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I'm seeing Spyderco Military folders and Benchmark 710 as two examples "highly rated" and pricey, as all purpose EDC types? What are your views on this class of knives with BG42 S30V S90V M2, D2 etc?

I don't care for Spyderco and don't know anything about Benchmark. But I have several Benchmade knives and everyone of them is worth the price I have paid for them. I care one everyday and it gets used to do everything from open mail to cleaning fish. I have used them to pry open things (I don't recommend it) and have never had a blade snap on me. I would never hesitate to buy another Benchmade.

For all purpose, every day carry, nothing, in my opinion, beats a 3-blade medium (under 4") stockman. If I needed/wanted to purchase a new one today, I'd go straight to Canal Street Cutlery.

+1

Buck, Case and Gerber folders haven`t impressed me too much for some time. The last friction lock Case I played with had 1/8" play in the blade when open.

I flunked typing. I meant it to be Benchmade. There is a model 710 4" folder with a M2HS plain edge tool steel blade at my dealer. Scary sharp and seems very rugged and well made.

Is it a single blade? Seems silly to me to consider a single blade folder for regular carry. The typical stockman pattern which includes clip, spey, and sheepsfoot blades will do so much more than a single blade knife. Go with a Canal Street medium stockman.

The 710 was voted one of the top 10 folders of all time - and deservedly so. I have then in ATS-34, 154CM, M2 and D2.

My favorite little portable fish knife is a 710 in 154 CM with the blade reground to a fillet profile (flattened and the recurve straightened. It's crazy good.

If you don't buy the M2 one (discontinued) PM me and I will...

I have never found a need for multi-blade pocket knives. I buy my knives with blade designs I can use. My Benchmades have done every task they have ever been put up to doing and have done it very well. They are used to do the jobs I wouldn't let me hunting or fishing knives do.

For every day carry, I find a Case Sodbuster Jr. in C.V. steel hard to beat. If you need more than 1 blade, a Case Slimline Trapper is a pretty handy pattern.

Are you saying that you only carry one knife at a time?

Dude, ...

That's just silly.

Yep....My regular carry pocket knife is a 3-blade medium stockman. What do you find silly about that?

That same knife goes with me when I'm hunting or fishing, along with the appropriate belt knife. I suppose that's silly, too.

Almost always, the knives I carry are factory knives...not custom knives. More silly stuff, huh?

Silly, silly, silly.

You're just silly if you don't agree with me.

Do it my way, you silly man. I have it all figured out.

At first, I just thought you were odd. Now, I think you are a jerk. Why try to disrupt a thread when you have nothing to contribute?

Darn.

I'll just go with a Canal Street medium stockman, and shut up.

Well since it was voted in the top 10, I couldn't say no. I like it's construction with zero play in the action and roller lockup. AND the M2 blade.

The Benchmade Axis Lock is a really smooth and solid lock. I have several Axis Lock knives and have never had any trouble with them. I also have several Benchmade M2 blades and really like the properties of that steel. In fact, I think it is a shame they dropped M2 from their line. I think you will enjoy the 710 Benchmade, though it isn't a small knife by any means.

I have two knives I call my EDC but then obviously it can't truely be every day. Of late I've more commonly carried my Chris Reeves Mnundi, a single blade folder. I haven't come across a situation where the one blade didn't meet my needs. An old Stockman was carried earlier but it found it's way out of my pocket. I don't recall using the smaller blades very often and in my humble opinion believe I'm better off with a single blade knife, they're thinner and lighter. Of course while hunting I always have a minimum of two knives.

I had been carrying a Piranha automatic but find the Mnundi to be more "appropriate" for an office knife.

I've been carrying my little Gerber LST for about 15 years now attached to my keychain. Cut the head off'n a grizzly bar with it last year.*



Seriously, it's no super knife with mystical steel that never needs sharpening, just a good everyday knife. Mostly a letter opener, box opener, string cutter and so forth - recently I've cut my dogs antibiotic pills in half with it by laying the blade on the pill and tapping the spine with a hammer.

Every few months I actually have to touch up the blade, that takes all of about 10 seconds on my old Gerber steel. And once a year I take my Lansky to it for a three minute full sharpening whether it needs it or not.

If I need a bigger knife then, like most of you, there's about 15 other knives around the house (not counting kitchen knives) that could perform the more demanding tasks.

Mostly it's light and unobtrusive and always with me, just like my little Kel-Tec mouse gun. Come to think of it, if I ever shot a mouse this Gerber would be the perfect tool for dressing out the little varmint.




(* Not knocking the fine knives mentioned here, but I think that, like rifles, we tend to get more knife than we really need. I actually did cut up an entire whitetail - gutted, skinned and dismembered - with my Buck Stockman pocket knife. That was in Alabama around 1978. The deer hunt was on a friend's farm and a real spur of the moment thing and I was the only one with any kind of knife.)

I use a Mission Knives titanium folder. It was pricey but I like it and you don't see many of them around. It has a drop point blade, not the tanto (which I don't care for). It's just about indestructable and not too heavy.

Must disagree: The Turkish clip...sheepfoot...and spey blades on my stockman will do things no single blade knife can do...can do well, that is.

Another thought: Back when I was teaching Outdoor Survival Skills, I included a knife in my recommended "pocket gear". Since a sharp knife if the best knife, I suggested to my students that a knife with multiple (no more than 3) sharp blades was superior to a single sharp blade. The three-blade stockman is quite like carrying three knives.

Keep 'em sharp.
GPA