EDC Knife, Honeybadger, low budget and great
A somewhat in-depth review, what I really like & 1 or 2 things that could be (slightly) better
Not a shill, I bought 3 Honeybadgers Medium, one a gift for GF, other two for myself.
I paid a bit under 40€, unfortunately these knives are somewhat more expensive in EU stores and I don't like ordering flipper knives online (need to feel the action and weight and try the clip) but some people in US, Australia and other places can likely get it cheaper.
The weight, 83 grams, is rare for a knife this size. It is important to me because I already EDC quite a bit and prefer my pants to not sag / pull down on my hips, 125 grams is my upper limit, but the lighter the better. If shop had, had the small one, I might have preferred that. The "scale" or cover part of the handles being made from plastic have the big upside that they indeed make the knife light.
For that weight you get a lot of knife. The blade is quite high, thick, strong and plenty long for any common task. I might even have preferred a thinner top of the blade, if that reduced the weight by significant amount, on the other hand this thick spine does make the blade very strong.
8Cr13MoV Steel is very decent! Sharpened it a few times just to see, gets plenty sharp and holds edge rather well. Slightly better steel would not be unwelcome (they make many versions of this knife) but not necessary for me and would drive up price. I mostly use the knife to cut / open boxes, minor DIY, making sandwiches/cutting fruit and once in a while, in a pinch, for cooking. And as a fun fidget toy.
The action, extremely good for the price. As someone else on Reddit pointed out, the Spidey Flick, Reverse open or the Flipper tab open all work extremely well and fast, I am not sure if I know of any other knife at this price, that all that can be said for. It is quite reminiscent of some Spydercos, if of course not of that quality and certainly not in their price range, Spydercos run about double to eight times the cost. Very few Spydercos have a flipper tab, the Amalgam (ca. €300) would be one.
One or two of the Youtube reviews mentioned how much gimping and anti-slip surface this knife has, absolutely true and I love it, choking up on the gimped choil or holding it by handle only, it feels very secure in the hand, even if I was pushing the knife or carving something. That choil also functions as a sharpening choil, meaning I can use my simple pull through sharpener to sharpen entire blade, tip to end. Soon I will use a diamond stone but so far the the Fiskars pull-through always did the job.
I didn't like the very small issue I had that when flipping open one of the three knives somewhat often the screw would come undone, it appeared to have slightly too little blue Loctite installed at the factory, but it was only with one of the knives. I just used some nail polish, so far so good. It is great that the knife comes with the appropriate Torx key.
The clip is deep carry, unobtrusive, secure and nice. I truly hope neither of us will ever have to test this, but in an emergency it would make a good self-defense knife as it is very fast to grab and to open and very secure in the hand.
I like the name, the logo and the black parts, but I put on a bit of white paint on the plastic handle so that if I ever drop or leave it in a somewhat dark place I could find the knife again and also to distinguish it from my GF's Honeybadger.
I very much like good knives and tools and quite enjoy certain rabbit holes. I am certain I (briefly) looked at over a 100 knives online, as well as watched a handful of hours reviewing knives before I settled on the Honeybadger, it is a very unusual value proposition.
Since I am aware I might one day lose (or have taken away, in EU knife laws are strict) any EDC knife, for that reason too, the feature set at the ca. €40, is almost unbeatable. At least I have found nothing better, if someone has a link to a knife better and available in EU (including shipping) for same or less, by all means please drop me a line. I do collect, a little.