Comparing EDC Knives After 2 Years Using Them

How's it going, my friends

Over two years ago, I made a video comparing six of these everyday carry pocket knives

In that video, I went into a lot of depth on each of these pocket knives and I did some testing

sort of to see how they would perform out of the box. Now, out of the box, they all had factory sharpness, but I did some testing to try to dull the blade a little bit and then see how well they would cut

And they all performed pretty well, which was really cool. But here's the thing

For more than two years now, probably more like two of the two of them. and a half to three years, I've been using these pocket knives. I've been owning them. And I wanted

to give an update about sort of the usability of these specific knives, but also what features

and what aspects of these knives made them better or worse everyday carry knives for me

So that's my goal here is to help you pick the right knife for you, not even necessarily

from any one of these, but just to know what you should look for

So, let's go into those features. The most important thing for me is just the usability of the knife

Is this knife going to be one that gets in my way most of the time so I don't have a tendency

to keep it in my pocket, or is it a knife that it's just nice, it's there, it's smooth

it's not in the way all the time. And so for that reason, I'm just always going to have it with me

So I want to point out a few specific knives here and the things about them that make

them better or worse. I'll talk about the better. Okay? This knife right here. This knife is made by

bench made. It's the bench made bug out. Really, really popular knife. This is an expensive pocket

knife. It costs around $200 depending where you buy it. I will link to each one of these

knives in the description as well as in a comment below. In case you want to go actually look them up

and see them in more detail. But talking specifically about sort of the carry, this knife weighs about

53 grams. Now just for comparison sake that makes us about 45% lighter, just over half the weight

of the average of all of the knives on this table. There are a couple here that are kind of

heavy that pull that average up, but the average of the knives on this table was about 98 grams

This is just a little over half of that. So it's very light. But also it's pretty thin. It's just

over 8% thinner than the average of all of these knives on this table, as well as almost

9% narrower this way. Now, the reason that that matters for me is I typically carry my pocket

knives here. And with a pocket knife right there, it's important that I'm able to easily

slide my hand past it without it being in the way. These jeans aren't even particularly loose

And so if it's big and bulky, that's going to block my hand every time I go in to get my keys

And if I'm honest, I pull my keys out a lot more often than I pull out the knife. And so

if it's in the way, that's a problem. You kind of get used to it, but I want to compare that to

this knife. This is SOG, this is a spec arc, this exact knife, it's, you can't even

hardly find it anymore. So right now, the closest one I can find on Amazon is about $188. But this

one is the thickest knife of all the ones here on the table. In fact, it's 32% thicker than

the average at just under, barely under 0.6 inches. So it's more than half an inch thick, which means that

When I put it in my pocket, it sticks out more this way. Now this direction, it's not the widest

and that's another thing that tends to get in the way with the whole like sliding your hand in your pocket

So I'm gonna point out the issue with this one. This is the Spider-Co Paramilitary 2

Awesome knife, great knife, but look at how big that blade is, how wide it is

It's kind of cool. I mean, it gives me that little assist there

sort of for flicking it out. Instead of like a thumb stud, it just has that little hole

Kind of cool, right? But that makes it extra wide and makes it stick out this way. And this also

not being particularly thin at about 0.46 inches, so less than half an inch in this case

But with how wide it is, again, when I slide it in my pocket, my hand tends to hit it a lot more

when I'm trying to reach in and grab my keys. Also, just, again, the overall size being

this big. For an everyday carry in my pocket, I kind of want to minimize how much stuff. I don't

like having my pockets full of a bunch of stuff. And so these large, or bulkier knives are just not my preference. Doesn't mean they're not a great pocket

knife. This is an awesome pocket knife. But for my everyday carry, that is actually less of

a preference. So, who wins when it comes to being the best carryability-wise? I really love

this bench-made bug out. Now, carryability is probably the biggest deciding factor for me over

all of the other ones I'm about to talk about just because it just determines whether or not I'm

actually going to put it in my pocket in the morning. But it's not the only factor that I think

you should consider. There are definitely some other things. One of the next things that I consider

is just the blade type. One thing that I love with this particular knife again, and by the way

this probably isn't going to be the number one recommendation. It just has some really good

things that I like about it that we're covering early in the video. But I do like serration

