Four New EDC Folders Under $120, Each With a Clear Reason

Shopping for an everyday-carry knife under $120 sounds easy until you see how crowded the category has become. Capable steel, multiple opening methods, and a choice of handle materials are table stakes now, and the harder question is what distinguishes one $90 folder from the twenty others near it. Four recent releases each answer that question differently, and each stays under $120.

Bestechman reworked the lock on its Cicada's Wing-TL rather than changing anything cosmetic. The name stands for Top Liner Lock, and this version adds a push-button release to the thin-bladed original, with the company saying the redesign came directly from feedback from owners of the earlier knife. That is a rare thing in budget knives: a manufacturer responding to specific user complaints instead of shipping another colorway. If you liked the Cicada's slim blade but not its release, this is the version that fixes it.

CIVIVI's contribution is material upgrades without crossing the price threshold, which is the brand's established playbook. CRKT went the opposite direction and is bringing back a decade-old knife with an unusual opening mechanism — a genuine revival for buyers who missed it the first time, and a reminder that CRKT's design catalogue is deeper than most budget brands'. Vosteed refreshed the parts you interact with most on a familiar EDC design, which is the kind of revision that matters more in daily use than any spec-sheet change.

The comparison that actually helps: CIVIVI and Vosteed give you the best fit and finish at this price, with Vosteed's Top Liner Lock and CIVIVI's consistent QC being their signatures. Bestechman and CRKT are more willing to try something strange, which means higher variance but also genuinely unusual knives. Pick based on whether you want predictable quality or a design nobody else has.

All four land in the same bracket, so the deciding factor is which mechanism you enjoy using. Browse the Vosteed and CIVIVI catalogs to see how the newest versions compare side by side.