I’ve carried a pocket knife since I was around 8. I still do, only it’s a switchblade now. I started carrying switchblades in my 20’s and am working on my 4th one now. The first, and best, with a beautiful handle, was lost when I worked nights. The rest wore out and good ones, with powerful springs, good steel and good blade locks and good handles are hard to find. My current one doesn’t even have a safety lock!
I also carry a lighter and a pocket tool and a military flat can opener on my key chain. That can opener was bought years ago for 25 cents and has paid for itself many times over. They guy who invented those little charmers in WW2 was an absolute genius. Simple, small, easy to use, never wears out, easy to carry and cheap. Toss it away or loose it and within a year it’ll turn into iron oxide once it gets wet.
porcupine: If you have a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (there are two “official” brands: Victorinox and Wenger), you can go to http://www.victorinox.com and see if you can identify it.
Courier2: Yeah, those P-38 can openers are pretty handy. The day after I stopped carrying a pocket knife every day, and before I learned to carry one in my backpack, I was cruising along at about 80mph on the freeway. My engine quit and I sipped over four lanes to the right shoulder. There is an interlock that shuts off the engine when the transmission is in gear and the kick-stand is down. A wire broke, and the bike thought the kick-stand was down and shut off the engine. The P-38 can opener is about as sharp as a rock, but it was good enough for me to strip the end of the wire and short it so that I could start the engine and be on my way again. I’ve also used it to open cans.
I don’t remember when I didn’t carry some kind of poketknife - usually a common three blade, but nothing special. I wore a Buck 110 on my belt for a while, till it started to be too much for my needs. I currently carry a Buck 425+ - synthetic skeletonized handle lockback with a +/- 1.5 " blade. It’s not allowed at work, but I could probably do more damage with the screwdriver assortment in my toolbag, should I be so inclined*. I carry it anyway - ever try to open a box with a screwdriver?
[sub]*Or the carpet tile lifter - that makes me cringe just to think about it.[/sub]
I used to carry a pocketknife all the time. My usual was either by Victorinox or made to look like it was, it just had a couple blades and a bottle opener. A few years ago when I moved, I could no longer find it.
All these posts are making me feel the very strong urge to start to again.
I carry apocket knife too. I have had one since i was about seven or so and I used my christmas money to buy one of those tiny ones that only has a knife screw driver and scissors on it( It was the only one my parents would let me buy). I now have a really big Vitronox(big as in wide, not long) That my dad got me for Christmas when I was fourteen. It has:
Big blade
Small blade
File
Saw
Fish scaler/wire striper
Scissors
Pliers
Magnifying glass
Phillips head screw driver
bottle opener/flathead screw driver
awl
Boot hook(at least I think thats what it is)
Smaller flathead screw driver
Chisel
Cork screw with glasses screw driver twisted into it
tweezers
toothpick
ball point pen
I LOVE my pocket knife, and I use it all the time. I always carry it in my purse of in my pocket. I also get a thrill out of pulling out my handy dandy pocket knife if there is a problem. I like to feel superior, It’s really the only time I get to do that( I know it’s pathetic, leave me alone).
My question is: I have had my knife for about six years. I use the pen at least once a week. Why hasn’t it run out of ink? You would think that such a little pen would run out pretty quick. I have had bigger pens, that I use less, run out, but this one is still going strong. How does it DO that?
I wear a Leatherman PST on my belt (except for days like today when I was in a rush and didn’t put a belt on). I use the pliers and screwdriver tips far more often than I use the blade, but I suppose it counts, nontheless. I started wearing it several years ago after getting it as a Christmas gift from my dad.
I also keep an American Camper multi-tool of some sort in the gadget/music bag that I always carry around with my tuba. I think it’s inferior to the Leatherman, but I don’t wear that when I’ve got a tuxedo on, and I sometimes need a tool of some sort to fight with recalcitrant music stands and (occasionally) my instrument. Having it in the bag ensures that I’ll have something.
Usually, I remember to take it off (or just not wear it) when I’m entering airports and the like. Once, though, I went through security at LAX wearing a large sweatshirt that covered the Leatherman on my belt. I’d completely forgotten about it, and even when I set off the metal detector and they did a wand search no bells went off in my head. Curiously (alarmingly?), the guy with the Magic Wand did not find it and sent me on my merry way.
I didn’t remember it was there until about 30 minutes later…
I have a small Old Timer that goes almost everywhere I go. The long blade is about 3 inches and the other is probably 2 1/2. My wife calls it “cute”. I have had it for about 8 years now, and I love the thing. I lose it for a week or so every now and then, but it always turns up in a cabinet or drawer somewhere. I think my wife hides the damn thing from me just to watch me look for it, she’s twisted like that.
