EDC Knife for Men - Lightweight Small Folding Pocket Knife with Clip - 3.43" D2 Blade, G-10 Handle, Secure Lock Design for Outdoor Survival, Camping, Gifts for Dad FT2103 (Green)

The budget category in the pocket knife world is a pretty busy place, you wouldn't think it, but there's so many companies all fighting for dominance. What it comes down to us quality vs price, how cheap can we make said knife to make more money but at the same time have it be quality that blows peoples minds. The word budget is a subjective term, because everyone has their own views as to what that word means. To me budget is $30-$70, while another might think anything under $100 fits that category. On the hunt for budget knives that pack a lot of bang for my buck, I came across a company I had never heard before, Free Tiger. Odd name, but it's not that odd considering some of the more interesting names we have seen. While this Chinese brand is sold mainly on Amazon, I've seen them in a few other places as well. They don't the presence of someone like Ganzo, but they're growing and certainly one to keep an eye on. Today we're checking out the FT2103-CF, Free Tiger knives don't have cool names like some other companies, maybe they just let the knives speak for themselves. The FT2103 comes with an overall length: 7.56", a blade length of 3.35", and a handle length of 4.21. The knife comes with a real carbon fiber handle, drop point blade, cross-bar lock, and a deep pocket clip. This is all the hallmarks of a high end piece of cutlery, something you'd expect from one of the juggernauts in the industry. The handle is long enough to get my meaty mitts around, there's just enough to accommodate all four fingers without needing to choke up. The handle is indeed real carbon fiber, I used a flashlight to look inside the milled scales, and was shocked that it was. I find the handle really comfortable for the size, there's no major contouring going on but it doesn't seem to effect comfort. The carbon fiber's finish is pretty slick, I would have loved a texture similar to that on my AD20.5, but considering the price there may be factors there. The knife operates with an axis style, or cross bar lock as we're calling it these days. The lock isn't over hard to disengage and spring tension is a good middle ground, not too strong, nor too light. The pivot runs on ceramic bearings, that's almost as much as a shock as the carbon fiber. Companies like Free Tiger are really pulling out all the stops, and offering premium type materials at a highly affordable price. The blade is drop point with a 3/4 flat grind. It's steel is D2, it's pretty common in these import knives, and it has a history of being reliable. Cutting performance is good, I didn't have any issues with edge retention or using it on a daily basis. The blade blade is nice, kind of goes with the whole motif. A satin blade would have really made the design pop, but that's subjective. The thumb studs to me are a little high on the blade, when in the closed position they sit pretty close to the handle making deployment a little funny but not bad. The giant "Free Tiger" emblem is kind of tacky, but not horrible. When it comes to performance it certainly hasn't been a slouch. Pocket clips, I'm a stickler for pocket clips. It's not just a deep clip versus regular, or anything. I care about height of the clip, how does it angle towards the end, how does it bend at the end, etc. I say all this because a lot of these import knives can have pretty plain clips, and they'll use the same joker on their whole line. With that said, this one in the FT2103 is pretty good. It's not super deep carry, there's a little that will come above the pocket. There's enough height to make sure it clears most if not all pockets out there. And the end of the clip has enough angle, that it's easy to pull and replace the knife. It's not the best clip by means but it does a good job as it's intended function. All and all the FT2103-CF is an incredible knife at a more than reasonable price. You can pick this puppy up anywhere from $25-$35. If your looking for a super classy knife with modern type materials that won't break the bank, check this guy out.

The knife looks and feels very well. The size is right for my hand (on small side) and light weight for EDC. The action is pretty good. A little tight at the beginning but getting smoother after some time. The clip strength is decent, better than my Sencut Sachse. It is super sharp. Probably the sharpest knife I have out of the box. I could push cut a notebook paper (sort of). The carbon fiber handle is a little too smooth. I can't comment on the edge retention though, since I just had it for a week. Overall this is a very nice knife for the price.

I've been hearing a lot about Freetiger lately from budget knife reviewers and thought I would give them a try. This is an Axis lock style knife with thumb studs. It has real carbon fiber scales, metal caged ceramic ball bearings and a deep carry pocket clip. It also comes with a pretty cheap quality pouch (one of the plastic pulls on mine was broken). Out of the box, I was a little disappointed in the smoothness, but I think it was the excessive force I had to use to pull back the axis lock. I usually take apart all my new knives to get out the excess oil and fine metal dust from machining. Once I had it apart, it looks like the Omega springs were deformed and installed in the wrong place. This would explain the excess force required to open the axis lock. There's a tiny hole drilled in the liner for where the axis spring looks like it should go if there's wasn't a kink bent into it. I also found that there wasn't excessive grit in the knife (surprising for a carbon fiber scaled knife...usually lots of carbon dust) and it wasn't over oiled. They used grease instead...though it seemed to have a green tint and felt fairly viscous. I cleaned it all out, re-greased it with Krytox 205G0 (super slick, thin, PTFE industrial lube) and straightened out the springs to fit into the proper hole. The knife was smooth as butter to open and close, and the axis lock wasn't a chore to operate either. I do like out much the nubs on the axis lock protrude out the side, as it really makes it easy to grip and pull back on. They also don't have sharp edges, so they don't dig into your fingers (thumb studs are similar in comfort and ergonomics) BTW, all the hardware is T8 (pivot) and T6 (body/clip). It has full length steel liners that are skeletonized to reduce weight. And the knife is a featherweight at 3.4oz. There's also no blade play when deployed. Blade centering is nearly perfect...if you care about that kind of thing. Overall, it's a great value, coated D2 steel blade (so it won't rust), metal caged ceramic ball bearing (most budget knives cheap out with plastic caged ceramic which isn't as robust) pivot, real carbon fiber scales, and a nice balance of lightweight, but not so fragile as a real Bugout (flimsy construction and thin blade).

I bought this knife two years ago because it is a bit of a benchmade bugout knockoff, and I wanted to see if I liked the form factor and crossbar lock before I spent hundreds on a bugout. I ended up purchasing a Para 3, but this knife survived 2 years of heavy use in industrial maintenance. The D2 is tough enough and easy to sharpen, which is something I miss with the s45vn steel on my para 3. Overall, this is an amazing knife for the money, and it is both tough and a great fidget toy. This would be my recommendation for the best knife under $100, much less $30.

Pros: Price, Cross-bar lock action, Solid blade Cons: Thumb stud placement, Overall design cheapness, Lack of flipper Overall: Decent for the price but it might be worth stepping up to $30-50 price point to get better design/action.