The BEST One-and-Done EDC Knife

if you could have only one knife in your collection what would it be i get asked a ton of questions about gear that i would carry what's my favorite wallet what's my favorite bag or flashlight whatever but when i ask for q a questions or even just in the comments of the videos or on instagram what knife i would have if i could only have one is easily the most asked question period by a long shot to be completely honest it's not a very difficult question to answer i know what i would carry or have in my collection if i can only have one but i want to answer that for you guys so if you could only have one knife what would it be that's what i'm going to answer today in this video also on taylor martin this is the best mbdc and let's do the damn thing so to be fair and to be completely clear up front i'm not answering with just one knife i will tell you at the end what my pick would be but i wanted to hit a few different budgets some people don't want to spend 200 on a knife and would rather allocate that money to something else such as investments or savings or you know something probably a little more wise or financially sound but if you do have the means to spend that kind of money on a knife then i also want to answer the question for you so what i've done is select four different price tiers that i think really encapsulate the knife market obviously there are far more expensive knives and some that are far more affordable but i those i think are the sweet spot where i think you should be spending your money if you're looking at a knife that is worth your money so i've chosen around 50 around 100 and 400 so that 200 mark is more like 175 to 250 100 is like 80 to 120 you know it's a range so i've picked a few ranges that i think you should be spending in if you're looking for a really nice knife and i've picked my favorite pick within each range with a few alternatives if that's maybe not your style or maybe it's not available because that's that's the knife market so let's get started first up in the 50 realm uh this one is probably no surprise to anyone it's the most recommended it is the most sought after it's just a really really solid option and that's the savivi elementum you guys know this it's one of my favorite knives honestly i carry this one i carry the other one i really love this aviva elementum i think savey and we knife they knocked it out of the park with this thing and they just continue to do so because they keep rolling out new models and new versions and they're all just really really great and they all sell out so fast they're actually in stock as of right now on blade hq so if you're interested in this one finally i can say that you can go buy it right now if you do want one uh maybe not the configuration you want but there are several in stock several different configurations in stock on blade hq so with the 50 that you spend on this knife you're getting a lot of really great things you're getting a flipper on ball bearings with a liner lock really really great to tent i've had five or six different elements now and every single one has been spot on i've not had a flaw in any of them and i have heard a few defectors lately who say the the elementum is not what it's all cracked up to be i finally got my hands on one and it wasn't for me that's fine i mean it doesn't have to be for you but for a lot of people clearly this knife is a really really good one the size for some may feel a little small but i've got fairly meaty paws and it fits really well in the hand it's a full four finger grip perfect jimping i love the ergos on it it's got a really nice deep carry clip honestly very very very few complaints about the elementum and if this isn't your cup of tea the other recommendations there's a ton of options from cevivi and i don't really think you can go wrong there's the backlash the praxis there's a ton of savi's there's also a honey badger which is similarly specked but even a little cheaper like 35 dollars see there's so many companies coming out swinging at this like 50 price mark you have savivi rake uh cjrb tangram from kaiser there's so many brands and of course there's the staple which is the spyderco tenacious so really around this price range there are a million different options honestly it's so hard to pick just one but if i did have to pick just one without a doubt it would be the elementum so when you step up from that 50 range which is just a broad category of a lot of great selections you step up to a hundred dollars and your your options really narrow in on just a few models there are tons of hidden gems in that range something that i would consider a hidden gem is just about anything from ferrum forge they have a lot of options that are made by we knife that are right around a hundred dollars like the ferrum forge falcon 100 bucks killer killer knife there's also the gent they're all so good but at a hundred dollars or around a hundred dollars i have one that i would absolutely pick hand over fist every time and that is the para 3 lightweight now this one in particular is not exactly your 100 version this was a sprint run from dlt trading so this one has an m390 blade uh so not exactly the 100 one i think this one was like 150 so while this version is the m390 version the one that's around 100 is going to be cts bd1 in steel which is a little milder steel it's not quite as hard but it is easier to sharpen say what you will about blade steels i'm not a blade steel snob i'm happy with everything from d2 up to m390 or rwl34 i'm happy with just about anything as long as i can put an edge on it i'm happy with it so i'm not the best person to ask when it comes to knife seals but i have no experience with bd1 in at all but i've heard pretty good things about