Good EDC knife??? BUT...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My EDC knife is the Gerber Paraframe

-compact
- light weight
- very easy to open and close
- belt clip (though I don't use it)
- sharpens up very nicely with a basic hand file

I think I bought mine for like $20 at Home Depot.

Colt search and rescue gravity knife. Its my favorite little guy..Check it out if you have time..Im making a little fixed blade right now. Whitetail antler scales, old yard sale folder blade. They usually come out pretty alright. I don't carry one anymore, throws me off balance, but I still like to look at them and make one once in a while. Do you finish your edges with leather? The hardest thing Ive ever sharpened was a stump grinding wheel..literally hard and difficult. Whats the most difficult thing you've ever had to sharpen? It took years for me to learn how to properly sharpen a chainsaw chain.

The CSAR tool may be a little large for what you're wanting, but I think its function outweighs its slightly larger size.

But if I had to carry one these days it would be a kutmaster Ralston Purina red and white checkered folder. Its a cutie.

In my pocket:
www.knifecenter.com...

Around the neck:
www.eseeknives.com...

On my backpack strapped for easy grabbing:
www.sanrenmuknives.com...

In my backpack as a backup:
www.sanrenmuknives.com...

In a side pocket of my backpack:
www.knivesandtools.com...

I carry an emerson elvia , have for over a year i couldnt recommend a better knife.

Though this thread is over 3 years old, seeing as how Tacknives necro-posted here with some one-post SPAM, I thought I might follow up with a several year 'range report' on the knife that I did actually wind up buying.

As JimNi suggested, I bought the Civivi 'Elementum' model with a 2.96" black stonewashed D2 steel blade and G10 scales. I purchased this knife shortly after making the OP back in 2021. As I originally noted in my OP, I have a number of high quality knives including several Benchmade folders like the Mini-Griptillian (which is a great knife, but also pretty spendy, for a small folder). The Civivi Elementum has turned out to be a fantastic knife and I can't sing its praises enough.

First off, the Elementum has a caged ceramic ball bearing action which makes it ultra-fast to open with just a single flip of the finger. The inverted deep carry clip is the perfect orientation for rapid and correct orientation one-handed deployment when your other hand is occupied. And the D2 steel has performed far better than I anticipated, retaining an edge in daily ranch use now for over 3 years and counting. The blade edge has yet to require any re-profiling and/or serious attention. Given what I've put this knife through so far, this says a lot.

When I first bought this knife I had several concerns, and I think it important to identify what those concerns were and how they have played out. First, Civivi is a Chinese brand, and Chinese QC in the edged tool sector can be pretty spotty. Second, while ceramic ball bearings can be nice if machined properly, they can also be complete garbage with even the slightest imperfection. Both of these concerns have been more than adequately addressed by Civivi. And, the caged ceramic ball bearing remain blisteringly smooth to operate to this day. One of the other considerations with any ball bearing system (ceramic or steel) is the ingress of foreign abrasives such as sand into the caged bearing assembly. The ranch can be a dusty place sometimes, and so far I've seen exactly zero negative impacts from foreign debris making its way into the hinge mechanism.

The third concern was the edge steel itself. Chinese manufacturers often have a habit of labeling things incorrectly based on popular industry trends (in other words, they lie about what things are made out of). D2 steel is a hardened steel used in machine tools like cutting bits for milling machines and lathes. D2 steel is not particularly rare, but it is also not your run of the mill carbon steel either. So, I had doubts about the longevity and durability of the edge. Well, aside from some minor honing every now and then, the edge on the Elementum has remained intact and exquisitely sharp since new. This is saying something, especially given my daily use of a knife for a whole variety of tasks. Bottom line, the blade really IS D2 steel and not some knockoff lesser quality labeled as D2.

On a side note, blade length was not a concern for me; I was actively looking for a knife in the 2.9" to 3.1" range as this is the optimum blade length for overall functionality. The Elementum comes in at 2.96" so it was a known commodity from a length perspective.

The last concern I had was simply the cost. This is/was a $50 dollar knife. We all know that price doesn't always equal quality, but at a $50 buck price point, one would expect it to land right in the middle of sportsman grade knives. I can pleasantly report that this knife has performed every bit as well as any of my Benchmade or Spyderco knives at well over the $150-200 price point. That's a 4x value.

