OK guys I debated about this but after being asked to start my own thread by a couple of you, I'm in I guess, we'll see how far this goes. There were a few posts in the ECD thread last week I'll repost here as well to get them in one place and get started. I consider Expat a good friend and Expat Knives is my main home here on the forum so this is definitely a place I love and look forward to continuing to contribute to. What you'll see here: My Daily EDC posts when I do them with all pics, I'll cut back to just one or two on the EDC thread. I'll discuss EDC and how I put EDC setups together. You'll see some Reviews that may get double posted on the Reviews Forum so they are easier to find. You will see my musings on life in general. Some of it will probably be about aging or life lessons learned as an old man from an old man. I'll probably talk about what I'm reading or watching occasionally. There will definitely be talk of Hemingway, Jimmy Buffett, Pirates, Patriots, and other characters. I'll share some of my real life here. I don't consider this a me only thread, it's a we thread, and I hope you'll chime in with your thoughts and questions and join me on this journey. Just follow Expat's rules for this forum and all will go well, hopefully. So the journey begins...... Sincerely, Gary
On EDC in general I'd say build up slowly, figure out what you want and like, and build your own EDC setups. I'm old, I accumulated a lot over the years so keep in mind what you see in some cases took years or decades to build up or to save the money to do this. MONEY: Let's talk money first as I know there will be some my age reading this and some a lot younger so money is a great place to start out. The one advice I always give anyone young is never go in debt for this crap. To me debt = slavery that will and can weigh you down a lifetime, avoid it at all costs unless it's for a house, then it's almost unavoidable. My Son lives by that rule today at 29 and does well by it so I know it can still be done. Read Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" where he says "live like no one else, so you can live like no one else one day". Sage advice from ole' Dave. If more people read that book they would end up having much better lives and the country as a whole would be much better off. I wasn't able to afford this as a young man with a family, a lot of it came after my Son was raised and out of college so keep that in mind. However I'd say save and build that one EDC setup you always wanted over time. Buy a piece a year if that's what it takes. If you are like me older with no debt or younger with no debt and can afford it, then go for it. If you have a family and are struggling, get out of debt and get your family raised first or go very slowly doing this. EDC SETUP THEORY: OK I build EDC setups 4 ways: Color as a theme, for example the color blue A theme, examples are the Caribbean, Pirates, Planes, Trucks, Tractors, Super heroes, whatever, you get the drift By alloy, for example all titanium, stainless, copper, or gold (brass) Just your flat out favorite individual items. Sometimes this ends up looking great and in the end just works well for you. That's the key in the end it must work well for you. What I have or do will absolutely not do well for others, it's my system. You have to figure out what works for you in your line of work, your way of life, etc.. Everybody's different, it must suit you and only you. I promise there will be things I post and love you may hate, others you may go just damn, I love it. PLANNING: Figure out what you want on paper and start building to it. Research items, read reviews, talk to others here, there are a lot of great guys and gals on this forum with talents and knowledge across a broad spectrum, to insure it's what you want before a purchase but to me the key is to write it down and check items off slowly. You'll also be amazed at how these decisions may change over time. Next up I'm going to post 4 setups I consider my grail setups, well one's almost Grail by the 4 ways to build an EDC setup I discussed above.
I'm in, Gary. Even though I am considerably younger than you (not young by any means ), I feel we are cut from the same cloth. Maybe it's part of being brought up with Southern culture, maybe it's musings of a better time, or maybe it's just that I have this idea of what I think is lasting and what is a fad. I look forward to reading through here, and conversing more. That all being said, I EDC the exact same things in the exact same pockets everyday I'm not at the hospital. I change up watches, and clothing, but the rest stays the same. If you want I can share my setup that I've settled on, just let me know.