It does make it a lot easier to cut some things like a little piece of rope or something in a single pass

So I like the mixed blade where I have some serration as well as some straight blade

But it's not a deal breaker for me. In fact, it's the only one on the table here with any serration

So that's one thing I like. I also like the drop point knife. This here is the bench made bailout

So also made by bench made and the most expensive knife here on the table

This is a Tonto style blade. Tonto blades, the specific reason for them is for piercing. It's a really great blade for that

In fact, that's why samurai swords you have the Tonto blade. It also looks really cool

But I find I not really using that tip very often right That little section right there And so the standard drop point is just a better fit for the usability of the day everyday carry knife Some of these other knives including the paramilitary tube by Spider as well as really

a few of these others, this one, I mean, this one's definitely a drop point, but I would say

the paramilitary two and the SOG spec arc, you can see that even though the overall shape

like of the SOG is probably fits under a drop point, they come to a much sharper

point. And because of that, I definitely do have concerns with using them for things other than

just cutting. When we're talking about an everyday carry knife, oftentimes there are many

other uses that we're going to use that knife for. Sometimes it's a screwdriver, right? Sometimes it's

a little pry bar and we just get the tip in there and pry something out. With a really

really fine point, I'm going to be a lot more likely to break off that tip. Now, these knives in

particular do have a better blade with better hardness than some of these other ones

ones, but harder isn't always better when it comes to breaking. Sometimes harder also means more

brittle. In fact, it usually does. So, again, when it comes to an everyday carry knife, I really

like the drop point. It's kind of just the best overall versatile shape for a knife blade

The next thing I would talk about is just probably the opening as well as the locking mechanism

So, let's go to the bench made bailout. The locking mechanism as well as the opening sort

of assist mechanism is right there. It's this little thing here. I have to pull it down and

that allows me to close it. Also when opening it, if I pull it down, you'll probably notice

oh, maybe not. It did it a lot more. I can barely see it there. It kind of pushes the blade

out a little bit. So if I tried to fling it right now, it doesn't come out. If I pull that

down and then flick it, it comes right out. So it makes it really easy to open. It does have this

little tiny thumb stud as well, which I can use. I don't like those as much. I have actually

cut my finger pressing against it like that. A lot of us have done that flicking around knives

It works just fine. It has a great action. This is a really, really good knife. It's part of why

it's so expensive. But I do like this as a locking mechanism. It's been really cool

Another cool thing I do like, we're talking other features real quick, is this does have the little glass break. So it works well if like you get trapped in your car and you need to break the glass or you need to break into a car. You know, like to save a kid that's stuck inside of a car. I'm not talking about breaking into other people's cars to steal stuff. That's not what we do here. But if you did need to break into a get into a car or something like that, this has that. Maybe you could argue that it's not necessary that a lot of these have a fine enough point. But it just has

that little fine tip that's just made for that and it's perfect. Other locking

neck mechanisms that are common on knives, most of these here, again, I keep

kind of grabbing these ones at the upper end, but most of these, the locking mechanism

is this kind of standard spring right here. It's just, it's in the way, right? When it comes

out, it's a, it's a little spring that pops out into place so that the blade

can't close. Having a locking blade is incredibly useful on an everyday carry

knife. So I do think that that's probably maybe a must have. You can get by without it, but for me on an

everyday carry knife, it's something that I really want to have. But it's pretty standard. You can

pretty easily just close it just like that. I like it on the back. Now, some of these also have

the spring, but it's on the front. That's also incredibly common. So, here's an example of that

This is the Savivis Elementum. I think it's the Elementum 2. Great knife as well as

being an incredibly good knife for the price. We're going to talk about price here in just a few minutes

