Ah, The Inevitable Question
I wasn't going to post in this thread, partly because it's non-trivial to document my darned pockets, and partly because of the very predictable "what the heck??" question.
Well, you see, it's like this . . .
For the last, uh, what . . . four? . . . years, I've been engaged in a kind of personal research quest to determine what knife or knives work best for me.
For the first 20 years of carrying a knife, it was a common SAK-styled Imperial. When I got back from Europe in 1982, I decided that a smaller, slimmer knife would be more in keeping with my new geek career. I switched to a small Gerber Silver Knight, which was my EDC for the next 25 years.
So, for about 45 years I carried mostly just one knife at a time (except for brief camping excursions, periods of deck work on ships, and the like).
Then, in 2002, with the initiation of our plan to relocate from Las Vegas to the Tahoe/Reno/Carson City area, my wife and I made a commitment to spend more time outdoors, going camping, being tourists, and generally getting out of the house.
Camping. Hiking. Uh, wait, I used to carry a sheath knife when I was camping, but the ones I carried are no longer made, so I guess I need to discover what's out there and try a few things.
It became a kind of my [strike]obsession[/strike] primary research project.
I have pretty much discovered what works well for me, and that would have been the end of that, but in late 2006 I found The High Road, and eventually I started paying attention to what
sm and
hso were writing, and . . . it turned out I had more evaluating to do.
Well, damn.
So many knives, so little time.
It was no longer enough to try them out one at a time. I started carrying two, then three, then four.
The Leatherman became part of my daily outfit because of my geek job. The "right front pocket" knife changes every few weeks. The "pinkie finger" knife in the glove changes every few weeks. The belt knife rides in a nylon case (horizontal) and every few weeks I try a different full-sized knife there.
As a consequence, I've learned:
- Large knives -- over four inches of blade -- don't really work well for me in most EDC contexts.
- Medium and small knives work pretty well for me.
- You can prepare a whole meal with a good pocket knife.
- Swedish Mora knives and Finnish puukko knives are awesome. They are my default fixed blade.
- I really like the sod buster pattern. Sodbusters rock.
- The Normark (EKA) folding knives are excellent pieces. They, too, rock.
- Case XX knives (and slipjoints in general) are happy knives and I will always have one.
- Buck Knives is a good company. They make good stuff and they stand behind it all.
- I love Wharncliffe blades. I really, really want to get a classic Wharncliffe whittler.
- Leatherman multi-tools are terribly useful gadgets.
- Streamlight makes a really good light. That's a keeper.
- Kershaw makes quite well-designed hardware, and I'll be keeping them around.
- A generic SAK is a good thing to have.
- Bowie knives kinda suck. Did I mention that large knives don't work well for me?
- A hatchet solves the "must have large knife" problem.
- Chinese knives are -- generally -- not ready for prime time. But they're getting there.
- I need knives with a more robust grip due to issues with one of my knuckles.
- I don't much care for American Tanto.
- I don't much care for asymmetrical grinds (though I have a couple of keepers).
- I really like Scandinavian knife designs. Simple stuff that just works.
- I don't much care for serrated edges.
- A really sharp knife is safer than a dull one.
- A fillet knife makes a good general purpose kitchen knife.
- The stockman is one of my favorite -- possibly overall favorite -- slipjoint patterns.
- A knife is a terrible thing to waste.
Which, really, just scratches the surface. I have very little exposure to the better makes of knives. No Spyderco, Benchmade, CRKT, Chris Reeves, and so on. And, frankly, I'm a little afraid to go there. I might never make it back.
I've found a small circle of reasonably priced, simply designed, effective knives that work well for me.
I'm glad I found something that worked well before I had to test-drive a Sebenza.
I'm still refining my choices, so I still carry more than I "need" while that's going on.
I will, eventually, cut back to just two. Or three.
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