Welcome back, everybody, it’s been a while longer than usual, I took some time for Thanksgiving. I also had a death in the family. So it took some time away after thanksgiving to spend time with my family and be there for them. But I’ve been dying to get back and make videos. It’s, it’s been eating at me. So here we are, it is now Tuesday. This is take two of this video. Because the first time I missed focus on all three cameras pretty much the entire time. So pick two is the charm for me, I guess anyway, it’s the holiday season, it is the gift giving season. And if you were trying to give someone a knife and you don’t know anything about knives, or if you’re trying to treat yourself and you have a budget of around $50, or under $50. These are the knives that I say you should be looking at. Because you can’t go wrong with anything on this table. Honestly, you truly can’t. And no, I’m not including everything. There are plenty of other knives under 50 bucks that maybe should be on this list, but I don’t have access to them or I’ve not used them. So I can’t say one way or another that they are great over if you have a favorite knife under $50. And you think I missed it. And it should have been included on this list coming down below and let me know anyway, these are the best bang for your buck knives under 50 bucks this holiday season.
So as you can see, we have a pretty good spread here, lots of names to choose from, I have some off to the side as well, just for comparison sake, or because there are different variants of practically the same night, I know that not everybody has the same taste or preference. And I know that when you think of budget knives, everybody’s mind goes to a different place. And that’s okay, because under that $50 threshold, there are a lot of similarities, a lot of the same night steel used, which means that the differences really come down to build quality and blade shape and style choices. So when I think of budget names, the first brand that comes to mind is crucial. They don’t make I wouldn’t say they make the best knives out there, but I think they make a solid solid budget knife and there are a lot of different ones out there like the cryo series, which I did not include in this list or the crucial leak. There are so many out there. But what comes to mind for me, the commercial knives that I would choose under $50 are probably one of these two right here. And really when it comes to the commercial shuffle lineup, there are three different models there’s the one, the two in the DIY, the one is really kind of the middle ground between the DIY and the two in that it has the bottle opener in the spine of handle instead of like the shuffle to which has a bottle opener on either side, a flathead screwdriver or pry bar and a lanyard hole all in one. And the DIY. The standout feature of the DIY is that it has interchangeable bits built into the handles, you can fly one of those out, pop it in and you have a flathead screwdriver or Phillips head. And you can exchange these bits off for really anything bit if you want. The problem with this is that these bits
flied out really easily
they’ll fall out in your pocket sometimes. That’s probably the biggest complaint about this one with them by a huge huge set of bits for a couple bucks. So for me, it’s not really a big big issue. One thing about the shuffle to that made me choose it over the original shuffle is really just the design and the blade style. I like the coyote tan, and I like the actual design of the handle. The original shop will have a little it’s a different design it’s more rubberized handle I believe, and it’s not Tonto, I don’t think the shuffle DIY has a style to a different blade. Honestly, out of all the shapes and sizes. The shuffle DIY is probably my favorite. They’re made with HDR 13 and movie steel, so they’re not fantastic quality actually rolled the steel onto the shelf to the first time I ever used it. It’s just something you got to get used to with eight to 13 and movie. It’s a soft steel, it holds an edge okay, but it’s really easy to sharpen so these knives and most of these mentioned in this video, you’re just going to have to be okay with having to sharpen it more often than you would a nicer knife right now. I think this one is about $15 the shuffle one is about $12 and the shuffle DIY is I believe, like 20 $21 they all go on sale very very often. And you can actually sometimes find these knives for as little as like seven or eight bucks and it’s really hard to beat that price point. But one complaint I do have about these is the clip positions they’re all tip down. You can choose which side on the shuffle to and I believe the shuffle one shuffle DIY that clip is fixed there’s nowhere else you can put it on the night if you want to step it up a notch and have kind of that similar form factor similar size, but a much nicer knife or around the same price point you’re going to be looking at the CR k t Clark, this knife is wildly loved right now it’s made or designed by box knives that’s from CR Katie. But it just it’s a beautiful, beautiful knife. This one is custom. So if you buy one off Amazon, you’re not going to be able to find this one. They have a copy wash blade and a sandblasted handle from EDC, Alabama on Instagram. And, of course my pocket logo there on the handled. Yeah, this this knife is probably one of my favorites out of this whole list just because it looks great, it feels