(1) BY COLOR - I love blue, don't know why except a love of the deep blue sea maybe, after a lot of years of saving, I bought a blue Rolex Submariner, one of the largest purchases I've ever made outside a house or car. Key is I saved for this though and look at it as an investment that will go to my Son one day. It's worth close to what I paid for it over 20 years ago. I always wanted a purely blue nautical themed EDC to match that Sub, it drove me to this, a post from last week. THURSDAY 09/15/2016 EDC - MY PERSONAL HOLY GRAIL EDC SETUP I hope ya'll enjoy this, I definitely enjoyed writing and photographing it. My post today will be a rarity for me in that I'm going to include a description and a little history behind the items. This is what I consider my personal Holy Grail EDC setup, started it long ago with the purchase of the Rolex Submariner, finally completed it recently with the purchase of the SS United States ZIPPO. I love the Sea, I'm at home there, that leads to a love of nautical themes and the deep blue of the sea so this EDC setup just does it for me personally. I searched for years for items I considered perfect to match that blue Sub for this setup, thought I had it complete then the GodSpeed Tactical Mermaid handkerchief showed up & put it over the top and was now absolute perfection, at least in my mind. I also love history and literature, so history often plays a part in my EDC, sometimes literature as well. That history can be personal, a time, a place or an event that you associate with an item. The history associated with some of the Items is included in the descriptions below. Some were chosen specifically for their history such as the ZIPPO, Jules Verne Pen, SAK, and the coins. Of course it didn't hurt they matched up perfectly. Watch: 1994 Rolex Submariner Ref. No. 16613, stainless steel & 18K yellow gold with blue bezel & face. The stainless anchor on my key chain is a Rolex Submariner anchor as well. Saved for years for this purchase, my once in a lifetime watch. It will be passed on to my Son at some point. Pen: 2003 Limited Edition Montblanc Writers Edition Jules Verne Ballpoint - From Montblanc: "The Writers Edition Jules Verne delves deep into the fascinating world of the writer. The barrel, made of bright blue lacquer with platinum-plated mountings, is surrounded by a guilloche consisting of evensized waves. Jules Verne’s signature decorates the cap of the writing instrument, and a delicate engraving of an antique diver’s helmet on the rhodium-plated 18- karat gold nib of the fountain pen recalls one of his most famous novels, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea”. ZIPPO: 1958 SS United States - From Wikipedia: "SS United States is a luxury passenger liner built in 1952 for United States Lines. It was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs to capture the the Trans-Atlantic speed record. Built at a cost of $79.4 million ($724 million in today's dollars) the ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the US and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Even in her retirement, she retains the Blue Riband, the accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the highest speed. Her construction was subsidized by the US government, since she was designed to allow conversion to a troopship should the need arise. United States operated uninterrupted in transatlantic passenger service until 1969." Swiss Army Knife: Victorinox "Lion of Lucerne" Spartan - From Wikipedia: "The Lion Monument (German: Löwendenkmal), or the Lion of Lucerne, is a rock relief in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertelsmann Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world." Folder: Hinderer XM-18 - 3.5" blade with blue/black G10 scale reminiscent of waves in the deep blue sea and a Hinderer Horse Head Clip on the back. Tuned to absolute perfection. Lights: (1) LensLight Titanium MINI Triple Aught Design Edition - utilizes a single CR123 battery. This was an extremely limited edition light and is super rare. (2) CountyComm Maratac Titanium AAA light - attached to my keychain and powered by a single AAA battery. Coins: (1) 1974 Commonwealth of the Bahamas One Dollar - 1974 was the year the Bahamas achieved their independence. Love visiting their beautiful islands. (2) 1964 One Bermuda Crown - Queen Elizabeth graces the reverse side. On my bucket list to visit Bermuda since I was 16 years old, Peter Benchley's "The Deep" is the reason. (3) 1945 Standing Liberty Half Dollar - The year WWII ended and just one my favorite United States Coins. Reminds me of the days of truly great men like Winston Churchill, Ike, and Patton not to mention all the great veterans who fought that war including a friend who earned a Purple Heart on D-Day at Normandy. Wallet: Recycled Firefighter "The Rookie" in the perfect shade of blue. Key Fob: Smathers & Branson Needlepoint "South Carolina" again in a perfect blue - Spent a great deal of my youth in the great state of South Carolina including 2 years of college and love the state, particularly their Coastal and Piedmont regions. Handkerchief: GodSpeed Tactical "Lost at Sea" - Mermaids & a perfect blue coloring, need I say more? If you read all of this, Thank You and hope you enjoyed it. Sincerely, Gary
