order the Tanto a few months ago so I can get the blade in CPM Magnacut which will be gone eventually.
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I wanted a left handed one (My Sebenza is right handed) because, and since they're so uncommon I just ordered direct. While I was at it, I ordered it glass blasted instead of sand blasted and with blue hardware instead of silver. I am left handed but have always carried my pocket knife in my right pocket. I have wrecked the steering wheel cover in most of my vehicles with my pocket clip while getting in the car. I gouged the shit out of my wife's steering wheel cover with it, and I had to buy her a new cover. I decided after that to start carrying in my left pocket. So my Sebenza sits in the safe essentially retired, and I've been carrying a Magnacut Benchmade 940BK-03.
 
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#65
TheJeanyus said:
I wanted a left handed one (My Sebenza is right handed) because, and since they're so uncommon I just ordered direct. While I was at it, I ordered it glass blasted instead of sand blasted and with blue hardware instead of silver. I am left handed but have always carried my pocket knife in my right pocket. I have wrecked the steering wheel cover in most of my vehicles with my pocket clip while getting in the car. I gouged the shit out of my wife's steering wheel cover with it, and I had to buy her a new cover. I decided after that to start carrying in my left pocket. So my Sebenza sits in the safe essentially retired, and I've been carrying a Magnacut Benchmade 940BK-03.
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I do prefer the glass blasted between the two finishes.
 
#66
Owned tons of knives of the years, from spendy custom ones to cheap ones. With a folder it depends so much on what you are going to be cutting, and if you are going to abuse it with hard use stuff. If you're going to abuse it, usually a small fixed blade is always a better option.

In the folder world there's a reason knives like the Spyderco PM2/Delica, Benchmade 940/Griptillian/Bugout etc. are always on just about every top 10 list of ECD knives. That said we are living in the golden age of knives these days. CNC machines have made it so that there's so many good options in just a good everyday folder that you can drive yourself crazy trying to pick one.

The first thing you have to decide is how much you are going to use it. There's tons of folders out there, but if you are really going to use it a lot, most of them are going to tear your hands up. So if you're going to use it for more than a couple minutes here and there to make sure you get one with a good comfortable handle. A lot of these aggressive hardcore folders if someone really did bushcraft/camping work with them would destroy the users hands. It's another area fixed blades have an advantage, much more comfortable handles for long term use. A lot of the beefy/tactical folding knives also have blade thicknesses and grinds on them that make them basically worthless for the tasks a 3-4" knife should be used for, unless you are prying open car doors. It's like guys that carry knife pocket knives just to open boxes....a $5 box cutter will do a better job opening boxes than a $500 folding knife. Right tool for the job. not for a status/fashion statement.

The other thing is if you pay more than $150 for a knife, make sure it's premium blade steel. Knives have become like watches these days they are more fashion statement than actual functional tool and you can see it in the designs and marketing. A knife is for cutting, so spending $500+ on a knife that has the same blade steel as a $80 knife (I'm looking at you Chris Reeves) is just a poor decision unless you care more about form over function. CK finally figured this out now that they are offering magnacut heat treated to a descent hardness.

Also if you want a strong lock up in a folder, while they are nice and make good fidget toys everyone loves to flip, liner locks are not the best option. Not compared to other lock mechanisms like the Axis, Tri-ad, Shark lock etc. they are all more secure under hard use than a liner lock. Again for 98% of people a well fit liner locks is more than enough, but if you're really talking about trying to put a knife through it's paces a liner lock is not the best option.
 
#67
I also own a bunch of other folders and multi tools that are cheap to pricey as well from Leatherman, Benchmade, Zero Tolerance and manufacturers I don’t remember that are stashed in my cars that I don’t care if they get lost or stolen. Some of them are better suited at various tasks to my CRK zaan, just like some of my nice fixed blades are better suited than folders. Unfortunately the law can restrict what you can carry in certain areas. I carry a nicer folder because I like them and I want to, just like some people own a dozen Rolex’s or collect comic books or baseball cards. Some men have different interests, you know how many people outside of the hide freak out about a $10k rifle and a $4k optic? Does anyone need a $40k Rolex? I rather have a smart watch.

- Richard
 
#68
Absolutely, I have an original pivot Zaan I'll never get rid of, and as you said carrying a fixed blade (but boy do I wish it was magnacut), even a small one is not always possible/ideal. There's nothing "wrong" with having an expensive watch if that's your thing, but I agree I'd rather wear a smart watch (work does not allow it) or a simple casio square gshock, it's solar and gets time updates every night. Knives are no different, everyone falls somewhere on their own form/function curve and budget.