great. You upgrade from one of the shuffle names, which are all liner locks. This one is actually a frame lock. And in my personal opinion, I prefer that frame locks, it’s just a little easier to use for me feels nicer, it just feels more secure. There’s really little to say about this knife, a little complaint about you can choose tip up or tip down, though you can only choose from one side of the knife. And I think it’s great, the ergonomics are fantastic, we’re still dealing with ACR 13 and movies, you’re not dealing with anything that’s outrageously better in terms of quality. I think the design of the knife is much nicer the ergonomics are a little better for me, and it just feels cooler to you. So that’s really all subjective stuff, I think. But if I were to choose between one of the crucial shuffles in this era people are and probably go with the Pollara today and like you thing is you can get this thing for about $22 shows about the same price as the shuffle DIY. So you’re not really spending a whole lot of money on this. And again, you break it or abuse it, it’s okay, you can just buy another one. They also go on sale pretty often you can find them for around $15 I think is the lowest I’ve ever seen it listed. This is one of the better knives on the list. I think just in terms of coolness factor, and the ergonomics of it. I don’t know it’s got that cleaver style to it for a really cheap price point. I think that’s one reason people like it so much, but it is not technically a cleaver, I wouldn’t say it’s got that cool factor and for $22 I think it’s a really really good buy. So if you are interested in that cleaver style blade, there are a ton of options under $50. One of the only ones you’re going to come across other than some no name brands is going to be the Gerber flat iron and a lot of people have been crapping on this night and I think it’s because people who have been looking at cleaver style pocket knives have been looking at the Spider Man hose and the Kaiser sheep dog and the
other high end cleavers and this one is a cleaver with a three or 13 mo V and it’s just that blade still is not the favorite of knife fanatics, but that’s okay, this knife is just going to be a beater knife, something that you will be used. I don’t know how many more times I can say that people always have problems with these sort of knives, these budget knives and the Steel’s that come on them. You’re not going to find a much better steel at that price point and that’s just all there is to it. This has a tiny bit of blade place not a ton it’s just back and forth. The lockup is like 80 90% I don’t think that blades going anywhere. But the ergonomics really are what what hurt this knife so much and I think that’s probably why it’s been crapped on so much more is is the ergonomics. So once it’s open, there’s your problem but once you get it open, the ergonomics on this knife are great. It fits really nicely in the hand you’ve got that finger oil for choking up the blade style that cleaver is really great for cutting. It’s just I’ve been using the sheep dog, I love it. I love the cleaver and I love that choice. Getting this knife open is the problem because it’s got this cut out for your phone. And that attempt is really strong and this cut out is just too close to the pivot you don’t have enough leverage really to get this thing open easily. So what I’ve been doing is holding it a little lower and using my phone to push the blade out with friction. I don’t even use the thumb hole because it it’s pretty much useless and that’s the worst thing about this knife. The other thing this is a tip of carry, you cannot move that clip it’s fixed and there’s nowhere else to put it that is the Gerber flat
iron you can find this knife
for about $35 on Amazon if you want to get it in stores but you can find it at Bass Pro, I believe Dick’s Sporting Goods maybe I’ve seen it in a lot of different places and retail stores. That is the beauty of buying a Gerber brand is they’re widely available in stores, you’re probably going to pay closer to 40 bucks for it on Amazon I’ve seen it going sale a couple of times already. So if you’re in the market for the Gerber flat iron, you can find it in stores, but I would say wait for a sale or pick it up online for a little cheaper. Now when people mentioned budget knives there is one knife that comes to mind for a lot of people and this one is like almost a polar opposite of the Gerber flat iron. It is not a cleaver It has great ergonomics it is really easy to
open one handed
and it is a fantastic quality knife for the price and that is the spider code tenacious people love the spider co brand. This is very very much like a paramilitary to with some corners cut for cost cutting and it’s made in China, not America. It is a liner lock. So it’s not a compression lock. That’s one of your biggest differences with the paramilitary to it is a little smaller, but it has your Spidey whole like every spider code, which means that opening it is a brief either with the thumb or the Spidey flick opening this knife one handed closing at one handed everything about using this knife holding it is fantastic. And that is just one of the reasons that people love the spider code tenacious it is a little more expensive than some of the others and it is still a car 13 and movies still believe this is like $45 on Amazon. So it is a little more expensive. You can actually also find this, this exact