You can only keep 1 EDC. What is it today? Yes, I searched similar threads. I'm downsizing my life. Photos in thread.

When my stepfather was on hospice care family asked his wishes............
He told us to do whatever we wanted. What he had acquired in his life was for his life and enjoyment.
He said keep what you want, sell or giveaway what you don't and throwaway what you think is junk.
He also suggested he be recycled for the gold in his teeth and the lead in his ass........LOL
 
Today it would be the Malibu. Tomorrow, who knows? As far as knives go, my boys can pick what they want to keep, box up the rest and send them off to one of the reputable knife dealers that will sell them. Odds are I'll go before my wife, she'll love getting rid of my stuff! ;)
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I have a Baker’s Dozen of custom, mid-tech and production folding knives. They are all well designed EDC tools. But the only one I carry is the custom Laconico EZC I scooped up here on BladeForums Classified.

Having learned what I have over the years here and elsewhere if I were to do it over again I’d likely buy a Civivi Elementum and call it a day. Well designed, inexpensive and replaceable.

https://imgur.com/JfTxpXI
 
Only one? I would say my dpx triple black has been a faithful companion and incredibly useful. Thank goodness I don't have to choose and the plethora of Spyderco/ZT/Benchmade will continue to rotate through the edc position.
 
CleverSloth said:
I agree with you OP. There is a major cost that comes with stuff. Not just in dollars but in time, effort and a mental factor that is very hard to explain. As someone who had parents that had a lot of stuff it absolutely can be a burden to someone else. It doesn't look like you have too much stuff but downsizing certainly comes with a mentally freeing factor. It's hard to explain but there is real truth to the stuff you own ends up owning you for a lot of people. There is an entire series on TV called hoarders that addresses this very concept when taken to the extreme end. Just one knife seems too extreme for me. A large insigno is a top contender. spyderco drunken (wish they made it in other steels), and spyderco mule. If I only get one I might want a fixed blade but I'd have to consider which one.
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All that stuff went into small bins and no freaking way will I only own 1 knife or even 5. That wasn't a realistic scenario. I am more curious about it as a mental exercise as I looked at my multiple William Henry, Benchmade, CRK, Endura, Delicate, Dragonfly, Schrade, Buck, etc, not as collected "objects of art" anymore but as users. Most are new in box never carried. So it's time to dispense with that safe queen bullcrap. No offense to others still in that zone. For me at 53, guess I'd write that I need to be over it.

It's 100% true that what was splayed out wasn't actually all that much stuff. The upside of my little project is that I found my brand new EarPods I had misplaced and promptly replaced. They earpieces were in a microfiber bag that was in a drawer between dozens of cables, chargers. Anyone else have 40 pounds of cables? I don't anymore: hdmi, Cat5, fiber optic, RCA patch cables for old school component stereo rack. Dozens of USB-A mini and micro, on and on. How about unknown random DC wall warts. Anyone? An entire bin of just those? Haha.

I tell people who are much older than me that they really need to write down what is a family heirloom. What's valuable. And facetiously what was a .25¢ garage sale piece of junk. Example: my mother had collected a fair amount of Alaskan Native art. She worked at an imaging center in Anchorage and the natives would come in from the villages going door to door with their wares. I'm talking about the real deal: carved polar beer teeth, birch bark baskets, soapstone masks, baleen, scrimshaw, seal skin, beaver hats, and on and on. We had to have an appraiser come to look at the estate. It was a production. Told us what had value and what could be had for chump change. Many parents have amassed similar such collections. How about all the widows that get taken for a ride when the husband dies with a ton of firearms...and knives.
 
MessieurRick said:
Sooo, how long does it take you ta lay all this stuff out?
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Really just minutes. I wanted to get a photo for insurance purposes. And minutes to put back. As you can imagine it just went back to various better organized little bins. Over time I had jumbled up my categories into randomized drawers or bins. So that was another aspect of this little exercise in "silliness". I'm in a 1 bed apartment now so even my extensive kitchen gadgetry goes into Costco bins under the sink. I use a 95/5 rule I think I made up. This is important because I have very little space and tons of items. I'll explain.

My theory is that only 5% of your crap is used 95% of the time. Or 90/10. Pick your own number. It doesn't matter. What I do is deconstruct a drawer or cupboard so that it's empty. Then I only put back what I know I use 95% of the time. I don't let the 5% go back and clutter it. Or cause jamming in a drawer.

I have 2 drawers in my little kitchen. One drawer is only knives, a pizza cutter, a can opener and a peeler. My other drawer is only silverware, measuring cups, small spatulas and a couple other items I use a lot. No jamming possible. I appear to be a minimalist. Far from it. All of the other stuff and there's a ton of it are in bins under the sink. It takes very little time to access on the occasion that I need something. More than if a drawer. But maybe less than if that damned drawer won't open. Or I don't know which drawer. Also I avoid clutter and frustration. I do the same for my cupboards. Only bowls and plates on one shelf. Only glasses and mugs on another. No little items in between.

My bins have all that helpful nonsense like lime and lemon juice squeezer or wooden juicer. Or bamboo sushi rolling mat. All those gadgets.

Lastly I will add a quote: "Nature abhors a vacuum". So it's a regular effort to keep the drawers cleared and over time the 5% of items used 95% of the time may even change. Or I'll keep the sushi mat in the drawer to make 2 days in a row. It's an ongoing effort. And I'm not maniacal about it. It's just something I strive for to keep from dealing with clutter. This may help someone even if you just adapt it to your own technique.
 

