I carry a Victorinox Super Tinker Swiss Army Knife most of the time; I also have a Tinker that I use when I can’t find the Super Tinker, and I have one of their little ones (I can’t find the model on their web site) in my car for any cutting related emergencies.
I carry a Leatherman Micra on my teeny-tiny carabiner keyring. Very, very handy! I had been considering a Squirt as a backup or a replacement, but I noticed they had some colored side panels, presumeably made of plastic. How do they hold up to daily pocket wear?
I carry an ancient pocketknife that I got from my grandfather. I have no idea who made it, but the handle is plastic with the Purina logo and red and white checks. The blades are about half their original size due to Grandpa’s compusion about having a razor sharp blade. I don’t use it much but it is a great reminder of a great man.
The sides are anodized stainless, and it’s holding up pretty good, aside from the color wearing off at the edges. I highly recommend it.
I have one of those Purina knives, it came in a box of stuff at a garage sale.
I have an old Case pocket knife my grandfather carried, as well as 2 Buck 112s.
Pre- 9/11, I carried the 112s thru airport security all the time, just a 3" blade IIRC.
Thanks Scumpup.
(end hijack, plane lands safely, hijackers are all arrested by Leatherman/Gerber/Victorinox/Spyderco/Bucktool wielding airport officials and SWAT team)
I have a teeny little swiss army knife (a blade, a screw driver, scissors, toothpick and tweezers) that I keep on my keychain. Other than that, I have a girl scout knife like pinkfreud described but that’s at home in the junk drawer, and I have a leatherman-like-ripoff-multitool that I keep in my van.
I have 2 knives that I carry semi-regularly:
A Victorinox Swiss Army knife I got as a gift.
A 3-blade Old Timer that my father gave me as a gift a while ago. I carry it the most often.
I’m a bit of a collector, so part of my morning ritual is deciding which knives to carry today.
When going to work, my primary knife is usually something relatively small, such as a Spyderco Delica or a Benchmade mini-Griptilian (wonderful knife). In my spare time, I often carry something larger, such as a Benchmade 710, a Spyderco Wegner (no longer in production, unfortunately – great knife) or a Spyderco Dyad.
My other pocket usually contains a Leatherman Juice S2 or CS4, and there’s a Squirt S4 on my keyring. In addition, I usually have a Charge Ti close at hand, and I keep a Victorinox Cybertool in the car.
I used to carry my grandfather’s melon knife. It has a mother of pearl handle and is downright pretty, since I want to keep it that way, I leave it home now.
This thread makes me think I should get a good swiss army type knife. There’s always something coming loose or needing cutting and it’d be darned handy. Funny how you can forget the most basic stuff.
My old Leatherman PST (It’s retired, huh?) lives in my car’s glove box. For daily use, it was replaced with a Leatherman Juice C2. It’s got a waiter’s corkscrew that actually works well.
You wanna talk wimpy? I’ve got a half-dozen of these (varying colors), since I’m leaving them around the house and work all the time. And it seems that despite my wife’s incessant teasing, she manages to find herself in a circumstance where I need to whip out my knife on a weekly basis.
hmmm… sounds like we had the same grandpaw. I have about a half a dozen old Case knives that have all been sharpened down to nothing, along with a few whetstones that each look like an hourglass in profile from untold thousands of strokes from those old Case knives.
He once gave me an old Buck knife that he had found. He had made no attempt to sharpen it and the edge was in terrible shape. The next time he asked about it, I had it as keen as a razor. The grin he had on his face at that time is the picture I carry of him in my mind’s eye. I still have that knife but don’t carry it because I couldn’t bear to lose it.
Leatherman Pulse which was free from Microsoft. (Promotional “tool” during the 2003 Server release/beta days)
Unless I’m in flight, it doesn’t leave my side when I leave the house. (ok, it’s not on swim trunks)
It replaced an older Leatherman.
I have a Parker "Old Trapper" that my Dad bought me as a boy of about 10. We went through the catalog together and picked it out- It is a good general purpose pocket knife and very good looking with a smooth bone handle and brass pommel and hilt. But from a utilitarian POV it has no blade lock, plus the blades move a bit laterally/side to side when unfolded.
I also have a Swiss Army Knife that one of my German Exchange Fathers gave me. He is a Caparol Paint Sales Rep. and he had several promotional Swiss Army Knives with the caparol logo (Rainbow Elephant) as giveaways. It is a Camper Series Swiss Army Knife and perhaps the most useful tool that I have ever owned. It sucks though, because I don’t know where I put it and have been looking for it for a while.
Damn, now I want a new knife! Perusing the Swiss Army site I found their ultra- cool SwissMemory knifes with built-in 1 GB USB memory stick! That is so freakin’ cool!
I used to work for Gerber Blades about 12 years ago and so I have probably 30 or 40 pocket knives and 3 or 4 sheath knives around the house, but what I carry and use on a daily basis is a Leatherman Micro. If I’m going to be doing something where I want a bigger blade I will usually grab whatever I find first, though I like my old Gerber LSTs and Gators the best 'cause they’re good solid knives that I won’t cry over if I loose one.
The good part about this is, I can always find a knife when I want one.
The bad part is, I can never buy any of the neat new knives that are available without getting “What do you need with another knife?” :dubious: from the wife.
I used to carry a Spyderco Endura with the half-serrated blade. I like straight edges better, usually, but I found the serrations very useful for cutting cord, tape, and rope. I carried it in my pocket with the clip on the lip and it was like an extension of my hand. I surprised more than one person by making that knife appear out of nowhere to cut something and then disappear almost as quickly. The only reason I don’t have it with me anymore is that I couldn’t bring it into the country.
The company had great customer service; I hope they’ve continued that. I called them up to see about getting the clip replaced. It was plastic on my old model, integral mold with the handle. (I notice that the new one I linked to has a metal clip now). They did a nice job of installing a metal clip, re-sharpened and cleaned it, and all I had to pay was the postage to send it. I’d buy from them again just based on the no-fuss service.
I’ve got 4.
A hunter automatic
A United boot knife, and
A razor blade in my wallet between credit cards.
A Schrade Tough Tool. Damned thing’s tough too, actually helped me tear down a house.
My general-carry-knife and personal grooming accessory is a Cold Steel Recon 1, largely because I don’t like lockbacks and I don’t trust linerlocks. I shave with it, it’s Teflon-coated for better cutting, and the AUS-8A steel is really nice if you get the first edition.
When I’m going places where I think I’ll need more than just a blade, I have an EOD Powerlock (SOG) (it costs the same as the standard PowerLock, and I was crimping wire regularly when I bought it), but it’s heavier and bulkier-feeling than the Recon 1, so most of the time it stays home.
I’m currently carrying a Xikar 118 Elan Carbon Fiber. It takes and keeps a great edge, it’s light enough to ride easily in my pocket, it’s got a thumb peg for one handed opening, and it’s pretty enough that most people don’t find it intimidating.
My other routine carries are a Spyderco Q, a Benchmade Stryker full auto (with the plain edge and titanium handles), a Kershaw Scallion (nearly full auto, but legal!), a no-name brand balisong, a Tekna Security Card, and a Spyderco Delica.
The Spyderco balisong that Tomcat posted looks reeeally cool. I want one. I’ll have to make friends with someone in Oregon, methinks, where they have less restrictive knife laws.