Best Inexpensive Folding Knife for EDC

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of inexpensive, and let’s face it, cheap, knives that are for sale online. I’m talking about knives in the under $10 segment  which you would not want to rely on for survival, but can make for a decent Every Day Carry (EDC). Since I’ve only recently taken an interest in knives and I’m cheap, I’ve spent a lot of time in this realm. I’ve found 3 knives that while varied in size, shape and weight, are all a good value. This is a review of those knives, particularly of the initial quality. I’ll follow up with a post about longer term quality, and I have a very special destructive (!!!!) test in mind for these inexpensive blades.

The three knives I purchased are the Elk Ridge Wood Gentleman, the Tac Force EMT and the MTech Xtreme Ballistic.

From Left to Right: Elk Ridge, Tac-Force, and MTech

From Left to Right: Elk Ridge, Tac-Force, and MTech

Right off the bat, I think the Elk Ridge is a beautiful knife, but I’m definitely partial to the more “gentlemanly knife” aesthetic. Wood and stainless steel are my favorite material combo, and this knife definitely fits that bill. I also kind of like the Elk logo.  When I opened the blade there was a little bit of light oil on the blade near the rotating mechanism, but after wiping it off, the knife seems fine. The spring assist is decently strong and the holding bar is well positioned and strong. The blade is sharp, and cuts through fresh cut holly wood with ease. This is a hefty knife, coming in at 7.2 ounces, 3mm thick blade and feels solid in your hand. This is my favorite knife of the 3 and if you’re looking for a cheap knife to practice engraving on, this is the way to go.

The TAC Force is significantly lighter and shorter than the Elk Ridge knife, but the spring is very strong! I think I’m going to do a spring fatigue test to make sure that this holds up over time, but that’ will be a future blog post.  This is marketed as an EMT knife, and it’s probably the best of the three for an edc knife due to its lighter weight and smaller size. Again, looks pretty cool, but definitely tactical, and it has  a sharp blade that cuts holly wood well.

The MTech knife is kind of a strange shape, but it looks cool in a futuristic tactical way. Probably my least favorite knife of the bunch because it seems to be lower quality – weak spring, and the metal bar that holds it open seems a bit thin/flimsy. From a practical standpoint I would pick either of the other two knives, but if you’re just cutting open boxes, this knife looks badass.