My wife doesn’t like the patina on the carbon steel for cutting food, so now I pack a stainless for picnics and such.
Bonus: the stainless versions are newer and so the locking collar locks the blade both open and closed, vs. my older carbon steel knives which only locked open. Of course, the fit is tight enough, I usually have to tap the handles to get the blade out anyway.
In the dash of my bus, I keep a Leatherman Wave. It has survived many years of freshwater and saltwater fishing, emergency repairs on the VW or other camping tools, etc.
It is a shitty knife. The handle sucks for cutting in knife mode. Great set of pliers.
Leatherman: sucks for every job, but is able to do every job.1
Yeah, it’s certainly not a substitute for your Opinel, particularly for food prep.
1Some damage may occur to hands.
Careful when whipping this thing out in public to show a stranger; they could misread “carbone” printed on the handle as “cabron”, and whoa… look out Nelly!
Too bad the author felt the need to advertise for Am@zon. Opinel has a nice website and offers a slim handle version of the #8 that may fit my hand a bit better, and no need to look at the knife to see the orientation of the blade. I may pick one up before Trump’s tariffs cause a price jump.
“Is that a an Opinel No. 8 in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”
“Pbbbbt, I’ll have you know it is a No. 9.”
Agreed, I have some jeans you could spot a paperclip in the pocket. So I doubt the Opinel would make a good EDC for me. I switched over to a clip knife a few years back and it so much nicer not to have fish around in your pocket/purse/pack for your knife. Last year my sons gave me a Benchmade Mini-Griptillian, and I have to say it is one the nicest gifts ever. One handed open and close whose action is feels like a well made machine, and IMO the blade is brilliant. But it is not fair to compare a $100 knife to a $15 one, is it?
Edit: Looks like Amazon carries the Slimline Opinels - my bad
my preferred day-to-day tool:
I mean, I don’t cut my beer open, but my pen knife handle is a much used object.
Good metal in the blade, secure lock. Fat handle, will wear through the fabric of your pants in front of where it sits in your pocket. Regretably, the handle can’t be thinned, as the lock runs in a ring around it. High carbon steel blade will flavor fruit, onions, and cheese of iron.
I’ve carried a pocket knife since grade school (Yeah, it was a while ago). I use a CRKT knife with a wire clip that rides on the edge of the pocket these days-- ugly, great carry, great blade and secure lock.
The carbon knives lock in both positions these days. I don’t recall but the ones that lock in only one direction are pretty old. They updated the collar around 20 years ago. I think they introduced stainless around the same time.
Buck’s Bantam and Nano Bantam. $13-$20, made in the USA from ugly plastic. The ugly plastic has held up for 9 years in my Nano Bantam. Traditional lock back that is generally more secure than the more modern liner-locks, but does work best using two hands to open and close. The steel is a reasonable compromise between easy to sharpen and durable. It isn’t going to chip, but it will go dull. To me it’s sort of the everyperson’s simple lock back knife, almost the Volkswagen Type 1 of knives.
that said I still have my somewhat expensive beauties from Case Knives, and others.
She’s not alone. The shiny appearance of stainless steel fools people into thinking it is more “clean” than other metals, when actually it’s a breeding ground for human pathogens. People are literally dying in hospitals because hospital administrators want the appearance of cleanliness more than they want to read scientific papers; every time you see an aluminum or stainless steel “hospital grade” touch surface, you should complain to the hospital. Those stainless doorknobs are literally killing people, yet your local hospital probably has set standards that require stainless knobs.
But in the kitchen it’s not a bad material, since you should be scouring and sterilizing it regularly anyway.
Thanks @jlw , I definitely going to check these out.
The blade may not be as good on the Victorinox, but I find myself using the screwdrivers more often than the blades (all the damn time).
I love my douk-douk. And Opinels are fine knives as well. I and an Opinel owner at work make fun of a guy who started carrying a tactical knife on his belt recently. Great fun.
I also own a Higonokami, but they are going to be a rarity some day and I don’t want to mess it up. Another fine knife.
You might find yourself happier with a multi-tool. Some of them are a lot less bulky than Swiss army knives for the number of tools they have. And the tools they have are generally better and more functional.
I never had a fun time using the Swiss army knife screw drivers.
Keep a generic multitool in my work bag. Thing even has a bit driver. End up using it a lot more than I expected when fixing draft systems. And there seem to be an awful lot of job/hobbie specific ones out there. Especially things like bike tools. Sadly I’ve yet to run into a draft beer one.
(Gerber)
Clearly your’re not a Leather Man, with your tender hands. 
