Today on Knife Banter we're talking about
ten knives five steals and some smoking hot deals Kurt you ready for this?
Let's talk Knives!!
What's happening everybody? Today on knife banter we're going to be talking
about steels and more specifically inexpensive steels in each category. So
we got five steels on the table today we have eight cr13 mov
d2 s35vn m390 and maximet. So we're going from kind of
your budget intro steel all the way up to the tippy top
tippy top of super steels. Now we have two knives per category
the first knife is going to be kind of the most inexpensive one you can get
and then we'll have a little bit of an upgrade path as well.
So Kurt you have the first knife what is it?
You bet I do i've got the kershaw three-quarter ton do you guys want to
know the best thing about this knife $12.
Are you kidding me 12 bucks it's a gfn scale with a rubberized kershaw pad
right here so you actually get pretty good grip you got a thick blade
big old blade fits in the hams pretty well
and look at this pocket clip it's a wrench.
I mean yeah you need a torx number six to
pull that off but that's a wrench that's kind of cool huh? I think that might be
my favorite part of that entire knife but when it comes
to like cheap inexpensive hcr or 13 mov knives
i think the one that always comes to my mind is the shuffle
and the shuffle is around it's around 15 bucks it depends on what variation you
get um that's the first time i've handled
the three-quarter ton and i have to say i'm super impressed
with that knife for being $12. It's centered great oh yeah check
this out yeah great centering it's got pretty
decent action and the liner lock um is you know pretty
nice to operate as well so super impressive for $12.
You should check one out for sure. If you want to spend a little bit more money
uh you can get into that uh $23.95 area and that will get you a
crkt squid. The squid's a little bit of a controversial knife some people love it
some people hate it but if you're looking for a little bit higher
material quality when it comes to handles you have a stainless steel
handle on here 8cr13 mov blade deep carry pocket clip
so that's another option as well. That'll run you
$23.95. Some people love it i know Ben when he was here it was one of his
favorite knives that he would gift people a lot
some people Kurt you're not a huge fan of it so
no not really i think i think my jump would be like a
Pilarge. There's a lot of CRKT knives um kind of in that mid-20s range that uh
are pretty decent so definitely. Okay next steel on the table
d2 i think d2 definitely hits that price to performance um area pretty well.
This is a newer brand for me uh this is a
QSP Penguin and first time have you ever heard of QSP? No
i know honestly they they showed up uh at the office
just short a little while ago and i was
taking photos and i was like dang these are actually pretty cool yeah
so this is a qsp penguin uh you have a micarta handle d2
blade uh you have a deep carry pocket clip that
is reversible tip up um this thing is crazy it's
30 bucks for a d2 blade centering on the knife is fantastic it's
got great fit and fit and finish and it's got that you
know fantastic straight edge that i love for if you're doing stuff like boxes and
that type of thing really cuts into into that
sort of material so you're looking for a great
inexpensive general overall pocket knife like i think this goes
head-to-head with a lot of the stuff that Civivi offers um
great knife $30 very impressive qsp penguin 30 bucks that's not bad.
Okay i've got one in d2 and it is the
the Rat model 2. I don't think there's any surprise
that this is on the table right now no you have kind of a special relationship
with this knife. I do because i have one and i've put it
to the test beat it worked on it like it's been
through some stuff it's seen some things and i'm not
kidding my r2d2 it's not quite as
centered in the center it's barely off now
because i've pried with it and stuff but that thing still
shoots open like a dream i love that knife!
So good and 37 bucks 38 bucks $37.95.
But man four-way reversible pocket clip you got your d2 steel it's a nylon scale.
Man the only thing that would make this better is a deep carry clip.
Yeah and i think when we talk about knife like best bang for your buck type
knives that knife has been here for forever and
keeps coming up when it comes to value for the price you're paying it's
just it's fantastic. Oh absolutely absolutely it really is
probably in my top 10. For sure in my top 10.
