Hey everyone, David C. Andersen here coming at you
from the KnifeCenter, and we're taking a look today at some of
the best pocket fix blades that you can use for everyday carry.
Let's check them out. (KnifeCenter.com) So there's
actually plenty of reasons to want to carry a fixed blade as
your primary EDC versus something like a folder which is
what everybody carries. For one thing, they're extremely
reliable since there's no moving parts to wear out or break or
anything like that. They're also generally easier to keep clean
than a folder which is especially important if you're
going to use your everyday carry for any kind of food prep as
well. But I think the major impediment for more people
wanting to carry a fixed blade every day, is they don't want to
be carrying a sheath on their belt, I certainly don't want to
be schlepping around especially in downtown areas with a highly
visible sheath like that. Now of course there are neck knives,
but they present their own sort of disadvantages as well. What
we really need is an effective way to pocket carry a fixed
blade and thankfully there's some some pretty good options
out there, and you might not even need to buy a new knife
actually a lot of neck knives, their shields are going to work
for pocket carry if you add just one of these two accessories,
I'm going to show you right here at the front, first of which is
an ulticlip. These run about 12 bucks, there's a bunch of
different sizes. This one right here is the the slim version,
and you've essentially got two slots here that most sheaves
that are, that come with any kind of rivet holes, you're
going to be able to attach at least two points onto this ulti
clip and transform it into a pocket sheath. Now you may need
to bring your own hardware because there, there isn't any
attachment hardware included with an ulti clip, but you know
that's that's a much smaller hurdle, but these things are
pretty cool, they've got a small metal tab here. Simply pop that
open and you kind of release the tension on this J hook
underneath, slide that into your pocket, stick the hem of your,
your pocket through those two sections, torque it down and
then that sheath is fixed in place, it's not going anywhere.
You can also use the Mummert titanium clips which are out
there, and these guys are about 20 bucks, made of titanium, like
the name like is in the name, and a couple of different
finishes, there's a stone wash, as well as a flame finish, and
similarly to that ulti clip, we've got a slotted section here
at the top so that the hardware that is included in this case,
can fit a wide range of different sheaths, and this is
how it looks when attached to a sheath. This is actually one of
the older versions the new gen twos, have that slot. But you
can see how it looks when attached and you can see that
flame finish as well. So another really great option for
converting potentially the neck knife you already have into a
pocket fixed blade, but the first knife, proper that I'm
going to show you is from Viper over there in Maniago Italy and
we've got the Berus or Berus model one and model two with the
two different blade shapes, got that drop point here and the
Wharncliffe or sorry, M4 like a sheepsfoot here at the top,
which that sheepsfoot especially I think makes a fantastic
everyday utility box cutter, hard working knife in a fairly
small package. They started about 130 bucks for these
micarta versions a little bit more for the carbon fiber if you
want that, but you've got m390 steel, just under two and a half
inches of blade length, and these are very sturdy guys for
some heavier work decent amount of thickness as you can see, but
we've still got a pretty wide profile with a full flat grind,
it's going to help it help its slicing capabilities, a bit, and
it feels really good in the hand, even though it's a three
and a half finger grip for my hands which are slightly larger
than average, get a good, good kind of grip on it for some
heavier cuts, as far as the sheaths on these guys, it is
Kydex and it comes with an Ulticlip installed right there
as you can see, So it's going to nestled right in about that deep
in the pocket, you'll be able to get that knife in and out
without too much trouble. If you do want it to carry deeper
though you can always move these ulti clips to, you know, a
slightly higher position, you have some more rivets here after
all. And that's going to carry it a little bit lower in your
pocket so you just have less of that handle sticking out, but
it's still gonna be easy to grasp and put to work. This next
one is a bit more premium and it's materials, we've got the
Benchmade hidden Canyon Hunter. In the Select edge variant which
is the higher end version comes in about 195. Now there are two
versions of this there is a less expensive version, but that one
comes with a leather sheath, so if you want to pocket carry this
design, but you don't want to spend this much money, it's not