version and the steel the stainless without the coated blade, you can find that at Walmart, you can find them for $35 at Walmart sometimes. But that’s the beauty of this night, you don’t typically find spider codes at Walmart. But you can find the tenacious let me just show you really quickly the tenacious next to the paramilitary two very, very similar nice, different price points for sure. This one originally came with the black g 10 scale. So when I got it, they were much closer, but if you open them both there they’re very, very similar. While I have this clip in the tip of position right now you can choose left or right carry and you can choose to make it tip down left or right there forklift positions. And again, it’s just a really easy knife to use. You can find it almost anywhere, it is a little more expensive. It’s one of the more expensive ones on this list at about $45 but it does go on sale as well. I found this as low as about $25. Keep your eye open if you’re in the market for a tenacious and I think this is probably one of the better ones that you can get on this list for somebody for Christmas. Well, many people would pick the tenacious for one of the best budget knives out there. There is a better knife I think for less money, and that is the Ontario rep one or ret two. They’re basically the same knife just different sizes. The rat one is the larger of the two rat to a slightly smaller and it’s going to be a very similar knife. As far as features go, you’ve got four clip positions, it is a liner lock knife. Instead of your having your Spidey whole you’ve got a thumb stud but it is just just as easy open one hand and you can flick it with a little practice. ergonomics are fantastic, you’ve got about the same cutting surface. there’s so little between these two other than the offset is still in the ACR 13 MTV but the design the design is one thing I do not like about this knife it just doesn’t move the needle for me at all. It’s so so close but it just the blade looks like it was an afterthought handles or something like that. It just doesn’t it looks like it was pieced together from other parts or something. Maybe that’s just me, but the Ontario rap just looks funny to me. I don’t know that’s really just
a subjective thing. When it comes to the value you can’t
really beat this knife this knife I think I paid $22 for what really puts this knife on the map is the value you’re getting all of the features of the tenacious minus that Spidey hold which you can still flick the Ontario red, you’re getting all the same features for half the price that’s insane. You can spend more on an Ontario RAT so it comes in a bunch of different colors. You can get a I believe a coyote tan handle you can get a green like an odd greens you can get a black coated blade you can get this knife in many different configurations and those will all cost you different mounts. So while the Ontario rap doesn’t really do anything for me design wise it’s really the blade that I don’t like. However there is another knife out there a very very similar knife one that looks like it could almost pass something from the Ontario knife company that is the essay of his BA and this knife is the handle looks almost identical but there are a few reasons why I prefer this knife over the Ontario RAT I like the blade shape a little
better you do get a slightly smaller cutting surface.
However, this one has a steel handle on one side g 10 on the other end it is a frame lock instead of a liner lock and because of that this knife is thinner you can see it’s probably about 40% thinner or at least close to that. It is a little harder to unlocked with one hand but you still get your forklift positions you get to offset steel. You get in my opinion what is a cooler looking knife and I prefer this while it’s very very good close to the Ontario red. It is a little more expensive. This one starts at about $35 but you can actually get this one in D two steel. So if you want to spend a little more money and you like something like the Ontario rap but you want to upgrade that steel you can get this knife in the two again this one also comes in a bunch of different colors like the Ontario RAT, believe you can get this in Black Friday tan it comes in different colors. You can get the blade coated or not. This was my favorite configuration of this knife and it just happened to be the cheapest one that I could find at the time and that is the OD green with the uncoated blade the stonewashed blade, I like this knife a lot. This is probably at this point, my favorite beater knife right now it’s time to change up the pace a little bit. This is a traditional knife, something that I would not personally carry for everyday carry. But this knife is one that I’ve been using around the house especially in the kitchen because this is a phenomenal slicer net is the optimal number eight is a classic, timeless, it is a fantastic value. It’s only $15 and you can get this in the carbon version. This is the carbon version but you can also get it in a stainless version. You can get this knife with different handles so if you don’t like the Beachwood, you can get a walnut you can get a black blade with the walnut handle which is really nice. But what makes this knife so unique is the locking mechanism which has a color locks you open it you twist this and that blade is not going anywhere. Or you can close it and you can lock this knife shut with that