it and the the pair three lightweight gets a ton of love from pretty much everybody but what you get with this knife is quite a bit for a hundred dollars you get your spider hole the beautiful ergonomics of the pair of three it is very very lightweight around 2.5 ounces i believe you have a compression lock this one i have tightened a little too much and it originally does not come with a milled titanium clip obviously it has a deep carry wire clip but it's a really great knife for around 100 bucks and i think it's a really really great buy let's just say you're not a huge fan of spyderco or that's not your bag or you want a different blade steel something a little more high-end for the money you're going to look at probably the fan favorite the bug out i'm kind of on the fence about the bug out still i still recommend it because i think it's a good knife it's just not my favorite anymore the other option is the wii banter and this one has gotten a lot of praise lately it's kind of an understated very simple straightforward knife it's just a cutting tool it's not anything fancy and that's exactly what ben peterson the designer wanted obviously you guys probably know ben peterson formerly of blade hq or what is up guys this knife is just a very very basic straightforward tool nothing fancy and that's exactly what ben wanted it's a lot of bang for buck right around the 100 mark just a really solid knife tuned perfectly there's nothing to complain about with this knife other than the fact that if you like flashy it's not that personally i think it'd be a little better with some od micarta but i mean that's just me oh and i almost forgot this one i guess technically would be closer to the 100 mark because this is the s35v version of the ceviv elementum these are out of stock so i didn't really want to add it to the list but apparently according to blade hq they are coming back in stock with a few different versions but yeah elementum and s35vn i've been carrying this one this has been my carry off and on for the last two weeks and uh frankly this is one of my favorite knives to carry right now so when you move up from the 100 range to the 200 range there's actually a big gap for whatever reason 200 is like a dead zone for knives i would put that 100 range cut off at like 120 and the 200 range is massive because i would start it at like 150 160 and it goes up to around 300 like 290 would be like the upper end of that range but there's a giant gap between like 180 and 220 there's just not much there so this range is really like 150 to 180 and then 220 to 290. so it's a broad range and on the upper end of that there are so many options and you're starting to get into like the small production runs of pania knives chavez knives something obscene company what you're getting in this range is smaller knife makers who make their own knives custom knives they've gone to oems like rayout and we knife and had small production runs of their knives so that people can afford them or they are more affordable and more widely available than their customs and there are so many great options i've had a bunch of knives from this price range like 250 to 290s a little over 300 sometimes just amazing stuff i love so many knives and i think this is kind of like the sweet spot for the knife collector but for a person who wants a one and done knife like one knife for everything i wouldn't necessarily recommend that like if you like something in that range go for it because i don't think you can really go wrong especially if you're talking raya or wii but once you're looking in this broad range from like 150 to 300 i would actually recommend staying on the lower end of it with something that maybe you're gonna disagree with me but i think this is probably the best pick in this range and it's none other than the para military 2. i mean it's a staple in the community it's just a really solid knife there's a reason that it's owned by so many people another reason that i recommend this so much is because there are so many different versions you can really just kind of get what you want with it and if you buy just a basic one you can upgrade it and change it and just keep it fresh all the time you have titanium skills micarta scales copper scales you've got different blade steels to choose from these are both s30v but this one is rex 45 you have different pocket clip options we have a milled clip a titanium deep carry clipper the stock clip so many options for making the para military 2 your own you're getting a lot of bang for your buck for your money too you're getting really great quality control you have amazing ergonomics i think this is probably one of the most or best ergonomic knives out there it's just just kind of locks into your hand i love the way it feels action on every single one i've had is great i think it's just a really rock solid option that you can't go wrong with obviously if the para military 2 is a little too big for you then go for the pair of 3. same knife just a little bit smaller scaled back so here for scale here's the pair of three lightweight and a para military two so very similar in shape and design and ergos but obviously pair three is scaled down just a little bit but again if spyderco is not your bag there's a ton of options no shortage of options in this price range once again i'm going to recommend not going with a production run like a small production from a small maker only in in this scope of having a single knife and the reason for that is is warranty um a lot of these from smaller makers the warranty is going to be kind of questionable uh berg blades love his lines one of my favorite knives in my collection is from bird blades but if you take the knife apart warranty's void so it's a very different warranty situation