going to be as big a difference because you'd have to get a, a
custom sheath made for that other one custom kydex or
something like that, in order to pocket carry, but this really
cool little design, about the same dimensions as that Berus
slightly slightly longer, a little bit more blade itself
coming in about 2.8 Right now, s 90 v in this case which,
especially on a thinner EDC like this is a nice thin blade,
really, really going to be able to take advantage of that long
edge holding especially combined with the very thin 14 degree
bevel, they put on this knife as well as they call that their
select edge technology on the backside, you've got some nice
Richlite handles with the top of orange for the liners they're
nice feel in the hand as well. And the sheath on this guy is
kydex actually might be boltaron It is boltaron, and you are
going to need to supply, or bring a Tek-Lok but this is a
perfect one. With these angled pieces, or the angled rivets
here on the end, perfect one for kind of bearing that lock or
that ulti clip a little bit higher up to bury the sheath in
the pocket, and then you've got that nice flare out on the edges
of that sheath there so when you're going to resheath it,
it's going to find its home very easily. When you're done using
the knife. Alright, the next one is considerably cheaper, maybe a
little big for most folks, but I did want to mention this one
this is the Ka-Bar wrench knife coming in about 42 bucks right
now. Now this is an integrally constructed knife it's actually
dropped forged from a 425 stainless decent amount of
toughness going on, decent amount of thickness there with a
nice hollow grind in this case, gonna make a another good
everyday utility and not, like I said a little bit bigger, but
the sheath itself is fairly compact it's not quite as broad
or wide as the previous knife we looked at. So this is another
one when you combine it with that ulti clip. It's, it might
not be as bulky as it seems. It's not not bulky but you get
my get my meaning and then when that sticking out of your
pocket. Doesn't really scream knife. People might think you're
a weirdo for carrying a wrench in your pocket, but, you know, that's the trade off, I guess,
but they're really cool knives, you get a lot of work, work done
with these for sure, for a smaller size knife, we're going
to look to ESEE and their Izula series actually makes a really
good pocket fixed blade, but I want to focus on the even
smaller Candiru that I've got right here these started about
60 bucks 1095 carbon steel made in the USA. Not all of them are
purple like this one I understand a lot of you folks
aren't gonna like that like that bright color, you can get more
muted colors, but I wanted to pull the purple because there's
something about pairing it up with the optional scales in
orange that just kind of cracks me up I think that's actually
kind of a fantastic color combo going on there for what it is,
but that's one of the great things about this series is you
have the option to carry it with or without a set of scales so
you can go for more girth, or a more thin cross section overall
when in the hand, but it's a really nice little drop point
profile in any case, only about two inches long, but it's a
really great shape. Now the sheaths on these guys are hard
plastic, and they are compatible with the Ulticlips or those
Mummert clips, but they actually come with their very own clip
plate, which does screw on here it does have the attachment
hardware included to actually get a pocket clip there a built
in pocket clip or belt clip actually it's going to work
really nicely on either, because you've got a bit of a J hook
type of style there not not a complete J, but you do have a
bit of retention there on the bottom side of the spring. It's
got some nice flex or not a lot of flex to it, nice rigid amount
of flex so it's going to work really great in either of those
uses. And these have all been some really good utility shapes,
but there are folks who are going to appreciate being able
to carry some tactical options this way as well. And, of
course, a lot of folks like to carry a karambit, and one of my
favorite options that can be used in the pocket is the
Bastinelli Pika, which comes in about 140 right now. Good little
size blade itself is only about 1.6 inches it's n 690 steel, but
you do have a full size handle here I can fit all my fingers on
there, no problem. So you've got a solid grip, it's not one of
these like tiny tiny pocket karambits that we do see from
time to time. Now all the edges on the steel are nice and
crowned over both on the outside and on the inside of the ring as
well, so it's not going to be too uncomfortable to wield and
the sheath is kydex on this guy as well. It actually comes with
its own attachment hardware here but it's not going to be
conducive to use in a pocket so you throw an ulti clip on there.
