How many of you carry tactical knives while carrying your firearm?

EDC is a Spyderco Dragonfly in VG10. Its small and wont scare the sheep in the office. Weekends I might carry a Spyderco Delica or a Kershaw blur (non tanto) or my ESEE Izula II.
 
While I range from Emerson, to a Spyderco Endura, ZT350, etc etc. I like to keep one of the KA-Bar TDI knives on me. It's solid and won't break the bank. Plus it's designed for weapon retention.

http://www.kabar.com/knives/detail/76

I wear mine at 10 o'clock and if needed draw onto someone with my left hand and bring it across to my right. They come in serrated, non serrated short and long, plus it's a fixed blade. The sheath snugs up good onto my belt and a loose shirt covers it.
 
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I never go anywhere without a pocket knife. Right now I'm carrying a Spyderco. I started carrying one all the time about two years ago and I don't know how I got by so long without it. I use it for everything.
 
I carry a SOG Pentagon Elite (have 2 of them) and have been carrying one or both for probably near 10 years now. I often carry a S&W in my left pocket and the SOG PE in my right. Always have my side arm as well (when not in the office).
 
scatter said:
Hallelujah, another Benchmade guy finally. How do you like the Barrage? Seems kind of heavy and clunky to me. I've looked at it several times and never pulled the trigger.
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The barrage is fantastic! It disappears in your pocket and is very fast on the draw. Feels solid and is a scalpel out of the box. I have the 581. My manix II actually feels heavier than the barrage does. Almost all the knife guys i know own at least one barrage.
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I carry two knives daily - either a swiss army pioneer or farmer - and some sort of one handed folder. I am partial to Benchmade and Spyderco, with Kershaw being the close 3rd. For instance, today it was a Benchmade 710. Yesterday, a Spyderco Para-Military.
 
I always carry a knife ...
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I usually have 2 or more knives in my truck. I keep several in my nightstand. I always have at least 1 in my leather jacket when on my bike. I don't always have a "tactical" or defensive knife on me but when I do carry a knife I usually have more than one. I like cheap knives that I won't cry over if one is confiscated or one needs to mysteriously experiece a boating accident. I like the zytel knives...completely non metal. Hey, it's my letter opener man! I even have a completely plastic folder. They do hold a decent edge and are plenty strong enough to plunge into a pork loin.
 
My new carry folder is a Zero Tolerance 0350TS Spring Assisted 3.25inch blade. The blade has black and grey stripes which look very cool. I'm pretty psyched.
 
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I always carry a knife, more as a general purpose tool but always one that's capable of defensive use. Right now it's the HK Vex Tanto, before that it was the CRKT Crawford-Kasper mini.
 
RobertPaulson said:
as a side note while looking through some other threads I came across this http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section10
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This is classic legalese. The way I read this, all of the weapons listed are illegal to carry unless you are carrying them legally.

I would almost like to be arrested for carrying a manrikiguisari just for the media attention and getting to watch the news crew trying to explain for the TV audience what the hell a manrikiquisari is. "The suspect was allegedly carrying a long chain thingie with a weight on one end, a stylized blade on the other end, wore a funny hat, and had a monkey on his shoulder. Police allege the suspect's monkey would taunt people into starting fights with him, at which point he would tip his hat forward so you could not see his eyes, and then swing his manrikiguisari menacingly."

Good thread, though. There are a lot of good suggestions on knives. I've always been a utility knife guy; I prefer the Leatherman Wave for overall durability and function, but some of these folders seem nice. It looks like you can get the CRKT M16 on Amazon for $18, but some of the reviews say it doesn't hold an edge very well*. I wouldn't want to defend myself with a Leatherman, (at least as a first choice) but the blades stand up to being dragged againt concrete (while cutting boxes, etc) pretty well.

*The biggest problem with Amazon reviews like this is that you don't know if they mean relative to another $20 knife or relative to a $350 knife, and you don't know what kind of abuse the blade is taking. I find it hard to think that a blade would lose it's edge quickly cutting a few cardboard boxes, but that is based more on experience than metallurgical expertise.
 
