Like others, I couldn't vote, as right now I'm squarely in the "it depends" category.
My history suggests single blade but that's not necessarily an accurate measure as even though I've always loved knives, I wasn't always pursuing it diligently so I bought and used what was available and worked. Be that a little Buck 425, a Leatherman, a Buck 110 or 105, Old Timer, whatever, it was mostly just about available and worked. I dismissed multi-bladed knives because they were slip joints and passe.
And after a lot of exploration and several decades, I recently realized that traditional knives work. I knew I'd always been a function over form guy and my knife preferences, even in the modern offerings was always about performance and value. So acknowledging I'd dismissed traditionals without any real firsthand negative experiences and opening my mind to re-evaluating my thoughts and also accepting how many people I knew growing up that did very well with them, brought me to where I am today.
And that is, testing. Life is short, carry knives that work and make you happy. And to do that, you have to experiment. What if you're missing out on something because you haven't tried it?
Right now, I'm sticking with stainless steel and that for me largely means Case. I see this as a working class brand and am willing to accept less than perfect fit and finish so long as the function is solid. So I've been buying different patterns to test what I like. And I haven't just stayed in lanes I think I'd like. I've tried smaller to larger and single and multi-bladed knives.
I really like the sleekness of single blade knives and I like that you can get quite a bit of blade in a comparatively light and nimble package. My main draw here is the locking options. While I've come to have zero issues with slip joints, I've also come to realize that if I'm going to look at slip joints I either want to look at multi-blade offerings, or something different, like a Chambriard or Nieto, something like that.
Otherwise, I personally think the real beauty of the slip joints
are multi-bladed options. Again, for me, it's a function thing. If I'm not gonna have a lock, then the different blade shapes and lengths become the attractant. You can tailor your sharpening on the different blades to be focused on different tasks. And maybe I don't want to cut whatever with the same blade that will later cut my apple. Or maybe I want a longer blade to cut my apple but a shorter blade to do whatever.
I spent a lot of time doing grunt work in manufacturing and I cuss myself for not doing multi-bladed knives during that time. And now that my butt is in a chair more often than not, I reckon, in truth, it doesn't really matter all that much, but I still like the idea of experimenting.
The Case Mini Copperlock and Canoe offerings seem to be vying the hardest for my attention lately. I'm finding I like the more mid-size range. I reckon if there was a canoe with a sheepsfoot instead of a pen blade secondary, the discussion would be over.
Longwinded I know but that's my thoughts on the matter...
of course right after I did all that they came out with the Lucky One which is a single blade knife.
