Willfully Incapable People

You can't cut a cake or start a fire with a smart phone (two of the things mentioned in the OP).

Click to expand...

Actually, you can start a fire with a smartphone. If you can get the battery out, it and a couple little bits of wire make as good a firestarter as most of the ones you scrape with a knife.

And, to be fair, some cars hide their spare stuff so well a mechanic can't find it, especially with the way a lot of people toss the manuals somewhere you never find them. I hate it.

As for the rest, yeah. There's not a week goes by without a conversation as such:
"You don't have a smart phone? How do you do anything?"
"Like a grown man."

And then I have to use my knife for something for them, ask them how they function without one, and there's not a thing they can say that doesn't make them sound like helpless children.

My phone is smart, it's real smart, it sends AND receives calls. It also has buttons. It is also very small.

The internet? It's for the mornings when I'm drinking my coffee (like now) or the evenings when I'm winding down for the day.

Simply put, a person must feel prepared for his daily mission. Dressy smooth soled shoes have always bothered me, as well as certain types clothing people choose to wear outdoors. Durable boots, trousers with leg pockets, layered performance fabrics, jackets with good pockets, are essential to me.

I cleaned out my car last weekend and found a very interesting array of snacks, weapons and assorted clothing and gear. I could probably throw a tent in there and make it all last a weekend.

Deus Machina said:

Actually, you can start a fire with a smartphone. If you can get the battery out, it and a couple little bits of wire make as good a firestarter as most of the ones you scrape with a knife.

And, to be fair, some cars hide their spare stuff so well a mechanic can't find it, especially with the way a lot of people toss the manuals somewhere you never find them. I hate it.

As for the rest, yeah. There's not a week goes by without a conversation as such:
"You don't have a smart phone? How do you do anything?"
"Like a grown man."

And then I have to use my knife for something for them, ask them how they function without one, and there's not a thing they can say that doesn't make them sound like helpless children.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, smartphone dependency. Have you ever noticed that the majority of those that claim they can't function without a smartphone use it to play games? I wonder how Sir Richard Burton discovered the source of the Nile without a smartphone? Or John Paul Jones the Serapis? Lewis and Clark and a list of others that would fill this board three times over.

My grandfather used to complain that people were getting smarter and weaker. Every so often I have to wonder if he wasn't correct.

to have that tiny little sak on you is one thing, but it doesnt quite come up even with the most essential thing to carry arond with you.

the innate willingness to stickthe other person in the eye or throat with a pointy stick or tiny knife blade in order to get the last can of baked beans.

Well I sit on the border of another State and Country. Now you won't find m on the other side of the border but in NM yes. If I knew it wouldn't cause trouble I would have knife with a 6 inch blade and a pocket knife with me at all times. Problem is I couldn't get into public buildings or use public transportation with a knife on me. Its just to much of a hassel. People freak out if you even mention the word "gun". Back when I was in school everyone carried a knife of somekind in a pocket or purse. You could go out to the parking lot and see long guns hanging in windows and ypu knew nearly every car and truck had a hand gun in the glove box and yet we didn't have the trouble we ave today.

Guess there is no "Quote" available here.
Personally, I couldn't care less what some girly-man thinks of me. I come prepared to deal with challenges presented in MY life. How I accomplish that is nobody elses business.

ferretray said:

Guess there is no "Quote" available here.
Personally, I couldn't care less what some girly-man thinks of me. I come prepared to deal with challenges presented in MY life. How I accomplish that is nobody elses business.

Click to expand...

Hit the "quick reply" button at the bottom right of the post you want to quote. Then check the "Quote message in reply?" box under the left side of the text field.

GoWolfpack said:

Hit the "quick reply" button at the bottom right of the post you want to quote. Then check the "Quote message in reply?" box under the left side of the text field.

Click to expand...

Thank you Sir.

My edc gear is a Benchmade mini-grip 555 knife, a Surefire E1B flashlight, iPhone 4s w/ Mophie juicepak, bandana, pack of Eclipse wintergreen, bitty Victorinox knife, eyeglass wipe, Jet pen, 1/2 roll of Tums (to deal with the effects of my love of coffee), wallet and pocket change. All are used frequently throughout my normal day or I wouldn't carry them. I don't really care what others think of my carry gear, it's used for my needs and convenience, plus good samaritan acts as appropriate. If someone doesn't like it they're welcome to keep their opinions to themselves.

A man should never leave his home without at least a pocket knife and a handkerchief.

A phone, keys and wallet will help immensely too. If I don't have these 5 things on me before I leave, I'm forgetting something; that's my EDC.

DeadFlies said:

A man should never leave his home without at least a pocket knife and a handkerchief.