than something that you get from spyderco or benchmade so that's something to take into consideration especially if there's only one knife in your collection but if you are looking for something other than spyderco benchmade is the obvious secondary choice uh 940 is a really really great option people love that knife for me i was so so on it but the the benchmade knife that i would recommend right around 200 mark is the mini crooked river it's the best benchmade knife i had i don't have it anymore but it's a really really solid knife so when you graduate from that 200 range which goes all the way up to just under 300 you're looking at a range that's like 300 up to five six seven hundred dollars even a thousand i would consider in this range it's just one of those that it's very broad there aren't nearly as many options things really to narrow out here and you're looking at more custom stuff or high-end production knives that are made in the us or something like uh ashira gorov which is russian made and again it comes down to warranty with the sure gorov uh the warranty is kind of great but if you're looking in that 400 range there are two that i'm going to recommend and that is the sebenza and a hinderer xm18 really any chris reeve or hinderer knife the quality at this level is just immaculate the quality control and everything is just spectacular and your warranty is outstanding unless you're like me and you modify your sebenza don't do what i do kids the quality here is just kind of next level i mean from your your two 300 knives these these chris reeve knives and hinderer knives are just your next level this one for instance you can take this pivot screw and totally loosen it you can take one side of it out and there's still no blade plate the tolerances on these are just so tight that even with this pivot screw totally loosened and taken out not the whole pivot screw but just one side there's still no blade plate it's it's really really spectacular and you're getting a tool right here that is going to last a lifetime or decades honestly you can use this thing every day and just beat the crap out of it and it's still going to work as long as you don't break it and even then you're looking at something that you could reblade and not have to buy a totally new one so it is an investment and it's something that uh if i were to have just one knife in my collection it would definitely be one of these four which i have a three inch and a three and a half inch xm18 a small sebenza 31 and a large sebenza 21 honestly if i had to narrow my collection down to just one and i had to choose between these four i'd be happy with any of them but to answer the long-standing question if i had to get rid of every other knife in my collection and i could only keep just one what would it be it's actually really easy for me to answer and it would be the large sebenza 21 the one that i modified i just love this knife it's really really great and uh while i have been crushing really hard on smaller knives lately which is why i got a small sibenza 31 if i had just one i would go with the larger size i mean you get a little more utility out of it it's not that much bigger in the pocket it's still definitely there it's definitely bigger but if i had just one in my collection one knife period it would be the largest bins of 21. so there you have it i know that's a lot of information to take in so to recap really quickly at fifty dollars in that fifty dollar range i would recommend these aviva lamentum which you're gonna get in a d2 variant at around a hundred dollars we're looking at a pair of three lightweight at around 200 we are looking at a para military 2 maybe with some customizations and then at the 400 range we're looking at a sebenza and obviously i have mentioned a few alternatives in each but if you think i'm wrong or i miss something very important at each price point just let me know in the comments down below what you would recommend as the single knife at each of these price ranges or just in general what one knife you would get in your collection if you couldn't have any more than just one that is gonna do it for this video if you found it helpful and you enjoyed it be sure to hit that thumbs up button down below and subscribe to see more stuff like this in the future and everything i mentioned in this video is linked down below so if you want to support what i'm doing hit those links and if you do decide to purchase any one of those using those links i get a little bit of a kickback you can also go to patreon.com ford slash best mdc or carry commission to my gear emerged directly from me also be sure to follow us around the web you can find us in most places at bestmdc there's a facebook group and a discord server they're both linked down below i highly encourage you to join the community off youtube it's an amazing amazing community both places are growing really fast they're just great places to hang out with really great people and people who are far more knowledgeable than me on a lot of different things so if you've got questions that's a really good place to ask them but with that said and until next time carry on you

Channel: Best Damn EDC [Taylor Martin]

Views: 104,457

Rating: 4.8939595 out of 5

Keywords: EDC, everyday carry, edc weekly, edc gear, edc knife, pocket dump, every day carry, best edc knives, best edc knife, Civivi Elementum, Para 3 LW, Paramilitary 2, Chris Reeve, Sebenza, Honey Badger Knives, Spyderco Tenacious, Benchmade, Mini Crooked River, Bugout, WE Banter, Ferrum Forge Falcon, Spyderco, Para 3, Hinderer Knives, XM-18, Shirogorov F95RT, Bag Dump, Truck EDC, EDC Tool Kit, Knife Collection, budget edc knives, budget knives, best knife

Id: Tfcu-GoZBeA

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020