2) BY THEME - Pirate here, the post below from this past Friday explains why I chose Pirates. FRIDAY 09/16/2016 EDC - HOLY GRAIL #2 PIRATE GRAIL Aye Mateys, I have another Grail EDC setup today but this one is geared at pure fun, you could say "Just because ye' gotta have a little fun in this lifetime", you only get one you know. If you read my EDC post yesterday, you know I love nautical things, today's no exception. I thought I had this setup nailed down then I saw a friend's GodSpeed Tactical "Undead Pirates" handkerchief and once again GodSpeed Tactical put an EDC setup over the top to me so now I'm sharing it. (Part of this has been posted in my thread here before, I.e. Buffett) I have been following Jimmy Buffett for 40 years now, been to his concerts most every year since 1978 so I guess I'm a Parrothead. The reason for discussing Buffett is my favorite Buffett song, the one that stays stuck in my head constantly, is "A Pirate Looks at 40". Many of the lyrics just hit home for me, 2 verses in particular: "Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder I'm an over-forty victim of fate Arriving too late, arriving too late" "Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall You've seen it all, you've seen it all Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen Most of them dream, most of them dream" If my life had a theme song, Buffett's "A Pirate Looks at 40" is it. So in honor of the pirate in many of us and particularly for this old pirate for whom the age of 40 is now a distant memory, today's EDC pics and thanks for taking the time to read the ramblings of an old man. Watch: Blackout Concepts Ocean Master Skull Series (Swiss Made) w/black Clockwork Synergy NATO strap Pen: Montblanc Starwalker Rubber/Platinum ballpoint bought in the Marigot, St. Maarten Montblanc Store many years ago, best writing pen I've ever owned Lighter: Bottomz Up Zippo, Crossbones & Skull (bottoms on both ends), Japanese market only shipped from Japan with a Z-Plus Extreme butane insert Lights: (1) LENSLIGHT MINI TAD Edition aluminum 1xCR123 in black & (2) Maratac Titanium AAA on keychain SAK: Victorinox ALOX Harvester black K-N-T 2016 only limited edition order shipped from Knives N' Tools in Switzerland Folder: ZT0303 known in my house as "DiNozzo", if you watch NCIS you'll know why, my 2nd favorite folder Wallet: Recycled Firefighter "The Rookie" in black combat boot leather Handkerchief: GodSpeed Tactical "Undead Pirates" Key Fob: Smathers & Branson needlepoint "Jolly Roger" in black with a real skeleton key attached to it to open ye' olde treasure chest matey
3) by Alloy - Titanium here. Still trying to figure out / find the right titanium lighter and get some 91mm Victorinox titanium scales to go on a Victorinox Picnicker to complete this setup but most everything else is titanium. Today was brass as an alloy for another example: TUESDAY 09/20/2016 EDC
4) Just your flat out favorite individual items. Sometimes this ends up looking great and in the end just works well for you. That's the key in the end it must work well for you. SATURDAY 09/17/2016 EDC - HOLY GRAIL #3 - MY FAVORITES This Holy Grail EDC setup is different for me and this could well be my favorite. There is no color matching, there is no theme, I blocked out my OCD brain, and then just picked my individual favorites, put them together and miracle of miracles to me it just works together in harmony without my normal way of choosing an EDC setup. Two of the items overlap with my Holy Grail EDC setup #1. This will be a long article but I promise this is my last for a while. Back to just a pic or two after this daily. So here goes, my favorites and why they were chosen. Warning this one is really pic & writing heavy. Watch: 1994 Rolex Submariner Ref. No. 16613, If you want the perfect classic heirloom quality watch, save save save until you can afford either a Rolex Submariner/Seadweller or an Omega SeaMaster. Even consider a used one from a reputable dealer. I consider this purchase an investment as they hold their value if bought used especially, very well. They just exude class, quality, and a certain level of cool worthy of passing on to a Son or a Daughter one day. Mine will be, he loves it. These watches have been around for over 50 years now and have never gone out of style, that says something, they are pretty much timeless. Connery wore them as 007, Daniel Craig the latest 007 wears them in real life, look on fishing legends Flip Pallott or Roland Martin's wrists, you'll often see a Submariner, as well as many other outdoor legends. OK so @Expat wears the Omega, absolutely phenomenal watch too!!!!!! Pen: 1993 Limited Edition Montblanc Writers Edition Ernest Hemingway Ballpoint - Ernest Hemingway remains today one of my favorite authors but I enjoy reading about his life story even more. I'll post up some great books about him over at Expat's Corner soon. He was a real deal man's man and outdoorsman who understood diversity of culture and lifestyles was important in life. His great loves however were the sea and his fabled boat, Pilar, which is on display at his San Francisco de Paula, Cuba home Finca Vigia, which now like the Key West property is a house museum. I hope to visit it soon now that travel to Cuba is back in play for us Americans. "Pilar" the Famous Sister Ship to Hemingway's Boat Pilar is displayed prominently in the center of the Islamorada, FL World Wide Sportsman/Bass Pro Shops as well for a closer destination. I've seen it and been aboard, magnificent boat. The Zane Grey Lounge is also in their Islamorada store, another must see for any serious sport fisherman. Zane Grey's writings and love of fishing equaled Hemingway's in the day. "The Old Man and the Sea" remains my favorite book to this day. ZIPPO: 