Hey everyone, David C. Andersen here coming at you from the
KnifeCenter. And if you'd like big knives but your pocket space
is at a premium. This video is for you because we've got some
big and tall knives for easy EDC. Let's get into it.
(KnifeCenter.com) Alright, so in this video, I'm going to
introduce you to a little bit of knife slang, which you probably
haven't heard of before. And I only say that because as far as
we can tell, it's primarily an internal thing that we use here
at KnifeCenter to talk about certain things. And that's the
Big Easy knife. And what what it is, is essentially a way to
differentiate between knives that are big and overbuilt,
versus knives that are big, but don't have that same kind of
chunky nature that an overbuilt knife tends to have. And it's a
pretty small segment actually, it's compared to the broader
spectrum, I should say, because when you do that Venn Diagram of
big knives and overbuilt knives, that center section is going to
be pretty large. But here, here's a perfect example of what
we're not talking about. In this video, the cold steel 4Max got a
four inch blade here S35 in this case, big old triad lock thick,
chunky handles, they're certainly chunkier knives than
this out there. But this is this is a great example. Phenomenal
knife. Don't get me wrong, but not what we're looking at today.
Because if you choose to carry this knife, it truly is a bit of
a commitment. Like you have to really dedicate a lot of pocket
space for that. But Cold Steel is great at Big knives and not
just big chunky knives, Big Easy knives too, it would make sense
that they would lead off this video, check out the range Boss,
this is a great example of a big easy knife and an affordable and
two, it's like $45, we've got a full four inch blade here,
synthetic GFN handles the slim, those are going to have a very
easy time carrying that in the pocket for sure. This, despite
having roughly the same amount of sharpened edge as the 4max is
a much smaller commitment when you dedicate pocket space to
this particular knife. And they both contain the same lock,
obviously, you're not going to get as premium of steel with the
four are sorry with the what's the name of this knife, the
range boss, sorry about that. But look, I mean virtually the
same amount of sharpened edge, you'll have to hone it up more
frequently for sure. But you've essentially got the same reach
with this particular knife and you've still got the strong
triad lock as well for this guy. Very nice knife, especially for
an affordable option. Now this is just kind of one way to do a
big easy knife longer and slimmer like this because we
kind of break this down into a couple of other different kind
of subcategories as well. Because a big easy knife could
also refer to something like cold Steel's code 4 nice and
slim with aluminum handles or the even the less talked about
perhaps Perhaps even more appropriate for this video, the
silver eye only about a three and a half inch blade on these
knives so it's not super huge, but it still feels like a bit of
a bigger knife. And rather than being long and narrow, this is
more wide when closed. But in order to kind of counteract that
the handles have to stay nice and slim for it to still be in
our minds a big easy knife and the lighter weight carbon fiber
mix this one kind of pull ahead of the code for a little bit
price wise it's a it's a fair bit more expensive to the about
$230 compared to the code fours 107 definitely a much better
bargain for the code the code for the carbon fiber handles
give you plenty to hold on to you've got some aggressive
finger guards so you can put this to some bigger knife work
and then slip it into the pocket nice and easily S35 blade easy
opening with that open thumb stud right there. triad lock,
reversible pocket clip nice and slim in the pocket. And these
are these are probably even the most rarest segments of the Big
Easy knife is this this wide and flat knife because the wider a
design tends to get. They tend to lean into the overbuilt
category a little bit more. Here's another one that I think
really does a nice job the Kansept helix super broad blade,
Mikkel Williamson design stuff comes in just a couple bucks
just a little bit under $200 Right now S35VN Blade 3.6 inches
brought that is a big blade, the handles titanium not so thick
that
they get too thick for this category, especially because
they kind of tapered down at the back a little bit two folds up
fairly wide but fair. really flat in the pocket ball bearings
in the pivot, nice flipping action overall, super solid
blade really slicey. That's another thing that's really cool
about some of these big easy knives is because they don't go
super overbuilt and can still have these big wide blades, they
tend not to have the thickest blade stock, they're a little
bit on the thinner side, which is a good thing because you get
awesome slicing out of these blades to high flat grind here
appropriately as thick or thin blade stock. Really great
combination. Next kind of, we'll get back to some of the narrower
knives here that we call Big Easy knives. And unlike the wide
flat ones, I think some of these can get away with having a
little bit more girth on the handles than those other
designs. Because they're so narrow and perfect example of
this is the best tech swordfish comes in about 52 bucks for a D
two bladed version are about $90 for these KnifeCenter exclusives
with S35VN steel. black coated right now we do have a satin
version that's been out of stock for a while. But if you've been
waiting on one of those like a long preorder, or something like
they are coming back, I'm just not sure exactly when
unfortunately. But this is a fantastic example, four inch
blade S35VN or D two are options that are available. And you have
a little bit of girth on those handles. As you can see, it's
not a super slim carry. So you get a pretty robust feel in the
hand. And yet something that can fit into a very narrow space in
the pocket. And actually this is a knife that works very well.
