Knife Talk: How Much Is Too Much?

note: These are all just my opinions. You don’t have to agree with me at all. Everyone has the right to think for themselves and spend their money how they choose. I just think this is an interesting topic to talk about.

How much is too much to spend on a knife? I constantly think about this question, and my answer always remains at $100. Once you get over that $100 price point, the blades aren’t that much better in my opinion. I’ve tried a lot of blades, several over $100, but ultimately they all do the same exact thing as a $10 Victorinox Classic. They all can cut stuff. Maybe some look cooler than others when doing this; however, I think we all can agree that a $300 knife can cut something just like a $5 utility blade. Sure the $300 blade has nicer blade steel, materials, etc., but performance wise, I could cut open up a box just fine with either. I think people get too sucked into being fanboys of certain brands. They need to own that new Sebenza or Zero Tolerance to be like everyone else.

Personally, I buy knives solely for utility purposes. I need a knife most days, so I want something that will perform well and not give me any issues. I don’t care about how they look or who designed it. I’m not a collector either. I just need something that works. I use my knives and don’t care whether they get scratched up or not. I don’t do anything too extreme, just cutting open packages, trimming strings, and light stuff like that. If I owned a $200+ knife, I know for a fact that I’d baby it and never use it to its full potential. I’m a teenager, which means I don’t have a lot of money to spend on stuff. When it comes to my money, there are a lot better things that I could spend $200 on than buying one single knife.

Realistically, everyone buys their knives for different purposes. Some people truly use them; others just buy them because they look cool/are collectable. Once you spend more and more on a knife, it gets better quality wise to some degree. The materials are nicer, but if there’s some kind of quality issue, that just negates the whole purpose of buying that blade in my opinion. There shouldn’t be any quality issues on a blade that is that expensive. When I buy a $60 knife, I expect the possibility that it won’t be perfect. That’s just what you would expect for the price. Once you step up the price though, the blades should be pretty near to perfect. If not, why would you spend that much on a blade that has similar quality issues to a $60 blade? It’s the same principle when you buy anything in life. The more you spend, the better it should be. I bet those higher end blades are great and all, but when they all do the same thing, it doesn’t really matter. There’s really no substantial difference to someone like me who’s an average user. I will never spend more than $100 on a blade and that’s okay. I’ll keep spending my money the way I want, and you all can do the same. The higher end market is getting more popular every day, so obviously I just have an unpopular opinion. I see tons of Zero Tolerances/Sebenzas/Striders on Instagram every single day. It gets so tiresome to me, but hey if you enjoy it, that’s what matters. Thanks for looking! I’m not trying to offend anyone at all. These are my own thoughts.