When your only tool is a hammer: my thought on EDC knives

I’ve read lots of posts about the best knife for EDC.  My personal preference is to select the tool that’s right for the job following the old proverb that if your only tool is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail. 

I was on a forum recently where in the “introduce yourself” thread they suggested you name one thing unique about yourself that folks might not know.  Mine was – I’ve carried a knife every day since the summer that I was 6 years old.  I grew up in a different time.  Boys carried pen knives to school. Heck I remember going hunting at a friend’s house when I as in high school.  I handed my cased shotgun to the bus driver. He gave it back to me when we arrived at school. I carried it into the office where they kept it until it was time to ride my friend’s bus to his house.  Different times……

I walked right past the no-questions-asked barrel when I went into basic training.  There was no way I was going to dump my prized case stockman in there for someone else to have.  Having the only knife in the platoon made me a popular person when we were out in the field.

The Barlow at the top of the picture is the one given to me by my grandfather when I was six.  After pestering him about it for weeks he handed it to me with these words of wisdom, “Don’t do anything stupid.” 

My old Cub Scout knife still finds its way into my pocket when I’m in the office. It’s light and the rounded edges are easy on the pockets.

I bought the “demo” knife when I was in AIT at Fort Gordon. I carried it the entire time I was in the Army and it’s still my go to knife when I just need to have something in my pocket or if I'm working around the house.  If I’m in the woods carrying a belt knife this is the knife that’s in my pocket.

The Schrade titanium replaced the Gerber below it as my Sunday dress knife.

I have worn the A. G. Russell neck knife on the left on all of my trips to Africa, Argentina and anywhere I feel the need to have a little something extra, like DC. The Kershaw assisted opener on the right is my current out in public knife.

Following my EDC principles I always have a knife but I refuse to limit myself to just one.