[leo]

I've owned dozens of hunting knives over the years. I've sold some, gave many away as gifts etc. I have 2 new Benchmade knives (a folder & fixed blade) that I bought in the last year. Still have 3 or 4 Puma's and a set of Knives of Alaska. One thing that is very clear and has been mentioned already. Good steel comes at a cost. It can also be a bugger to sharpen. I got a Wicked Edge sharpener a few years back. It works great on any blade under 6" in length. But I also strop the edge when I'm done. A pine board, with a piece of leather glued onto it. Then I rub in some jewelers rouge that can be bought at Princess Auto for cheap. The difference between sharp and terrifyingly sharp is made by the strop. On another note, I bought my wife a very expensive 12 pcs set of kitchen knives for Christmas. Shun Classic, each hand crafted in Japan. The edge retention on these are suposed to be phenominol. Life time Limited warranty, and free life time sharpening. Do you need to spend 4 digits on kitchen knives? Nope. But I did, and there's no comparing them to the Henkels she retired after 30 years of service.