So there you have it, a 3 year 'range report' on the Civivi Elementum 2.96" blade folding knife.

That is all.

I should also add...the Elementum is a liner-lock knife, as opposed to a lever-lock mechanism. I actually prefer this arrangement in a locking mechanism because it is more intuitive to release and it can also be done one handed after you get the hang of it. A lever-lock, on the other hand, requires two hands to release, or one hand and a hard surface, which risks cutting the tops of the knuckles if not careful. The downside to a lever-lock is they can be difficult to operate with gloves on, and a lever-lock does not have this issue. Overall, it is a matter of personal preference which locking mechanism you get. Benchmade's axis lock design is, in my opinion, better and can easily be manipulated with one hand, and even with gloves on, but again, the Benchmade knife is a knife at 3x the price point of the Civivi (at roughly $150).

It's probably worthwhile to mention a couple other points about folding knives in general. Folding knives have four (4) basic deployment systems. By far, the most common is the thumbnail method. This is an old technology and frankly not very practical, so I won't discuss it here. The other three (3) types are thumb-stud, flicker, and thumb-hole. There are others like spring-assist and auto, but those are a different discussion. Focusing on the main three types (thumb-stud, flicker and thumb-hole), all three of these systems are good for one handed deployment (once you get used to them). In my opinion, a knife without a good one handed deployment system is next to worthless; you need a knife you can put into use without requiring both hands (and this has actually saved my life in the past, but I digress).

The Benchmade system is generally a 'thumb-stud' style, contrasted with Spyderco system which is almost exclusively 'thumb-hole' (this gives Spyderco their unique look), although some Benchmade models do also employ the thumb-hole method as well. Both the thumb hole and stud systems allow the user to open the blade slowly in a controlled fashion with one hand. The flicker mechanism has the user begin the opening sequence with the index finger on the top of the spine near the hinge, and complete the sequence by flipping the wrist away from the body. This is much faster (generally), but it also requires a flipping motion which, if not careful, can cause someone to lose their grip on the knife entirely (especially with gloves on).

An important side note here; none of this discussion is about fighting or self defense with a knife, but rather all about every day utilitarian use of a knife. Self-defense and fighting knife techniques are a completely different discussion, with completely different knives. As a general rule, a fixed blade is far better suited for these situation than a folder ever will be. I will leave it at that here.

The Civivi Elementum model noted in the previous post is a a flicker style deployment, and with the ceramic ball bearings, boy-howdy does this puppy open quickly! I would wager I can open the Elementum faster than someone can open a auto-knife or spring-assist (commonly referred to as "switch blade" knives).

The other thing worth of note here is tip orientation with carry methods. The old school mentality for knife carry with folders was to orient the tip facing downward in the pocket. The reasoning was, so the knife couldn't partially open in your pocket and you'd slice your hand when you put your hand in your pocket. Modern (quality) knives stay closed, so this isn't really an issue, but let's examine a major problem with the old tip-down carry. With tip-down carry, the knife comes out of the pocket in the hand facing backwards which means in order to use the knife you have to turn it around 180 degrees to get it into the proper orientation for use.

With tip-up carry this problem is eliminated. AND, (for a right handed person) if the clip is placed on the right side of the scales, then the knife comes out of the pocket and into the hand in the exact orientation for use (i.e. edge down, spine up and tip forward). With tip-down carry, the knife comes out of the pocket and into the hand spine down, edge up and tip facing backwards. To even open the blade from this orientation, a person has to turn the knife around and flip it over. This is valuable time lost and more importantly increased potential for injury.

The takeaway from all of this is, a decent quality folding knife should have the capability to move the clip on the scales such that the knife can be carried tip-up on either the right or left side, so the clip should be able to be moved to all four (4) points on the scales (grips). Minimally, if the manufacturer allows for only tip-up carry, then the clip should be able to be relocated either left or right. A folding knife with only a tip-down carry orientation should be avoided altogether.

Hopefully this helps folks understand some of the more important and finer points of folding knives and their utilization.

And here you thought it was just a silly folding knife!