For locking, I don't love it being in the front as much because I have to close the blade onto it

So while I can unlock it and then easily move my hand out of the way, it's just that I literally have to put my finger in the path of the blade

in order to close it. So if I have a choice, I prefer it to be on the back

or to be one of these other locking mechanism types. The open mechanism on this one

it's another really good one and a fairly common one, is to have a little assist on the back

This is, again, it's part of that blade. It's part of, but it's obviously not sharp

And it's on the back. And it allows me to just flick it with my finger. I like that a lot

There's no need to use my hand, do any sort of flicking motion

where I might lose it. Just very simple, just pushing on it

There's not a spring in here to assist, so it's not a mechanical assist

but it just has that little lever on the back. Other cool things, most of these knives

all of them, have a cross. clip so that they call that it's a deep pocket clip. What that allows you to do is put this in a

pocket that's deeper than the length of the knife, but have it stay at the top of the pocket

And so that's great for that. It's a little clip for that purpose. Again, that's really common

on this style of knife. This one, as well as a couple of the other ones, also have ways that you

could hook through some sort of a string or a lanyard if you wanted to. That one has it. That one has it

That one does have a hole. You could get that through. That one has it. This one has it. This one

This one's made by Gerber. This one here has it, but it's different

There's that spot here where a screw attaches through. It's also meant literally just to be a place where you could run a lanyard through

and literally hang on to it from there. So that works great

So all of these have that too. It's not a use case that I typically use, but it could be really nice for certain situations

For an everyday carry scenario, it's not typically something I'm worried about. All right

So we've talked a lot about the source. size, the bulkiness. When it comes to the rest of kind of the form factor, these all have

blades that are close to the same size, with one major exception. This one by SOG, the spec

arc. It does have a much longer blade. This is a full four inches. The rest of these come in at

about three and a half, either just under, just over three and a half inches. So, no matter

kind of how big or how small I mean you look at these two and this is a substantially larger form factor to fit in my pocket But when you look at how long the blade is how much usable blade space if I line these up right here they are

incredibly similar. And so, again, maybe depending on what your everyday use case is and why you

why you're carrying a knife, that might impact sort of how much handle you want. For me, for my

everyday use, I kind of want something small and manageable, but you might want something different

What I'm hoping here is that by going through these things, you're thinking about what use cases are important to you and what you would look for in a knife, because what you need for your everyday carry is probably a little different than what I need

The other exception, kind of the other extreme, is this one. The Savidi Elementum 2

It's a fairly compact knife. Lengthwise, it's shorter than most. It's also got the shortest blade at just right at about three inches

All of them are three and a half within an eighth of an inch, with the exception of the spec arc and the

Savivi Elementum too. Next we've got to talk a little bit about materials and sort of how

that impacts, how valuable this knife might be to you and how much it's maybe worth paying for it

Some of these knives are made out of really good high-end materials. Both of these bench-made

knives, they're made out of different steels. This is made out of M4 steel. It's a high-grade

tool steel very, very hard. It makes it so that it holds its edge really well. I, like

basically never sharpen this knife. But when you do need to sharpen it

Prepare to spend some time on it because you're not going to take a whole lot of material off with every pass on a wet stone, right

And so this is probably the type of knife where when it's time to sharpen it, you might take it in somewhere and have them just sharpen it

Just because then it's going to be a really perfect blade again and last you a long time being a very perfect blade

This handle in this case is made out of aluminum. It makes it really light, but also durable

A lot of these other knives, the handles are also quite light, but almost none of them are made out of actual metal

So that's something to keep in mind. This one is, it's aluminum, and that's part of, again, why the price point is where it is

These two knives, the Spider-Comperimilitary 2, as well as the bench-made bugout, they're both made of S-30V steel

which is another really good, very hard, a hardened, very corrosion-resistant stainless steel

