My son has asked for a good OTF knife for Christmas. He already has a cheap schrade OTF we got at the bladeshow but he wants one that will open and retract like the benchmades or microtechs we saw at the show. As long as he keeps his grades up and helps out around the house I'll get it for him.
I know very little about OTF knives, so my questions are what do I look for to get a quality knife that will handle the use and abuse that a teenager will inflict on it and continue to function, is the top mounted button better or have some advantage over the side mounted button, which models can be taken apart to be cleaned cause it will get nasty, any particular brand or style considered to be stronger than others? Anything else beside these questions I need to look out for? Don't want to spend more than 300 bucks and used is ok as long as it's in good shape.
I know very little about OTF knives, so my questions are what do I look for to get a quality knife that will handle the use and abuse that a teenager will inflict on it and continue to function, is the top mounted button better or have some advantage over the side mounted button, which models can be taken apart to be cleaned cause it will get nasty, any particular brand or style considered to be stronger than others? Anything else beside these questions I need to look out for? Don't want to spend more than 300 bucks and used is ok as long as it's in good shape.