Pocket Fixed Blade?

Yeah, never one to be under-knifed, I'm toying with moving a small fixed blade into the pocket for a while.  I've done it in the past and found it to be very useful and inherently safer than using a folding knife.

The downside? Half as much knife or twice as much pocket real estate required to carry it.

I've got an ESEE Izula and Izula II and a Swamp Rat Swamp Warden and Rodent Solution sitting here asking for a shot at the pocket knife job.  The Izula II and Rodent Solution both have handle slabs, the others do not.  All are in kydex or plastic sheaths to maintain the lowest possible profile.

The Rodent Solution is a lot of knife in a small package but, at 3/16" thick, it's really too much knife to consider tossing into a pocket unless it's one on a bag or backpack.  So, that leaves three choices...

The ESEEs are made with Rowen's 1095 and have a long track record of toughness.  The Warden is Swamp Rat's proprietary SR101 (52100 rebadged I think) which also takes a beating and keeps on...eating?  :)

The knives are all non-stainless and I've managed to put some patina (some will call it rust) on each of them through use so some care will have to be exercised if these knives are going to ride in a pocket during the remaining days of summer with the high humidity and better than average chance I'll be sweating on those 90-degree days.

Right now I'm leaning toward the Swamp Warden but it's going to require some modifications to improve comfort during extended use.  It's squared up all around so the edges can bite into the hand after a while and could benefit from some rounding without losing the ergonomics of the design.

That's really going to muck up the coating though so maybe I'll strip it and see how it can really handle the job...

We shall see.

Thanks for reading,


B