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Rider said:
This is classic legalese. The way I read this, all of the weapons listed are illegal to carry unless you are carrying them legally.

I would almost like to be arrested for carrying a manrikiguisari just for the media attention and getting to watch the news crew trying to explain for the TV audience what the hell a manrikiquisari is. "The suspect was allegedly carrying a long chain thingie with a weight on one end, a stylized blade on the other end, wore a funny hat, and had a monkey on his shoulder. Police allege the suspect's monkey would taunt people into starting fights with him, at which point he would tip his hat forward so you could not see his eyes, and then swing his manrikiguisari menacingly."

Good thread, though. There are a lot of good suggestions on knives. I've always been a utility knife guy; I prefer the Leatherman Wave for overall durability and function, but some of these folders seem nice. It looks like you can get the CRKT M16 on Amazon for $18, but some of the reviews say it doesn't hold an edge very well*. I wouldn't want to defend myself with a Leatherman, (at least as a first choice) but the blades stand up to being dragged againt concrete (while cutting boxes, etc) pretty well.

*The biggest problem with Amazon reviews like this is that you don't know if they mean relative to another $20 knife or relative to a $350 knife, and you don't know what kind of abuse the blade is taking. I find it hard to think that a blade would lose it's edge quickly cutting a few cardboard boxes, but that is based more on experience than metallurgical expertise.
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Ive been carrying the CRKT M16 of different variations for years, ive never bothered to sharpen any of them because ive never felt the need, its plenty sharp.
 
When I first started carrying a knife daily, I had a CRKT M16, then a Kershaw Chive. The safety on the Chive broke, and the thing would easily open in my pocked. Replaced it with a *had* a SOG Twitch that I really liked. Dulled quickly, but sharpened quickly as well. That went missing a couple of weeks ago after about 2 years of use. [sad]

Looking at options to replace it with at the moment. Was thinking of a Twitch II for a little bit bigger blade, but while I loved the utility of the safety switch and the lock mechanism on the Twitch, I'm contemplating going to something either spring assisted with no "kick" (i.e.: CRKT M4-02) or something unassisted with a kick (i.e.: CRKT M16).
 
spider murphy said:
I usually rotate through a small selection of sport utility knives(hate the term tactical), mostly Spyderco and benchmade. I don't carry a knife for self defense purposes though, especially a folder. I suppose I mostly carry a knife out of habit, as I don't really need one daily. As far as assisted opening goes, I have owned a few and they were fun, but I tend to view them as a gimmick. Most modern one handed openers are just as quick opening, so I don't see the need for spring assist. More parts, more potential for failure.
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I have to disagree with your opinion on the spring assist being more prone to failure just because of the extra part (spring). I have daily carried, and used them for at least 10-15 years now, with the Kershaw versions being my favorite. Have never had a single failure of any kind, and even if it did, it would still operate exactly like any non-assisted one hand opener, so I'm not sure why you would feel it was more prone to failure.

As to the original question... like others in this thread, I ALWAYS carry a knife whether I have a firearm, or not. I look at a knife as being muliti purpose, so if it needs to be deployed for "tactical" reasons, then so be it. For the most part, it is there for opening packages, or any general cutting tasks that I may need, and there is scarcely a single day when I don't pull it out for something. Because of this, there is no reason I would NOT carry it just because I have a firearm, since it's primary function to me is not for combat, or defensive purposes, although it is nice to always know you have something other than your hands/feet if needed.[wink]
 
Terminator03 said:
Have never had a single failure of any kind, and even if it did, it would still operate exactly like any non-assisted one hand opener, so I'm not sure why you would feel it was more prone to failure.
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I've never personally had a spring assist fail but am a member of a few knife centric forums and have heard of quite a few instances of assist failures over the years. One reason I'm not a fan of spring assist is that they do not tolerate debris as well as a simple framelock and will fail to operate correctly until thoroughly cleaned. Failure does not always involve a broken mechanism. As far as breakages go, on some assist knives, a broken torsion bar or spring will result in no bias towards closure. Kershaw uses mostly frame and liner locks with ceramic ball detents to keep the blade closed, so will operate in the event of a torsion bar breakage.
 