A phone, keys and wallet will help immensely too. If I don't have these 5 things on me before I leave, I'm forgetting something; that's my EDC.

Click to expand...

I get caught with any size knife in an adjacent city and I get to be a guest of the city in it's jail for a month.

Keys, wallet, knife.


With these three things I can get anything else I need.

I keep weeks worth of survival/emergency equipment in my truck, year round. I keep the essentials (firearm, knives, flashlights, batteries, lighter, first aid kit, multi-tool, water purifying tablets, etc.) in my computer bag which is 2 feet away from me 5 days a week. And I won't walk out my front door without at least a watch, pocket knife, small flashlight, and iPhone 5 on me.

My EDC items in order of how much they get used throughout the day are:

1. Watch
2. iPhone
3. Flashlight
4. Knife

Sure, the iPhone can take on most of the duties of the watch and the flashlight, but I guess I'm "old fashioned" (as old fashioned as you can be in your early 30's).

I can't count how many times I've heard, "you carry a flashlight around all the time?" when I save the day with that simple little tool.

David E said:

I am interested in short stories of how an item you carried performed an unexpected task.

I cited cutting cake and watermelon and a few others. I didn't want this to turn into yet another EDC thread, but a "here's an EDC item that saved the day by..."

I have used the SAK tweezers to recover quarters from the slot of a broken gum ball machine. Not all quarters were originally mine!

.

Click to expand...

I keep a p38 can opener on my keys and it has saved several cookouts. Including one at college with a bunch of engineering students that couldn't even figure out how to light a gas grill. That cookout caused me to lose a lot of faith in my generation.

+1 on the p38...keep it real sharp and it doubles as a mini knife for some jobs. There are days i have so much stuff on my belt it almost looks "tactical" boy i wish the fanny pack would be back in fashon.

Most unusual thing I have accomplished with my Leatherman wave: removing a broken centering pin from the inner cone of a gyrocompass sphere. Any needle nose pliers could have accomplished it but it amazed me that the technition working on a $2,000 Stainless steel pin, in a $5,000+ sphere of a $15,000+ gyrocompass was stopped dead in his tracks with no way to get the broken tip of the pin out (you're not supposed to turn these things upside down). I said "this might do it" pulled out my wave and got the pin tip out.

Can't tell you how many doors I've opened with a pocket knife. And yes, a pocket knife will carve a watermelon just fine...all you really need to do is cut through the rind and the rest just splits sweet as can be.

But the most unusual thing I've done with my pocket knife? De-boned a deer ham and carved it into steaks using my three bladed Old Timer. On the conference table in the training room in the office at work. During lunch.

Got some pretty interesting looks from the other engineers while I was doing it, too.



One of the other engineers had been hunting and brought me in a ham. We stuck it in the freezer until lunch to stiffen it up enough to make carving it up easier.

I remember when I was a kid dad would use the 3 blade stockman out of his pocket to castrate hogs. Refused to use a real scalpel till the bitter end. Also, my wife carries one of my cast off led flashlights in her purse. She giggles every time someone borrows it and says "how is that little thing THAT bright?". She works at a hospital, and it happens frequently there. As for me, I can't begin to tell how many times someone has asked me to check something out at church or elsewhere when I'm dressed "nice". A few months ago I was climbing around our church attic after service and the fella I was with was amazed that I had a light and knife (that I used to open a scuttle latch) on me while dressed as such.

I was a Boy Scout...

"Be Prepared"

My keychain includes a Swiss Army Knife and a small (but bright) LED flashlight. My vehicles carry water, knives, an e-tool, a lighter, space blankets, disposable rain ponchos, and a firearm.

The OP reminds us in post 59:

I am interested in short stories of how an item you carried performed an unexpected task.

I cited cutting cake and watermelon and a few others. I didn't want this to turn into yet another EDC thread, but a "here's an EDC item that saved the day by..."

Click to expand...

I wanted to read more, too, but there are too many off-thread-topic posts to weed through.

mountain_man said:

I keep a p38 can opener on my keys and it has saved several cookouts. Including one at college with a bunch of engineering students that couldn't even figure out how to light a gas grill. That cookout caused me to lose a lot of faith in my generation.

Click to expand...

That's why there are Tech's to fix the bright ideas the engineers come up with.

I am interested in short stories of how an item you carried performed an unexpected task.

Click to expand...

Sorry!

I did manage once, during a Boy Scout demonstration of preparedness, to use my handkerchief as kindling to start a fire when all nearby kindling was wet. I've also used one to wrap deep cuts when no immediate bandage was available.

One of my favorite "MacGyver" moments was using my Czech tool (tape-lashed to a spatula) to jimmy the lock on my truck after locking my keys inside.