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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   3279 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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What do you carry in your pockets every day?

For me, it used to just be my keys, wallet, and phone. When I started to consider concealed carry, I realized that I had a pocket knife and pepper spray that I never carried around even though it's really not much more cargo than what I already had, and I just need to build the habit. I don't have the pepper spray oriented in a way that makes it very easy to get out and use, but the pocket knife has already been quite useful; at work, cutting off zip ties or opening packages is useful. At July 4th, other people handling the fireworks were asking to borrow my knife quite a lot. The knife you bring with you is a lot handier than the knife you leave at home! Even a dull one.

I also bought an OLight Mini 2 for my keychain. Pretty nice, though I think it's only really come in handy once or twice so far. It seems to be marginally brighter than my phone light, and a lot quicker to bring to bear. It was cheap.

Things I have considered:

  • A telescoping baton. Like the pepper spray, I was considering it for dog defense, mostly, but apparently it's legally questionable to carry one and actually ever use it in a self-defense scenario. I wonder if one would be useful for anything else.
  • A lighter. I don't smoke. When lighting off fireworks for the 4th, I was using someone else's long lighter for lighting grills, and it was very unreliable, bad for what we were trying to do which was synchronize 4 different mortar tubes of fireworks at once. I thought that if I had my own lighter, I could have just used my own and not been as frustrated.
  • A multitool. These are commonly carried, but I don't know if I would use most of the functions or not. Many people swear by them, though.

Does anyone carry a fixed-blade knife instead of a folding one as an EDC?

It might make sense if the plot of land you live on is measured in acres. I don't see how an EDC fixed blade would be useful in a usual urban or suburban environment.

I imagine a fixed-blade knife for rural communities would be something like a Bowie. For urban or suburban, something smaller.

I live on a farm and carry a fixed blade when I'm around the property but it goes back in a tool box when I'm done. Most of my fixed blade knives are marketed as utility or work knives and have plastic somewhat ergomic grips and often chissel ends instead of points though lately I've been using one of the Japanese Hori form knives that double as a passable trowel and have other useful geometries on them. Most of the time its one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092MX1M91

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DN11ZTT3 <- more this one lately

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6WJJWMB - this general price point, about $15, is the sweet spot for a work/utility knife imo. Something you don't intend to be harder on than needed, but thats just the life this knife is going to lead. Walmart occasionally gets decent low end ones in stock too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N44CY0L - I got introduced to these knives through the scuba knife line. Scuba/diver knives are generally batter value for money. Than a lot of the tool-knives in the same range. This company has a decent system of interchangable blades. Once I had the diving knife with the handle geometry I like then you can get new blades for about 65% the cost of an entire knife.)

My everyday carry off the farm is the same keys, wallet, phone with a tiny multitool keychain that seems popular. My only unusual addition is a 4" brass pocket slide ruler for quick dimensional measurements of items in standard sized, like bolt heads and tube ODs etc.

You can often get higher quality carbon steel knives, that you have to maintain yourself to prevent rust, at lower prices than the various stainless variety. Knowing how to sharpen them correctly is also needed to really get value from carbon steel.

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