Or maybe that Mummert clip it might fit kind of weird on the
for this particular sheath side or sheath shape, Actually, you'd
be wanting to put it on that side for a standard karambit
draw anyway. And you're going to be able to access that blade in
a flash, when you need it. Now in addition to, of course, your,
your self defense needs people actually, I think overlook the
hawkbill shape for daily utility because it is kind of aggressive
a little less conventional, but these are actually a really good
shape. Flip your grip around really good for tearing through
cardboard since the tip is almost impossible for this tip
to slip out of your cut. And in are also really good for getting
under pallet straps or zip ties and opening things up that way.
Definitely don't overlook a hawkbill for your utility needs.
I for another tactical option we've got another larger knife
here, that kind of stretches the bounds of pocket capability, but
this is the Dawson knives Serengeti and this comes in
about 195 Right now, for that you've got a three V drop point
blade, about three and a quarter inches, and the G 10 handle and
enhanced comfort is slightly secondary to the retention in
this, not that it's uncomfortable, but you've got a
lot of tread patterning texture in here going on so you've got a
solid grip and the blade itself is angled down a little bit to
present itself better in certain tactical grips gets, you know,
more of the angle you might want for this type of blade. Now the
sheaths on these guys are pocket ready right out of the box no
extra hardware needed, they actually include the, or the
pocket retention in this is provided by The Kydex itself, as
you can see they've looped it over here behind itself. To give
you a little pocket flap essentially so that's going to
slide right in very nicely, fair bit of handle sticks up Sure,
but you can access it really easily just push off with your
thumb, and you'll be able to pull that blade, no problem.
Now, perhaps even more than that karambit, you can certainly see
the daily utility of this guy, even more so classic blade
shape. Got a nice tough steel with that three v. And that
brings me to another point versus the in the fixed versus
folders argument when it comes to outright strength on some of
these knives that while they're not huge, they're going to be
built up pretty nicely might feel more confident putting it
to those heavier tasks than a folding knife. Now for the kind of the ultimate
in discretion for a self defense oriented pocket fixed blade. So
slightly tongue in cheek recommendation but check out the
cold steel urban pal, and I say tongue in cheek, not because
it's not a bad knife it certainly is. It's very
affordable to at about 19 bucks, you got that nice serrated edge
there for some kind of aggressive cuts, even though I'm
more of a plain edge guy myself. It does come with a nice secure
X sheath there as you can see the rivets on it are a little
bit small but you probably could fit a Tek-Lok on there, or an
ulti clip on there if you like four standard pocket draw, but
you can actually fit this especially, you know, take that
split ring off, throw that right in the fifth pocket of your
jeans I know we talked about fifth pocket folders a little
while ago. That's a little fifth pocket fixed blade, believe it
or not, and you got a decent bit of utility there beyond the self
defense, it's still a useful blade shape I like to say those
that about these very much nice for opening boxes or letters
just smaller daily utility sorts of needs. You got about one and a half
inches there to work with so not a ton but just enough, and
plenty of grip thanks to the push dagger type design and
those nice grippy handles for more utility minded blade in
that kind of same size range. We've got the CRKT scribe which,
when it's close up like that looks like just an extra long
USB stick, essentially, with a pocket clip built in to the
actual handle the knife in this case, we can clip that in your
pocket, no problem. Pull it out, take the sheath off and then you
got that nice blade to work with and without taking up a lot of
space at all. It's about one and three quarters of an inch long.
