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Why do you carry a pocket knife?

Do you really find yourself using it that often? I keep a pair of scissors in my car's glovebox for opening packages when out and about, but I don't find myself in other situations where I really need a pocketknife.

But they look really cool, and threads with awesome pictures of pocket knives make me want one even if I don't really need one. Go ahead, B&B, fuel my AD!!! :001_tongu
 
I open boxes at work, cut cable ties and other light duties.
I carry a Kershaw Leek because it's thin and it opens one handed.
 
Because I'd feel lost without it. I've carried a knife everyday for over 15 years now. I find a use for it practically every single day. Opening letters or packages is the bulk of it, but taking out a splinter, trimming a hangnail or other similar uses come to mind.
 
Never carried one, never felt the need. At home and the office there's always a pair of scissors and a screwdriver close by, in the car there's a multi-tool in the glove box.
 
If you've never carried a pocket knife on a daily basis, you'd likely not appreciate just how useful they can be. A pocket folder is a very practical and handy tool for every-day use. In addition to the practicality there is a rich history of gents carrying a pocket knife, as well as a wide variety of styles and finishes available. If you are curious to see for yourself, I might suggest picking up a US made Case brand knife (perhaps their medium stockman or other pattern under 4" in closed length) and carry it with you wherever you go.

Some potential uses: Food prep on a lunch break (cut up an apple, cheese, make a sandwich, etc.), trim the tags off of clothing, open envelopes/boxes, add a new hole to a belt, emergency trimming of errant, unwanted hairs, paper cutting (like scissors), garden/yard work, open a bag of anything (charcoal, pet food, sand...), auxiliary steak knife in case you get a really dull one at the restaurant, improvised stapler (cut a tab in a page, then a slit in the next, loop and fold over), cut duct tape, cut cord/rope when loading things into/onto a vehicle, trim loose threads in clothing, fashion a spear after the apocalypse, trim your nails (think swiss army knife), pull a splinter, have a handy toothpick, make a mark to drive a nail/screw/stake, carve your girlfriends name on a picnic table, be a ninja. You see I could go on, but I'll let you figure a few uses on your own.

Some good brands of traditional style pocket knives:
(These listed are all US companies)
Great Eastern Cutlery
Case
Queen Cutlery
Canal Street
Moore Maker (rebranded Queen-made knives)

Then there are plenty of vintage brands to look into if you care for the traditional style. And then there are the Swiss army knives, made by either Wenger or Victorinox.

For modern folders, there's a ton of brands:
Spyderco
Benchmade
Zero Tolerance
Boker
Kershaw
Etc. x infinity
 
I carry a spyderco mantix 2. I find that i use it almost everyday for the tasks listed above. On the occasion I forget it (rarely) I feel a bit naked and usually need it.
 
I think Miles hit it on the head. They can be used for almost anything you need. I carry two, a full size folder and a little Swiss Army Knife, but invariably my little Victorinox Classic SD sees most of the day to day use.


Jay
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Why? I guess because it is handier than a sword or axe.

In Belize, on my farm, I carried a machete everywhere. There was always one on my boat, several in the house (mostly in the kitchen) one by the door, one in the gun rack, one on the porch, a few too-much-loved ones rusting away, stuck in fence posts for no particualr reason. You can't imagine how many uses there are for a machete until you have carried one around. "Mowing" the lawn, gutting and scraping fish, dispatching a chicken for the pot, constructing an improvised shelter or even a permanent house, clearing brush, felling small trees, cutting firewood, marking sections of land, butchering, slicing melons, harvesting a bunch of plantain or bananas, making fenceposts or pruning living gumbo-limbo fenceposts, killing snakes, self defense, whittling tool handles, making paddles or spars for small boats, pruning trees, opening green coconuts, cutting fish or lobster bait, among many uses. A pocketknife is kinda like that. Except it doesn't need a big scabbard.
 
Man. I can't even imagine not having a knife on me. The very first thing i do in the morning after putting my pants on is put my Emerson in my right pocket and the old timer in the left.
I also can't remember a day I haven't used one or the other for something.
I know things are different nowadays, but I had a little pocket knife on me since probably 5th or 6th grade. I'm an Okie, so I used to whittle wood with my Grandpa when we sat in the shop.
Anytime I go to the Capitol or someplace with metal detectors I literally have to take a moment before I just up and relinquish my blades.
Brent.

ETA: I don't see them anymore, but until a few years ago every hardware store or parts store, even places like the Ford dealership, would have a well worn sharpening stone on the counter to sharpen your knife. Hell, it was part of the conversation to look for your part and touch up your knife.
 
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I carry a pocket knife because I view a survival knife as any knife you might happen to have on you at the time you might find yourself in such a situation. Now having said that a survival situation does not mean you have to be deep in the Rockies, and or some exotic jungle. A car accident can thrust you into a survival situation, as well as many other situations people encounter everyday. Just my $0.02 worth.
 
I am a Scout Leader and a sailor so a pocket knife is part of my essential kit. I use mine at least a half dozen times a day for various tasks.
 
I carry a Skeletool, and use it daily. Blade, pliers, drivers bottle opener. One or more get used at least once a day.
 
I have can't remember not having a pocket knife. For the last 35 years I have carried a small swiss army knife which has the tweezers and toothpick in the handle. I think I am on my fifteenth one as I started all my kids with the one in my pocket when I thought he/she was ready for one and broke/lost a few over the years. I'm now working my way through the grandkids. Yes, Miles has it nailed;

If you've never carried a pocket knife on a daily basis, you'd likely not appreciate just how useful they can be.
 
Back when I was a PT Supervisor at UPS I always carried a Cold Steel XL Voyager serrated edge with Tanto point. Some of my bosses thought it was too much, one even told me if I kept carrying that knife I could get fired. I do not know how many times I used this knife to cut boxes that got wedged in the rollers on the conveyor belts, tracks in the box line, hammered cotter pins back in, and used it maybe twice as a prybar/crowbar to put the boxline back on track. One morning during Peak, thats Christmas time for you lucky people who have never had the pleasure of being employed at UPS, the main belt coming to our center from the sort aisle snapped from all the weight that was on the belt. After pushing as many packages as we could to our center I was watching the building Maint. guys try and fix the belt. To get the machine to cut the two edges and make them straight would be 45 minutes. I said I could maybe cut that edge with my knife a lot quicker. It took me maybe 20 minutes to cut both edges. The last foot or two was pretty tough since the serrated edge had been worked to death. We got the belt running in less than an hour instead of the 2 hours it would normally take. At our post sort meeting a regional manager asked me what I used and I showed him my knife. One manager started giving me crap telling me that I was told to quit carrying that knife. The regional mgr. Jumped all over that guy letting him know that UPS could not count how much time and money i saved the company by being Johnny On The Spot with my knife. He actually made sure I got a little extra in my Christmas bonus check I received the next week.
 
For pocket bling, self defense, and when I don't carry one I seem to need it all the time!!! Try it for 1 month and you'll see why we do.
 

Antique Hoosier

“Aircooled”
Because I'd feel lost without it. I've carried a knife everyday for over 15 years now. I find a use for it practically every single day. Opening letters or packages is the bulk of it, but taking out a splinter, trimming a hangnail or other similar uses come to mind.

Same for me Dennis.... My Puma Senior is a constant companion
 
I carry a No. 9 Opinel. I'd say 95% of its usage is opening boxes, cutting up fruit, and getting tiny lamps out of aircraft instrument panels.
 
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