Gun. Knife. Flashlight........Pry Tool?

Joined
Oct 25, 2009
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309
Ok so I was looking on the EDC thread and noticed among the handguns, knives, flashlights and various other things that many of you guys are carrying small pry tools. Whats the purpose of carrying a small pry tool? Not trying to talk bad about someones EDC just kinda confused I guess.
I see why you would want/need all that other stuff but a pry tool? Gun: shoot bad guy, Knife: stab bad guy and cut rope and the same time, Flashlight: See bad guy before he gets shot, stabbed and tied up, Pry Tool: ...........pull out those pesky nails that refuse to go flush into the floor boards?
Maybe I should just :foot:
 
If you carry a SAK im sure you've been tempted more than once to pry something with the screwdriver tool. Think outside the box of carpentry a little.
 
A few years ago, my nephew-in-law was working under the hood of my car when he asked to borrow my knife to pry open an electrical connection. The only knife I had on me at the time was a Vic Farmer with scissors, and I sure wasn't going to hand that over to him. So I gave him my little pry tool and all was good.

I then bought him his own knife to abuse. I probably should have gotten him a pry tool, too.
 
I'll admit it...I carry a pocket prybar because of "paranoia". Seriously, I work at a school in which I can envision "disasters" of the domestic or foreign type, and along with those scenarios, the possibility of having to pry a door or a window. That's why I carry the Countycomm "pocket" prytool instead of just the little mini ones. It's small, but at least it will give me a little more leverage. Who knows it probably wouldn't be much account in one of those scenarios, but I figure it would be better than my fingernails. If I ever need it for something more mundane than that, that's even better.:) It carries in my back pocket next to my wallet, and I don't even know it's there.
 
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A pry tool is just one more thing in the continuum that allows us to manipulate our environments - rather than us being manipulated by our environments - which is why we are into blades, guns, lights and so forth in the first place.

:thumbup:
 
I really should get one - I carry a screwdriver in my bag and often end up using it to pry stuff, which isn't really what it's made for. Obviously. :P.
 
Never know when you may have to pry open a door, pull a nail out, I'm always prying something and don't want to break off anymore of my knife blade tips.
 
It's cheaper and more effective to buy a $10 pocket widgy bar and a thin well-slicing knife than an overbuilt tank of a knife that only cuts moderately well. Even SAKs and multitools screwdrivers aren't built for that.

Doesn't mean you need a fragile knife, just that when you need to pop open a paint can at a charity even or somesuch you won't have to worry about breaking a $10-20 tool over a $50-100 knife/multitool.
 
I pry with a pry bar, vs. a knife. It is very handy to have a pry bar. I keep a PryBaby in my wallet & a Keyton on my keychain. I also usually carry another Atwood Prybar with me. I keep a titanium Prybar in my jacket pocket.
 
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I have carried a prySTR for about a year and a half now. I use it to pry, open, bend, scrape any thing i need to. I also carry a leatherman on me at all times and a spyderco or two, and will never use any of those other tools to do the jobs that I do with my prySTR. Also its fun to explain to people why i carry a purple piece of Ti around.
 
I carry a CountyComm breacher bar. Why?

Because it isn't considered a knife and can inflict serious damage

I carry in the front of my truck in case I need to "escape" from an accident.

Nuff said.
 
I cut with my knives, light up the night with an assortment of lights, I pry and wreck with my Dead On Annhilater. They are a great tool!:thumbup:
 
I have one in my backpack from countycomm because I never want to pry with a knife unless it's a total emergency. They work great for opening windows that were painted shut and prying,scraping or even opening packages if you don't have a knife on you.
 
I'm not sure if you are referring only to large prybars, but I have one of the 2" pico prybars from countycomm on my keychain. I bought it because I'm lazy and developed the habit of prying with knives on occasions, since it's one of the few tools I always have on me (bad reason, I know). Buying something for those situations forced me to drop the habit, and it's cheaper to replace than a knife :p .
 
The flat screwdriver blade on Swiss Army Knives come in handy for any number of prying duties. I've used them to open the press fit heat cans for buffet trays and to pry open stiff panels on machines at work. Whenever I leave the SAK and home and decide to carry a single blade knife that is usually when I run into a situation where the SAK would come in handy to pry. :(
 
I have a Boker Cop Tool in my pack for prying and perhaps breaking glass and the like. I feel like it is the shortest possible length for such a tool to be useful. I thought it was a good buy at around 25 bucks but I haven't had to use it yet.
 
You'll find that you'll use your tools more times than you will ever need a gun or SD knife.

It is just another useful item to have around.

Aside from general use, my Atwood Prybaby saved me $500 once when I used it to pry open a malfunctioning fire alarm box to turn it off. The alarm company would have charged me $500 for an after hours, emergency visit, just to turn it off, saved me money and allowed me a peaceful nights sleep.
 
It makes so much sense now :p. Especially the part about using in case you need to escape your vehicle, thanks for all the good responses.
 
I bought the Gerber Artifact at Target for $10. Best $10 I ever spent!

It rides on my keychain with a photon microlight. Between the 2 of them I hardly ever use my $500 pocketknife and $100 flashlight. They are small, practical, and always with me. The Artifact even has a replaceable X-Acto blade so besides being a great prytool/bottle opener it is a sheeple friendly knife for opening packages, etc when whipping out my SMF would cause a panic.
 
I'v never carried a pry bar before, but this is making me think about it. As a machinist it wouldn't be too hard to rig up something homemade for the key chain. Thanks for the project guys!
 
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