I've made my own knives, both of steel and glass. The glass ones look cool, and I carried a glass-wood-and-string dagger for a while, but they are useless. As for the steel ones, for $10 you can get a nice knife, and you either spend a lot of time and sweat with a file, or waste a grinder blade to get a bad knife if you do it yourself. Stainless steel dinner knives make cool daggers, though. I haven't carried daggers since high school. I don't want to get in trouble if I have a knife, I want it to be useful. BTW, I was a pro cook for a while (for a school) and I never had a knife that cost more than $25.