I’ve carried a pocket knife since I was 13. First a two-blade jobbie I got from my Grampa, briefly a cheap Barlow, then a Scout knife. When I lost the Scout knife (the only knife I’ve ever lost) I got a real live Swiss Army Knife.
If I’m not in the house, I have it with me. (Except the day I got married- you don’t take a knife to Church, it’s just Not Done.)
Victorinox Spartan (traditional red)
Big blade
Little blade
Screwdriver/ wire stripper/ bottle opener
Little screwdriver/ can opener
Corkscrew (used twice in 12 years)
Leather punch
Tweezers (very usefull)
Toothpick
For camping I have the Adventurer. That’s what it was when I bought it. Now they call it the Picknicker. (that’s how Victorinox spells it) Sort of an upsized Spartan, but it’s larger, the big blade locks, there is no little blade and you swap a phillip’s head screwdriver for the corkscrew. (Actually an upsized Tinker)
The Little Woman has a little one in her purse. Vicy Cavalier. A single blade, nail file/ screwdriver, and cutical pusher.
And a Vicy Classic in the diaper bag. Those little scissors are really useful.
porcupine, you’re knife sounds like the Angler.
I always have a pocketknife with me. Currently a Kabar 1026. I had a couple of german made pocket knives, and before that an Old Timer. Can’t remeber all the ones before, but I have carried a knife since I ws maybe eight or nine. As some one else mentioned in the thread, I was taught to think of a knife as a tool and not as a weapon. My knives normally have two to three inch blades. I don’t like stainless. It doesn’t seem to hold an edge well - of course, that may be because I have so much practice sharpening plain carbon steel blades.
I own a Leatherman, but don’t carry it because it is too big and the blade is stainless. Besides my knife, I always carry a pair of folding scissors and pair of Channellock pliers.
As I tell people who ask about my knife, “You’ll more often find me completely naked than dressed without my knife.”
And I would just like to thank everyone who posted their choice of carry blades, as I have just spent over fifty bucks at the Discount Knife store picking up things I saw mentioned in this thread. Specifically, TWO Delta Darts, a Cold Steel Machete and a set of Hibben throwers. Damn this is a good thread.
I’m with FallenAngel and the rest of the Cold Steel fans… The 4" Tanto folder is sweet, and damned sturdy, to boot. I carry that and a Leatherman when I’m doing something dirty, like camping or working on the car. When I’m in the office, I carry a small Spiderco in one pocket, and an Al Mar in the other. My Al Mar is a solid stainless locking folder, about 13-15 years old, with a 2 1/4" spear-point blade. I’ve never been able to identify it’s model, nor find another like it.
My wife carries a medium-sized Spiderco, half serrated, everywhere she goes.
I have a red-and-black handled Spyderco knife with a large clip on it in my “grip bag” (sometimes I work as a grip on low-budget films). You never know when you’ll need a good knife when you’re on location. It’s been used to cut rope, and to cut sandwiches. (I also carry a good pair of small scissors in the bag too.)
Today I am carrying my Case 6333 SS with a 1 3/4" clip point blade, a 1 1/8" drop point, and a 1 3/16" blade that has a flat cutting edge. What is that? A sheep’s foot?
Right now I carry a Leatherman Micra. I use the scissors, knife blade and screwdriver blades almost every day. Before I discovered these little jewels, I usually carried a Gerber LST. I used to work for Gerber, and I still have probably 30 - 40 pocket knives, mostly Gerber, laying about all over the house. Once in a while I’ll see an interesting looking knife while I’m out shopping, but I just can’t justify buying it. Especially when the Wife gives me ‘that look’.
Victorinox Classic, it comes in handy a zillion times a day.
I got mine from a marketing and promotions director of a local company and having known its usefulness, I’m sure I will carry one on my keychain forever. Straightdope could finance a cherry server if they sold these, blue with yellow lettering, or the Signature model with the pen.
I carry it around often during the summer. Since I will get expelled if I take it to school, I’m very careful about leaving it at home during the fall, winter, and spring.
I’ve carried a pocketknife since junior high school. The boys would play mumbley peg on the front lawn of the school at noon. Of course back then it was perfectly normal for a kid to bring a shotgun to school for the first day of pheasant season. The season started at noon on Friday. You did have to check your gun and ammo at the principal’s office.
For the last few years I have had a lock blade Case with a black plastic handle. Slim, no pocket bulge. They keep making me turn it over to the security people at the Federal Courthouse, but they always give it back.
