What’s your EDC?

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What’s an EDC, you ask?

EDC is an initialism for Every Day Carry. If you’re anything like me, you’ve carried a knife on you at all times since you were a boy. If you’re not like me, since you were some other kind of small child. See what I did there? There was a span of a few years when I didn’t have a pocket knife, and I felt like something was missing in my life. I felt naked, alone, and under prepared. It was when I realized that I absolutely hated searching high and low for something to cut a tag off a new t-shirt that it dawned on me. There’s a tool for every job, my father always told me, and the tool for this job was missing.

I immediately set out on a quest for knowledge. The type of quest that led to blog post after blog post, and from one e-commerce site to the next. Reading reviews, learning all I could about the various types of steel that pocket knife blades are made of, which knife companies are in the US or abroad, and any other information I could glean from the internet. After much research my decision was made. I would buy a Benchmade, and it would change my life.

There are more uses than you can imagine

Even as I write this I struggle to think of all the ways I use my pocket knife every day. There’s always something, from opening a bag of peanuts, to slicing an apple in to bite-sized pieces during my lunch break (you should use a food grade cleaner/lubricant on your blade if you plan to do this). The fact is, I never leave home without it unless I’m heading to the airport for travel, and I use it every single day.

Here are some things to consider not using your knife for.

• Prying: Don’t use your knife to pry things open/apart
• Turning screws: It’s not a screwdriver. Using it as such may very well ruin the tip of the blade.
• Intimidating an enemy with a gun: Never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Steel

My Benchmade, the 940 Osborne, has a blade made of S30V steel. There’s a nice article on knifeinformer.com about knife steel that sums things up nicely. The thing I’ve noticed about the S30V is that it’s difficult to sharpen. I use a system by Lansky to sharpen my knives, which many people might consider cheating, but I really don’t care. It’s a great system and gets my blades very sharp without too much fuss.

The other knife pictured is a Boker and features VG-10 steel. VG-10 is a cutlery grade steel, sharpens relatively easily, and holds an edge well. I actually carry the Boker more frequently than the Benchmade because it’s slightly more unassuming with a pair of slacks and weighs a bit less. Benchmade does make a version of the 940 Osborne with a carbon-fiber handle, though. It’s just more $$$.

How do I choose my own EDC?

The knife you choose to be your every day carry is an important decision. You should choose a knife that is lightweight and small. It should also clip on the inside of your pocket. One thing to consider that you perhaps haven’t thought about is the orientation of the clip. Do you want the blade to be pointing up or down in your pocket? Some knives have a reversible clip so you can choose. With my benchmade, the blade is pointing up. When I pull the knife from my pocket and flip the blade out, I can do it in one continuous motion and be ready for anything. If the blade was pointing down I couldn’t flip it out as easily. Food for thought.