Back up blade

[Bladesman]

Most of us carry a main pocket knife, does anyone carry a back up? This is mine, the Kershaw Pub.
https://youtu.be/DKqMTblMXLM

[OLDE CUTLER]

I always carry two. Today it is a Gerber 450 lockblade with pocket clip, and one I recently customized, a Keen Kutter beer knife with a replacement Wharnecliffe that I made.

[treefarmer]

Never thought about calling it a “back up blade” but at times I do carry 2 knives. Usually I am attired in my bib overalls when carrying 2 knives, a good HOK in my pocket and some sort of tactical in the breast pocket.
Treefarmer

[1967redrider]

Sweet KK mod, OC.

[C-WADE7]

My everyday work knife is a Gerber Propel auto with tan G10, I always carry a second and it rotates out. Case trapper, mini trapper,6235 1/2, Schrade 175 that Glennbad put custom scales on, a Camillus 72 gifted from New Windsor Ny, or a SAK hiker. I try to mix it up for the situation I think I will be in but after a while I will get 10 more out to swap the daily rotation with.

[Railsplitter]

I used to carry two knives for several years but I found that I disliked the indecision of which one to use at a moment's notice. Lately I've been carrying only a single blade lock back and I'm more comfortable with that. My motto nowadays is "One knife, one blade" and I like the simplicity of that.

[GSPTOPDOG]

I am definitely a "Back up blade Guy"

[catspa]

I carry left and right. Sometimes you’re holding onto something you really shouldn’t let go of.

Left is a folding hunter (110-ish) or a 3-1/2” fixed of my own making, right is a senior or jumbo stockman, most days.

Parker

[GSPTOPDOG]

I carry left and right. Sometimes you’re holding onto something you really shouldn’t let go of.

Left is a folding hunter (110-ish) or a 3-1/2” fixed of my own making, right is a senior or jumbo stockman, most days.

Parker

I agree! sometimes I have to cut something loose that I am holding on too and I need a third hand and a 4th knife at that point

[Mumbleypeg]

Sometimes you’re holding onto something you really shouldn’t let go of.

Parker

Me too, but I carry front and back. Back pocket knife needs to be capable of one-hand operation, for the reason above. Lately it’s a Buck Paradigm, bolster lock “flipper”, which I’m really liking. My standard right front pocket is a traditional stockman (Case 53047, Schrade 881, Moore Maker 3303) whichever strikes my fancy that day. I guess if you look at it that way, a stockman pattern has two back up blades already.

Ken

[zzyzzogeton]

I never carry less than 4 knives. At least one fixed/folder pair on the left and one fixed/folder pair on the right. If you need a knife to cut something "right now" and your only knife is on the other side of your free hand, you are in deep kimchee.

My carry habits go back to August 1965. I was helping my grandfather prep the combine for maize harvest. His left sleeve came unrolled and got hung in one of the moving chain drives. He pulled a Kabar 1232 B&T and sliced his sleeve enough to pull free.

He looked at me and said "That's why you carry a fixed blade when working on equipment. You can't get a pocket knife out and open fast enough."

He was what I am now - short, bald and fat. I asked him "Popo, what if had been your other arm?"

He looked at me like I was crazy, then got a surprised look on his face, walked over to the tractor, turned it off and said "Let's go."

We drove 3 miles to town and, because they were out of 1232s, he bought a Western L46-5 Baby Shark. A couple of weeks later, the Western Auto store called him and told him "Hey, Alvin. We got those little Kabars in if you still want one."

The next time I saw him, he gave me the L46-5, saying "If you're smart enough to ask that question, you're old enough to have a fixed blade." and gave it to me. That was my first of several thousand fixed blades and I still have it.

After that, when working on machinery, he carried paired fixed blades until cancer and a stroke did him in.

I carried a minimum of 2 folders from then on, from 5th grade through 4 years of ROTC at TAMU, and on to this day and paired fixed blades when working on boats or equipment, even on active duty.

I started carrying paired fixed blades as full-blown EDCs the day after I got laid off from a high tech company sending my job to China. Now, I carry at least 2 folders and 2 fixed blades, minimum, daily - when going into a court house or Federal building, I take the knives out of their sheaths, but still have the sheaths on my belt.

The only changes to the picture below is that the Kabar shorties are replaced with Western F48Bs for church, weddings and funerals, or with larger knives if the day's task call for bigger knives, AND I no longer carry the digital recorder and zip drive since I retired. The keys and wallet get eliminated from actual carry when working around the farm - I'll get both if I need to drive somewhere off the farm. But this shows what my EDC has been for 20+ years.

[catspa]

Wow. The only way I’m going to beat that is to carry an extra stockman in an ankle sheath, and draw and open it with my toes.

