A good knife for under a tenner?

Dougster

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 13, 2005
5,254
238
The banks of the Deveron.
Stainless is the work of the Dark Forces, designed for eating fish with and not a patch on honest carbon!

I beg your pardon! Why bother with carbon when you can get stainless? My stainless clipper got covered in pheasant at the weekend and went straight in the dishwasher - with the sheath.

My big RWL-34 is immesurably harder and has infinitely better edge retention than any 01 I've ever had.

Myself - if you are doing food, stainless every time, but I do have some loverly expensive spyderco sharpening stones.

A DC3 or 4 will cope with stainless with ease.

I'd say stainless clipper, a cracker for a lot of stuff, in't dishwasher at the end of it.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,307
3,090
67
Pembrokeshire
[
My big RWL-34 is immesurably harder and has infinitely better edge retention than any 01 I've ever had.


A DC3 or 4 will cope with stainless with ease.

I'd say stainless clipper, a cracker for a lot of stuff, in't dishwasher at the end of it.[/QUOTE]

A RWL clipper for £10?
What is a dishwasher?:D
 

Donny

Member
Jan 7, 2008
42
0
39
Northampton, UK.
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Earlyturtle

Forager
Nov 5, 2007
114
0
Bristol, England
Doesn't it depend on the type of stainless steel? My Brusletto and my Buck are both stainless and they go on the waterstone and strop and get excellent results,
 

big_swede

Native
Sep 22, 2006
1,452
8
42
W Yorkshire
Here the mora 2000 goes for just under £10 :D

I never liked the clipper, godawful plastic handles! The traditional red wooden handle is much easier on the hands.
 

Dougster

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 13, 2005
5,254
238
The banks of the Deveron.
The point I was making about RWL34 is that stainless has just left carbon for dead.

As far as I can tell 01 is good because it's easy to HT and therefore less expensive.

As for a first knife I'd stand by the stainless clipper vote. I really like my sandvik hollow grind for butchering.

We got a dishwasher as a wedding present and discovered it's sterilising qualities with bottles. It's great for ensuring food prep knives are PROPERLY clean, but I keep forgetting where you live old boy.........
 
Mora use Sandvik 12c27 stainless steel for their knives and anybody will tell you that properly HT'd ( as mora do!) it's a cracking stainless steel, I used to always use carbon blades believeing all the hype touted about them but find a good stainless is every bit as good without the worry of rust ( well not too much anyway!)
 

sam_acw

Native
Sep 2, 2005
1,081
10
42
Tyneside
the Cold Steel Canadian is a good cheap knife that is great value for money. Perhaps not as good a wood carver as a Mora but better in the kitchen.
 

Jedadiah

Native
Jan 29, 2007
1,349
1
Northern Doghouse
I see both sides of the argument here, but it is like wood Vs Micarta Vs Plastic (rubber) Vs Stabilised wood in that we are all individuals (i'm not!) and so like different things for different reasons. I personally prefer carbon as i find it, and i don't know why i describe it as this, but, warm. It's a warm and comforting metal. I find stainless cold and impersonal, sterile if you will.

I feel a little bit like a wine bore trying to describe a flavour (Mmmm, tastes like boot polish on a rotting apple inside an old wooden school desk!) but that's the way it feels to me. carbon always smiles when you take it out of the sheath, Stainless always grimaces and says 'What are you F***ing looking at?'. Still, i've only played with cheap stainless knives (apart from an F1 but we won't go into that). Maybe when i get to have a butchers at Dougsters 'Special' i might change my mind!
 

Greg

Full Member
Jul 16, 2006
4,335
260
Pembrokeshire
This is my 440C Stainless steel knife with black micarta handles. It is hollow ground which I personally like and has a great feel, again my personal feelings about it.
It holds a good edge and when I bought it, it came razor sharp - took the hairs right off my forearm no bother.
And it only cost me £10.
Heres one on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CLASSIC-BUSHC...ryZ72046QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I have nothing to do with the seller other than being a satisfyed customer.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,307
3,090
67
Pembrokeshire
My feelings exactly Jed!
I use some stainless blades but my "friends" are carbon....
All down to personal taste.
Some like Stainless with Micarta and a Kydex sheath.
I prefer carbon with wood grips/handle and a leather sheath.
But then I am a Luddite.....
 

brancho

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
3,799
745
56
Whitehaven Cumbria
I prefer the Clipper to the Mora (Frosts craftsman 740) due to the handle being smaller in the hand and the rubber gives better grip in my opinion. The clipper has a better (but still horrible) plastic sheath. I also prefer the narrower blade on the clipper for carving with.
Both are good knives at a great price. They are easy to to maintain and no big deal if you loose one.

I have only used each of them in Carbon steel versions and so will not comment on the stainless.

Alf
 

Dougster

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 13, 2005
5,254
238
The banks of the Deveron.
I am really looking at stainless, stabilised and kydex sheathes as my first choice. Odd eh?

When I cut anything with carbon I just find it gets 'dirty' - I dunno why but I hate patinas.

Saying that, with my 11 knives there is room for variety, but still no evidence of carbon.
 

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