1958 Pilot House Club, Nassau in the Bahamas - Not the prettiest in my collection by far, pretty much wore out, scratched up, the enamels long gone, the hinge was amateurishly repaired so you might ask how can this be your Grail Zippo? The answer is in what this lighter exudes and conjures up in your imagination which is a cool factor us old timers used to call "Steve McQueen Cool". That cool is the subject matter "Pilot House Club / Nassau in the Bahamas". Why you ask? To me that history conjures up images of Ernest Hemingway's days fishing there in his boat Pilar, it conjures up the early days of James Bond's 007 adventures in the Caribbean via Sean Connery or even Daniel Craig later, and it conjures up great times I've had in Nassau and the Bahamas as well with my family and friends. To me Grail EDC can be something simple found in an antique shop, eBay, a flea market, or a yard sale, it definitely doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to represent something that conjures images in your head that make you smile. That my friends is "Steve McQueen Cool"!!!!!!!! Swiss Army Knife: This one is going to shock some people, it's not a SAK at all or even Swiss and I only got it 2 days ago!!!!! But it has made an impression on me in those 2 days. BOKER Tree Brand Camp Knife with Stag scales, made in Germany. This one hit me hard after it first touched my hand, immediately images of my Great Grandfather who passed away when I was 17 came to me. He always carried a BOKER Tree Brand Barlow, so yeah it's not the same knife but close enough. We fished often, went to Church, spent time at a General Store with all the other old men around. First man to let me play with his knife at a very early age I might add but under his supervision. I ate it all up and learned about life. For two days now, every time I touch that BOKER, wonderful images of him flood my brain and I just smile. It's not just the images this brings to my head though as this seems to be a high quality tool with all the same blades as a Victorinox Spartan. So far, perfection straight out of the box. Folder: Zero Tolerance ZT0302 - Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS carries one with his Rule #9 (see my signature line) "Never go anywhere without a knife." One of my favorite characters ever on TV so that has a little to do with this choice. It is hands down my favorite knife. A beast in fact, large beefy blade, fairly perfect balance, excellent pocket ride for such a large knife, but the key is this knife just screams "BAD". When you put your hand on what to my large hands are perfect scales and perfect fit, with the fit and balance of a true beast, the fastest deploying assisted opening blade I've ever held and you know you have a very serious tool in your hands and I promise it will make you smile!!!!!!! Easy choice here. Nothing fancy but it is "BAD"!!!!! Light: LensLight Titanium MINI Triple Aught Design Edition - utilizes a single CR123 battery. This was an extremely limited edition light and is super rare. Love it!!!!!! Money Clip: Freedom Girl coin on a hammered Copper - Love this beautiful characterization of Freedom Girl and the hammered copper. Love the "Freedom" rather than Liberty here. Why? Liberty is typically granted you by a government. Freedom is something that has to be earned and more often fought for. The USA for example grants us Liberty in the Constitution but if you want true Freedom under that Liberty, you better be willing to fight to maintain it. Freedom extends to other areas of our lives as well as that freedom from the man, there's the freedom brought with no debt, there's the freedom in being your own boss, there's freedom in being able to carry a knife or a gun, there's the freedom in doing what you please. But the key here is if you want to maintain those freedoms, you better be prepared to put up a good fight, physical or political. Love Freedom so love this!!!!! Wallet: R&D Leather Card Case in a magnificent brown leather. The grain and coloring of the leather is absolutely amazing and it was the only thing they had in this particular leather. They had some amazing leatherwork on display. An elderly lady who looked to be late 70's to 80 named Doris of R&D Leather out of Greensboro, Alabama made it. Key Fob and key fob tools: (1) eBay purchased simple "Remove Before Flight" key fob - My favorite key fob, simple, super easy to grab in your pocket as it stays near the top as everything else falls to the bottom and to me just the ultimate in cool. Brings back memories of the great pilots of the past like Chuck Yeager & Alan Shepard, or watching Top Gun multiple times. (2) CountyComm Maratac Copper AAA light - attached to my keychain and powered by a single AAA battery. The copper just puts this one over the top. (3) Hinderer Kutaton in Copper - The copper design just looks cool, hope I never need it, too old for hand to hand combat now. (4) Harrison-Bond off Etsy key chain tag - has the world on one side and the definition of "Wanderlust" on the other, some of that Wanderlust is in me. The antique copper is just so cool!!!!! Handkerchief: Hanks by Hank "Roses & Skulls" - Now sold out - Love the coloring of the roses and the skulls, need I say more? I hope this helps some guys out in choosing your own personal GRAIL items. Keep in mind they do not have to be fancy like I know some of mine are but to me GRAIL is something that has meaning to you. It does not have to be expensive either, again just have meaning or bring out a good emotion in you.