color lock but because locking blades are legal and and a lot of places you can also get this knife without the color lock. So this knife is just a fantastic option for people who want something that’s very utilitarian. So this is the number eight version of the note comes in up and on number seven, number six all the way down to one and all the way up to 12. Each one of those versions is a different size. There are different types of apples as well so you don’t have to get that number eight, you can get different ones. They’re all great values. This one is just $15 and they do go up to over 50 bucks. But this one right here the number eight number seven number six are probably the more popular ones that you’re going to see and everyday carries those nothing fancy it’s really great value and if you can find these on Amazon You can also find these in person at Rei and I’m sure others retail stores carry off and else but I’ve only ever seen them at full disclosure. I’ve not actually used this knife I was going through my late grandfather’s collection of knives I’ve been eyeing this knife on Amazon and I’ve been using case knives pretty much my entire life so this one I can I can vouch for case most of you can or dad or grandfather probably carried a case knife and this one is just a classic design. It doesn’t get old it is the case side Buster jr this one also comes in a larger version as the case side buster. This comes in a billion different colors. It’s only about $22 and it is a slip joint knife with a traditional or playing edge on it. And it’s classic, it’s timeless. This will also fit in the kitchen timber proper slip just fine. Without issue. It sound in there nicely might have to do a little finagling to get it out of there. But if you know somebody who likes traditional knives and don’t they don’t want anything snazzy with a liner locker frame locker, thumb studs or anything like that the case side Buster is probably one of the best options under 50 bucks it’s $22 I should also mention that this knife is untouched This one is actually from 1988 I was going through my grandfather’s knives you can see right here
1988 it was still in the plastic. It’s still sharp and I will probably be carrying this one. Starting very very soon. Reason being one of my favorite knives ever also sent to me from the same person that sent me the Gerber flat iron is the bench made proper I love this and if you know somebody who likes the style knife and you don’t have the funds to buy a hundred and $20 knife, they’re probably going to be perfectly happy with this knife right here for 20 bucks you can’t go wrong. Moving on to one of my favorite knives in my entire collection. It is the Victorian x pioneer x this knife has it all if I had to walk out with only one thing in my pocket other than my wallet it’s going to be this night or at least one of my custom version. But this knife right here it’s got everything you need. You have your full blade you have an all which people have pointed out I said I didn’t really have a use for an all but a lot of people do have uses for all you’ve got a flathead driver, a bottle opener, a flathead Philips driver a can opener and one of my favorite reasons I carry this knife from the best EDC scissors you can find the scissors on the Pioneer x that is one of the reasons I absolutely love this tool. Most things I can get done with this tool right here. These retail for about $45 I have seen them go on sale very often. There There are tons of different between knocks knives, but I think for under 50 bucks This is one of the best ones you can buy. If you know somebody who wants to Victorinox and they don’t want the scissors they want something slimmer and smaller like a dead it’s also one of the most popular knives you’re going to see in the EDC weekly. It’s basically the same tool minus the scissors and the all the all gets replaced for a file. That is really the only difference but it is much much thinner because it loses that third layer. It goes down to a two layer knife and it’s just a smaller more pocketable knife and this one fits in the hitch and timber card caddy like a glove it fits perfectly so if you wanted to pair this with something this pairs perfectly with a hitch and timber card caddy and a fisher space 10 bullet I would recommend brass because if they like this knife they probably also like other old school things and that brass will look old school in no time so there you go Victorinox pioneer x or the cadet the cadet I believe is about 30 bucks and you can find this one at Bass Pro and other retail locations I have not ever really found the Pioneer x in a retail locations keeping on that multi tool trend. We have this right here. This was also sent to me by the same person who sent me the bench made proper in the Gerber flat iron. I really can’t think that guy enough. His name is Oliver, he’s the man. But this right here was something when I opened that box so much okay, off to the side. But this knife has grown on me so so much into this is the Bowker plus tech tool in the outdoor version. This one is not available anymore. You can’t really find this version of it, but you can find it in the black g 10 scales with a ton of different tool configurations and the carbon fiber but the outdoor i think is discontinued, you can still find them, but they’re not making them anymore. So with this one, you’re basically getting something very similar to a