Parker

[GSPTOPDOG]

I never carry less than 4 knives. At least one fixed/folder pair on the left and one fixed/folder pair on the right. If you need a knife to cut something "right now" and your only knife is on the other side of your free hand, you are in deep kimchee...
But this shows what my EDC has been for 20+ years.

Is the whistle to call for help in case you fall over and can't back up with all that stuff on you?

[Mumbleypeg]

That's a pretty good haul zz. Batman's got nothing on you!

Ken

[zzyzzogeton]

I never carry less than 4 knives. At least one fixed/folder pair on the left and one fixed/folder pair on the right. If you need a knife to cut something "right now" and your only knife is on the other side of your free hand, you are in deep kimchee...
But this shows what my EDC has been for 20+ years.

Is the whistle to call for help in case you fall over and can't back up with all that stuff on you?

The whistle has 4 purposes -

1 - to recall my dog. She's trained to return to a whistle.

2 - to act as a "locator beacon" in the event I have an accident in one of the pastures or fields, or back in the day, when hiking. One can blow a whistle for a hell of a lot longer than one can yell.

3 - to use as a "warning device". I have used mine multiple times in parking lots to warn someone "down hill" in a parking lot when some idiot let their shopping cart go rogue. When I blew the whistle in each instance, everyone in view looked up and the person closest to the cart(s) caught them and stopped them. No damage to vehicles and in one instance, one person did NOT receive a grocery cart to the backside.

4 - whatever other reason pops up that I need a whistle for. What would that be? Who knows?, but I'll be ready for it.

Another change to the above pocket dump is that I have a lanyard attached to the whistle that I have running out of my pocket up and under my belt so that I can grab the lantard quickly and getting out of a deep pocket.

[zzyzzogeton]

That's a pretty good haul zz. Batman's got nothing on you!

Ken

Some people call me paranoid. I prefer to think of it as being prepared. I have found that if you prepare for the unexpected you don't get surprised as often.

Back when I was an volunteer active firefighter, EMT and Search/Recovery diver for 30+ years, I carried a LOT of crap on and around my person and in my vehicle. That happens when your furthest area of concern is 50 miles from the nearest ambulance and it is 20 miles from your Fire Station and you have no idea what you will need when you get there.

My duty gear belt had a radio, pocket mask, a spring punch, glucometer, extra gloves, shears, a Kabar shorty, a Buck 112, a flash light and a small 1st aid kit.

I had a full Fire Fighter / EMT-B and rescue load out of equipment in my Tahoe and a subset in my Geo Prism, including a VHF radio in each vehicle-

full EMT-B load out - backboard, spider straps, AED, O2 bottles, suction unit, splints, bandages, wraps, 3 BP cuffs (pedi, adult and large adult), diabetic kit

bunker gear - coat, pants, helmet, flash gear, boots, FF gloves

wildland gear - helmet, pants, jacket, steel toe boots, leather gloves

rescue gear - short and long bolt cutters, hack saw, (later added a battery powered saw and angle grinder), hatchet, axe, 3 sizes of sledge hammers, a crow bar, a pry bar, several bottle jacks, a loaded tool box.

high angle rescue - 2 helmets, 2 harnesses, 4 - 200 ft ropes, and a wide assortment of anchors, straps and hardware

SCUBA gear - a minimum of 2 80 cuft tanks, wetsuit, drysuit, swim trunks, dive boots, 2 pairs of fins, 2 masks, spare straps, 2 regulators, 2 BC vests with appropriate safety equipment, 2 UW lights, and more.

A lot of that equipment got added as calls happened and I was short of something that would have made the call easier/outcome better. I carried 2 sets of high angle gear just in case someone else (trained of course) showed up on a call without their equipment because they were in the wrong vehicle when the call came out. We all carried extra gear.

So I ran around with $30K of equipment in a $26K vehicle.

The battery powered angle grinder got added after a diabetic emergency call i responded to in the boonies had a chain and hardened lock that had 1/2" thick shaft and links. Took me nearly 20 minutes to hacksaw through the lock. The other option was cut through a link twice. And no, I couldn't have just cut the fence and driven around the gate (I'd done that several times). This entrance had a 6 foot wide, 5 foot deep ditch on either side of the drive entrance.

All except the high-dollar EMS gear (AED, suction, etc) was purchased by me since our department was so poor we couldn't pay attention. We all bought our own gear, vehicle radios included.

The dive group was the same way - we were volunteers. We individually bought all our gear, including our underwater comm gear. The group held fund raisers so we could buy surface comm gear base station, radios, lift bags, extra (25) air tanks, ropes, and other search/recovery equipment.