It's not quite M4 when it comes to sort of the quality and the price point, which is why these are

able to cost a little bit less. The handle for this one from SpiderCo as well as, let me double check here, the SOG spec arc

this one over here. This is the Gerber Fuse and the Savivi Elementum

These are all made from a laminated thermoplastic, basically. They're not necessarily all the exact same one, but really, really similar

They're essentially made from like a glass woven material with a pot

and then it's layered. And that makes them really durable and hard and strong

They're a composite material, but it also makes them much lighter than most metals

For comparison, this knife right here, this is made by Kershaw, this is on the low end in terms of price point

The entire handle is just made out of steel. And this knife is substantially heavier

than every other knife on the table. The fog spec arc is reasonably close

but that's partly just because it's so big and has so much material. So this knife weighs 163 grams

which is more than double what the bench made bug out weighs and is 66.5% heavier than the

average of all the other knives on the table, including this one. So this is the only other one

here that's made out of entirely out of metal other than this one, but it's a much less expensive

metal. This one here, the Savivae Elementum, while most of the handle is made out of that

glass laminated plastic, thermoplastic, it also does have these steel plates on the inside, which helps with making this a very, very rigid connection

There's like no give in it. It's awesome. And several of these knives do have that to some extent

Some of them don't extend the entire length of the handle, just a little ways down

But this one, it does. So the average weight for these knives is about 98 grams. Just something

to keep in mind. You might look at that and be like, well, even like 200 grams, it's just not that

heavy. You're right, it's not. But when you compare this bench made bug out to this Kershaw

cryo 2, it's just so much heavier and this feels much bigger, heavier, and clunkier in my

pocket compared to this one. Coming back to blade materials, this one by SOG, the SOG spec arc is made

out of VG10 steel. It's another hardened tool steel. This one here is made out of D2 steel. It's the

only one here on the table here, but that's a really common knife steel. And it's a decent one. Again

not M4 steel, but it's a good hard and stainless steel, it's good corrosion resistance

but this is a much more common knife steel, something that you're gonna see fairly often

It's a knife that you're gonna be able to use, not worry about dinging up every now and then

because you're just gonna sharpen it up again and not a big deal. Then you have these two here on the end

They're on this end because they are the lowest price, but this Kirschaw-Kryo 2

and Kershaw makes some great knives, this isn't about the brand, but the Kershaw-Kri-O-2

and then here's the Gerber fuse. They're both made out of a much more standard stainless steel blade

This is so much lighter steel than this, or so much lighter overall than this one

But they're made out of a much more standard stainless steel. Now, this one does have an oxide coating

that just helps a little bit with protecting the metal from corrosion

This one is obviously has kind of this black finish on it as well

for probably the very same reason. It also kind of looks cool. So I hope that that's giving you a bit of a feel

for what sort of different things you might want to look for in an everyday carry knife

I do want to talk about one more thing, and it's a really important one for a lot of people

and that's the price point. I had to add this one to the mix because my brother brought it to me

He did a bunch of shopping around and looking to get exactly the knife he wanted at a good price point

This is made by Gerber Like I said it the Gerber fuse The handle material is made very similarly to a lot of these knives It not aluminum right But it made out of that glass laminated thermoplastic here It does have the steel plates on the two sides on the inside

which helps a little bit with rigidity here. There's a little bit of wiggle there. But they extend, and they kind of narrow

but they extend down to about here. And then it's mostly that kind of rigid thermoplastic

It has the clip. It's got the basics of everything you would need. But here's the deal

This currently at the moment of recording this, prices are always changing, but this currently costs $31 on Amazon. Whereas, again, at the time

of recording this, this costs $270 on Amazon. So, here's my final recommendation for you

when it comes to picking an everyday carry knife. Before I reveal to you what I actually choose

to carry on a regular basis from this list, I would probably pick a knife on the low end on

the cost spectrum, but that has the features that you want that you can use and abuse for a while

before you ever consider spending upwards of $100 on a pocket knife

Because you may find that it's something you don't want. A lot of people get this knife and then they say they love it, but what they don't realize

is they could be carrying something a lot less clunky and as a result of its size

clunky, I'm referring to, it's just size and overall bulk. But as a result of it, they may not realize that they may be choosing to not carry it with

them a lot of the time simply because it's so big, heavy, and bulky

The same for this one. If I'm going to reveal to you what I actually carry from this list

this little knife never makes the cut. This is a knife I might carry with me, but not so much like in my pocket

