I want to hear your recommendations about choosing a knife please

[thomashoard1909]

Hi buddy, I'll put my issue simple like this

One of my friend want to buy a knife and ask me for my recommendation ( although i m not expert in knife field)

He sent me 2 articles on the same domain on the internet and said that he read it so many times I want me to choose for him a good one in that list.

Here it is:  https://shootingmystery.com/best-edc-fixed-blade-knife/ and  https://shootingmystery.com/best-folding-karambit-knife/

It's seemingly an affiliate website, I haven't read the entire article but actually i do not frequently listen to affliate article and told him to ask on some forum like this. And finally we had a big discussion about should we believe in affiliate website or not...

Eventually we want to ask about your opinion about these options: we should listen to that article or not?? My best friend even don't know what to buy until he read that article..

[Latticino]

As far as I'm concerned, knives are primarily tools, which can be used for a rather wide variety of functions.  Very broadly speaking there are two major groupings of knife types: those mostly used for slicing and those mostly used for chopping.  Within those groups there are quite a few variations in types of knives (for example both a scapel and a french chef's knife can be identified as having a configuration optimized for slicing, but are certainly not interchangeable).  

You have not even identified what your friend's anticipated purpose for the knife is.  That being said I haven't read your linked articles and have no intention of doing so at this point.  I recommend that you have your friend choose a knife, within his budget, that has been designed for the use he expects to put it to.  For detailed discussions of different industrial and custom produced blades I would expect a site more slanted towards knife collectors and enthusiasts would be more helpful (i.e. : https://www.bladeforums.com/ , https://www.edcforums.com/forums/knives.78/, ... )  

[Charles R. Stevens]

The best knife is the one you have on you when things go pear shaped. A gun site isn't were I would go for knife advice. For a "survival knife I would look at bush craft sites

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/ 

as any knife with a blade length over 3-4" can get you sideways if the local laws do some reserch. EDC is a bit different isue because of this. The cheep little morras are hard to beat for utility and bang for the buck, short skinners are also a good option for fixed blade. 

[SLAG]

Herr. Latt,  & Senior Stevens,

Thank you for the site references.

SLAG.

[genesaika]

Well, as mentioned already, we need to know the intended use to really give a suggestion. A price range might also be useful, unless the plan is to make this knife.

As to if you should trust that type of site, I normally prefer to find lists from sites that are related to what I'm after. What I do is research a few options based on my needs and then find lists of tools. Often I won't find a list specific to my needs so I just compare the tools on the list to my needs. Once I find a few options that meet my needs and rank highly on lists I will further research those specific tools and make my decision from there based on price and availability.

[ThomasPowers]

Does he like his blades hard and hard to sharpen or easier to sharpen but not as hard?

Does he maintain his blades seriously or does he need a "foolproof" blade and sheath?

Does he tend to abuse his tools or is scrupulous about staying within their primary use cases?

Does he like custom work or is he happy to settle for production pieces?

Notice the second word in these important questions...