Small Knives For Big Jobs

At the end of the day, people who EDC a pocket knife do so because it proves its usefulness repeatedly in little ways every single day. An essential everyday tool despite its diminutive size.

Smaller knives are more convenient to carry, which makes them much easier to keep on you at all times. Their sheer portability alone makes them less intimidating. Cumbersome knives often spark as much conversation as their larger brothers and sisters and seem to spark a lot of interest when used in the mailroom or handed to a friend who can't seem to untie their boot knots. In most circumstances, they are easier to use, and if you're pulling it out to help someone, you get rewarded with a thank you verse, "Why on earth do you carry such a large knife?" Well, Karen, some of us enjoy large knives, okay? Alright, back on track... Smaller knives have always been popular, whether it's due to regional laws, your grandfather carried one, or you just do not have the need for a large knife; like most of us, a three-inch blade or even smaller can do the tasks we need it to. 

I'll be honest: I was never that interested in smaller knives. It seemed to me that whenever my grandfather opened his tackle box, asked for help in his shop, or took me hunting; he would hand me a new knife—usually a Case or Schrade slip joint. Then, one day, he handed me a large yellow-handled folding fillet knife. That ended small knives for me. I was young and felt like such a king with a large knife in my hand. When I say it was large, you've got to picture a small, skinny kid around the age of 7 or 8 holding a 4.5-inch fillet knife. The top of it would stick out of my pocket, and I couldn't even ride a bike without worrying about it falling out. It was big. That was it for me. From that day forward, all I wanted was a large knife. This trend continued well into my twenties. I now wear an XL glove, so larger knives feel good in the palm. This kept up as my collection grew until my father passed his Swiss Army Knife down to me. I'm dominantly left-handed, so I keep my knives in my left pocket, which makes good real estate in my right pocket, which is where the SAK (Swiss Army Knife) grew to live. Slowly, this knife got used more and more. I'd make a knife trade and receive a well-taped box in the mail; out came the SAK to open it up. I received a large order from Amazon, again, the SAK is there to rescue my need for the task. Fast-forward to me falling in love with this small pocket knife. I'm climbing Mt. Adamas in the late summer season, and we detour for a steeper route. We decided to camp that night and skywatch before summiting the following morning. Out came the SAK to shave Tinder and even scrape my fire steel to get the fire going. That night, we had some large folded strips of Deer Jerky, which the SAK made easy use of to cut and divvy up with my buddies. I could keep going with this story, but in short, this small knife kept getting more and more used for day-to-day tasks like opening mail and boxes to now cutting rope, preparing kindling, carving a stick around the campfire, and removing splinters. When we returned from our short trip, I went to a local gun show, where a man was selling Spyderco's. I picked up the Para 3, and it was like all of a sudden, the light went on. That knife stayed in my pocket until I found another smaller knife by Spyderco, the Native 5. I kept up with this for a while. I was finding myself falling in love with smaller knives. The acceptance of a smaller blade by friends and family who aren't knife people made them more palatable. Now, in my daily rotation of knives, most of them sit well below the 3.25-inch blade length. One of my favorites is the Chaves T.A.K., which the acronym stands for Tiny Ass Knife. It's small, for sure, and works just fine in my large hands.