5 Cheap EDC Items Tested: Knives, a Watch, a Wallet and a Multi-Tool

Introduction

A year after the first budget marketplace everyday carry haul, five more items have been sitting on a shelf waiting to be opened: a quartz men’s watch, a copy of the Benchmade Griptilian, a leather bifold wallet, a 15-in-1 multi-tool, and a copy of the Microtech Ultratech. Prices were low across the board, from under five dollars for the watch to twenty-four dollars for the Griptilian copy. The honest summary up front: nothing here is a standout, and the knife copies are the ones buyers should think hardest about.

Quick update from the first haul: the eighteen-dollar Microtech Troodon Mini that jammed during the last test has been disassembled, given a couple of small adjustments, and now works perfectly. That earlier purchase remains the best result from this experiment so far.

The Watch

The listing name alone, a “luxury business sport” quartz men’s calendar watch with the word “watch” repeated several times, sets expectations. It arrived with a small display pillow, a metal link band wrapped in protective plastic, and a case back marked stainless steel and water resistant. The total cost was $4.76.

It does keep the second hand moving, and this version has a chronograph layout. The problem is that the chronograph buttons are purely decorative. They do not press in at all. On a previous budget watch, the buttons at least looked and felt like functional switches; here they are simply part of the case design. The band also needs sizing before it would fit most wrists, and the steel does not feel especially premium.

For under five dollars it is not a disaster, but it is hard to recommend as anything more than a curiosity. Anyone on a tight budget shopping for a men’s watch can do better elsewhere.

The Benchmade Griptilian Copy

The Griptilian is a genuinely beloved folder, a workhorse that has survived years of hard use, so a twenty-four dollar copy listed with a “CPM 20CV” blade and G10 handle was worth a close look. The listing even prints CPM 20CV on the blade, though a legitimate CPM 20CV blade at this price would be remarkable. The authentic version uses S30V steel.

The differences show up quickly. The action is terrible, with so much tension in the pivot that it feels like the pivot is made of cardboard. With enough force, the blade can even be swung shut against the Axis-style lock. The pocket clip is completely different from the real thing, and inside the handles there are plastic liners and three barrel spacers, while the authentic Griptilian has no liners at all. The logo is the same shape but printed in a different color and positioned farther down the blade.

Out of the box sharpness was decent, which is about the only positive. Holding it in hand and feeling that action, twenty-four dollars is simply not worth paying. It might look like a Griptilian, but it is not a Griptilian.

The Wallet

As a product category, wallets invite strong opinions, and this one earned them. Listed as a genuine leather bifold with a coin pocket at $3.80, it arrived feeling like soft pleather, closer to plastic than to any recognizable leather. Even the “genuine leather” label, which is already one of the lowest grades of leather, seems generous here. The magnetic snap feels cheap, and the interior is lined with a very thin felt material.

The layout is enormous: three card pockets on one side, three on the other, plus hidden pockets beneath them, an ID window, a dedicated cash compartment, and a zippered coin pouch. Loaded with just three cards and ten folded bills, the wallet becomes a brick. Add the $100 bill print on the exterior and it is a hard sell at any price.

The Multi-Tool

At $10.45, this 15-in-1 folding pliers tool is enormous, rivaling the biggest names in the multi-tool world. It comes in a black fabric sheath with a belt slot. The tool set covers the basics: needle nose pliers with a spring, standard pliers and non-replaceable wire cutters, a saw, Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, a double-sided file, an awl, a can opener and a bottle opener.

The good news is that every tool locks, and the pliers feel the least objectionable part of the whole package. The bad news covers nearly everything else. The pivots are loose enough to need tightening, the saw and awl are dull, the main blade could not cut a simple sheet of paper, and the body metal feels like a very cheap steel rather than aluminum. Odd decorative edges on the sides of the body do not help.

At around ten dollars the pliers alone might make it tolerable as a beater tool, but regular use will likely expose the weak pivots fast. For a claimed camping and survival tool, it comes up short.

The Microtech Ultratech Copy

This was the item looked forward to most, because a legitimate Microtech Ultratech was on hand for side-by-side comparison. The copy cost $19, shipped in a slightly beaten-up Microtech-style box with a nylon sheath, and the blade arrived with a film of oil on it.

The differences are obvious the moment both knives sit side by side. The copy is noticeably heavier, with squared-off edges where the real Ultratech has nicely rounded, refined ones. The screws are star-style instead of the tri-wing screws on the authentic knife, the pocket clip feels flimsy and cheap, and the glass breaker differs as well. The blade is a satin finish with nothing printed on it at all, so the claimed D2 steel is impossible to verify. The listing said D2 with a T6 aluminum handle.

Deployment is the surprise: it is not that bad. Compared directly with the authentic version, there is a little play and the forceful pullback of the real knife is missing, but for a copy it deploys acceptably. Then comes the cut test, and it falls apart. The blade is dull, duller even than the multi-tool’s blade, which is saying something.

Would it be worth buying again at nineteen dollars? No. Microtech knives are expensive, but the quality is exactly what you are paying for. As a first taste of the form factor for someone unwilling to spend real money, it is the only item here with any real appeal, and even then expectations should stay very low.

Overall Buying Advice

Put simply, nothing in this haul earns a recommendation. The watch is harmless but featureless, the wallet is oversized and unpleasant to touch, the multi-tool is too poorly made to trust for real tasks, and both knife copies fall far short of the products they imitate. The Griptilian copy has some of the worst action ever felt on a folding knife, noticeably worse than even inexpensive legitimate brands. The Ultratech copy at least deploys reasonably, but a blade that dull out of the box is a serious red flag.

The broader lesson is the same as the first haul: the gap between what a listing promises and what arrives is wide. For small sums like these the financial risk is low, but for anyone buying EDC tools they plan to rely on, spending a little more on the genuine article is almost always the better call.

Conclusion

Five items, five disappointing results. The eighteen-dollar Troodon Mini from the first haul was fixed and now works, but this round of five never recovered. The pliers might scrape by as a beater, and the Ultratech copy might satisfy pure curiosity, but the wallet, the watch and especially the Griptilian copy are easy passes. When the product you can hold in your hand feels nothing like the product in the photos, the price stops mattering.