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I'm a big knife fan. I have quite a few of them, all pretty decent.

For folders I'm a big fan of the Zero Tolerance line. They are great knives and probably the best value knife of the market today. I have a ZT 560, ZT 300, and ZT 350.

For a nice edc knife, Spyderco makes awesome knives as well, especially the Paramilitary 2, in a variety of steels.

Benchmade is another popular company.

The more expensive custom and semi-custom knives included Hinderer, Chris Reeve, Kirby Lambert, Darrel Ralph, etc., but these will cost you.

For fixed blades I really like the ESSE knives, especially the Izula (I have 2) and the ESSE 5. Becker makes a great knife--his entire line is very popular and tremendous value. I also like Blind Horse Knives (great bush knives), Koster, Fletcher, and Fiddleback Forge. Busse knives are super-awesome, but they will cost you.

Knifes are great fun! If you like knives and want to learn more, check out bladeforums dot com. Lots of great information on there.
 
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mctrinket said:
I'm a big knife fan. I have quite a few of them, all pretty decent.

For folders I'm a big fan of the Zero Tolerance line. They are great knives and probably the best value knife of the market today. I have a ZT 560, ZT 300, and ZT 350.

Knifes are great fun!
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Excellent. I'm not a big knife guy so I am pleased my selection meets your approval.
 
el duderino said:
Ive been carrying the CRKT M16 of different variations for years, ive never bothered to sharpen any of them because ive never felt the need, its plenty sharp.
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Thanks dude. For the money, there isn't much to lose trying one out, and I have read enough good things about them that it sounds like it's worth a shot, particularly since I am not inclined to spend $300 on a knife.
 
Everyone should carry a pocketknife for everyday use-best out there to have is a Swiss Army Knife. The other hi-tech, fancy "combat" folders, self-openers, etc. are for all the Mall Ninjas out there.
 
S. Kelly said:
Everyone should carry a pocketknife for everyday use-best out there to have is a Swiss Army Knife. The other hi-tech, fancy "combat" folders, self-openers, etc. are for all the Mall Ninjas out there.
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As far as slip joints go, I'd be hard pressed to say that SAKs are the best out there. They are handy for sure but if I'm going the slip joint route, I'll take carbon steel any day over a SAK's low end stainless. Also, there are a lot of modern folders that are not even remotely "mall ninja".
 
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S. Kelly said:
Everyone should carry a pocketknife for everyday use-best out there to have is a Swiss Army Knife. The other hi-tech, fancy "combat" folders, self-openers, etc. are for all the Mall Ninjas out there.
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Guess I'm a mall ninja then since I carry a Kershaw spring assisted Leek.[rolleyes] No offense, but I consider a Swiss army to be a bit fuddish, and prefer not to have something so bulky in my pocket. I like the Kershaw because it is extremely fast and easy to open, as well as being super slim and light weight. I also like to have a knife that clips to my pocket, so I don't need to "dig deep" to find it in the bottom of my pocket if I need it quickly as us mall ninjas typically do.[laugh]
 
spider murphy said:
I've never personally had a spring assist fail but am a member of a few knife centric forums and have heard of quite a few instances of assist failures over the years. One reason I'm not a fan of spring assist is that they do not tolerate debris as well as a simple framelock and will fail to operate correctly until thoroughly cleaned. Failure does not always involve a broken mechanism. As far as breakages go, on some assist knives, a broken torsion bar or spring will result in no bias towards closure. Kershaw uses mostly frame and liner locks with ceramic ball detents to keep the blade closed, so will operate in the event of a torsion bar breakage.
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Thanks for explaining further. What you said is one of the things I personally prefer about the Kershaw design. The liner lock is pretty bulletproof, and in the event of torsion bar breakage, it will still function as a normal one hand opening knife.[wink]
 

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