Hello knife people, I (very much not a knife person) have been suckered in by dual_sport_dork’s posts and am finally biting the bullet and buying one of those knives. I know approximately nothing about knives except what weird knife Wednesday has taught me, which is mostly how to shit talk cursed knock-offs, so I’m hoping for some advice on how to stick the landing of my jump into this hobby.
I’m trying to buy HUAAO’s Bugout 535 ripoff, and this knife-buying-experience is off to a rocky start because the Amazon link on dual_sport_dork’s writeup tells me shipping isn’t available to my region. Maybe this is just seller-related, maybe these knives are illegal in Canada, I don’t know and to be real honest I don’t give a fuck. I found knivesprecisionedge.com, which claims to be a “trusted store” and “100% issue-free” - sketchy as fuck, honestly. Has anybody else used this site? How bad am I about to get scammed?
Assuming they’re at least somewhat legit and ship me this knife, and that it makes it into the country, is there anything I should know about owning a knife like this? Care tips, how not to use it, anything like that? The main thing it’ll be used for is as a camping knife, if that matters.
I can’t offer any advice on the company, but I can tell you the mistakes I’ve made.
#1 is not understanding how I carry knives. I have several beautiful, expensive knives which I never use, because it turns out I prefer to carry small knives. For example, I havea both a UTX-85 and a UTX-70, and the 70 gets far more pocket time. I really only carry the 85 around the house. My favorite knife may be my ZT0350 - it feels great, it’s a smooth flipper (assisted, so duh), and the steel is fantastic… but it’s a relative monster in my pocket, so it lives in a drawer. Then I have a cheapish higonakami knock-off that I carry almost everywhere, because it disappears in my pocket, and should anything stupid happen with cops, no-one is going to feel threatened or offended by its tiny blade, basic operation, and it doesn’t even lock!
You can’t go wrong with a Benchmade (although, you’re taking about a knock-off?). One of my favorite knifes, ever, it used to be my EDC (until the UTX70). I have lost multiple Griptillions to the TSA simply because of muscle memory. I’ve gifted Griptillions. I have two, right now, in my drawer. I love that they come in a variety of qualities, with different steels. They’re just good, well-made knives, and are the perfect size for me.
I think quality matters a lot, so if you can at all afford it, if I were you I’d skip the knock-off and go directly for the Benchmade brand. There’s a lot that goes into a flipper beyond the steel - the quality of the bearings, the grips, the locking mechanism - that all affect how much you’ll enjoy the knife.
But most importantly, IMO, for a first knife, understand what you’re going to be willing to carry in your pocket. A nice beefy blade is a great thing, but does you no good if it just sits in a drawer because it’s too much bulk for your pocket. Seriously. Some knives are like carrying a second wallet. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind having their pockets bulging with stuff, then go for it. Or if you carry a purse, heck yeah: get the biggest your local laws allow. Otherwise, get one you know you’ll carry and use: experience will greatly affect your choice of your second knife.
I don’t have any plans to EDC rn, but this feels like the comment that if/when I start I look back on like “oh fuck they were so right why didn’t I do what they said” lmao. Still, as a rule I spend the minimum reasonable amount on new hobbies since I have the toxic ADHD trait of constantly picking up new hobbies and (most of the time) dropping them soon after. If this turns out to be a thing for me, I’ll def be coming back to reread this comment for the next purchase. Thanks!