I notice many men carry a knife as part of their self-defense every day carry kit. Is it simply an accessory that makes you feel more manly?
Do you have formal training in knife fighting and can actually use a knife in a rough and tumble street fight?
Which is it?
Here we go. 
In business/street clothes, I have carried the same locking drop point folder on my belt for 40 years. Although I have some long-ago background in fencing, I don’t really consider the knife a weapon. It’s a versatile cutting tool I use on a nearly daily basis. In extremis, it might be something of a last ditch fighting tool, but more of a general survival tool.
In outdoors/fieldwork, I have carried a Victorinox Tinker for about the same period of time. They seem to walk away from me every 5-10 years, so today’s knife is not the original. Same basic use profile. Much less potential as a weapon; more versatile as a tool than just a blade.
I have carried a pocket knife since I was a teenager in the early 1970s. It is not
…Please.
My knife is not a weapon, it’s a tool. I have a need for an edged blade multiple times every day.
How so?
…and that list is just from looking around my office at lunch time.
I have also been carrying a folding knife since my teenage years. It is primarily a utility tool that I use almost every day.
There are however places were I cannot carry a firearm and situations I could see where I could not get to my firearm if I was. So I would like to get some good knife training some day above and beyond the couple of videos, articles and practice sessions I have tried.
But again for me it is a utility tool first and foremost. It would be such a waste of time to have to go find a blade, scissors, screwdriver etc. every time I needed one.
None of my knives are manly.
I occasionally carry a “fighting” knife. We train with knives, how to defend and how to attack. We have taken our training knives and put lipstick on the cutting edges, then we’ll do real life scenarios like someone randomly starts the sewing machine stab or walks up behind and threatens to cut your throat, overhead plunge. To a man, and I mean life long SF, Martial artists, police and such, we get lipstick on us. Fighting with a knife isn’t easy, it isn’t safe. It falls below the 50/50 line in regards to chances of success in a real life street fight. A little training helps but to me, I’ll run from a knife, actually all I need to do is get 5 feet away and he can’t reach me (I know, I’ve seen the 20 foot thing) I’m talking about with a swing or a stab with out charging.
A knife as part of my EDC is actually a retention tool. There are ways to “neutralize” an attempt to gain control of your firearm using an edged weapon. It has nothing to do with making a person feel more “manly”, it serves as a practical tool for cutting anything from a rope, an apple or the flesh, muscle and tendons on a person attempting to get my sidearm.
Training? Oh I don’t know … perhaps I do.
Stay safe out there.
So far I’ve been using my knife to open shipping boxes. And let it stay this way. 
Do I feel more manly with the knife? 
… Only when accompanied with short pants.
Like others, I have carried a knife since my youth. Growing up on a farm, it’s always a handy tool to have around. I do carry a “tactical” knife daily. Just because it has a pocket clip, and is assisted opening. It will still function to open a bag of lollipops for a group of kids. It’s just looks cooler doing it. During deer season, I carry a tried and true Buck 110 Hunter.
I also carry a knife because the last time I opened a bag of chips with my Glock, I got funny looks.
A pocket knife is a tool.
Except when I visit my daughter in LA I carry a Spyderco Delica, because it is Los Angeles.
I’ve no intention of getting into a knife fight though—that’s what my CCW is for.
How do I unsee that
That’s good!
