I have one of those as well. It gets more use than any of my other pocket knives. That straight edge is great for making precision cuts, even given the large size of the blade. The most common cutting tasks that I have in my job are opening shrink wrapped plastic boxes and cutting out paper figures to go into a laboratory notebook. The part of the tang that is exposed when the blade is closed (that mates with the spring in the open position) is quite sharp and easily cuts through the thin shrink wrap on pipette tip boxes. It could probably cut thin fabric as well. The straight edge puts the tip of the blade in the optimal position to effortlessly make precision cuts. It is, however, a pocket full of knife when not in use. The wide blade, and the large amount of blade exposed in the closed position makes it much larger in the pocket than a trapper or jack knife of the same length. Although, that big blade sticking out of the handle sure makes it easy to open. The spring on mine is much more forgiving than those found on GEC knives, but it has good snap and good walk and talk. On the whole, the cotton knife that I have is not as well finished as the Northfield trappers that I own, but it is nicely finished.