Back by Popular Demand... What folder do you guys carry?

This one is easy for me, none. Always have two to three fixed blades on me though.
 
It is a Les George VECP. Sort of a version 2.5. He makes small batches and they are difficult to come by. You sign up for a lottery to buy. If you are picked you get one of the knives from the batch. I got a version 2.0 used on the exchange and liked it so much I signed up for this sale. I am thinking of selling the used one. The one pictured above is slightly smaller and I love the stone washed DLC coated blade.
 
Great looking folder. If the price ain't too much to take away from my S! Collecting I may be interested. Email me if it crosses your mind in the future.
 
Love my para2. I occasionally bring it for work. But usually just carry my endura 4. My para and my Manix are my weekend babies most of the time. My Manix don't see a lot of time it's my "fancy" gentlemen's folder.

Do you cc that ruger?
 
I daily carry a Victorinox Compact attached to a Thrunite Ti.
EDC-Vic-Ti-Jot.jpg

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I also carry a Benchmade Ritter Grip when I feel like something bigger.
Ritter.jpg
 
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Just got my hands on a ZT 0630. I am pretty impressed. Its the Emerson design with the upswept CQC 8 blade. So far I am impressed. It is going to accompany my S!K necker 2 as part of my work EDC. I will post pics later tonight
 
I never got into the super-fancy/expensive folders, so I rock the relatively low-mid dollar/high-value sector like my RAT-II, Boker Exskelibur (these knives are awesome - you get premium wood scales, titanium frames & clip, and IKBS ball-bearing pivot for crazy smooth opening), and lately I've been carrying my Boker Plus Chad Los Banos Compliance (discontinued) - sexy little knife that just becomes my hand when I go to cut with it...440C blade...I paid under $30 for it.

There are a number of very well designed, relatively low cost folders these days with IKBS, titanium, etc....stuff that used to be reserved for the high-dollar folders. I'm sure it's just that I'm a fixed blade guy, but with these great low-mid cost folder options out there, I just don't see the desire to spend $1,500 on a very similar product...but again, I'm a fixed blade guy predominately, so I concede that I may very well just not be educated enough to appreciate the differences.
 
VanDammet, i agree totally with your take on value folders. Especially since chinese manufacturing quality has improved by leaps and bounds.

For me, I see it this way. I will drop $200+ on a fixed blade that I may only use occasionally on outdoor activities like hunting and fishing and camping, so why not spend the same on a blade that I will carry and literally use every day.
 
I've been carrying a Spyderco Tenacious for most of the past year. Love everything about the knife except how often I have to sharpen it. I recently calculated that I'll wear it out in another decade or so of sharpening. I am patiently (oh so patiently...) waiting for a Koster folding bushcraft. He says that it'll be finished any day now... It will be a pretty big knife, but I'm sure I'll carry it for a while just because.
 
VanDammet said:
I never got into the super-fancy/expensive folders, so I rock the relatively low-mid dollar/high-value sector like my RAT-II, Boker Exskelibur (these knives are awesome - you get premium wood scales, titanium frames & clip, and IKBS ball-bearing pivot for crazy smooth opening), and lately I've been carrying my Boker Plus Chad Los Banos Compliance (discontinued) - sexy little knife that just becomes my hand when I go to cut with it...440C blade...I paid under $30 for it.

There are a number of very well designed, relatively low cost folders these days with IKBS, titanium, etc....stuff that used to be reserved for the high-dollar folders. I'm sure it's just that I'm a fixed blade guy, but with these great low-mid cost folder options out there, I just don't see the desire to spend $1,500 on a very similar product...but again, I'm a fixed blade guy predominately, so I concede that I may very well just not be educated enough to appreciate the differences.
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+1 to the RAT series. I really like my RAT 1 except with more use I'm realizing how far my grip is from the actual cutting edge because of how the handle has an indent for your index finger. Low end Kershaws have served my modest needs quite well.

Fancier said:
I've been carrying a Spyderco Tenacious for most of the past year. Love everything about the knife except how often I have to sharpen it. I recently calculated that I'll wear it out in another decade or so of sharpening.
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I've often wondered about "using up" a blade. I've never used one knife to ever get close to this, but do people who heavily use a blade have to retire it after a long period of time?
 
