A very fine mentor in Sweden once told us (in so many words) " do not let shiney and expensive kit replace mastering essential skills" and the important thing is for us to practice and practice so that we can DO what is needed with whatever knife is available...expensive or otherwise.
As Leon remarked further down the thread, Mors Kochanski can make virtually any knife talk from the numerous demonstrations available on YouTube and DVD completely due to his mastery of skills and techniques. When talking about his ideal "bush knife" on one of the Karamat videos, his preference is for the Skookum Bushtool....designed by Rod Garcia as his interpretation of Mors' definition in "Bushcraft" and fairly expensive too ! I wonder what your adversary in YouTube would make of that....?
I would say that if people are happy with their skill sets there is no need at all to let other people tell them how to spend their money and it's good that you were encouraging someone else to seek advice as to how to begin their own journey developing their skills
Sometimes I really wish there was a like button on here
I like that.
As I constantly tell my team at work, we all know what the 'Gold Standard' looks like, but we have to be prepared to go out of the door at Silver or Bronze because it's our job.
So in this context, whether we have a £400 knife or a £10 knife, we have to ask ourselves honestly - do we actually know how to use it?
Ability over cost is the message, but if you have skill and the money then you buy the best you can afford in the same way we have done with clothing. A kagoul will do the job, but a Mera Peak is a nicer jacket.
Our views and concepts on kit change constantly (a knife is still just kit). One thing that I've learnt over the years is that the more expensive something is the better care you take of it. When I was young I would lust over a new piece of kit, save for months till I could afford to buy it and then be almost too frightened to use it, as I got older I used the kit, my kit husbandry had become better and I knew how to look after my purchases and my skill at using them had become greater.
I still lust after new and expensive pieces of kit, but time has tempered me and my requirements. I have greater understanding of that which I require and what I require of it. My skills and abilities are greater than they were when I was younger, the kit which I own, have bought or had commissioned reflect to a degree that development. I am a big fan of Hultafors, Snow & Nealley, Gransfors, Wilkinson Sword / Fiskars and Norlund for axes. All of them bring something to the party, all are actually very good tools and all are in totally different price brackets. At work I tend to use a Hultafors or a Fiskars axe, but when I am out and about I could be carrying anything.
Bergans/Rucksacks, I have a fair few of them and I have owned Berghaus, Karrimor, Lowe Alpine, TNF and god knows what else. My current favourites are an Alpkit Gourdon 20, an LK35, a Karrimor Sabre 45 and an old Berghaus Cyclps Roc. That's a healthy mix of cheap and expensive, but each fullfills a specific role and it's using the correct tool for the job in hand.
For the year to last 2 years I have mainly been using three sheath knives, an old mora No'1, a Mark Hill Mora Clone and a Guy Stainthorpe neck knife. 2 of the knives would appear on the face of it to be the same knife, but in reality are totally different, they have different steels, the tang is different (stick vs full), the thickness of the steel is different and they sit in different sheaths. Would I be dissapointed to pick up the Mora instead of the Mark Hill, no I wouldn't. I have however got a preference for the Mark Hill knife because that's what I asked for. There is nothing elitist about my choice. It's age, experience and my choice combined with the will to make it happen (which means saving to pay for the knife). I am not buying or using the knife to make a statement, I am buying it and using it because it's the best tool for the job.