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AmericanEDC said:
Really just minutes. I wanted to get a photo for insurance purposes. And minutes to put back. As you can imagine it just went back to various better organized little bins. Over time I had jumbled up my categories into randomized drawers or bins. So that was another aspect of this little exercise in "silliness". I'm in a 1 bed apartment now so even my extensive kitchen gadgetry goes into Costco bins under the sink. I use a 95/5 rule I think I made up. This is important because I have very little space and tons of items. I'll explain.

My theory is that only 5% of your crap is used 95% of the time. Or 90/10. Pick your own number. It doesn't matter. What I do is deconstruct a drawer or cupboard so that it's empty. Then I only put back what I know I use 95% of the time. I don't let the 5% go back and clutter it. Or cause jamming in a drawer.

I have 2 drawers in my little kitchen. One drawer is only knives, a pizza cutter, a can opener and a peeler. My other drawer is only silverware, measuring cups, small spatulas and a couple other items I use a lot. No jamming possible. I appear to be a minimalist. Far from it. All of the other stuff and there's a ton of it are in bins under the sink. It takes very little time to access on the occasion that I need something. More than if a drawer. But maybe less than if that damned drawer won't open. Or I don't know which drawer. Also I avoid clutter and frustration. I do the same for my cupboards. Only bowls and plates on one shelf. Only glasses and mugs on another. No little items in between.

My bins have all that helpful nonsense like lime and lemon juice squeezer or wooden juicer. Or bamboo sushi rolling mat. All those gadgets.

Lastly I will add a quote: "Nature abhors a vacuum". So it's a regular effort to keep the drawers cleared and over time the 5% of items used 95% of the time may even change. Or I'll keep the sushi mat in the drawer to make 2 days in a row. It's an ongoing effort. And I'm not maniacal about it. It's just something I strive for to keep from dealing with clutter. This may help someone even if you just adapt it to your own technique.
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Very impressive. And well organized.
 
dialton said:
I write this because I can totally relate to the difficulty felt when you finally realize that you have 50 knives, 10 ink pens (not counting the 30 cheap or free ones in the cup) way too many of everything and it’s time to slim it down and try to keep what you need, will actually ever use, will absolutely regret letting go of, and not what you have merely accumulated over the years. It’s a difficult process that has one looking into the mirror about who and what you are and likewise want to be going forward. For some, realizing that you have a totally ridiculous pile of “stuff” for one person is enlightening at the least and others don’t think a thing about it. I find it both liberating and difficult at the same time to let go of some things.
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I think about these things too and one conclusion is that I'm overthinking it, and this takes away from the enjoyment of the hobby. The size of the pile of stuff doesn't really matter. Don't fret over whether you have 5 ink pens or 10, a few either way doesn't matter that much. I too try to keep the things that I want and will use, although in some ways "use" may mean just taking them out and looking at them occasionally, or maybe just knowing that they are there and I could do that if I wanted.

BillZee said:
When my stepfather was on hospice care family asked his wishes............
He told us to do whatever we wanted. What he had acquired in his life was for his life and enjoyment.
He said keep what you want, sell or giveaway what you don't and throwaway what you think is junk.
Click to expand...
I realize that situations vary from family to family but I will suggest that for some families this point will be too late. If possible a person's wishes should be more specific and possessions should perhaps be disbursed before this time. I've heard stories of fighting over possessions after a person is gone, or even situations where a mother had certain items of jewelry that the daughters wanted to divide but upon the mother's death it was discovered that all of those items were gone. Family members can become "somewhat dishonest" at times such as that.
 
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I started out with a Buck 110 long before I started collecting.
And I've since acquired many nice knives.

But I still go back to the simple basic design of the 110.
It's done everything I've ever asked of it.

So if I could have only one, I would trust what I know....
The hardest part would be deciding which one.
🤔
 
If I was the one trying to choose "one knife" for myself, I guess it would be a pre-GSM Cold Steel Mini Recon. Spear Point blade, no serrations. Did they even make those with partially serrated blades?

The reason these "one knife"/"three knives"/"five knives" threads are always going in many directions at once has been something I've been wondering about for a long time.

It's a symptom of the fact that we're all enthusiasts. You go to a site for car enthusiasts for example, or HVAC techs, and you'll find people who could go their whole lives with a folding utility knife, and never miss the difference. But, they'll have clear opinions on which car is easiest to work on, or which air conditioner maker they would rather deal with because they use contactors from a certain company, and they almost never fail.

We want variety, and while many of use are chasing "the one", that doesn't mean we'll sell the rest off, if we find it. Some of us either know or have an idea that "the one" doesn't exist, we're still going to try: it's the journey, not the goal.

Quite simply, the reason these threads never reach even a consensus opinion, is because limiting ourselves to one knife, even one knife for each role (however we define those), would be boring.
 
I often think that if I could only have one knife, it would be the 530 (bottom) since it is light enough to carry with any clothes and I love the dagger/bayonet style blade. The Bugout lost something and it doesn’t feel right to me, even though it is more ergonomic and has better steel. The Alias (top) is second; the design just seems perfect to me. I want to try a sebenza again to see if my opinion has changed since I had one more than 10 years ago, and maybe try an umnumzaan some day. Have fun 😄

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