But very cool moving on to the next steel
s35vn i have got something very interesting i have a Lion Mah
Xenobit. Now this is a fixed blade of sorts which is
it's very interesting design it's almost like a karambit but it's also like uh
hey i could really choke up and like do some work with this
chisel tip. That is a that is an interesting design um and for such a
large chunk of s35vn like it's
pretty impressive at the price point it's sitting at right now. What did you
say the price was? The price is $64.99. 65 bucks
s35vn and this thing's cool it's got a it's got a decent sheath got a good clip
on it and you can throw the chain on
and wear it as a neck knife. Sure so you have a couple do that
a couple different options for carry right yeah and
i mean it may not be for everybody but it's a cool piece
and s35vn for 65 bucks that's that's a good deal yeah for sure.
Okay so if you want to maybe spend a little bit more money
and get kind of a more traditional folding pocket knife
um i was actually surprised with this you can get a cold steel
code four which i actually own one of these
cold steel code for $79.95 s35vn. I think some of my favorite things
about this knife is the smoothness of it right it's got that hydraulic smooth
action where it's not it's not going to flip open obviously because it's a
backlock but it just has a very satisfying open
and click because of the tri ad lock back there
definitely like the click and i think cold steel has the market
maybe not cornered but they do a very good job of getting
giving you a lot of knife for the price that you pay for it.
So if you're looking at something that's just under eighty dollars
you have a triad lock you have an s35vn blade you have a two-way reversible
tip-up carry pocket clip. This knife for 80 bucks like you don't
see knives like this for you know under 120 bucks very often
and this is $80. So i really enjoy the cold seal code 4
and i think it gives you great value for the price
that you pay for it. Absolutely i agree when you talk about cold steel and how
much bang for your buck you get they are
really good at that i i'm not kidding like lately i've been
really focusing in on cold steel and just trying to like
see all the knife options and kind of what they're about
and they've got some cool stuff. For sure and I know um some people
they kind of focus on that beefier burly working knife right?
Right and i think they do a really good job
of working in that space and then obviously giving you a lot of knife for
the price that you pay. Right and now kind of with the air light
and a couple other models that they're coming out with uh now i
think they're starting to poke at that kind of more EDC friendly smaller
just kind of throw it in your jeans pocket where it runs down type of knife
now so yeah absolutely really enjoying what
cold steel is putting out recently and like i said great value for
your money. All right next steal we have m390 or
20cv or 204p depending on which manufacturer we're
we're talking about. So i actually have a knife in 20CV
this is the kershaw link i like that knife a lot
yeah we talk about it a lot i don't think it gets shown a lot which is
kind of funny but i agree. This knife is $79.95
for a 20CV blade um which is very impressive. Yeah that's crazy!
It's basically the it's kind of like the flipper version of the
launch one in a way so if you like that shape this is a very similar
design but you got aluminum scales you have a 20 cv blade
you have deep carry reversible pocket clip.
It's a fantastic knife 80 bucks for 20 cv
and that's nuts. Yeah that is crazy i absolutely agree i really like that
knife and kershaw kind of hit it out of the park with that.
Yeah um it's it's kind of as far as your your build quality and feel it's very
similar to the launch series of knives so if you enjoy those
knives consider checking out a link 20 cv blade it's hard to go wrong with
that. For sure okay so i don't have a 20 cv but i do
have the M390 and this is uh maybe another option a
little stepped up in price not by much this is $99.
The GiantMouse Iona. This is actually a really cool knife. The
milling here on the uh let's see what is the handle
i know it's frn i was either gonna say gfn or frn but it's frn
and it's in this cool blue color i know you can get it in a couple other blue
colors but you've got like that is a great
blade. It's right around three inches which is perfect for me.
Fits in the hams i like the wire pocket clip keeping it light it's reversible
both sides and this thing is sweet i'm telling you
right now GiantMouse knows what they're doing.