Silver Needle said:
+1 to the RAT series. I really like my RAT 1 except with more use I'm realizing how far my grip is from the actual cutting edge because of how the handle has an indent for your index finger. Low end Kershaws have served my modest needs quite well.


I've often wondered about "using up" a blade. I've never used one knife to ever get close to this, but do people who heavily use a blade have to retire it after a long period of time?
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I've never carried one blade long enough to get anywhere near enough wear to retire it. My fancy drifts to a new knife (or I lose it, only did that once) before I get that far down the blade.
I've carried the Tenacious consistently and it came from the factory ground down quite a bit (about 3/16" of steel missing) so I might just find out!
 
Silver Needle said:
I've often wondered about "using up" a blade. I've never used one knife to ever get close to this, but do people who heavily use a blade have to retire it after a long period of time?
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This is a question that I have contemplated quite a lot. I got a hunting knife from a friend of mine where he was no longer able to sharpen it freehand. The knife has been in use his entire hunting life, which started at around 12 y.o., and the man was now in his late 50s. I put the blade on the Wicked Edge in an attempt to give him a good cutting bevel. I dialed in 20 dps and ground away until I had a very nice and keen cutting edge. The trouble was that the bevel width was very wide across the blade. It would cut much better when I was done, but the cutting efficiency was greatly reduced compared to when it was new. This man sharpened his knife freehand for most of his life, and in so doing, the cutting bevel moved into thicker and thicker portions of the blade, to the point that he could no longer get an acceptable cutting edge on it using his methods. The problem is that with each sharpening, the width of the blade must be thinned an amount equal to the steel that was removed from the cutting edge. If we take any GSO as an example, I will call the flat at the spine end of the knife the primary bevel, the saber ground part as the secondary bevel, and the cutting edge is the tertiary bevel. This man repeatedly sharpened the tertiary bevel over a lifetime, and never thinned the secondary bevel. So at each sharpening, I run the secondary bevel across 1K and 6K stones to thin it approximately an equal amount to the steel that was removed from the tertiary bevel. This way the tertiary bevel widths will remain constant with repeated sharpening throughout the life of the knife. This method works well for flat ground knives such as the GSO line, or even hollow (concave) ground knives. But it will not work well on convex ground knives such as the BRK or Fiddleback line. With convex ground knives, a mouse pad and sandpaper can be used to perform the same function. Had my friend performed this over the 40 plus years of using and sharpening his knife, that knife would still be going strong.

Now what about coated blades? Not my cup of tea for obvious reasons. The entire thing is this though. I have over 100 knives in my collection, and many are pretty high end. I will sharpen each one at least once without thinning the blade in order to preserve the finish on the blade. I will even grind down the shoulder, essentially adding a fourth bevel before I thin a high end knife (this is the point I am at with my M390 GSO 4.1), but I also have and use expensive knives where I thin the blade at each and every sharpening. The point is that with that many knives, I will never have much of a problem if I don't thin any of them, neither will my children when I am gone, assuming that we all rotate through the entire collection when one gets dull. This is why you do not see me getting all gooey eyed over Guy's new blade finish. The purist in me will only end up grinding that finish away for a majority of the blade.

I also shave with a straight razor. Many people advocate using a piece of electrical tape on the spine of a razor when honing. I do not use tape for this very same reason. You must remove metal from the spine of a razor at each sharpening in order to maintain the optimal 8 to 9 dps cutting bevel throughout the life of the razor. Some people argue that my approach to sharpening is ugly, that it removes those beautiful coatings, finishes or fancy spine work on razors. My philosophy is that these are tools first and foremost, and this is what is required to maintain the best performance from the tool over its serviceable life. Any single knife that I own has a longer serviceable life than I do, but I want to leave this world with each one of them performing at their optimum.
 
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Whoa, Mac! Serious response! You really gave some great information, a lot of which I heard for the very first time. That really gives me a lot to think about. Thank you!
 
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