knives

Overall? That's harder. I'm a benchmade fanboy, so I tend to favor the bailout and bugout in that price range, even though you have to find sales to get either under the 150 by pennies. You get solid blades, acceptable warranty, and the freedom to modify down the roads.

The caveat is that the bugout feels crappy. The scales on the stock model are designed to be lightweight, so they flex a good bit. It's actually a benefit, but it's a common complaint.

If you aren't willing to hunt down sales, the Hogue deka is usually under that mark, depending on the exact version. Hogue has been making some killer knives that punch well above their price, and the deka in its various iterations is amaze. Tough, easy to use even with cold and wet fingers, and they look nice. It's maybe a better knife overall than the bugout that it was meant to compete with, but I prefer the steel in the base model bugout over the base choice in the deka. A little "tougher" steel imo.

If it had to be tanto, it's back to cold steel. The voyager comes in multiple sizes, and you'll have money left over, for a knife that you can actually baton wood with in an emergency and still have a working knife. Won't be in great shape after something like that, but it'll still work.

But, the ad-10 has a tanto version, and the damn thing is a tank. Bigger and heavier than the voyager models, which can be good or bad in a daily carry knife, depending on your needs. If you need to abuse it a little more, it's good. If you don't really use a knife heavily very often, it's a bit much for edc.

Kinda in the middle is the recon 1 tanto. Under 100, in a really good steel choice, great ergonomics. The steel they use is a tad less tough than the voyager's aus10, but holds an edge way better.

The reason for cold steel being the pick for tanto in specific is their grind on tantos. It gives an amazingly durable front, with a hollow grind that favors slicing better than any other company I've personally used.

But, there's another benefit. The triad lock isn't as convenient as the axis on a benchmade or deka, but it's tough. You can literally hammer on a knife with a triad lock and it won't break the lock, the blade will go first.

For my money, if I was buying for a friend or family member with the criteria you've given, those would be what I'd show them.