We often use the term pocket knife for all folding knives, and it is probably angels on the head of pin to insist they are always different, but there is a class of knives that I think have fallen out of favor for no real good reason. For purposes of this article, when I am referring to “pocket knives” I mean small folding knives that are carried solely in the pocket. Some slipjoints and traditional knives fall into this category, like a Peanut or Copperhead pattern, but others, like a Elephant Toe Nail or a Buck 110 do not. The key is that the knife needs to be small and clipless—something that can genuinely be carried in a pocket.
There are a few reasons to carry such a knife.
First. they tend to be smaller than most knives I review here. Blades under 2 inches are often seen as useless, but whole generations of folks used and carried nothing else. My grandfather’s favorite knife, the only one he ever made a sheath for, was a tiny gem—a very small Case knife (picture above, knife on the left). It has a sub-2 inch blade. He did all kinds of stuff with that knife. He carried it when he worked on a farm and tended to the horses. He took it with him when he and his brother Walt ran an impromptu towing service in the hollers of Southern Ohio (they found a broken winch, fixed it, and attached it to their father’s truck and then drove around country roads pulling people out of ditches for a dime…they were 10 and 8 at the time). He also had it in his pocket when he would make runs to his father’s stash of moonshine in a hidden location, often in the dead of night. Because it was so small it was easy to carry and thus it was always on him, even in school…but that is a whole different subject.
You won’t find any argument from me. I carry a slipjoint even when I am carrying something bigger.
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