Cheap Blades are Good

To begin, this is not an endorsement for garbage mall ninja blades. You know the ones. They have lots of jagged bits, are made from premium Chinesium by Pakistani forge masters and are covered in SPEED HOOOOLES (the lighter weight makes them cut faster ya know?). Don't get me wrong I adore BudK and their ilk (may they stay in business forever) but by "cheap" I mean inexpensive. Sure those 440 stainless folders you find in a Walmart bargain bin aren't much better than a Tacticool Mall Knife and a Mora isn't made from next generation NanoTech but that's part of the appeal.

SPEEEEED HOOOOOOOLES!!!

I say this because at the end of the day, most knives used by Joe Average don't get a lot of hard use. Even the ones that do see hard use aren't usually the high end custom made jobs because most people are too afraid to risk losing or damaging a $500 piece. At the end of the day the majority of these super knives/hatchets/etc end up as little more than decoration and collector's pieces anyway, so why spend the money on it unless you are a serious collector?

Would you believe this tiny thing costs $495.00?!

Now if you have an occupation or hobby that requires a hard use bladed tool please do not think I am telling you to toss out common sense and replace your current toolset with a Harbor Freight machete or a $4 multitool. I am however saying that you likely wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars of your paycheck on a pair of Red Wings to do a bit of light gardening on the weekends, so why do the same with a pocket knife? The North American continent was tamed by men using roughly the same three or four patterns of what were essentially mass produced kitchen knives with rough cut slab handles pinned on (see Green River knives). I'm quite certain a lot of the men who used them would have loved a knife made from the various exotic materials and super steels we have available to us in the modern day, but if they could manage to thrive in the harsh realities of colonial life and that of the fur trade then I fail to see much reason in purchasing a blade that is equal in cost to a modern firearm.

Classic patterns such as these have barely changed since the 1800s

I'm sure I sound like one of those "GOOD ENUFF" fudds in this post, and to some degree I kind of am being one, but ultimately I am just jotting down my own opinion that I've gained after some experience. If you think what I've said in this post is utterly stupid and have the money to spend on a high end custom tool, then by all means do so. If you want to use my opinion to help justify buying a knockoff Benchmade from some shady website then help yourself (at your own peril). I just hope it was a somewhat entertaining read and possibly an eye opener to anyone who might not have thought of the topic in such a way before. If you made it this far through my rambling then thank you for your time and have a good one.