For me in the way I tend to carry knives because the pocket
that I typically put my knife in tends to share space with some
other items. So even something like this Kansept For me, might
be a little too broad to be comfortable with all the time.
Not an issue if you're not sharing a pocket or you're not
sharing items in your pocket with your knife. But if you are
something like this can be great. And you still have that
hard use feel overall, ball bearing flipper, great action
liner lock works well contouring on that G 10 handle, they're
really good. Another similar option. And this could be you
can see this one as a little bit more of a kind of heavier duty
or a hard environment knife in this genre. And that's the steel
wheel sedge. It's got a four inch D2 blade, it's about 80
bucks, just under 81. And this is an option if unlike the ball
bearing flipper, we just looked at, you want something with a
bronze washer based pivot. Let's say you work in a really dusty
or gritty environment, this is going to be a lot easier to keep
clean and keep operating smoothly. We still have a liner
lock, we still have G 10 handles that are contoured for a nice
feel and doesn't take up a ton of room in your pocket. You can
still fidget with it. Of course you can do that reverse flick or
open it more deliberately. I've always said steel wheel does
about the best job out there with their washer based pivots
in terms of tune tuning the action, they do a fantastic job.
And you got that big, long four inch D2 blade, very capable
cutter overall. And this is not a knife that feels like a huge
knife handles very nimbly in the hand. It's pretty lightweight
for its size as well. 4.2 ounces, may not sound
ultralight, but in the hand feels very nimble. Indeed.
Another option if you go with something slightly fancier
looking maybe, maybe don't call this a gentleman's knife, but
maybe it could be for you. The ArtisanCutlery Archeo the large
version with the frame lock comes in about $250 For this
have a 3.8 inch M 390 blade, titanium handles with carbon
one, we
fiber inlay on the front, contoured a little bit so you've
got a good feel. Not blocky at all. Not a hand filling grip
necessarily because it is fairly narrow overall, but you've got
good mastery over that M 390 blade folds up very easy to
carry indeed. And tons of reach ball bearings flipping action
high flat grind on that blade little bit thicker actually
thicker than I think then that Kansept we looked at earlier yes
it is. So the Kansept even though it's got that quote
unquote bigger blade it's gonna slice a little bit better than
this Archeo no matter still a very awesome option for a big
easy knife. So these last three had a bit of that slightly
thicker handles on the narrower profile. But if what if you want
even easier to carry we can get a long narrow profile with slim
handles to boot. And it's going to be super easy something like
the Civivi asticus $55 $55 and change right now. 3.8 inch blade
D2, high hollow grind various limb handles you've essentially
got just the liners and the G 10 scales and because they kind of
taper in a little bit you might even want to call these onlays
kind of Slim's things down a little bit even further, very
easy to grab a hold of doesn't have the same hand filling grip,
but it has a very neutral feel and a very nimble feel like that
said earlier and then fold it up nice and easy to carry. Ball
bearings, flipper D2 deep carry pocket clip, it is a Civivi
after all it goes by their their bread and butter playbook very
closely. Very slicey very thin option. What if you want even
more let's keep going. We can combine that same long narrow
thing with a slim handle, but nothing we've looked at so far
has been bigger than four inches. What if you want even
more reach? Another great affordable knife right here.
relatively affordable, it's not super cheap the Kershaw Strata
This is the smaller version with the four and a half inch blade.
Four and a half inches of D2 steel in fact plenty of slicing
reach thin grind or sorry thin stock, high flat grind, normal
price about $69 Very nice knife indeed. The bigger version feels
significantly bigger. I mean that one's about a 5.4 inch
knife. But the reason I wanted to show you this one is man
you've got a lot of reach here but it really doesn't feel like
you're dealing with that in the hand or in the pocket. deep
carry pocket clip very slim you got GRN on the front stainless
steel frame lock on the back, hold it here it doesn't feel
like it should be a four and a half inch blade and yet flip it
out on those KVT bearings. And check out that big long slicer
that you've got a hold of right there. But ultimately I think
this makes one of the most compelling cases for being a big
easy knife because you have that reach and yet it handles like a
much smaller knife. You don't have any kind of weight penalty
at all or handling penalty for carrying or foreign being able
to carry such a large blade. Next up another greater than
four inch blade. The Spyderco police for lightweight standard
version priced about 129 this one about 175 Because this
version has the upgraded K 390 steel, great edge retention on a
lot of edge so you've got a lot of performance right here. And
another pretty lightweight knife for its size 4.2 ounces here.
