What is your experience with cheap knives from amazon or others? There are a lot of sub $50 knives there with mostly positive reviews. Are they actually good? Or do you have better cheap options that are not sponsored by amazon?
I see brands on there like Lothar or Bergkvist. They actually have decent websites on their own, so I don't know if they are actually that amazon trash or a decent budget brand.
Mercator k55k knives can be had for less than $50 on Amazon. Many Opinels are available on Amazon for under $20. Great knives if they're what you're looking for.