Lead Picture: BOSS 35 and Wilkins Knives Leafstorm 9

Despite the incredibly hot summer this year, I did carry the Leafstorm pretty often. It is a wonderfully weird and quirky knife. There are things I would change (like doing some internal milling to lighten the knife), but on the whole it is a pretty excellent compact carry. I don’t believe that folders can be true hard use knives, but I am not worried about doing pretty much any normal cutting task with this knife. It can take a beating. The pairing with the BOSS 35 is pretty sweet, as both are compact powerhouses and look better with a bit of wear.

Tactile Turn Side Click, Sonny Straps Card Holder, FourSevens Mini Mk. III, and the Civivi Baby Banter

Hmmmm….What in this picture is not just incredible? What in this picture is not made by a good friend? The answer to both is the same—nothing. The Side Click, made by Will Hodges, is a benchmark in the EDC pen market. The Mini Mk. III, made by Jason Hui, is exceedingly good and smaller than just about anything on the market. The Baby Banter, design Ben Petersen, is significantly better than the full sized version and a knife I regularly pick up. The stand out piece of kit you might not have seen is the Sonny’s Straps Card Holder. In case you are unaware, Andrew Gene is making leather goods. Like his videos for the gone-but-not-forgotten Edge Observer, these are some of the nicest pieces of leather goods out there and given how crowded the market is that is saying a lot. The stitching is gorgeous, the leather is absolutely top shelf, and as you can seen, he is doing some creative work debossing images and messages into the leather. Who wouldn’t want a wallet with their logo on it?

FourSevens Mini Mk. III and Triple Aught Design/Hinderer Compact Dauntless

Every time I carry this knife I am reminded of how good it is. Hinderer was one of the first to tackle the Dauntless form many years ago and this midtech run of compact versions of the knife are, in my opinion, the best users TAD has ever produced. Sure, there is the Rexford Dauntless for the blue bloods among us, but if you intend to actually carry and use your Dauntless, this is it. I’d trade a black version for a green version if I could do the swap in person, but I am not too upset with this version.

Spyderco Jester Knife Joker Exclusive and Modded Surefire Titan Plus

The Jester. It is the best ultra-compact knife ever made. This version, with 20CV steel, is the best version of the Jester. Those two things together make this a knife you need to have. If the Dragonfly is, for whatever reason, just too big, the Jester is perfect. Pair it with a tiny light via the lanyard hole, and the entire pairing is small enough to carry in a coin pocket but capable enough to do a lot of real work. If you don’t use your knife for food prep, this is a perfectly legit EDC, something no other ultra-compact can claim. I currently have this knife tethered to the prototype 40DD for a sweet, hard to find light and saber pair. Note that the modded Titan Plus still finds its way into my pocket. This post demonstrates a theme with my torch carry recently—simple, small lights that run on both primaries and rechargeables. Over and over again I have reached for one of the two lights shown in the last two pictures and I have not been disappointed.

Surefire Titan Plus and Ferrum Forge Stinger

Swirly tree stump and swirly CF just go so naturally together, I couldn’t pass this up. The Stinger is a great knife, but I am not sure who it is for. With Civivi using a lot more Nitro V, charging $100 feels a little bad. Its weird because when it was released the Stinger hit so hard because it was a great value. Now it is merely an okay priced knife. My how fast the market has changed. And most of that change is because of Civivi/WE. Price aside though, the Stinger is a superb cutter and a great EDC knife. It will score well, even if it value is no longer the headline…

CJRB Small Feldspar and Folomov EDC C1

And the reason why the value isn’t that great anymore is because of knives from Civivi and stuff like this blade. The CJRB is a knife that exceeds all reasonable expectations for a $30 blade. The handle, no joke, is one of the best on the market, price-blind. How is that even possible? The design is graced with flawless choices. And the D2 is perfectly serviceable. Paired with this tiny baby of a torch and you have a masterfully good EDC for under $50.

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FourSevens Mini Mk. III