Nice stonewashed finish on it too. It's a 5cr stainless, it's
not going to hold an edge forever, but it is going to be
pretty stainless and very easy to maintain. That's a pretty
cool design that's pretty much what I can say about it like
that, you know, it may not have the fanciest materials but I
really enjoy this. What's nice about this lid, too, is you can
actually put it there on the back as well, it's not going to
be, you know, you don't want to really be bearing down on it but
you do get a little more handle length there to work with in
certain grips, you're gonna find that pretty handy I think, just remember that you don't
have a sheath in your pocket like the rest of these, make
sure to take it off the back, and, and put it on the right way
there, and you can stash that now these would certainly work
as a key chain knife as well, but man, as a pocket fixed blade
doesn't take up a lot of room side to side, super thin, it's
just going to be a very easy fixed blade to carry on now
we're going to get into a couple knives that have sheaths that
have clips built in, it's not like the Berus there at the
beginning where kind of has its own clip built in but it is an
ulti clip these next couple of options have their own bespoke
clips on it. And the first knife is the Hoback Goliath, kind of a
funny name for a small pocketable fixed blade but there
you go. These started about 165 This particular Jade G 10
version coming in at 185 Right now, a lot of blade length to
work with on these guys for a pocket fixed blade three and a
half inches of 20 CV steel, so a lot of edge and a lot of edge
retention to work with as well. Handle length takes a little bit
of a backseat in this case, I can kind of get, it's more of a
three finger grip for me feels pretty decent. As far as heavier
gorilla grips, it might not be the best thing, but for detail
cuts, you've got a lot going on here very easy and nimble, to
manage the sheath here comes with a kydex number clips in
nicely and there you can see the nice pocket clip that screwed
directly into that piece holds it nice and deep. It's kind of
like a deep carry pocket clip for your sheath going to make a
very good option. And one of the things you, you get for the
extra money that this knife costs. The attention to detail
here is a really high you've got really precise construction, and
something I always appreciate especially on smaller EDC items,
the edge itself is very thin, it's got a very fine and thin
edge so that it's really going to get out of its own way when
you're going to cut, even though this has a little bit of a, not
the thinnest geometry overall, the blade perhaps could have
been a little bit thinner if that's what they were going for.
But when you combine it with that super thin edge, this is
going to be a rock solid performer. And we're going to
swing back down to the budget side of things, again, with a
another sheath with its own pocket clip built in the SOG
instinct and mini instinct this one coming in about 30 bucks
right now. As you can see you've got that pocket clip right
there, built into the standard sheath. They actually supply a
ball chain on this bill so you could carry this neck fashion,
but I think pocket carry is definitely the way to go with
this guy, and you can actually loosen the screw in there you
could tilt this pocket clip a little bit if you want to hold
it at a slightly different angle, it's going to work really
nicely. The knife itself kind of takes the opposite approach,
then the Hoback they give you a little bit more handle to grab
onto. It's not actually any longer but then there Hoback but
you've got some pretty prominent finger grooves here and a little
tab sticking out at the back so if you do need to put it to a
larger or kind of more Gorilla Grip type of cut, there's a
little bit more there to grab onto. But the blade itself is a
bit shorter, this guy comes in about 1.9, but the standard
size, are these larger size comes in about 2.3 inches,
otherwise they're they're pretty much the same in terms of
profile blade steel on this guy, 5Cr kind of like that, that CRKT
we just looked at. It's got a pretty decent shape going on as
well. The tip is going to be very usable on this design,
because of the point to where it drops just meet another really
nice utility knife for a really nice price in this case, not all
these knives are certainly nice but if kind of the kydex thing
isn't your thing I can understand that it certainly has
a more plasticky in nature feel there are some leather sheath
options out there, including the very newly released MKM mikro
and these guys start. Let's see actually about 70 bucks for the
skeletonized version, a little bit more for the versions that
come with these with these handle scales you can get
micarta or carbon fiber for a further upgrade. And just like
that. Viper from the beginning this is an Italian made knife
with sort of a drop point kind of clip pointy profile and a
modified sheepsfoot as well. Both really nice I think the,
the clip point with the carbon fiber especially makes a really
nice gentleman's pocket fixed blade, but for a more utility
driven design. I think the, the sheep's foot puts the tip and a
little bit more of a usable spot for a knife this size, just
seems a little bit more natural, at least when it's in my hands.
The grip on is actually pretty nice for only a two and a half
finger grip, it's it's not quite a it doesn't pass the Gorilla
Grip test but it does feel fairly secure more secure than I
would have thought for its size, definitely, there's enough girth
there thanks to that micarta and slightly thicker blade stock in
this case. So this isn't like a laser type of scalpel, it's got
a little bit more durability to it, but all the edges are
crowned on this guy as well, nice and comfortable. The real
treat with this guy though is the sheath.