The patient lived long enough to have loved ones get to the hospital. He MIGHT have lived to walk out of the hospital if pre-hospital care could have been provided 20 minutes sooner. So I spent the $400+ it cost at the time and bought a couple of battery powered tools that MIGHT make a difference on a future call.

So I will take being called paranoid any day over being unprepared.

[zzyzzogeton]

That's a pretty good haul zz. Batman's got nothing on you!

Ken

Some people call me paranoid. I prefer to think of it as being prepared. I have found that if you prepare for the unexpected you don't get surprised as often.

Back when I was an volunteer active firefighter, EMT and Search/Recovery diver for 30+ years, I carried a LOT of crap on and around my person and in my vehicle. That happens when your furthest area of concern is 50 miles from the nearest ambulance and it is 20 miles from your Fire Station and you have no idea what you will need when you get there.

My duty gear belt had a radio, pocket mask, a spring punch, glucometer, extra gloves, shears, a Kabar shorty, a Buck 112, a flash light and a small 1st aid kit.

I had a full Fire Fighter / EMT-B and rescue load out of equipment in my Tahoe and a subset in my Geo Prism, including a VHF radio in each vehicle-

full EMT-B load out - backboard, spider straps, AED, O2 bottles, suction unit, splints, bandages, wraps, 3 BP cuffs (pedi, adult and large adult), diabetic kit

bunker gear - coat, pants, helmet, flash gear, boots, FF gloves

wildland gear - helmet, pants, jacket, steel toe boots, leather gloves

rescue gear - short and long bolt cutters, hack saw, (later added a battery powered saw and angle grinder), hatchet, axe, 3 sizes of sledge hammers, a crow bar, a pry bar, several bottle jacks, a loaded tool box.

high angle rescue - 2 helmets, 2 harnesses, 4 - 200 ft ropes, and a wide assortment of anchors, straps and hardware

SCUBA gear - a minimum of 2 80 cuft tanks, wetsuit, drysuit, swim trunks, dive boots, 2 pairs of fins, 2 masks, spare straps, 2 regulators, 2 BC vests with appropriate safety equipment, 2 UW lights, and more.

A lot of that equipment got added as calls happened and I was short of something that would have made the call easier/outcome better. I carried 2 sets of high angle gear just in case someone else (trained of course) showed up on a call without their equipment because they were in the wrong vehicle when the call came out. We all carried extra gear.

So I ran around with $30K of equipment in a $26K vehicle.

The battery powered angle grinder got added after a diabetic emergency call i responded to in the boonies had a chain and hardened lock that had 1/2" thick shaft and links. Took me nearly 20 minutes to hacksaw through the lock. The other option was cut through a link twice. And no, I couldn't have just cut the fence and driven around the gate (I'd done that several times). This entrance had a 6 foot wide, 5 foot deep ditch on either side of the drive entrance.

All except the high-dollar EMS gear (AED, suction, etc) was purchased by me since our department was so poor we couldn't pay attention. We all bought our own gear, vehicle radios included.

The dive group was the same way - we were volunteers. We individually bought all our gear, including our underwater comm gear. The group held fund raisers so we could buy surface comm gear base station, radios, lift bags, extra (25) air tanks, ropes, and other search/recovery equipment.

The patient lived long enough to have loved ones get to the hospital. He MIGHT have lived to walk out of the hospital if pre-hospital care could have been provided 20 minutes sooner. So I spent the $400+ it cost at the time and bought a couple of battery powered tools that MIGHT make a difference on a future call.

And even though I'm retired from actively running calls, I still carry a lot of crap in my vehicles - first aid kits, knives, machetes, ropes, a jack or two, etc.

So I will take being called paranoid any day over being unprepared.

[GSPTOPDOG]

I never carry less than 4 knives. At least one fixed/folder pair on the left and one fixed/folder pair on the right. If you need a knife to cut something "right now" and your only knife is on the other side of your free hand, you are in deep kimchee...
But this shows what my EDC has been for 20+ years.
:
The whistle has 4 purposes -
4 - whatever other reason pops up that I need a whistle for. What would that be? Who knows?, but I'll be ready for it.

OK, those are all good reasons As a Boy Scout, I learned that having a whistle out in the wilderness was essential because yelling for help wears out your throat in no time, but to use a whistle you just have to breath. I also carry 4 knives on occasion for EDC sometimes 5 If you leave it at home when you need it well you done screwed up!!! It is good to see some people are walking around prepared ... because plenty of them there Pilgrams I see out there ain't!

[GSPTOPDOG]

That's a pretty good haul zz. Batman's got nothing on you!
Ken

Oh, also, I carry/use and LOVE the (BKT) Becker Necker neck knife and I carry my rope knife/sailor's knife / marlin spike knife, when I haul my trailer around, seeing as how I am always tying down "stuff"