Posted: 4/21/2009 10:25:01 AM EDT
| well i'm looking to buy a heavy duty knife. i've been looking at a brian johnson knive. anybody have one and if you do do you like it? |
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My opinion is that very expensive knives are rarely worth the money over an adequate knife. JMHO.
Think about what it is you want the knife for in the first place. See if you can borrow one for a few days and use it for your intended purpose. I think that will shed far more light on the issue than asking a bunch of random Internet posters. Don't get me wrong. Its your money and if you want it, go ahead and do it. My point is more along the lines of buy something you will find useful rather than another safe queen. |
Well, I actually went to their website and looked at the knives. $200 isn't too bad for a semi-custom. I've never seen or handled one, however. I can endorse Cold Steel's Trailmaster, however, and it's a lot cheaper. You also might want to look at the Becker Combat Utility Knife, I keep one in my truck and it's hard to beat for about $65. I carried semi-custom knives for years, and after losing 3 Emerson CQC7's in a row I gave up and now I carry cheaper knives. There's really no difference if you keep them sharp. Flame suit on for that one. 
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I have a Brian Johnson knife that he made to my specifications. His prices are okay for a custom maker however there are several new makers out there that do outstanding work (check Bladeforums in their maker's section). I also agree that there are several good manufactured blades out there that will do everything a custom will minus the personal touches...most customs have a pretty good heat treat (you really need to look at reputable makers though) that will give the edge over manufactured blades, but that edge is pretty minimal as already stated (sharpening and using your blade as a bladed tool not a breaching tool). I'd suggest contacting Brian and let him know what you're looking for before plunking down the cash.
I would look hard at Ranger Knives, the Becker line (now made by KaBar), RAT cutlery, Mission knives (their A2 steel models)...Benchmade has a decent line and I've heard good reports from the Gerber LMF. Personally, try to stick to a good carbon steel...1095, 1065, O1 and A2...especially if you plan to do some heavy chopping with hard impacts. Let us know what you end up with. ROCK6 |
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I like the bird and trout knife in the classic line, most of the other stuff is bigger than I want to mess with these days.
As far as cost goes, I prefer something more expensive in many cases because I prefer the difference of something semi-custom vs. something I can get a whole bunch of identical versions of. I personally just enjoy some of the more expensive stuff. Same goes for most of my gear. If I was on a tighter budget I would not have a lot of the stuff I have. Figure out what a knife needs to do for you. These days a 3 or 4 inch blade is all I want since it mostly does kitchen duty, some wood whittling if I want to notch some poles, and cleaning game or fish or anything else like that. For actually cutting wood poles a little folding wood saw works fine for me these days. For major wood cutting a larger folding saw or a small axe can go with me. I won't think of putting my knife on the end of a pole these days, to easy to damage the blade. Much simpler to sharpen a pole and let that do the job. I have never heard of these knives before now but the look decent and I am sure you can read some reviews on some of the knife sites out there. |
