Lawyer and EDC gear reviewer; publishes scored knife, flashlight and multitool reviews at Everyday Commentary.
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There is no perfect SAK, but the Compact is the best SAK. And this is not a "smartest Kardashian" scenario. Over the years I have genuinely loved carrying the Compact. Adding the pocket clip and the excellent PDW scales has made it one of my most frequently carried items.
Essay working through his criteria for the ideal Swiss Army Knife and landing on the Compact.
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The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.