We cover most knives from hard-use folders to gentleman carries and a lot of odd things in between. Since “EDC knife” is a really broad term that basically includes whatever people carry every day, you’ll find a lot of variation in this category, but we try to be descriptive with our titles so you’ll know roughly what range of use a knife falls under before clicking on the full review.
We carry every knife we review for several weeks and subject them to various tests ranging from comfort to sharpness and edge retention. We cut a ridiculous amount of cardboard and probably do a lot of other things each knife wasn’t really designed for. By the end of each review you should have a good sense of how well a knife performs, how long it might last you, and if there are similar alternatives to consider. For other articles, we might list a knife we don’t own but are recommending based on a lot of research and genuine interest and curiosity on our part. We always prioritize knives we’ve actually used, but there are a lot of designs out there and even though we can’t physically own them all, we still like talking about them.
This Discontinued Tactical Classic is Worth Owning if You Can Track One Down. Let’s talk fighting knives. It is a sensitive topic, to be sure, but there’s no way to sugarcoat the intended purpose that defines Massad Ayoob’s contribution to the Spyderco lineup. The Massad Ayoob is a knife that is purpose-built as a tool …
New Lock, New Look, New Ownership, But Everything About This Knife Screams Cold Steel. I have mostly ignored Cold Steel since the company sold to GSM Outdoors almost two years ago. This reaction is not justified, and I certainly don’t have any particular issue with GSM Outdoors. It was mostly just due to my general …
A Lightweight Bushcraft Knife with EDC Ambitions Small fixed blades are a tricky beast to wrestle. People expect it to be rugged and comfortable like a regular sized fixed blade, but also lightweight and slicey. A lot of smaller designs end up being lightweight and rugged but with a blade that can’t do much like …
This Subtle Workhorse of a Knife is a Fitting Homage to the Gun That Shares Its Name There’s a lot of crossover between those of us who are fixated by knives and those who like guns. Knife companies have long recognized this and many have tried to create gun-themed knives that are doubly appealing–something Hogue …
The Fixed Blade Version Of The Popular Elementum Folder Delivers From A Value and Performance Standpoint CIVIVI’s Elementum folder is a familiar pocketknife design that’s become a staple for low-profile EDC. Now CIVIVI has taken the design and done what I wish every knife maker had the liberty to do and built it as a …
A Tactical Spear Point Knife that’s almost a Folding Dagger So this thing is lethal. You could say that a four inch spear point blade is good for a lot of different things, but when I look at this knife there’s always one thing that comes to mind before anything else. This is a purebred …
The Butterfly Brand’s New Multi Bladed Slip Joint Is Expensive Good Times Benchmade specifically describes this knife as being “tailored for weekend escapes to nature”. For some reason this triggered the mule in me to snatch up the knife and run into the mountains on a Monday evening shouting “you can’t tell me when to …
The Benchmade 430BK Redoubt. A Lightweight Black Classic Knife. Redoubt. What a strange and oddly anachronistic word. A redoubt is a fortification of sort—but without the strength or permanence of a full-sized fort. These are often temporary fortifications built by smaller, faster-moving units that need something like a fort, but who don’t have the time …
Sometimes You Need a Good Bottle Opener more than a Good Knife Probably the second most used function of a knife past opening packages is opening beers. At least it is in my life, and the fact that my knife collection is inversely proportional to both the size of my liver and my bank account …
Ka Bar and Spartan Basically Made a Small, Tactical Prybar I don’t mean that in a bad way, though. This little beater of a thing is handy to take pretty much everywhere. That’s the whole intent of the design, from the lightweight build (in spite of the thick blade stock) to the retention straps on …
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