Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I think my ideological ERE knife has two components: a 3" straight blade and the other component is a can opener 180 degrees from a bottle opener -- I'm not a huge fan of opening bottles with my knuckles and a flat, weak I know -- with a flat head screwdriver 90 degrees from those on the blunt. This now has one very simple, reliable blade and a more versatile but more fragile tool as well.
What's the perfect knife for you?

@rePete - Victorinox Bantam

My dreams have come true!

If you want to go even more minimalistic, the Alox version is even thinner and weighs next to nothing; just make certain you get the Alox Bantam, and not the Bantam II - you'd lose the bottle opener/can opener/screwdriver for a small blade.

I'm partial to the Victorinox "Super Tinker":
Blades I'm always using:

Phillips head - wish it was on the end and wish it locked open somehow.
Straight head/bottle opener - also great for prying things
Scissors - very handy, snipping off frayed cloth, trimming mustache etc.
Small straight head/can opener - good for small screws and smaller Phillips screws. Also good for peeling oranges and grapefruit skins and it does a good job of opening soup cans.
Toothpick - used every day for its assigned purpose. If I lose the toothpick, I have to buy a new knife.
I don't use the hole punch or hook, since I don't work leather, but I do occasionally use the tweezers for the renegade facial hair.

Here's my favorite sharpener:

Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpener
The plastic stand keeps the stones at the exact angle for sharpening the blades by running the blade straight down. It comes with two different ceramic stones (four altogether), medium and fine.

I prefer a single hand operation multitool to the Swiss army knife. My Kershaw A100 is my favorite.

I've carried the same pocketknife since 1985, purchased on the Kornmarkt Amt in Luzern. I don't know what model of Victorianox knife it is, but it has the large and small blades, the scissors, the bottle opener, the can opener, the awl and the cork puller; in black, not red. It was 50 CHF at a time when exchange was probably 3 CHF to the USD. I love this knife. The tool to bulk ratio is just right; so that it doesn't seem too weighty for one's pocket.

@Maus - Aside from the color, it sounds like the Spartan, a very popular model. Used to be what I carried until I replaced it with a leatherman squirt. The Flair is more for camping.

@Maus - If it's 84mm in length, it's a Climber Small; if it's 91mm, however, it's a regular Climber. In 84mm size, they're hard to come by now, in 91mm size, they're common.
I use a Climber, myself, as a desk knife.
@Jacob - The only difference between a Spartan and a Climber is the scissor layer, which may or may not have either a hook on the backspring or a long nail file, the latter of which is rare and collectible.
Err, I don't mean for this reply to sound rude; I just was making a minor correction, but I do think my replies tend to sound a bit harsh, despite that being furthest from the intent.
For most people, a Swiss Army Knife is just a knife, but in all actuality, it's like computers, adding or subtracting something affects what all a computer can do, and likewise - most of the time - different models of Victorinox and Wenger knives have different names, depending on configuration; name repeats are common, however, and can span decades as the naming system wasn't made official until the 2000s for Victorinox; Wenger is another issue altogether, with unwritten variations all being lumped under the same names.

@Rex - Hehehe, see this articles+the 482 comments it spawned.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/were- ... 5947119042

@Jacob - Yes, I have seen that; I still can't make heads or tails of it, though; it's as if the apology was a further "trolling" to the original posting. That actually does make a good example of why information from news articles should be properly researched prior to making public; my school newspaper had the results for the state's house of representations election that wasn't only incorrect in percentages, but also incorrectly listed the winner. :/
Oh well, it's just how life is.

Not meant to be a plug, but if anyone is wanting/needing :] a Victorinox knife, I saw TheClymb.com has many models that will be heavily discounted (below retail) through the weekend (Nov 19, 20, 21).

...continued from above.. If you want to know a model or price without the stupid exercise of becoming a member to the site, let me know.