My Knife Preferences

In this post I'd like to talk about what I look for in a knife. If a knife has all these points, then it's pretty much a perfect knife in my eyes. This will give you all a better insight into my preferences, which in turn impacts how I review certain blades.

Quality is the most important thing when it comes to a knife. If a blade looks cool, but sucks quality wise, you'd never be able to actually use it. My EDC is centered around gear that works on all circumstances. If I've had even the slightest quality issue with a piece of gear, I can't trust it nor will I carry it. Your EDC needs to work 100 percent of the time or why would you even bother carrying gear at all?

I prefer knives that can be opened easily one-handed. When I need my knife, I need it right then, so I don't want to have to fiddle around with a knife that isn't easy to open. There are situations where I like to have two-handed knives, like slipjoints, but for the most part I'd rather have a one-handed knife. I love Spyderco's thumb hole, or just thumb holes in general, more than any other opening mechanism. I hate thumb studs. I don't mind nail nicks or thumb discs/plates as long as they're done well.

I hate spring assisted knives. If a knife comes spring assisted, chances are pretty high that I'll automatically hate it. I think it's an extremely worthless feature. It's super loud, obnoxious, and unnecessary. They don't open any faster than a good manual folder. They tend to freak people out, and they really don't open that well to begin with.

I have no real preferences for steel. I don't know much about all the different steels, so as long as the knife is sharp and easy to sharpen, I don't really care. Since I buy a lot of budget gear, the steel is usually something like VG-10, AUS-8, 8Cr13MoV, etc. As long as it cuts, that's all that matters.

Handle wise, I prefer FRN or G10. I hate any sort of metal handles. They tend to be uncomfortable with all their hotspots and slickness. They also add a lot of unnecessary weight to a blade. I don't need my knife to be super lightweight, but I've grown used to Spyderco's FRN which keeps the knife pretty light anyways. I prefer FRN, because it allows for more color options than G10. Some say it feels cheap, but I guess it's just an acquired taste. I'm also not a fan of carbon fiber, wood, or materials of that nature.

In general, I do prefer small knives as they are easier for me to carry. I have little to no pocket space, so having small blades gives me more options. I do also have smaller hands, so they tend to have better ergonomics than the bigger stuff. I've recently gotten back into the bigger blades with my purchase of a Spyderco Endura. Surprisingly enough, I've fallen in love with the size of the Endura. I do want to try out more mid-sized/large folders just so I can have more variety.

This post is getting pretty long, so the last thing I'll talk about is clips. I love the wire clips from Spyderco, because they don't scream that you've got a knife in your pocket. I don't like the big, obnoxious clips that have a lot of branding to them. They draw a lot of unnecessary attention in my opinion. Plus, they don't carry that well either.

Anyways, that about wraps up some of my knife preferences. Honestly, I just prefer blades that are plain and simple. I need a blade that will work and last forever. Now you all know some of thing things I look for in a blade. Thanks for looking!