Truth. If you know how to use a knife, you do not need much of a knife. A 2" knife will do a lot. Food prep probably demands the most blade length with cutting vegetables and such, but everything else, a small knife will do. My grandfather fought in WW2, and traveled Europe afterwards, always with a pocket knife. Most under 2". He will celebrate his 95th Christmas in a few days with my Grandmother (94 yrs old). He's an old sea dog (machinist), and knows metals. He loves old carbon tool steels, and has forgotten more about metallurgy than most of us will ever know. His knives are all tiny, most are under a 2" blade. He told me once that you can do anything you ever need to do with a sharp piece of steel the size of a thumbnail, if not, you are using the wrong tool.
That sounds like a couple members of my own family. I think that those old guys who lived through the Great Depression and WW2 were far more anchored in reality than many today. In general, young folks today have far more disposable income than our grandfathers could ever dream of, and are far more influenced by media than earlier generations. Too many young men who were not mentored by a grandfather, uncle, or anyone who would take them under a wing and teach them about things. Instead we have video games and TV shows and movies from Hollyweird that teach what is "cool". Add in the factor of an artificially created demand for a product, and you have a lot of young men with strange ideas. Idea's that you need a pocket sword. If you just like a large knife, and it is a want itch that you scratch, that's fine. But many think you need a large blade, when in fact, for modern day life in American suburbia, a good sharp 2 inch blade will do fine. We just need to separate the want vs the need. I think a sharp knife is something every man should have in his pocket. How big is up to the persons wants.
Both of the two times in my life when I really needed a knife to help someone out, I got by fine with a small two inch or less blade. One time it was just a little girl that had her sneaker lace caught in an elevator. But the other time it was an over turned car at a accident scene that was starting to burn, and I had to crawl inside to get a large over weight woman out of the jammed seat belt. A two inch blade of a modest slip joint did it very well. Heck, look on any construction site, and you'll see sheet rock being cut, electrical cable being stripped for consecution, bags of cement being sliced open, zip ties being cut, and lot more, with the Utility knife. That's about a one inch blade, measuring the sliding blade Stanley I have here. They go dull, but very rarely break, yet things get built by guys using the utility knife and it's thin little one inch blade.
I just got done with a cross country tour in our car, with stops in Georga, Texas, California, New Mexico, and home again. In my pocket was a Case peanut, and on a keyring was a Victorinox classic. Both were used many times for cutting jobs along the way, and both were all I needed. We hiked in the San Bernadino mountains, the Elsinore Mountains in the Cleveland National wilderness area, Hiked in White Sands New Mexico, camped out in New Mexico, Hiked and fished in Texas, and a 2 inch blade did all I needed. For food use, a 2 inch blade is a little short, but somehow it sliced up sausage, cheese, a few sandwiches, twine, gutted and cleaned some pan fish for the frying pan. In 6,500 miles of travel, the Case peanut was just fine. Of course, I didn't run into Chinese paratroopers, the walking dead, hostile alien invasion, or other events.
It's all want vs need. Only the person carrying the knife can make that choice. But once you go past a certain point, it's all about want, with very little need involved. Most of us are not a TV character going after the bad guys, nor are we Navy SEAL's dropping into hostile country. Somehow our grandfathers got by with a small pocket knife while dealing with a horrible depression and a two front war involving the whole world. I doubt they felt under knifed. I like a small knife that doesn't take up a lot of room in the pockets. Leaves more room for other stuff that becomes important in our older age. The oversize electronic car keys they insist on giving us with a new car, pill bottle for arthritis and other meds, the RONCO pocket defibrillator in case of vapor lock, small bottle of hand sanitizer for the grandkids, extra bandana for the grandkids, small flashlight because senior citizen eyes don't see del in the dark, and other stuff. It's amazing how much stuff you need for a day at the zoo with little ones. I thought that when my own grew up, I was done. Now there's the second generation of them.
Anyways, as an old fart who has lived a whole life, I can't recall when I needed more than a to inch blade, except for a couple of occasions. And then another couple of inches would not have done it. I needed an ax or machete. So now I just keep a small machete in the car truck for when my pocketknife is not enough. They make a good team.
Carl.