Very easy to carry indeed. You've got plenty of grip a
little bit on the thicker side it's not a super slim knife and
I say that only because we have the original police here to
compare it to which is heavier but slimmer as you can see right
there when I hold the two up next to each other you can also
see that the police for is just the police more like it's just a
little bit more than the old school police right here which
is why leaving the the standard police off the table but I
wanted to mention it by way of comparison right there. Tons of
reach. I mean, come on right here. Great slicing geometry
here as well not a thick, chunky blade safe with that nice lock
back and a little bit on the wider side because it is a
Spyderco and you typically have that opening hole to deal with
but still not a huge commitment to carry. In fact, if
we're going edge retention for edge retention sake alone, let
me compare this to the 4max we looked at at the beginning.
Okay, blade length is definitely shorter sharpen the edge is
actually pretty close. You might even have a skosh more thanks to
the belly on the Formax itself but you're going to be able to
cut more efficiently and cut longer with this Spyderco at
top. You're not obviously going to be able to smash through
things like you could with the 4max but what do you need your
knife for make your decision on that in that sort of situation.
But great, great, big easy knife right here. Another point of
comparisons I know people are going to ask about it. The
native chief is another decent one little bit thicker feeling
thanks to the the thicker G 10 scales right there but still
very easy to carry. But again, police more police gives you a
little bit more than the native chief which is why it gets to be
the prime example here. But even the Endura would be a great big
easy knife. One more greater than four inch bladed Big Easy
knife we have the SOCP folder from Benchmade comes in about
184 and a half inch blade D2 steel in this case we have
Benchmade's cf elite handle material which is a carbon fiber
reinforced nylon, which gives you this kind of graphite look.
And they've given a little bit of texture to weight on this one
is 4.1 ounces. Super Slim, very lightweight in nature. We check
out how that knife folds up in the pocket. It's virtually a
stiletto, essentially, we've got a glass breaker here at the
back, you have Benchmade's AXIS Lock, and you have a thumb plate
here for opening completely ambidextrous, all around
reversible clip to boot. Lots of reach there. And of course,
you've got a lot of tactical capabilities in a lot of
tactical considerations in the design of this knife from Greg
Thompson who designed it as such, but still a great
utilitarian shape as well. Two more to kind of round things
off, we're going to scale back the size just a little bit and
show you these knives right here I think offer a lot of length,
you've got a four inch blade and similarly to the Strata that we
looked at a little bit earlier, these handle like small knives
despite having a big knife blade or a big blade, more than
anything else here on the table, these two here the current or
sorry, the Benchmade fact I don't know why I almost called
it a Kershaw. 3.95 inch blade s 30 v comes in about $202 You've
got black milled aluminum scales, tons of length, not tons
of girth in the hand in the pocket. Just has that nice agile
feel. handles like a small knife. What's the weight on this
one since we're looking at weights here 3.24 ounces, feel
solid makes a great letter or package opener. Certainly some
self defensive capabilities in this one too, but you would
never look at this. Look at this at least on a photo and maybe
even in hand and think hey, that's a big knife. But that's a
four inch blade ladies and gentlemen. Very cool. And last
but very much not least we have a Boker the urban Trapper grand
and this is a big knife blade 3.8 inches and this is a knife
that handles small folds up super small titanium handles
nice and slim and easy in and out of the pocket. VG 10 blade
nice flicking action with that flipper right there. Truly a big
easy gentleman's knife, if you want to get right down to it.
One that would look good in jeans bombing around town to
with the not so gentlemanly a situation but tell me those
don't offer a ton of capability both of these knives without
being some big chunky thing that you're never going to want to
carry. Because after all, the knife is no good if you don't
want to carry it in your pocket. So they always say when talking
about a survival knife that the best survival knife is the one
you have on you. So don't pick something you're not going to
want to carry. We're not talking survival knives for sure here,
but the same definitely applies. Anyway, hope this was
interesting. Hope it lets you see a little bit into sort of
the behind the scenes the sort of things we talk about
sometimes here at the KnifeCenter love to hear your
thoughts on these knives. And what are some of your own Big
Easy knife picks. leave those down in the comments as well
please, if you want to get your hands on any of these links in
the description, we'll take you over to KnifeCenter.com and make
sure you remember our knife rewards program because if
you're going to be buying a knife you might as well be
earning some free money to spend on your next one. I'm David C.
Andersen from the KnifeCenter signing off. See you next time.