I always carry at least 4 knives, 2 folding knives and 2 fixed blades. Sometimes I carry more. Depends on what I'm doing that day. But NEVER less than 4.
You never know when you will need a knife to cut something, and an adjunct to Murphy's Law is the Knife Inaccessibility Corollary (aka the KIC), which is
"If you REALLY gotta cut something RIGHT NOW, your 1 knife will be inaccessible."
I gotta take you back nearly 51 years ago, August of 1965, for MY defining experience as an example. I was helping my grandfather tune up the grain combine in preparation for maize harvesting season. While adjusting some gearing, his shirt sleeve came unrolled and got hung in the sprockets and drive chain. He reached down, pulled out his Kabar 1232 and sliced of his shirt sleeve.
He looked at me and said -
"That's why you carry a fixed blade. You'd never be able to get a pocket knife open fast enough."
I asked him -
"Popo, what if it had been your other arm?"
After a brief moment he realized what I was asking and why. He was then what I am now - short and fat with short arms. He would have never been able to pull the knife with his left arm/hand had his right sleeve become entangled.
He said -
"Come on, let's go."
He turned off the tractor, we got in the truck and drove 3 miles to town, where we went to the Western Auto hardware store. They were temporarily out of more 1232s, so he bought a Western L46-5. A couple of weeks later, when the store got more 1232s in stock, he bought a second one and gave me the Western, saying -
"If you're smart enough to come up with that question, you're old enough to have a fixed blade."
And he gave my first of many, many fixed blades. I still have that knife, but I use other L46-5s to prevent loosing or damaging that very sentimental (to me) blade.
From then on, when he was working on equipment (almost every day as he was working 4 farms, managed the grain elevator and ran the locker plant), he carried dual fixed blades. He never NEEDED the off-hand blade for an emergency, but he was prepared.
I carry paired fixed and folders because I never know when my RH FB will be inaccessible. Do I EXPECT to have a problem? No, not really, but that 2nd fixed blade is insurance. Have I HAD to use the LH blade? Yep. More than once. Not for emergencies, but because sometimes it has been easier to pull the LH knife to cut something rather than juggle what I'm working on to get the RH knife clear. I carry dual folders because sometimes, a small (3" blade) folding knife is more appropriate for the task than a 5.5" blade (max Texas legal public carry). And Yes, I do practice cutting left handed.
My daily folders are 2 of the following - Buck 484, Buck 502, Kabar Dozier, a 1950s Kabar Rigging Knife. 2 of those literally every day, 7 days a week. They are the first 2 things that go i my pockets after pulling my pants on.
My daily PUBLIC carry fixed blades are either a pair of Kabar 3/4 Shorties, or occasionally 2 other Texas legal carry FBs out of my large selection of Kabars, Westerns, Ontarios, Muelas, etc.
My daily "illegal to carry in public but fine on the farm" - 2 or more of the following
Kabar - Grass machete, Cutlass machete, 1217 (1219C2 equivalents), and a few others
Beckers - BK 20, BK 21, BK4, BK9,
Ontarios - SP5, SP6,
Western - W49, L46-8
YMMV, but when the KIC kicks in, don't say I didn't advise you.