We all have some quirk that we spend money on that's not purely form/fashion or that we are super cheap/frugal on.
 
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#69
ToddM said:
spending $500+ on a knife that has the same blade steel as a $80 knife (I'm looking at you Chris Reeves)
Click to expand...

I am a Chris Reeves fan but open to your thoughts. What $500+ Chris Reeves knife, compares to *what $80 knife?

The most overrated knife I ever owned was a Strider folder.

I have ZT in Elmax that I think was about the best deal going.
 
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#70
So to be fair, my point in "compares" is simply blade steel, heat treat, functional cutting. Obviously CRK is known for their super smooth almost hydraulic opening and vault like "Kerchunk" lock up sound. I've owned several, but have to admit until they started offering magncut, I got rid of most of them because there were just so many options at half the price or less that had far better edge retaining steels. I could put a variety of knives in my pocket that cost half as much and held an edge much longer. Offering a fairly high hardness magnacut option of course changed that equation. In fact I'll probably put in new blade requests to make most of my old CRK's (which at this point is only 3) magnacut bladed.

My point was for a long long time your only option with a CRK folder was soft heat treated s30/s35 (soft even for s30/35 options from other manufacturers). The last few years it's been pretty easy to get s30/s35 blade knives in and under the $100 range with heat treat that were higher than what CRK was doing, and higher end steels (s90v, 20cv, M390, etc.) under $250. Where they better overall knives in fit/finish than a CRK, with titanium handles, of course not, but here again cutting is what a knife's function is and s90v is going to cut circles around soft s30v for edge retention, and something like 3v is going to be similar edge retention with much more durability. Now you can go either way on that right, CRK's position back in the day was that a softer HT on s30/35 made it easier to maintain in the field by being faster/easier to touch up and sharpen, and he was not wrong. Though I'd wager the vast majority of CRK folders sold are not getting beat up in the field and sharpened on flat river rocks :) CRK also had a vested interest after all he was directly involved in the making of s30/35/45 steels with Crucible. The biggest advantage to those steels as opposed to other options were not that they were amazing cutting performance, but they were very easy (cheap) to machine/grind compared to other options. Don't get me wrong those are all very good steels, we're lucky to have them, but even in 2015 s30/35 was just middle of the road for what was available.

Striker had some nice fixed blades, and their folders were iconic back in the day, but I hated the handle shape, I think I still have a SMF somewhere where I ground the square hump on the handle rounded and reprofiled the blade geo. The one thing Strider did well back in the day, the same for Microtech is they had an amazing heat treat on s30 and ATS34 compared to other options. At some point the mid-tech craze started and it was basically just a way to get buyers to drop $400-500 on what was really just a production knife with better CNC'd parts.

The PM2 is still one of my favorite knives, I keep coming back to it. It's light, has a good handle, a lockup you can't accidentally release, it's not expensive and you can get it in a wide variety of steels. Plus it bucks the tacticool trend of folding knives having much too thick of blades for general everyday cutting. It also has really good grip with the peel ply G10. So many knives today are using smooth G10, or smooth aluminum/Ti handles, and they just don't have good grip if your hands are wet etc.

Elmax is a great steel, I really think it went underrated. I had an old ZT in elmax probably a 561. ZT back then really was turning out a lot of great designs.

With knives over the decades I've owned a ridiculous number of them, but like guns I've scaled a lot of them back to keep a few I really like/use. 90% of the time my Zaan or a PM2 end up in my pocket, but I also really like the Spyderco Smock, BM 940, BM Rift. In newer stuff for a smaller knife I'm a fan of the Hogue Deka's and the Demko AD20.5's. If CRK had done M390/s90v/20cv blades my Zaan might never leave my pocket, and it may not again if I ever get around to getting on the list for a magnacut blade for it. I don't currently own one, but another knife I really loved for being similar to CRK in vault like lock up and almost hydraulic like opening was Les George VECP, but the blade shape didn't really fit my everyday cutting needs, I'm not a fan of a lot of "belly" in my pocket folders.

