Maximum Minimalism - A new experiment in stuff carried with traditional knives

Rsmith_77

Rsmith_77

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Jun 4, 2010
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I was bored tonight and was reading through the link of Carl's story when i came to this one: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1074981-Maximum-Minimalism.

I also posted this over in the multi-tool forum the other day: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1216139-Yup

Now, i have read this before but reading it tonight it has struck a chord. I think i have been flirting with this on a subconscious level anyways. I carry with me every single day, my Wenger Standard Issue (basically a modern boy scout camping knife right?) a fenix EO-1 flashlight and a mini-bic. This is combined with my other stuff, wallet, keys with classic attached, 2 bandanas after last weekends experience, cellphone and my cigarettes. I carry alot of stuff. Seriously i have gotten to the point that if my jeans/pants/shorts dont have cargo pockets, i dont wear them anymore

I then find myself doubling up on 1) my lighter, one for backup and one for regular use and 2) a 2nd (3rd really if you count the classic) knife. If i ditch the 2nd lighter and 2nd knife, i could free up some more room for a few other things (small whetstone for just in case).

But seriously, what happened? I find myself drooling over knives i see people post up and get these urges to get something pretty, when its all said and done, i have yet to find a knife that will boot my SI out of my pocket. Yes, all these knives are pretty, some are downright gorgeous, some might even cut better, but so few of them offer the peace of mind that having a set of small, useful tools do.

Just tonight, i was eyeballing my change jar, wondering if i had enough stashed away like a squirrel to buy a new knife. Why? i dont know. Its a sickness i tell you, a sickness.

So i think i am going to be experimenting with downsizing my pocket load, where i differ from Carl is, I am uninterested in a tiny knife like the peanut, but why carry 2 or 3? Why carry 2 lighters? Why not just get more creative figuring out how to use what i have instead of wishing i had some specific item that is only useful once or twice....

I am not sure I am expressing my thoughts too well, but i hope the gist of what i am saying is coming across. (i WANTS too much stuff, i dont USE the stuff i have)
 
Ok. I admit it. I'm lost. What are we suppose to be posting about in our replies - flashlights, peanuts, lighters, change jars? What's an S1?
 
So what is the question here? How to shrink your daily carry down to a reasonable size, or how to stop wanting more things than you need?
 
lol no question, more a declaration of intent
and some late night ramblings.

sorry, i apparently didnt make things clear...
 
i think the purpose of this point was to say that

1) i dont appreciate what i have
2) i need to stop being envious of the beauties that you guys always post on here
3) i carry too much redundant stuff and need to streamline
4) i may not have gotten enough sleep last night and rambled way too much :p
 
Simplify is my motto. I also carry a number of things and yes cargo pockets are mandatory for me too. I prefer big, roomy pockets.

I carry my Vic Farmer in a belt pouch all the time now. Fantastic tool. I look at it as more of a tool than a knife. It does have an awesome spear blade though, no doubt. My 6375 or 81 Stockman is nearly always RFP. In my watch pocket is generally something smaller. Then if course the usual wallet, change, keys are on a belt clip. No lighter here, but not against the idea. My flashlight is a single AA mini-light.

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This pic is sort of the basics. Sometimes something may be added or subtracted, but this is typical. The Farmer has bumped the Leatherman. The Farmer now resides in the Leatherman's pouch on my belt.
 
I understood what you were saying. I carry a ton of stuff too, and have been playing around with different configurations to figure out what I can eliminate. My pockets currently hold 2 knives, phone, keys, lighter, bandana/hankerchief, wallet, and my old unit coin. Two years ago my normal load was one knife, keys, ID and a little bit of pocket money (I didn't even carry a wallet). I don't feel like I do any more now, but for some reason I'm compelled to carry all this extra baggage around with me.

Out of curiosity, what's the deal with carrying a flashlight everywhere? I've been seeing this over the last couple of years online, but I don't understand it. I very rarely have a need for a flashlight. Seeing you post about optimizing your pocket space, and still including the flashlight, got me curious. I feel like I must be missing something.
 
1 - Repeat that experiment you did earlier this year and just carry the same two knives every day for 4 months. It worked for me.
2 - For that very reason, I don't tend to spend much time on the "look at my cool new knife" or "show me your xyz" threads any more.
3 - Yep. Easy to get carried away in "what-if" land. Just carry stuff you really use fairly often.
4 - Go to bed. :)
 
Cory,

Ref the flashlight. I like to have one handy in the event of a veh breakdown at night. A power outtage - say as a result of a storm, earthquake, etc (imagine being in a Walmart or any large building when the power goes out - nearly total darkness even in the daytime). It's just a handy, and if you end up needing it, valuable thing to have.

I live in a rural area in the mountains. The power here seems to go out more frequently than in the city. When i go out to feed or check on the animals I use it. At night when I sleep it's on the nightstand next to me, etc. It gets used every day. It's small but gives off a pretty fair amount of light for it's size.

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This is my "light load". :)
 
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Makes sense. I went through your list and in every circumstance I decided that I'd pull out my phone and use the light on that. So, I'm carrying a cheater flashlight on me, I'm just taking it for granted.
 
For a quick lighting up that works :). How long does the battery last doing that? I've heard it drains the battery very rapidly, but never done it personally.

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arizonaranchman said:
For a quick lighting up that works :). How long does the battery last doing that? I've heard it drains the battery very rapidly, but never done it personally.
Click to expand...

Nah, it's just one single little LED. I've never used it for more than 15 minutes or so at a crack. It has no effect on the battery at that length of time. My experience is that having the screen lit up drains the battery much more quickly than the light.