Maybe if I have like extra pockets or something. But this, I'm not going to carry in the same pocket with my keys on a regular basis

Likewise, the Spider-Coe paramilitary 2, it never makes the cut for me. I never choose this knife to put in my pocket

when I have these other ones. Again, it's just so big. This one, the Kershaw Cryo 2, does not make the cut for me to put that

in my pocket as an everyday carry. It's a very inexpensive knife for this list. It's very, very

similar in price to these others. These two down here, all three of these actually are right

around the same price point in the 30 to 40 dollar range depending on the day. But this one is

substantially heavier as well as just bigger. I don't get more blade. I don't get more usable

blade. I just get more size when I use this knife compared to these other ones. That leaves these

four. Now, again, to be fair, this one hasn't been on my list for the last two and a half years

because I didn't own it. This is my brother's knife. But this one, just like these other ones

is one that I could definitely carry on a daily basis. It's light, and the size is very

comfortable. These are all of the reasons why he chose to buy this knife. This one makes the cut

These other three knives are the knives that just like, if I talk about a dedicated pocket

knife, these are the knives that make the cut. These are the ones that I tend to rotate through

This one I often carry and use quite a bit in large part because it wasn't super expensive

which means I can use it and abuse it and not be that worried about what happens if I have to

replace it because it got lost or it just got damaged beyond repair. These other two knives

are so much more expensive that I'm probably not going to use them as a screwdriver or as a

pry bar. I'm probably only going to use them as a knife. I do. I do

often carry both of these two knives. This one probably gets carried the most in large part because

I like the idea of having this. I've never had to use it, but I like the idea of having it. So

it ends up in my pocket a lot. But this one is by far. It's just, it's the lightest and it's

the most convenient. And I do love the serration. So this one makes it into my pocket a lot too

But you know what I tend to carry the most for my everyday carry is actually none of these. And the

reason for that is that I often have a need for something that's not just a knife. And that's why

what's in my pocket right now and what's in my pocket almost every day is actually a small

multi-tool. Not a full-size multi-tool again because of the size problems. This is a Leatherman

Juice S2. They don't make it anymore, unfortunately, but I'm going to find one that's very similar

to it to let you guys know about because I love this knife. I like the tools that are in it. I use

pliers a lot, probably more than I should. I use them a lot. I'm often using the little screwdriver

Like I said, a lot of times you need your pocket knife as a screwdriver. Well, guess what? I have

screwdrivers. I even have a Phillips, which means I don't have to ruin a knife blade to use this

I also often find myself not as much using the bottle opener as using the little scissors

Sometimes it's incredibly handy just to have this little pair of scissors. And then, of course

it has a knife. This knife is nothing like the blades I get on any of these others

but it's enough for what I need for the most part in my everyday carry. Not as much when I go camping

but for my everyday carry, this does everything I needed to do. The other thing with this knife

is while it does not have a clip for a deep pocket carry, the size is just perfect for if you

have like a fifth pocket in your jeans. It's a great size for fitting right there, slides right in

and then it's actually completely out of the way when I need to get the keys out of my pocket

So for me, it makes a great everyday carry knife. But that's not the same for everybody

In fact, my brother who carries this knife told me the exact opposite

He has very little use for a daily, everyday carry multi-tool. So he prefers to carry just a plain knife

Think about what you want to carry. Do some shopping around. Look for the features that are going to be just right for you

I hope this video helped you to maybe think through what some of the. those might be. And I hope to see you in our next video. Again, if you want to see any of these

specific knives, go look at how much they cost now or just look at the specific features. I will

make sure that I put links to them in this video. We'll see you all next time