Fall has been pretty darn pleasant here in New England and the wave of gear for reviews ahead of the holidays has been great. Here is a sample of stuff I have been carrying.

This fall was pretty warm and so I got away with wearing shorts a lot longer than normal. The result was lighter than normal carry.

The Surefire Titan Plus with the Benchmade Proper

Both of these are just great and with the Prometheus clip, the Titan is a real superstar EDC light. I have one more upgrade to make before I think the Titan Plus is perfect for me. Stock, it is quite good, but with a few tweaks, I can't think of a better EDC light for under $200.

The Proper is probably my favorite piece of gear this year. It might not be the best overall, that will have to wait for another article, but it is excellent. It takes great pictures, too. All I can say is this--Benchmade is on a roll the likes of which we have seen since ZT's run a few years ago. In my mind they are the company to beat right now. I am sure other companies are in the running, but its hard to imagine a scenario where Benchmade is not in the conversation.

Muyshondt Aeon Mk. III and Gareth Bull Small Shamwari

No two items I have owned go together better than these two do. For me, the Shamwari is utterly perfect in every way. I love the 2.75 inch blade length and the Aeon is just a masterpiece. If I want to run an unfailing, thoughtless carry, this is it. In many ways, it reminds me of the notion Nick Shabazz talked about with me--great gear is boring. I don't have to worry about the edge or the battery life, these two just work incredibly well.

AG Russell Light'n Bug and Veleno Designs 40DD

Name puns aside, this little light is a true gem. Its so tiny, so bright, and has the best QTC implementation I have ever seen. The threads are so fine that it allows for very fine tuned output, dialed in in incredibly small increments. I feel like if all QTC was this good, the industry would have switched over already. It is really the future--fewer parts, simpler, and precise. I am just not sure that anyone other than Steve Ku has implemented it this well.

It bears mentioning that this Light&Saber pair comes in at UNDER 1.5 ounces. You get a light AND a knife for around the same weight as a Dragonfly II. Unfortunately, the light is no longer available, but the UltraTac K18 Mini is a good alternative at a much lower price. It lacks the QTC, but it is still pretty good.

Its time for AG Russell to upgrade the Light'n Bug. This is an awesome knife, it feels like a much more expensive blade, but the 8Cr steel, even with the coating leaves something to be desired. With S35VN, which is also available in China, the Light'n Bug would compete quite well when the William Henry EDC-6 and the Mnandi--its that well made and that nice in the hand and pocket. I am still working on a review, but this knife has been a vexing thing to evaluate. It is truly greater than the sum of its parts, and given how the scoring system works, that is pretty hard to put into words.

For me, I ma not sure of a need to carry something bigger than this in terms of EDC. The Jarosz is the odd duck of the custom world--a knife designed to be used as opposed to posed for IG. These are the best handes on a folder, even years after the design came out.

Similarly the Haiku is still at the top of the game, beam pattern-wise. Don't worry that it has 138 lumens out the front on the XP-G model. It is still twice as useful as lights four times brighter (that's an alegbra problem for you)

I also like the monochromatic look in this picture. It is really cool. I hope my pictures are getting better since I launched the new site. I have taken more time with them. Let me know in the comments.

What do you do in the rare instance you forget your EDC? Well I had a light in my and the Dime in the desk at work. Funny enough, I used both quite a bit that day and they were both useful. The Klarus has a busted UI, but the Dime, provided you win the build-quality lottery is an awesome, mini-multitool--still the best I have seen. See, I don't reflexively hate Gerber stuff.