It’s easy to spend several hundred dollars on a knife. And for a few hundred, you can buy some real beauties. But I just can’t justify that for an Every Day Carry (EDC) knife. If I have an EDC knife in my pocket, I will lose it. It might take a month, it might take a few years, but eventually it will go on walkabout.

My Ontario Knife RAT II that I’d had for about three years recently vanished into a black hole. I’d gotten it because of its 3-inch blade, the longest blade that my last employer allowed us to have at their site, never mind that scissors longer than that were scattered throughout the office. But it never felt quite right in my hand. I’m a big guy with large hands, the RAT II always seemed like not quite enough. Fine for an average-sized person. I’m not an average-sized person. But I’m retired now; no boss to appease. So I replaced it with a slightly larger RAT I with a 3.5 inch blade (AUS-8 stainless steel) and a correspondingly larger handle. And the grip feels just fine.

I got the black finish blade (my RAT II was the “satin” silver option). Yeah, the black finish will get dinged up over time compared to satin, but I’m okay with that.

“Ontario” notwithstanding, it’s manufactured in Taiwan. And at $35 instead of several hundred, a bargain if it wanders off.

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

France enters third national lockdown amid ICU surge

Theory That COVID Came From A Chinese Lab Takes On New Life In Wake Of WHO Report

Not everyone is ready for the pandemic to end

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

Binance’s Crypto Derivatives Platform Sees Record Open Interest of $10B

Half a billion people just had their Facebook data leaked

Kimberly-Clark says Cottonelle, Scott toilet paper price hikes coming

Politics:

Once a grifter, always a grifter: How Trump Fleeced His Own Supporters

Putin will of course stomp his feet: Ukraine says joint military drills with NATO to begin in a few months. How dare Ukraine want to recover parts of their nation occupied by Russian troops?

Trump whines about baseball.

But on the other hand,

Congratulations to @MLB for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens. There’s no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who always led by example.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 3, 2021