There, leather, as you can see there, and there's actually a
magnet in there which I'll get to in a second, and they work in
either orientation you can stick it in. Either way, with either
of the blade shapes, And you can carry it in two different ways.
If you put the knife in there, and wrap the sheath or wrap the
strap around the front you've got a magnetic retention point
there, works really nicely as a neck knife, but if you were to
stick it in the opposite way, kind of rotate it around there,
and flip the flap around the other side, it becomes a little
bit of a magnetic retention loop around the hem of your pocket
holding that that knife handle up, right above there, or above
your pocket line, very easy to hold on to, and a bit of a
classier package when it comes to that leather. There's just
something about these designs these are Jesper Voxnaes designs
by the way, there's just something about when Vox and
Italy team up on a knife, you get some good results, I mean
you got a really cool looking shape, good materials and 390
steel on these bad boys, what's not to love, and the pocket
fixed blade genre has actually been really near and dear to my
heart for quite a while. It's good to see that we're seeing
more options out there nowadays than we used to, and this is
only a segment that I think is going to keep growing. But to
the point that this is something I really love, I have actually
designed my own. This is the Nord Smith skipjack, and they
have been kind of sporadically available, especially this last
year due to COVID, but this is kind of my take on the pocket
fixed blade when I started Nord Smith, the one of the first
questions I always get was, you know, make a pocket knife, so
this was kind of my tongue in cheek answer to that. And the
sheath on these guys is a nice classy leather sheath, made by
JRE industries for me, it's this one's a little beat up because
you know I've carried this one quite a bit, but got that nice
pocket clip there on the side, and for at least my pockets,
this kind of fills it up, this is just about maxed out for what
you can carry in there with without having too much sticking
out the top. But I really, I'm a big fan of this design, but the
name of this knife actually has some meaning. Call it kind of
the skipjack a little bit tongue in cheek, as in skip the
Jackknife and put a fixed blade in your pocket. Also it's the
state boat of Maryland where I kind of hail from so there's
some good connections there. As far as the blade is about three
inches long. Nice and thin 330 seconds with a full flat grind
it's got a good slicing profile and AEBL steel on this one which
is one of the first production runs, which is why it's got
these really cool jigged bone handles and kind of the
signature Nord Smith colors of green with the yellow liners
right there, the bone itself against that yellow I think
looks absolutely awesome. Now I know I mentioned my own hand
size a lot in these videos because I try to give a kind of
a reference to the folks out there. This handle works with a
lot of different hand size is out there, I've had people who
have larger and smaller hands, be able to use this very well,
but it's my design I kind of selfishly designed it to fit my
hands, perfectly. As such, you've got main, the main grip
has three fingers, and the fourth finger the pinky catches
this kick up towards the pommel there, and that actually gives
you a really nice point for fine control when you're doing some
of that tip work, the pinkie can actually do a lot if the handle
lets it, and that's why this has shaped exactly like that and
kind of grabbed that with your pinky orient the tip, do some
nice stuff with that. And on top of that this knife really
fulfills the Gorilla Grip test for me. Is it any surprise that
this knife does everything I want it to, probably shouldn't
be because I designed it, and we are hoping to have more of these
soon, but I didn't want to put off this video any longer I was
getting kind of getting kind of antsy to share with you guys. So
I hope you liked it, and that's all we've got for today. If you
want a chance to get your hands on any of these knives, we'll
leave links in the description as always, make sure to let me
know your favorites down there in the comments and maybe
there's a pocket fixed blade I didn't mention here that you
like, make sure to let us know about those as well, while
you're over there at the knife center, make sure you sign up
for a knife rewards program to, because you're going to spend
your money on one of these EDC pocket fixed blades, might as
well earn some free money to spend on your next one. (Knife
Rewards) David C Andersen from the KnifeCenter signing off. See
you next time.
