Ah, the little guys. A subject dear to my heart.
I've always liked a smaller edc for real world use. Most of my life, I caried a Buck stockman at 3 7/8ths. As I got older, it went down in size from there. I used a Buck cadet 303 stockman at 3 1/4, aqnd it did everything the bigger knife did. Then one day I carried my fathers old knife. He had passed away by then, and his old Case peanut was sitting on top of my dresser. I don't know why, but I picked it up and carried it off to work. Ended up cutting a few things with it. A sort of light bulb went on over my head, and I started to take a very hard look at what I was using a knife for, and how it worked.
Now I like a nice thin blade in a small easy to pocket package. I love the Case peanut with it's flat ground blades that whisper through cardboard and twine. My Victorinox bantam is a light pocket cutter, and packs a combo tool to boot. But the most used knife I have, is the humble Victorinox classic.
I hang my keyring on a carabiner from my left belt loop by my left hip. The classic is in a keyring pouch sheath hanging from my keyring, so out of habit now, I just reach down and pull it out of it's sheath and do what I have to do. Slice out the foil seal from antifreeze or windshield washer jugs, open whatever UPS or FedEx box has been dropped on my porch, cut twine for the tomato and pepper plants out back, whatever.
I've thought about it, and when you think of how a blade on a Stanley Utility knife is only an inch, and thin as a couple of folded up papers, yet does so much work on a construction site, it gives a new view of so called hard use knives. I spent the first decade after high school in the U.S. army engineers, and that was all construction work in some different parts of the world. I and my fellow construction workers just used whatever pocket knives we had, and they were fine. Buck's and Schrades were on sale at the PX, so they were the choice for most of us. Buck and Schrade stockmen and two blade jacks in the size from 3 1/4 to 4 inches at the top end were the norm.
I love small pocket knives under 3 1/4 inches. They get a lot of real work done without getting a hairy eye ball. I know I've done a lot with only a Vic classic and a Case peanut. They're small enough to leave room in my pockets for other stuff that gets used. Thin and sharp is good.
Carl.
