News

Once again, it is that time of year. Time to round up the various Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on knives and gear. Last year I was traveling, and missed posting the deals. Instead I was at Smoky Mountain Knife Works living out the Black Friday Dream.

This year I’m by my computer, so I figured I’d round up some links for 2017. Feel free to leave a comment or email me if I miss anything and I’ll add the deal.

Amazon

As usual, Amazon has their deals going on for black Friday.

Frankly it’s hard for me to tell exactly what knives will be on sale this year. They seem to do flash sales, and limited offerings. I am guessing there will be lots of time sensitive deals on more budget oriented knives, so here is a direct link to their outdoor gear deals.

BladeHQ

BladeHQ has all sorts of stuff on sale for their Black Friday deals. The usual suspects like a deeply discounted Boker AK-47 is for sale, but they also have some new exclusives including a larger version of the classic Kershaw Skyline, and a G-10 handled Microtech Ultra-Tech. Here is a direct link to their sales page.

GP Knives

GP Knives has a bunch of stuff on offer. I see everything from stuff by CRKT and Kershaw, to ESEE knives, to some midtech offerings from Serge Pachenko. A little something for everyone. You can check out all their Black Friday deals here.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works

SMKW is running some Flash Sales this year. Apparently these are daily deals, so keep checking back and see what they have.

Brous Blades

Brous Blades is offering 50% off everything in their entire store with the coupon “BLACKFRIDAY50” – insane deal. Here is a link.

CRKT

The CRKT Outlet has some deals for you on a handful of their close out knives.

KnifeWorks

KnifeWorks has a sale going on. They don’t have it well organized however, as there is a big picture on the front of their website proclaiming that there is a sale, but you can’t click on it, and they don’t seem to have a particular page for their BF Sale. Here is a link to their “Closeouts” section that has some stuff on sale.

Cabela’s

This large retailer has some stuff on offer for Black Friday. Nothing crazy so far, but here is a link to their sales page for now.

KnifeCenter

KnifeCenter is once again doing their 15% off 15 brands deal this year. It includes a bunch of DMT and Lansky sharpening stuff. Check out their deals to see what may be of interest.

DLT Trading

DLT Trading appears to have some stuff on sale, although it’s not entirely clear to me what is for Black Friday, and what is just on there regular sale page. Check it out here.

Chicago Knife Works

CFW is as a black Friday sale going. All sorts of deals, plus it looks like they are offering 10% off site wide. Cool!

KnivesShipFree

Site sponsor KniveShipFree is offering up some Black Friday Deals but you have to subscribe to their email list to get them.

Flashlights

FourSevens

Flashlight make FourSevens has some deals on offer as a pre-black Friday deal. I’ve bought a few lights from them in the past and find their stuff hard to resist. They have some deeply discounted flashlights on offer.

Malkoff

Flashlight manufacturer Malkoff Devices is offering 10% off site wide with the coupon “BLACK10”. However, they offer 15% off your first purchase if you join their email list. My dad has a Malkoff flashlight and it’s a beast, but this isn’t a huge sale.

Gear

This section is for miscellaneous gear (packs, multi-tools, anything else).

GoRuck

GoRuck, maker of fine packs and stuff, has a black Friday sales page this year. I’m all set in the luggage department, but you may find something interesting.

Prometheus Design Werx

Prometheus Design Werx is offering a 20% site wide discount if you use the coupon “GIFT20” at Checkout. This deal is good from 11/23-11/27.

Tactical Tailor

Tactical Tailor is offering 30% off anything site wide except for Rogue products. That’s a pretty sweet offer if you are in the market for a new pack.

ITS Tactical

Friend of the site ITS Tactical is offering 20% off the entire ITS Store, with some extra free swag if you spend over $50 or $100.

HuckBerry

Botique online retailer Huckberry has some balck friday offerings. Tony swears by Huckberry. I’ve never been able to get into it, but they have all sorts of gear on sale, everything including clothing, knives, camping gear, and watches. So check it out if you are in the market.

Recycled Firefighter

I’ve never heard of this company before, but Recycled Firefighter handmakes wallets, backpacks, and other fabric products out of firehose. Worth checking out I think, and everything is 20% off if you use the coupon “BLACKFRIDAY2017” at check out.

