Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Pocket dump- what I want to change

Since I usually carry my bag with me, I have really been pairing down my on person carry. I wanted to do a quick run through of the items and talk about what is working and what is not. The photos are a bit dark, as my office has pretty crappy lighting on campus.


Group photo
On my person I carry:
-my wallet (with a couple alcohol wipes and bandages)
-my keys with small squeeze light, jump drive, and bottle opener
-Streamlight stylus pro
-CRKT edgie
-rechargable lighter
-small pad and pen.

No gun because I am on campus 5 days a week. I'm pretty sure the university will get in a huffy about my knife as well- but I use knives as tools- not weapons; and I am not going to go about my day without an instrument sharp enough to cut something other than butter.


The Stylus pro was so awesome, I had to take it out of my bag and switch it to on body carry. It is just fantastic To have around. I swapped it out for my Fenix MC10. Seriously- this little light has a very usable pocket clip, a good beam, and is just too handy of a size not to have around. At 20 bucks, I'd buy this light again, all day long. It is far and away the best pen light I have ever used.

I usually have my Lamy Safari as well (I loved it so much I bought a spare)- but I just ran out of ink in it and didn't have any spare cartridges kicking around- so for now its back to plain ol' ball point pens.
One of my favorite aspects of the Stylus is that it has momentary on and a forward click tail cap. For whatever reason, I find this to be an extremely handy feature on a light- and try to equip most of my lights to work in this manner. The battery life also seems to be good- and the fact that the pro uses common AAA batteries is nice on the wallet- even though the rest of my lights use rechargeable cells.

The CRKT Edgie has been a bit of a disappointment. It is a great concept- A nice slip joint with a sharpener built right into the handle to keep the knife reasonably sharp. However- I find the blade is of marginal quality- and am actually thinking about sending it in for repair.

The blade on my edgie is actually getting a bit wavy, and it really just isn't up to the standards of what I think it should be. I recently ordered a spyderco tenacious, but that doesn't lessen the bite of this knife's shortcomings. Maybe mine was an exception to the rule- but I was not pleased. It is a shame too because I generally like CRKT products very much. They just didn't execute on this one as well as they could have.

The final item is an old Imco Triplex lighter that was made in Austria. I like how small it is (especially when compared to a zippo) and it seems to hold fluid well- definitely better than some of my other refillables. It is also quite durable, which makes me more fond of it than I am of a little bic disposable.

Even though I'm not a smoker, my partner is- so it is nice to have a lighter for her when she forgets one. Also it is just handy little thing to have around- especially considering I have been known to have a cigar now and again as of late.

All in all- I'd recommend the streamlight in a heartbeat- but could not do the same with the CRKT edgie. Unless you need this knife for some really light tasks, or just like the concept- it just is not the best design out there.

2 comments:

Mike W. said...

"I'm pretty sure the university will get in a huffy about my knife as well- but I use knives as tools- not weapons; and I am not going to go about my day without an instrument sharp enough to cut something other than butter."

I had the same attitude during college. Always had a knife on me (usually more than one) despite how I know they'd react. Same goes for my job. They're probably no-go per weapons policy, but oh well. I don't leave the house without a cutting tool on me.

Those little streamlights are great aren't they? I have the smaller version of the Stylus, the Microstream, as my EDC

mike's spot said...

The knife thing I think is crazy. I remember in college trying to cut crappy overcooked meat with a butter knife. I mean really? I can't even get a cheap serrated steak knife?

The streamlights are unbelievably awesome! I never thought I'd go to such a small light, but man are they fantastic!