Here's a list of my girlfriend's production folders. Most are near the 3" mark, give or take a bit:
Spyderco Cricket, Aluminum, serrated
" , Carbon Fiber, plain
" , Pink Zytel, serrated
S&W Baby SWAT, standard, combo
" , Santa-Fe Stoneworks, plain
Spyderco 3/4-size Jess Horn, White Micarta, plain
Benchmade Leopard Cub, Black Aluminum, combo
" , Gray Aluminum, plain
Spyderco Calypso Jr., Micarta, plain
Spyderco Rookie, Steel, serrated
CRK Mirage, Gray Aluminum, plain
Benchmade 705, G-10, plain
Benchmade 350, Zytel, plain
Benchmade Mini-AFCK, custom Micarta, plain
Spyderco harpy, G-10, serrated
Spyderco Matriarch (!), Gray Zytel, serrated
Of that list, the Cubs were her first and probably still favorite. The Rookie has won a place as a real worker, and the Calypso Jr. is about the same when a plain edge is needed. Also, the Crickets are fantastic ladies' knives and surprisingly useful for their size and odd shape. The Jess Horn is in a class by itself for combining tiny size and high-class, more like a fancy folding scalpel.
One big advantage of buying for a girl is that you can (depending on her hands) take advantage of all the "minis." Many companies scale down their knives in ways that ignore the fact that the user's hand size hasn't changed. Examples are the Rookie or BM 705 - just teensy versions of the larger knife (although Beth likes the Calypso Jr., it's an example of how to scale down a knife properly to retain a full-sized grip). Well, for teensy hands, that's great! My sweetie holds her Rookie just the way I hold my Police, but if we swap both of us are left with a very poor fit. Suddenly all these "mini" knives make sense!
-Drew
