Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
I’m an EDC nerd, and I think I’ve been one since a was a little kid with a pocket knife. I’m not one of the EDC guys that carries a ton of stuff, but I like the stuff that I do carry to actually work. Unfortunately over the years I’ve collected a bunch of EDC gear that just doesn’t do it for me.
Everybody who carries a gun needs to have a J-Frame S&W, right? Wrong. I had a S&W 642 and I found it to be a dreadful gun. Painful to shoot, and it wasn’t as easy to conceal as a small .380 ACP auto. I sold it and bought a Ruger LCP, then I sold the LCP…
I love gadgets and pocket tools, unfortunately none of the above knives or tools did anything for me. Let’s go one by one:
- Top Left: Byrd full serrated Spyderco knockoff knife – This knife is good for exactly one thing: being able to complain about it in this blog post. I don’t cut seat belts often, so there’s no place for it in my EDC gear.
- Center: Gerber Curve – This seemed like a cool little tool, small locking blade and screw driver bits (the phillips is completely worthless) on a clip that doubles as a beer opener. Really the only tool on it that works well is the beer opener.
- Top Right: Gerber Artifact – Just marginally more useful than the Curve, in that it’s good at opening beers, and some light prying, but that’s about it. I found the Xacto blade to be wonky the way it’s attached, and the phillips screwdriver is awful.
- Bottom: Cheap CRKT liner-lock half serrated knife – The only thing less useful than a half serrated knife is a full serrated knife (see above). I bought this because it was super cheap, it was a waste of money.
The old braided stainless steel keyring. These are actually pretty awesome until they come unscrewed and you find all of your keys loose in your pocket, or after some use the cable will fray and stick you in the finger tip with a razor sharp piece of steel.
I used the carabiner to hang my keys from my belt loop like all the cool kids. Good luck sneaking up on anyone, or moving anywhere quietly with your keys on a carabiner. The best part is if you combine the carabiner with the cable keychain, when the keychain comes unscrewed, you lose all of your keys for a while. Been there, done that, never again.
Match container and soda bottle pre-form: “Wow, those are certainly useful for something other than their intended purpose!”
They’re not.
The flask gets carried to… events. I’m not responsible enough to carry it as part of my EDC though. I’d be drunk and unemployed instantly.
This was actually pretty cool when I was carrying concealed with Glock pistols. I made this out of a piece of kydex to hold a spare magazine in my back pocket. Reloads weren’t super quick, but better than having the magazine loose in the pocket. I should probably make another one for my spare XDs magazine.
The standard wide-mouth Nalgene bottle is probably one if the best products ever invented. Unfortunately the narrow mouth bottle just isn’t nearly as good. Getting ice into it is troublesome, it gulps weird when drinking from it, and worst of all, it doesn’t mate up with my water purifier nicely so it’s a pain to fill when backpacking.
The stainless steel Nalgene bottle is pretty good, but it’s heavy, and noisy clunking around in my car or backpack, and I’m constantly afraid that I’m going to dent a $40 water bottle. It pretty much stays home unless all of my other bottles are dirty.
I really like the idea of carrying an EDC thumb drive. I’ve found it quite useful on a number of occasions, but unfortunately I’ve not found one that can survive in my pocket for more than a few months. This guy lasted the longest until it wouldn’t stay retracted anymore, and my keys began scratching away at the contacts. I pulled it from the keyring, and now it sits on my desk.
What gear have you bought for EDC that just didn’t work out?
Try the Gorilla flash drives. Found the 16 gb at Wally World, and so far it’s held up great.
I’ll check it out, thanks. 16gb is just about the right size for me.
Nice post. I had really high hopes for the Gerber Shard. But instead, I found that none of the tools really worked in practice. I get more use from a P51 can opener, and that’s what I carry these days as “multitool.”
Yep, I keep one in my wallet, use it frequently!
keyport, solves the keyring issue. Add a thumbdrive as one of the “blades”
Do you have one? I assume you like it? I’ve been eyeballing something similar that looks sort of like a pocket knife with the keys.
I’ve actually been carrying my keys on paracord for a few years, works fantastic.
Loved reading this! lol …Lucas, great fun, reminds me of my gadget-ridden childhood, ..cheap, junkie pocket knives that I begged mom for, cuz I couldn’t live without them…Lol
Lessee…edc that didn’t work…First gen Leatherman—sheet metal snapped where the hinge hole was, just too fragile a design to use the pliers for more than showing your uninterested friends and military buddies, you have folding pliers. REPLACED by gen 1 and gen 2 Gerber Multi-plier —a real tool you can abuse like pliers.
Same exact experience with fully-serrated Spyderco folders…looked cool — never deployed.
Sometimes this stuff does come around again. I got a year’s use out of the $15 plastic Glock holster I bought alongside my G34, then discarded it when I got my grown-up range holster (Comp-Tac IDPA kit).
Suddenly, it’s back in service as a winter-time CCW holster for my G19; holds the gun pretty tight to my torso, draws fast, weighs nothing, and — unlike every IWB holster I tried — the damned things is uber comfortable.
There’s hope for all that old stuff (I’m hoping that extends to me too).
Personally one of the biggest surprises was victorinox knives. I carry the mini champ and recruit. I bought one just add to the collection and then another. Currently on the hunt for a third. I truly find that I miss and need either when I forget it.
i like the victorinox swiss bit for my keychain. gives you a thumb drive along with a small swiss army knife and it keeps the flash drive folded in and protected like one of the blades.