LawDog put up a good post yesterday about his “pocket litter”. I was thinking about writing a comment there, but then I decided: I have a perfectly good blog of my own, why bogart his?
To be clear, I don’t have any issue with what LawDog says. I just thought I’d provide a different perspective. LawDog and I are two different people, with different use cases and different life experiences. What works for him may not work for me, and vice versa.
I’m a two knife man. For a long time, I’ve carried a Swiss Army Champ in my left front pants pocket with my keys. Still do, six days out of seven. I like the utility of it, but I wouldn’t use it for defense except in an extreme case. (When I’m wearing my Sunday clothes, I carry a smaller Swiss Army knife. If I’m wearing a suit and tie, I have a Benchmade (I think) penknife that I bought at a fun show because I liked the way it looked. It seemed suitably dressy.)
I’ve dabbled with various larger knives for “defense”. For a while, I carried a Spyderco Civilian for that purpose. But I came close to losing it a few times, and I don’t want to lose a $400 knife. I’m the kind of person who loses things, so I like my stuff to work and not break the bank. I have another Spyderco locking blade that I picked up for $20 at the Texas State Surplus Store, and I sometimes pack that in my checked bag when I fly. (My other choice for a disposable travel folder is a Buck 110.)
For some reason, though, pocket clips don’t work for me. What I have found is the KA-BAR TDI Law Enforcement Knife. It is a fixed blade, so I don’t have to worry about deploying it under stress (as LawDog says in the comments, “Grab, yank, shank”), it is small enough not to be intimidating (I don’t think most people even notice I’m carrying unless I whip it out) but it is large enough to be useful. I pull mine out at least once a day, sometimes five or six times, to open packages, break down boxes for the trash, and do everything else you’d do with a knife.
I bought this at the recommendation of Greg Ellifritz, and I don’t regret it. For my use case, this is just about perfect. (The price has gone up considerably since I bought mine. Alas.) I still accumulate knives (and will continue to do so), but the KA-BAR is the most useful one I have.
For flashlights, I’ve kind of touched on this before. I carry a Streamlight Pocket Mate on my keychain. It is always with me, doesn’t take up a lot of space, is surprisingly bright for the size, and doesn’t go through batteries.
I get LawDog’s point about rechargeables being down until you can recharge them. I have multiple AAA and AA pocket flashlights (and, like knives, will accumulate more). I even deploy them sometimes. (My AAA Olight is handy to slip in a suit pocket, when I don’t want to carry my keys because they spoil the clean lines of my suit.) For my use case, though, I top up the Pocket Mate when I think about it, and it generally gives me some warning that I need to plug it in before it goes dead. If I was really worried, I’d buy a second one and rotate them: they are that cheap.
There are recommendations for the Streamlight Wedge and Wedge XT in the article and comments. I have a Wedge as well, but I use it as either my bedside “things that go bump in the night” light, or as my hotel/motel/Holiday Inn “things that etc.” light.
I have carried a Zippo, off and on (“carry something to make light and something to make fire”), but I’m not doing so right now. I don’t smoke, but I will slip the Zippo into my pocket if I’m doing stuff outside.
So that’s my current practice. Feel free to drop yours (and your recommendations) in the comments.