That’s All the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Knife Deals For Now…

I’ll keep trolling the internets to see if anything else noteworthy pops up on my radar. Again, feel free to reach out if I missed anything for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Thanks and happy holidays.

EDC Update – October 2017

by Dan Jackson 14 Comments

After years of running this website, I thought it might fun to do a little EDC update. Tony used to do these and I enjoyed them. I don’t know if this will be a quarterly, or semi-annual update, but I felt like doing it and thought it would be cool. Ben also contributed so that’s great. Let us know if you like this sort of thing in the comments section, and it can become a regular segment.

Ben

Lately, the thrust of my EDC has been simplification. And I don’t mean carrying less stuff. I own and have enjoyed flashlights, pens, and watches, but the only things I ever regularly carry are knives (a pen would tag along in my pocket if I didn’t work from home).

No, I’ve been simplifying by scaling back my knife collection, and by extension my actual EDC rotation. As I’ve alluded to in recent reviews and podcasts the sheer number of knives I own is disproportionately large relative to my actual cutting needs. Thus I’ve begun to liquidate my 40-or-so knife collection, holding on to just the bare essentials – the few knives that I can justify owning for the purposes of carrying on a regular basis.

Ben's Benchmade 940

This means that, barring review samples, I might become a (more or less) One Knife Man. My current forerunner for permanent EDC knife is a standard Benchmade 940. It’s hard to beat – and hard to explain – the interplay of light weight, thoughtless deployment, and cutting performance that makes it so good and so ineffable. We’ll see if it still reigns supreme when we check in for the second Roundup.

The newest blades to hit the review table include are the CRKT Pilar and the Benchmade Bugout. The Pilar is a fun knife – probably more ‘fun’ than it is ‘good’ – that opened my eyes to the value of what CRKT does. It wasn’t a fun knife to carry throughout the hottest weeks of the year, but there’s a lot to like about it. With the Bugout, I hoped to find an alternative to the Griptilian as an entry-level Benchmade knife. When I got it I realized it’s probably too specialized to really compete with the Grip, but it’s an interesting knife nonetheless.

Dan

Arguably the most significant update to my EDC is that I streamlined my keys a few months ago. Over the years I had collected an assortment of keys from various apartments, houses, etc. I probably had a dozen keys and hadn’t used the majority of them in years. I stripped away the unused keys, kept the ones I do use, and color coded them for convenience. This made a huge difference in my EDC and is something well worth doing if you haven’t done a “key audit” lately.

As far as knives go, I’ve had the good fortune to check out all sorts of cool stuff. Much of it has been reviewed, but I have a number of items on deck including a Hogue EX05, a Benchmade Proxy, and a Todd Begg Steelcraft Bodega. All awesome knives.

Ben's Benchmade 940

As for my regular rotation, I repurchased the Strider SnG a few months ago and have been carrying it regularly. I sold my original SnG when I was in debt pay down mode, but now that I’ve paid off most of my debt I decided to bring a SnG back into the fold. This was right before the announcement that Strider knives was disbanding so I picked it up for a decent price. For whatever reason I really enjoy this knife, especially with the new “dagger grind”. This version of the SnG slices so much better than my old full flat grind variant. It’s a huge upgrade. There is nothing else quite like the SnG, and I don’t see myself getting rid of it any time soon.

Beyond that, when I need a flashlight I carry the Streamlight Microstream. Ben gifted this one to me, and I am really glad he did because it’s an excellent little light. Everything you need for daily carry and nothing you don’t. I’ve used the “hat light” feature a few times and it’s great for power outages, grilling, and other extended use situations. Ben was on point with his review and I echo his recommendations.

My watch has been the Sinn U1. I bought this watch a couple years ago and it hasn’t left my wrist since. It’s a unique piece that has held my interest for 2 years strong now. The fact that I haven’t moved on to something else says a lot, as this was a replacement for a more expensive Planet Ocean 2500. I will eventually review my U1, but Aaron and Grayson have been doing a great job with their watch reviews. I’ll probably release my review during a lull in the action.

For my watch, I have a black Big Skinny bifold. This wallet was recommended by Tony and it’s my second Big Skinny wallet. I got 3 or 4 years out of my first one, and this wallet is holding up even better. Great wallet and reasonably priced.

2015 Black Friday Knife Deals

by Dan Jackson Leave a Comment

Once again, it is that time of year again. With thanksgiving dinner behind us, one can sit back and peruse the various Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on offer from our favorite knife and gear purveyors. I’ve taken it upon myself to try and curate these deals for another year.

