I have some nice production knives. I can't really afford customs. While I admire some of them, rather than save and go for a custom, I feel I get pretty good money's worth out of a good production knife.
I have a couple of SFO Queen and S&Ms that I really like the look and feel of. One being a 1 of 50 SFO. I haven't quite been able to bring myself to pocket them. Yet. I just have to sew up some pocket slips for them and I'm lazy.
Like Zip7 and Brownshoe, I get my most pleasure from using a knife that I enjoy carrying and using. As a result, what I carry EDC has do to with how the knife carries and performs for me, along with how much I just enjoy the feel and the look of the knife. If I find myself handling the knife in my pocket and/or pulling it out now and then just to enjoy, that is a part of the pleasure. I might even find myself rubbing it now and then like a worry stone, just for the calming effect. It's kind of grounding in a scattered world. This is where I find a knife's greatest worth regardless of maker, pattern, or steel. A knife has to work good for me and cut well, first and foremost, and many do. If it has all those other qualities then it gets carried frequently. And if it gets carried, it gets used, and not much special treatment.
For the past month or so my EDCs consist of two knives I've mentioned a number of times on here. My work carry in dress slacks took over my pocket right after I got it. That one is a chestnut, smooth bone, Case mini-trapper SS. The only problem to date is that I need to clean some of the gunk out of the pivots from where I've been using it to skin fruit and cut meat in my lunch. Plastic cafeteria knives don't, forgive the pun, cut it. It still looks great, but it's getting to be a bit of a pull to get it started opening. No fault of the knife, just the owner. Like I said, it gets used.
My off duty, jeans companion is a Case trapper with hand engraved bolsters, also in stainless. I hesitated at first to carry it, but it was just too good looking not to. At first I was only going to carry it as a go to town knife, hence my wife referring to it as my "Town Knife." But, long before the mini-trapper came along this one had proven itself a fine carrying knife that fit all the criteria. So, in jeans, that's been the choice for quite a while.
So, while I like CV, 1095, and D2, and I think the Queen and S&M #19s are a little trimmer, with a little more finesse that the Cases, these two Tru-sharp, recent production Cases have become the reigning EDCs by virtue of performance and pleasure of carry. I enjoy carrying and using them and have not been disappointed. That's what matters to me.
I do have some lovely stag slippies in my collection that I've tried carrying, but the stag is a bit heavy and I notice it in my pocket. I don't carry my one MOP, a Burnt Chimney because I don't want to break it when I drop it, and I've already dropped the above EDCs a few times. Others I have and enjoy in a variety of handle materials, but most of them don't pocket as I'd like, or in the case of one, the blade is long enough to worry some folks, but carries surprisingly well.
I do have a small cigar box of EDCs that I had been rotating out of, but they're getting a little lonely now. At least three of them are Case Yellow Handle CVs, peanut, soddie jr., and barehead trapper. There are canoes, jacks, a whittler or two, and others. A few in stag, others in Delrin/composition, and bone in a few varieties. Steels are a mix of stainless, 1095, and CV, with maybe a D2 in there.
I guess that was a long winded way to say that what I carry is about doing what I need it to do, while giving me pleasure in the carry and using of it. I'm sure if I were using my knives a lot heavier and harder I'd probably carry something else based on the same criteria.