Just a remark in passing . . .
In my previous post I note than I always have five or so knives on me, unless I'm wearing my jacket, which adds one to whatever the count is.
It was not always thus.
From the time I was 12 until I was 32 or 33, I carried a four-blade Imperial scout style knife (their red-handled clone of the all-stainless "demo" knife). During that period, I would occasionally carry a fixed blade during outdoor activities, and while I was on shipboard for a couple of years I would also carry a rigging knife.
In 1982 or '83, I moved into "desk job" mode, and bought a Gerber
Silver Knight, a small, refined, understated gent's folder, which became my EDC from then until sometime in 2003 or '04, when I began to research knives for outdoor use (we had decided that 20+ years of sitting on our butts at keyboards wasn't as much fun as hiking and camping).
During that research phase, I started carrying an extra knife or two just so I could test them. Sometime in 2004-ish, I added a Leatherman Supertool to my belt as a permanent fixture (later replaced by the Wave I now carry). I started carrying a Leek as a primary EDC, and began rotating that with other folders, just to get a feel for them.
Then, in 2007 I picked up an unmarked nylon magazine pouch to wear horizontally on my belt so as to accommodate a full-sized folder, such as a Buck 110 or a Swede 92 or a large Case Sod Buster. I had begun wearing cargo pants in 2005 on the advice of a chiropractor to get my wallet out from under my butt cheek, as the chronic sitting-on-a-lump wasn't helping my spine's alignment any. With the new extra pocket opposite the wallet, I found I had room for another knife. And a flashlight. And tweezers. And eye drops. And . . . other stuff. Trouble was, I walked with a geek-rattle from all the miscellaneous pocket stuff on that side.
What I needed as a removable pocket pouch, made of something like nylon or leather. Took me months to come up with a decent solution. What resulted was that "glove pouch" you see in the first post. Cheap ($8) pair of goatskin gloves, turn one completely inside out, then roll the cuff down to expose the fingers and thumb. Voila! Now you have a compartmentalized pouch that will hold (in my case) a Streamlight, a SAK, good tweezers, a
Style, eyedrops, and a compact flash thumb drive. Nothing rattles. I can
be a geek without having to
sound like one when I walk.
So now I have a permanent EDC (Leatherman), a full-sized belt-mount rotation, a front pocket rotation, a permanent SAK, and anything else I want to try out.
The good news is that I have now worked through the process of discovering what works well for me, and found that it's downright handy to have a full-sized folder (I make salad all the time), a multi-tool ('cuz I work in a geek environment), and something "civilian friendly" in a front pocket. Although I might ditch the SAK, I wouldn't ditch the flashlight, tweezers, and flash drive, so I will always have the glove pouch handy.
I can operate quite comfortably with three knives.
When it's dress-up time, and I have to lose the Bat Belt accessories, I can get by nicely with a well chosen pocket folder, usually a stockman pattern.
As a rule, I'm never far from my truck, and if I get to feeling under-equipped, I can just go visit the hardware in the truck. Very comforting.
Anyway . . .
I figured it might be worthwhile to explain the high count in my usual load-out.
It's not like I'm addicted or anything. I can stop any time I want.