Like so many things we're really lucky with the options we have now in knives. I have a couple very old Benchmades from the 90's (975 and 910) and every once and awhile I pull them out and mess with them, and at that time those knives were cutting edge, top of the heap for factory options, and comparing them to Benchmade's etc. today the difference in fit and finish and lock strength etc. is super obvious. The stuff today is vastly superior, and those old BM's are more the quality level you see on like $50-75 Civivi type knives.
 
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#71
ToddM said:
So to be fair, my point in "compares" is simply blade steel, heat treat, functional cutting. Obviously CRK is known for their super smooth almost hydraulic opening and vault like "Kerchunk" lock up sound. I've owned several, but have to admit until they started offering magncut, I got rid of most of them because there were just so many options at half the price or less that had far better edge retaining steels. I could put a variety of knives in my pocket that cost half as much and held an edge much longer. Offering a fairly high hardness magnacut option of course changed that equation. In fact I'll probably put in new blade requests to make most of my old CRK's (which at this point is only 3) magnacut bladed.

My point was for a long long time your only option with a CRK folder was soft heat treated s30/s35 (soft even for s30/35 options from other manufacturers). The last few years it's been pretty easy to get s30/s35 blade knives in and under the $100 range with heat treat that were higher than what CRK was doing, and higher end steels (s90v, 20cv, M390, etc.) under $250. Where they better overall knives in fit/finish than a CRK, with titanium handles, of course not, but here again cutting is what a knife's function is and s90v is going to cut circles around soft s30v for edge retention, and something like 3v is going to be similar edge retention with much more durability. Now you can go either way on that right, CRK's position back in the day was that a softer HT on s30/35 made it easier to maintain in the field by being faster/easier to touch up and sharpen, and he was not wrong. Though I'd wager the vast majority of CRK folders sold are not getting beat up in the field and sharpened on flat river rocks :) CRK also had a vested interest after all he was directly involved in the making of s30/35/45 steels with Crucible. The biggest advantage to those steels as opposed to other options were not that they were amazing cutting performance, but they were very easy (cheap) to machine/grind compared to other options. Don't get me wrong those are all very good steels, we're lucky to have them, but even in 2015 s30/35 was just middle of the road for what was available.
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So not one example of an $80 CRK equivalent knife? Seriously, I would like to buy this $80 Chris Reeves equivalent.
 
#73
Holliday said:
So not one example of an $80 CRK equivalent knife? Seriously, I would like to buy this $80 Chris Reeves equivalent.
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Your skill at missing the point is impressive, but sure I'll play.

The CJRB Pyrite has had multiple models that can be had in s90v ~$80. Sharpened to the same edge geo, it's edge retention will easy out perform a CRK with s30/35/45 steel.

Would it make you feel better about your purchase if I changed the # to $250? Of course there's over 250 folding knives on just one site with titanium handles and 3-3.5" high end steels like magnacut/s90/20cv/ etc. with prices under $250......

Look some people value an expensive $10K rolex that can't keep time as accurately or be as durable as a $150 G-shock, nothing wrong with that, they just value the fashion and social status wearing a Rolex brings more than accurate time telling and durability. Nothing wrong with that, but when someone asks about getting a durable, accurate high performing watch for telling time.....the actual function of a watch, Rolex should not be a suggestion.
 
#74
There are a ton of great knives under $250, but I also wanted it made in the United States and I was originally looking for another ZT to replace the 0562CF that I thought was lost last year . My ZT 0562CF was my main edc for years and I would not have even looked for a new knife if I didn’t think I lost it on a trip. I grabbed my ZT 0630 (Emerson designed with the wave) to carry and there is nothing wrong with it, but I didn’t love it like the 0562CF. Going down the rabbit hole led me to CRK and finally the Umnumzaan in Magnacut (63-64 RC). Then I went back and forth between the Drop Point which is a more practical blade profile and the Tanto. I grabbed the DP last year and love it but then saw CPM closing and grabbed the Tanto this year as well which I carry now. Another thing CRK does that is uncommon is their Spa Treatment. So when I eventually send in one to get resharpened, I’ll carry the other until it comes back. Having both the sand blasted and glass blasted finish, my DP sand blasted will eventually get the glass blasted finish.
IMO my search for folder is now complete. I have way more folders than I need and my kids should be covered as well.

Now when it comes to fixed blades I like mine in 3V, Magnacut or the new Magnacut variation whatever it will be called. I will be buying fixed blades and Tomahawks I don’t need just because 😏

- Richard

IMG_5757.jpeg
 
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