Flips open easy it's got good blade centering
and for 99 bucks bowler m390. Yeah that crazy knife has always
impressed me um we had jesper on quite a while ago and
we kind of got a preview or a look at that knife before it was released and
i i was i was pretty impressed with the price point that they were
they were hitting at and then the materials that they were also putting in
it so right m390 for under $100 is still an
incredible price like when you have the link at what 80
bucks or whatever it is it's hard to it's hard to beat
that but a hundred dollars is still a pretty darn good price point when it
comes for it comes to a well-made blade that's m390. Oh yeah
absolutely i totally agree yeah it's a good one uh
but we should move on to the next steal which
is maxamet. Now i have a Spyderco
native five lightweight. Oh man look at that that like space
gray. When we talk about super steels these
this is like the category of like super super steel you have steels like Maxamet
you got like rex 121 uh k390 all of these just super tippy
top tippy top steels are super interesting
um the reason why we chose Maxamet on this one is because it's kind of
one of the only just like tippy top steels that you can get
reliably. Right so if if you're looking for
something in that range you can usually go on bladehq.com
and check out you know the spyderco maxamet knives and you're usually going to
find a native 5 or our next knife but right and
honestly Maxamet Spyderco native five lock back four-way
reversible pocket clip and this is the lightweight version so
it's got the really light uh milled out scales for em
and i gotta be honest i think the native five
is a great fit whether you choke up or if you don't.
That's that's Christmas ham's approved right there.
Yeah plus a hundred and seventy-five dollars
for Maxamet. Right that's not bad uh we're we're getting into the
basically tippy top of steals right now um so when we're when we're talking
about prices in in knives that are in these crazy
high-end steels like of course they're not going to be
cheap but this this is uh a decent option
for the price um right absolutely. All right so if you want to upgrade uh
depending on what upgrade means to you uh in this case it's probably just going
to mean a larger blade so this is the spyderco manix 2
lightweight in Maxamet as well. So if you're
not down with the smaller size of the native 5
you can check out the manix 2 lightweight as well.
Lightweight version wire pocket clip that is reversible you have a ball
bearing lock on there of course that fantastic Maxamet blade
and your frn handles. Now one more thing about Maxamet i always
thought Maxamet would be like if you're a knife nut the perfect
just box knife and only if you're a knife nut because Maxamet is definitely
not an easy steel to sharpen but if you
really like knives and you want something that is
basically towards the top of edge retention Maxamet it's your thing
you'll be cutting boxes for for days i always like to go to
uh pete cedric and aydah his youtube channel seeing his edge retention tests
and right uh Maxamet is up there at the top of those so.
You can't go wrong with Maxamet you really can't. Interesting steel
obviously a higher price point the manix 2 is going to be
$203 on the site so not cheap but it's an option
if you want the some of the best edge holding capabilities on a
knife today so. That's all the steels man. We rolled through that we we busted that
one out. Right so i think i think we just need to
check pockets. What's in your pocket?
What's in my pocket? So this is a little bit of a
i don't know it's not really a pocket check but so
i'm planning on doing some camping this weekend
and one of the knives that i'm going to be taking with me
is the Benchmade Leku.
that they just came out with i've been so excited about this knife
i definitely want one. Right so if you like the puko
um this is essentially the same knife with a larger blade
uh same handle and everything uh and i think
for a lot of people that's a plus the puko
i mean depending on what you're doing um this is gonna be right this is going to
handle more your chopping and batoning needs puko's going to be more
your bushcrafting type needs. Right so if you like the puko
wanted something a little bit bigger more heavy duty leku's fantastic
uh it comes with this great leather sheath and you can put
um these benchmade slash exotec tac exotec uh fire steels in the sheath as
well so this is the benchmade branded one.
Uh it's kind of a cool little setup i think i'm going to like it i haven't
really used it much yet so we'll uh we'll see what happens there.
Kurt i know what's in your pocket but tell me anyway!
Boom my one and only R2D2. This is the one i've been working on
motorcycles with and doing some yard work it's
it's seen some things you know it's a little beat up but honestly this thing
is still rocking and rolling! I love this thing.
Honestly guys i have beat the tar out of this thing
and i'm not kidding this thing is one of the best knives
that i have. Probably probably really up there with
most reliable too reliable good tool steel that you
can just hammer on. Right and you've like i
remember seeing uh you working on your your little dirt bikes there and like
you would have that thing out of you scraping stuff off the bike and
right kind of makes me cringe a little bit but i mean it's a perf it's a knife
and a perfect price point to do that with.
Absolutely, absolutely i totally agree that's why i went with it.
It's been a great great knife great tool to have. Cool!
That's it guys we did it that's that's that is all she wrote so uh thank you so
much for watching make sure you hit that like and subscribe button
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about it right away! Kurt thanks so much for being on
absolutely and uh hopefully we'll be uh together soon so yes we will see you
guys on the next one. And once again we find
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