8 Unusual Everyday Carry Picks That Are Genuinely Worth a Look

Introduction

Everyday carry gear tends to follow a familiar formula, but every so often something comes along that breaks it in a useful or at least entertaining way. This roundup collects eight unusual EDC items, some excellent, some flawed but interesting, and all of them with clear use cases. Prices and availability vary by region, so treat the figures as rough guidance.

LionSteel x Audacious Concept Eggy

The Eggy is born from a collaboration between Italian knife maker LionSteel and Finland-based Audacious Concept. It is a keychain-size multi-tool made from titanium, weighing 70 grams, with a titanium carabiner for attachment. Unscrewing the end reveals a revolver-style cylinder holding six stainless steel tools: a knife blade, three torque bits (one double ended), a small flathead screwdriver, and a tungsten carbide glass breaker.

The cylinder also houses a socket that accepts a standard 4 mm macro bit driver, and the selected tool is held securely once the top is screwed back on. The odd shape, which helps with grip and leverage, works better than it sounds. It won Accessory of the Year at the 2022 Blade Show and is available in anodized blue, gray, and bronze. Expect to pay around $90 or £85. Unusual, yes. Cheap, no.

Glow Rhino Spark

The Glow Rhino Spark glows in the dark without any power and without needing to be charged by a bright light, and it should keep doing so for the next 20 or so years. That is because it uses a tritium glass vial housed in a crystal-clear, tough polycarbonate case. There is also, rather unexpectedly, a glass breaker tip, though at 20 mm long and 2 grams including the keyring loop, it is hard to imagine generating enough force to make that practical.

The real job here is helping you find things in the dark: keys at the bottom of a bag, an important zip pull, an emergency pouch, or a light pull. It is nicely made, waterproof, and available in various colors. Around $12 in the US, or roughly £19 in the UK.

Fold It Flat Uni Tensile

At around £3 and just 5 grams, the Uni Tensile from Fold It Flat is a fork and spoon in a very flat, ultralight form. You unfold it and clip the halves together with pressed tabs, ending up with a spoon on one end and a fork on the other.

In real use it kind of works. It is best suited to things like salad or pot noodles, but food slides off the flat surfaces when you tip it, and the grip is not great. The honest conclusion: better than nothing. If it is all you have, you will be glad you packed it, but any other cutlery option would generally be preferred.

Woburn Gecko E61 Pen

First impressions of the Gecko E61 pen from Woburn are genuinely good. It is made from aircraft-grade aluminum, available in a few colors, and the dark blue finish looks particularly sharp. The standout feature is a built-in rechargeable LED light with three brightness levels (3, 30, and 130 lumens) plus red and blue flashing warning modes, though a simple red light would arguably have been more useful. The 120 mAh battery delivers roughly 15 hours at 3 lumens, two and a half hours at 30 lumens, and about a minute at 130 lumens before dropping to around 40.

The light head articulates through 90, 180, and 270 degrees, so it can even light as you write, and the mechanism feels well engineered with a nicely clicky rubberized switch. There is a substantial pen clip and a magnet that holds the light closed and lets the pen stick to any ferrous surface. The double-ended pen barrel pulls out, rotates, and locks back, offering a ballpoint on one end and a glass breaker on the other. Extra stylus and inkless metal-alloy tips are included, along with four spare refills that hold only a tiny amount of ink each, so do not rely on them. The main letdown is a micro USB charging port when USB-C is the clear modern expectation. At around £80 or $80, it is good in some ways, flawed in others.

K-Bar Straw Spoon (Crunch)

K-Bar has been making knives since 1898, founded in New York, with a long reputation for high-quality knives used by military and law enforcement. The Crunch is their take on a straw and spoon in one, with the signature K-Bar handle and a food-safe material described as quite literally indestructible.

As a spoon, it is genuinely strong and works well. As a straw, it does function, but the holes mean that when the spoon reaches the bottom of the bottle, the straw end is still an inch and a half away from the drink. It also needs quite a bit of suction. Fun, tough, and quirky, but you will not get the last inch and a half of your milkshake.

Billetspin Eon Spinning Top

Billetspin makes collectible EDC gear and fidget items, created by founder and engineer Rich Stadler, whose first product launched on Kickstarter in 2015. The Eon is a spinning top machined from a single piece of brass with a carbide ball bearing in the base. On the right surface with some practice, it can spin for around 20 minutes, and it spins beautifully even without expert technique.

The range also includes gambits (interchangeable body and coin pieces that spin too), limited edition pens in materials like zirconium, brass, titanium, copper, and steel, and mechanisms that are extremely fidget friendly, including a bolt-action-style side-to-side design with no plastic in the hidden internals. Everything is described as heirloom quality, built to last lifetimes. Everything is priced separately and does not run cheap.

Windela Tool Stack

The Windela Tool Stack, named after its engineer founder and originally crowdfunded, takes a different approach to multi-tools: you pick exactly the tools you want, and high-strength neodymium magnets hold them together in one compact stack that is easy to separate and reassemble. In theory, the best of both worlds.

The tools are made from a titanium alloy for strength and low weight. Four were available at the time of writing: a mono-scale folding knife in 44tc steel with a frame lock (good for safety, but it rules out UK legal carry), a large flathead that doubles as a pry bar, scraper, and bottle opener, a medium flathead, and a double-ended Phillips screwdriver with one end for reach and one for leverage. The extra stack set weighs 90 grams, the knife alone 40 grams, and other set options are available. More tools, including pliers, scissors, a UK-legal non-locking slip joint knife, and a bespoke bike tool, were in development.

The drawbacks are real: the tool selection is currently limited, the stack gets bulky quickly compared with a traditional multi-tool or a Victorinox-style knife, you lose some leverage and grip, and the price will put some people off. This four-tool stack runs £120 or $149. Still, it is pretty unique if you value carrying only exactly the tools you need.

Raven Forge Friction Folder Knife

This friction folder comes from Raven Forge in Yorkshire, UK, purchased for £50 (roughly $50 to $60). A friction folder is a very simple mechanism held in place by friction, and while that sounds risky, with your thumb on the tang the blade does not move at all, arguably making it safer than some slip joints.

The blade has a cleaver-like shape in high carbon steel, and the knife is made in a traditional way with intricate brass liners and olive wood scales. It has a distinctly handmade feel at a price that does not suggest it. It weighs 180 grams, the blade is just under two and a half inches, and being non-locking and double-hand opening it counts as legal to carry in the UK and in most countries. It even comes with a leather pouch. Chunky, characterful, and great value.

Buying Advice

If you want one pick that delivers the most practical value, the Glow Rhino Spark is the easiest recommendation at around $12, and the Raven Forge friction folder offers remarkable character for the money. If you value modularity and are happy to pay for it, the Windela Tool Stack is the most interesting system here, provided the tools you need are available. The Eggy, Gecko E61, and Billetspin pieces sit firmly in the premium, design-led category where you pay for craft and uniqueness rather than pure utility. The Uni Tensile and K-Bar Crunch are inexpensive novelty buys, best bought with realistic expectations.

Conclusion

Unusual EDC gear works best when it solves a real problem or simply earns its place through quality and character. Some of these items nail that balance, others are flawed but fun, and knowing which is which before you buy is the difference between a pocket keeper and a drawer filler.