The big downside is that it's not convenient to hold in flashlight mode. Definitely not ergonomic. The big plus side is that not having a dedicated flashlight in my pocket has allowed me to carry my Schrade 8OT. I've started to warm to the stockman pattern. Interestingly, I have fallen in love with the blade that everybody else seems to shun. The small spey blade in the larger frame gives me a lot of control while cutting. The sheepsfoot is nice to have around. The clip is just meh, just another medium sized clip that I can find on just about any pattern it seems. But that spey blade is fantastic. If I didn't use my pocket knife for food, the stockman would probably fill all of my needs nicely. But, I've become accustomed to the large, wide spey on my #23 for foodstuffs.
 
I love the Spey and Sheepfoot blades on my Stockman. They see the most use. The Clip is primarily for food. Spey is for scraping and misc tasks. Sheepfoot is for precision cutting, packages, and is my utility blade.
 
Rsmith_77 said:
i think the purpose of this point was to say that

1) i dont appreciate what i have
2) i need to stop being envious of the beauties that you guys always post on here
3) i carry too much redundant stuff and need to streamline
4) i may not have gotten enough sleep last night and rambled way too much :p
Click to expand...

I think those are some healthy conclusions.

I arrived at similar ones when, over a period of months, I lost (or, in one case, the TSA confiscated, because I forgot in my bag) all but one of my pocket knives that I regularly carry, and so I stopped carrying any knife at all. In so doing, I realized that all of the effort I (and most people, probably) put into so-called EDC gadgets, knives included, is ultimately a hobby pursuit more than an outright necessity. And that's fine; hobbies are great.

But I've streamlined my items to the point where I always carry wallet/keys/phone and sometimes I carry a Swiss Army Knife, sometimes I don't. And I find I get by just fine either way.

Regarding your second point -- envy -- this is something that I think keeps consumerism going rampant and is something I struggle with too. I've found that pursuing and acquiring that next shiny new thing doesn't actually serve any purpose other than to try and fill some kind of void. The reason I know this is, when I got into the knife hobby years ago, I started buying up knives like we all do, but found I often got no satisfaction from them once they were in my possession--in fact, I got the opposite: remorse and guilt over spending money on something I didn't need or really want. That forced me to really consider what I was doing. So now I have a clear vision of the knives I like and want that I will actually use, and those which I would like to have purely for the joy of the hobby. And all of the other latest and greatest things -- and there seem to be more by the day -- that I see here and there can be easily ruled out.

I think many knife hobbyists arrive at this very same conclusion each in their own way and in their own time, with the ultimate realization being that we learn to appreciate what we have, which is very liberating.
 
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This is an EDC thread...

...Traditional it up quick or it'll get punted by the big boys upstairs!
 
I see some of the stuff people claim to edc and I just kind of shake my head and wonder why. I make a living working outside and for me carrying around a lot of extra weight doesn't make any sense. The only redundant thing that I carry is a second knife and that's only because it's on my skeletool that I don't go to work without. I only carry a lighter and flashlight in the winter and they're usually in either a jacket pocket or a pocket in my Carhart bibs.
 
I too have looked at what some people claim they carry for edc, and I have my doubts in most cases. ONly once did I see some guy with a bat belt on, and that was a cider tasting at a place out in the country. He had a web belt with all kinds of pouches on it, and when someone finally asked him what it was, he was only too pround to show off all his stuff, including a folding grappling hook with many yards of para cord. Most people were laughing at him and in truth he looked like a nut case.

I've also heard the saying "two is one, and one is none." to a ridiculous degree. How many of us are half way up Mt. Everest where equipment failure is not an option? I carry one of everything. A Fenix E01 that has been with me now for some years and never has let me down. A new AAA battery every few months doesn't break the bank. A Bic lighter in white, so I can keep track of just how much fuel is left so I know when to leave it home as a table side lighter and replace it in my pocket with a new one. This happens about every three months as smoking a pipe everyday I use my lighter. Many years ago, I phased out my old Zippo for the Bic because of the reliability of the Bic. As long as theres fuel in it, I've never had one fail. I certainly don't need multiple fire sources on me, as I'm not venturing into the Rocky MOuntains in winter playing mountain man.

I do carry two bandanas. They are so light it's a no brainer, especially when one of the uses of a bandana is a bandage. That makes it kind of disposable. One time many years ago, I had to rip one in half to make a nice thick pad to put on an injury, and use the other half to rip into stops to secure it in place on this person. Had I not had a spare in a back pocket, I would have then had none. Okay, two bandanas.

I don't carry paracord around with me, nor a fire steel or a second flashlight. I keep in mind that I am a retired machinist, not a ninja warrior fighting the evil MIng Empire. Sometimes you just have to take things with a dose of reality. My way of thinking is, if it doesn't fit comfortably in my pockets, it won't go. That's it. I'm not going to carry a bag, pouch, pack, or bat belt. If Chinese paratroopers drop out of the sky, I'll just have to do the best I can with what I have. Or get used to Chinese cuisine. At my age with senior citizen teeth, I have nothing against shrimp lo main. :D

I will stoop to carrying a few things in my wallet. The Sear's 4-way keychain screw driver and P-38 lay nice and flat, as does the cut down Eze-Lap diamond hone. A few paper clips for some good wire and a safety pin for deep splinters and lancing blisters.
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One of these will be in my pocket depending on my mood of the day and where I am going to be.
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Sometimes, I've carried as much as three knives, a multi-tool, a fold-over DMT fine diamond sharpener, a P-38, a Vic classic, all at the same time. Can't say I carry a flashlight and I don't carry all the stuff just mentioned all the time - hardly ever anymore. Now a days I can mostly be found carrying two knives in my pockets with a multi-tool on my belt in a sheath. I now carry a sharpener in each vehicle I have and have them in my desk, shop, etc. Same goes for a lighter (Bic) but I haven't smoked for years and don't carry one on me.
 
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