Victorian ox, but this is Bowker so it is a German company. These are actually made in China though. So you have your main knife, you have a bottle opener, Flathead driver, you have a smaller Flathead or Phillips driver, a lanyard loop which is down in there. I think that out right now a Phillips head screwdriver on the back. And one thing to note about this is that most of these tech tools from Bowker do not feature the Philips had driver on the back, most of them are corkscrews. And personally I don’t care about having a corkscrew on the back of my knife, I’m not ever going to need one. Even if I need wine drinkers, I probably would not need a course grew enough to warrant carrying one every day. So I love the fact that this one has the Flathead on the back end D standout feature, a pocket. This right here with a pocket Eclipse would be perfect. You can modify them, you can buy pocket clips, they just need them from the start, they need them from the get go. The Bowker plus tech tools have them you can carry a tip up or two down, and you cannot choose which side but it is tip number two down and the last little feature right there on the tip of the knife is a glass break. There you go. This is the Boca plus tech tool, they start around $30 obviously more layers are going to cost more and more more tools are going to cost you more. But this one that I believe you can’t find that this knife I’ve looked extensively for another knife like this one because I wanted to buy a spare. Can’t find this knife anywhere this configuration I can’t find it. But this knife, very similar knives to this are going to be about 40 bucks. And with all that said, that brings us to the very last knife in this list. And it’s something that most of you don’t know about, but there’s a reason I’m including it I struggled with myself trying to figure out if I should or should not include this knife in this list. And I absolutely decided to I’ve not been able to put it down because it’s so much fun to play with. But there are other reasons why I’ve included this knife. This is the step gear slinger It is a very small flipper blade, its compact, you can only get about three fingers grip on it,
which is one of my complaints. I wish there was a toilet just a small oil right there so you can get a better grip. But you can’t. The three fingers is about all you’re going to get the ergonomics are okay, but you have a liner lock, a flipper tab, a ball bearing pivot inside here. And one of the best things about this knife right here he to steal, not one of these other items under 50 bucks have D two, not many knives under $50 period have to steal. This one does and it has a lot of fun to play with. It’s easy to open one handed because of that Flipboard tab and a strong attempt. lockup is really good. This knife is it was a sleeper. I got it in the mountain like okay, I didn’t like the design. I don’t like the all black. This knife comes with a gray or blue handle those I like a lot they kind of remind me of a smaller sheep dog. But this one in the all black I just wasn’t a huge fan of but I am going to do a video on the slinger later on. So I’m going to talk a little more extensively about it in the future but for playing with fidgeting or just cutting this knife is great. The one big complaint that I have is that it is tip down carry only. So if you want to carry this in your pocket, you’ve got to put this in your left front pocket or right rear pocket so that the night this butted up against the edge of the pocket. But other than that, I’ve really few complaints about this knife especially once the other versions of this one get here. So this was a Kickstarter project or Indiegogo. Not exactly sure it was crowdfunded. And it was successfully funded and they are shipping out now or some people have already received theirs. And it’s just a lot of fun to play with and it is $50 so it is right at that limit 4995 barely under the limit. But yeah, for 50 bucks D two steel flipper with a ball bearing, hard to beat that if I had to pick one knife from this whole entire list that I would recommend for a gift, it would probably be the FA of is $35 and it’s not very expensive. It’s everything I like about the Ontario RAT, but it also fixes everything I don’t like about the Ontario RAT so you’ve got your four positions, you’ve got that stonewashed finish, you have a better blade shape in my opinion, I just like this knife a little better. But if you wanted to go a little cheaper and get something that’s just as nice, Ontario route one and if you want to go a little cheaper and know somebody doesn’t want a knife quite this large, the arcade people are hands down. There you have it those are the best budget knives of 2018 that you can get right now for under $50. Everything in this video will be links down below so if you want to purchase it or read more about it, you can click those links if you purchase anything using those links, it does give us a little bit of a kickback and that helps keep the lights on here can’t helps keep the show going. If you want to also help support the show in another way you can go to patreon.com forward slash best damn etc. If you enjoyed the video and you found it helpful, hit that thumbs up button below and of course subscribe to see more stuff like this in the future and hit that notification bell so
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with
preferably one of these knives in your pocket.