What I have selected is subject to updates. Feel free to let me know if any deals I missed in the comments section, or drop me an email from the contact page.

Amazon

As usual, Amazon has their deals going on for black Friday.

BladeHQ

BladeHQ is rocking and rolling this Friday with some nice exclusive deals. This year they have an exclusive Microtech UTX-70, a spearpoint Lightning OTF, a flipper version of the Emerson CQC-7 (interesting!), and an ESEE Izula with an “Ant Swarm Pattern”. Plus they should have some other stuff on sale when the sale goes live. Here is a direct link to their sales page.

KniveShipFree

KSF is not having a Black Friday sale per se, but they are giving a free knife to one random customer every day over the weekend. Each day will be a different knife. Not spectacular, but you can check out what they have here.

KnifeCenter

KnifeCenter seems to have a pretty nice promotion going on for Black Friday. 15% off 15 brands including a bunch of DMT and Lansky sharpening stuff. Check out their deals to see what may be of interest.

CRKT

CRKT is running a promotion where if you spend $99+ on CRKT.com they will toss in a [easyazon_link asin=”B00TFY39EQ” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”brdfkdfk-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]CRKT Burnley Squid[/easyazon_link] for free.

DLT Trading

DLT Trading appears to have some stuff on sale, although it’s not entirely clear to me what is for Black Friday, and what is just on there regular sale page. Check it out here.

GPKnives

GPKnives has a bunch of Black Friday deals on offer. Check em out here.

Lynn Thompson’s Special Project

Lynn Thompson’s Special Projects has some stuff on same for Black Friday. Hat tip to Brad K. for the information. Looks like some good deals on Cold Steel products.

LionSteel

Not to be outdone by CRKT, LionSteel is running a promotion of their own: buy anything on their website, LionSteel.it and they will throw in a free Eskaper one piece multi-tool.

That’s All For Now…

I’ll keep trolling the internets to see if anything else noteworthy pops up on my radar. Again, feel free to reach out if I missed anything. Thanks and happy holidays.

Gear of the Year Survey

A little housekeeping: Tony at EveryDayCommentary is doing his annual gear awards, and this time he has opened it up to the public with a survey for Gear of the Year. Check it out and cast your vote.

2014 Black Friday Knife Deals

by Dan Jackson Leave a Comment

Check out the 2015 Black Friday deals here.

Ah, it is that time of year again. With turkeys percolating safely in the oven, one can sit back and peruse the various Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on offer from our favorite knife and gear purveyors. I’ve taken it upon myself to painstakingly curate these deals.

What I have selected is subject to updates. Feel free to let me know if any deals I missed in the comments section, or drop me an email from the contact page.

Amazon

As usual, Amazon has their thing going on for black Friday.

Frankly it’s hard for me to tell exactly what knives will be on sale this year. I am guessing there will be lots of time sensitive deals on more budget oriented knives.

BladeHQ

BladeHQ is rocking and rolling this Friday with some nice exclusive deals. Their sneak peak reviews an exclusive CRKT knife, Protech autos, Benchmade balisongs, and the Boker / Tuff Thumbz collab. And that’s just Black Friday. Check it all out here.

National Knives

NationalKnives has some savings in store for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Their newsletter states as follows:

Great deals coming your way! 8:00 AM EST, Nov. 28 to 5:00 PM EST, Nov. 29. Black Friday and Small Business Saturday sale.

15 different knives, 5 different countries of origin, 2 different manufacturers. Quantities limited – no rain checks and no back orders.

Don’t forget when it comes to shipping, it is still “business as usual”, even for the sale items. Domestic shipping starts @ $2.99 and orders of $150.00+ ship free (economy)!

CRKT

CRKT is running a Black Friday promotion where they are giving away a free Drifter (6450K) with every purchase over $99.00.

KnifeCenter

KnifeWorks

Knifeworks has a black Friday sale going on that you can check out here. Nothing mind blowing from what I can tell, but they are offering an additional 5% off several brands, including Chris Reeve knives. Not often you see those on sale, even if it’s only 5% off.

That’s All Folks… For Now

I’ll keep trolling the internets to see if anything else noteworthy pops up on my radar. Again, feel free to reach out if I missed anything. Thanks and happy holidays.