Guys and gals, wanted to give you one more example of the kind of posts to expect, I promise most will not be a little depressing like this one but it does give you a look into my life & who I am as a person. It also goes to that "aging" discussion I said would be a topic in my first post in this thread. It's part of life as long as you stay on this side of the dirt. This was 2 days ago. SUNDAY NIGHT RAMBLINGS FROM AN OLD MAN - "LIFE & DEATH MUSINGS" Guys, it's been a long week, had a lot to do at work, we were just super busy trying to get training developed to roll out some new software, then wrote quite a few reviews posted on multiple forums last week plus the three Grail write-ups and I'm just kind of drained. Woke up this morning late to major arthritis pains, it has rained hard all day which always makes that much worse. Missed Church due to it. Still went out this afternoon with my Wife to look for a new golf bag for her. She got a nice new Callaway ORG-14 bag in red, white, and black, the color of our Georgia Bulldogs, then we went to Taco Mac for dinner and shared Nachos & Chicken Quesadillas. Back at home now having a Padron 1926 - 40 Years cigar as I write this. The rain is still just pouring this evening. I look at life as "Life is good" no matter what's thrown at me and how tough it can be always trying to be optimistic. Seasons come and go, people come and go particularly as you age, life changes, things change, generations pass, but life goes on, and enjoy every single second you have on this planet, you only get one ride here. I've always heard "death comes in 3's" since I was a small child. I have seen it proven true often in my life and it did once again. An example is when my Father died, a couple of years ago, 2 uncles also passed away all fairly close together. Really weird after no deaths in that family in over a decade!!!! Then in the last month my Mother-in Law's youngest sibling a Sister, her only surviving sibling I might add out of 8 siblings died one month ago at 66 of complications from a routine surgery out of just nowhere. She lived in Florida alone with one daughter who lives in Hawaii so my Wife had to go down to take care of things until her daughter could get a flight. There was no other family close by. My Wife returns home, my Mother-in Law has another stroke and passes a week later. Then late last week their only remaining member of that generation, a brother-in-law passed away last Thursday. I spent a lot of time with him over the years, he was a WWII Navy Vet, General Contractor in Florida building houses in the Tampa area, then moved to Alabama to farm later in life. The man had a beautiful vegetable garden he & I would walk around when I visited and we'd just discuss life in general. His funeral is tomorrow so I'll be away out of state attending as a pallbearer. Nice man but I always worried about his immortality as every other sentence seemed to contain "GD", two words I despise but it had just become normal to him. Well any way, my Wife and I are the older generation now in her family, a weird feeling for sure. So no EDC pics today or tomorrow, I'll try to be back with more on Tuesday. It's funny when you are young life seems to just stand still but as you age it seems to go by faster and faster and you wonder where it went. Key to me I guess and the positive message I'll try to leave you with is try to enjoy it no matter what life throws at you and live each day as if it's your last. That living each day as if it's your last is a big part of the reason I love being here and posting/sharing things I think many of you might enjoy or find useful. Take care, be back Tuesday. Sincerely, Gary And remember "Life is Good"!!!!! Monday's now over thank goodness!!!!!! It was a looooooong day including 7 hours in a car.
@Dave41079 it definitely is a Southern thing, I know my character was definitely shaped by the region and see that in your posts as well. Glad to see you here and please post anything you want, I welcome that here, like I said this is a we thread. I've spent years EDCing the exact same things as well changing out a few items here and there. Wore that old Rolex 5-6 days a week for almost 20 years though is an example of something I just stuck with for a long period of time. Now finally the Luminox collection gets worn more, trying to "save" a little wear on the Rolex as it will go to my Son, just haven't decided when yet.
OK you might as well know now I love NCIS & NCIS New Orleans and the new season just started so in honor of that, how about a little NCIS EDC: DiNozzo, Gibbs, and the Duke top to bottom, yeah I'm a little nutty, I named 3 knives. Out of here for tonight, more pics and posts tomorrow. If you are here, thanks for joining this little journey!!!!
I'm not even going to pretend to be half as cool as @GaryMc but this is a good place to be so here s my contribution to a couple "pocket dump" much more than EDC as i usually carry several packs/pouches either on me or in the jeep....
EDC School. Im diggin it! I may start rummaging through my old Gerstner box of treasures and start using some of them!
