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Welcome to the Urban EDC Showcase! Each week, we feature one member of the EDC community and the gear they rely on every day. Want to be featured? Submit your gear photo.
The head honcho behind GiantMouse Knives and Carpe Diem EDC, Jim (@jwirth66) began with the simple goal of finding the best custom knives and most unique EDC gear. In his free time, Jim enjoys metal detecting and finds a dozen or so gold rings every summer, returning rings whenever possible (including one that was lost for 55 years). Read on for the full story of one of the most interesting members of our EDC community.
Featured Tools:
Background:
I’m based in Marin County, California, a little north of San Francisco. I’m a co-founder and CEO at GiantMouse Knives, and I am the founder/owner of Carpe Diem EDC.
I had co-founded an information systems consulting firm in the mid-90s, which was ultimately acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006. This gave me the freedom to pursue some of the things I've been passionate about for much of my life, which included watches, knives, and metal detecting.
In my pursuit of some of the best custom knives available, I became friends with Jesper Voxnaes and Jens Ansø, which led to the three of us starting GiantMouse Knives in 2016.
A few years prior to that, based on urging from a friend who liked my EDC photos on Instagram, I started a company called Golden Gate Goods (later re-named to Carpe Diem EDC).
The goal was to curate and make available some of the coolest and most unique EDC items I came across in my travels and bought for my own personal use.
When my son Will, who was 14 years old at the time, taught me how to use the 3D modeling software he had taught himself to use, I began to design some of my own EDC items.
I ended up designing a coin in 2017 - the "Carpe Diem Coin" - which I ended up putting on Kickstarter along with some of my other skull themed "Memento Mori" / "Tempus Fugit" EDC items, and was overwhelmed with over 800 backers from around the world. In fact, I just wrapped up my second Kickstarter campaign for a "Carpe Noctem" coin - Seize the Night!
My EDC journey started when my oldest brother gave me a Gerber Silver Knight with pearl scales for my 14th birthday in 1980. I was so excited to have such a nice knife, and so impressed by how cool it was, that I immediately began looking for other knives and started having my mom take me to local knife collector shows.
But even prior to receiving that first knife, I had been collecting things - old keys, comic books, medals and military insignia my grandma and my uncle gave me, etc. I've been attending knife shows for close to 40 years now, so I feel like I've been part of the EDC community before it even had a name.
My main hobbies are knives, watches and metal detecting. When I was a kid, my friend's uncle owned a rock shop, and my friend and I got into lapidary when we were around 12. I had an amazing lapidary machine in my basement, with a diamond blade saw, grinding wheel, sanding wheel and polishing wheel, all integrated into one machine.
I spent countless hours in the basement turning chunks of agate, malachite, jade, etc., into polished stones that could be mounted in jewelry settings. Then I got bored with the jewelry settings that were available from the rock shop, so I took a silversmithing class with my friend at the local community college when I was 13, and began to design and make my own jewelry.
Around that same time, the neighbor across the street showed my brother and me how he found treasure with his metal detector, which launched another hobby that I spent a lot of time at.
High school and college forced the lapidary and metal detecting to the back burner of life, but I began metal detecting again after I finished college in 1989. I mostly metal detect in the ocean waters off the beaches of Cape Cod now with waterproof detectors.
I average a dozen or so gold rings over the summer months in Cape Cod, returning rings whenever possible. I returned a class ring last summer that was lost 55 years earlier, and have returned class rings that had been lost in the ocean for 47 years and 42 years.
Running GiantMouse Knives, Carpe Diem EDC, and helping my son get his small business RoosterDog Designs launched doesn't leave me with too much free time these days, but luckily my work life intersects beautifully with my main hobby of knives, watches and EDC.
Favorite EDC Tool:
I don't think I can pick a favorite from my EDC items in the photo, but if forced to, it would probably be a tossup between my PAM217 watch and the GiantMouse knife, because they both get used frequently throughout the day.
What's On Your Gear Radar:
I recently picked up my second Jared Oeser folder when I had the opportunity to visit Jared at his shop in Utah. I’m extremely impressed with Jared's work.
I've always wanted a custom Michael Burch folder, but have never been fortunate enough to be picked in Michael's lotteries at the shows.
I think I'll also pick up a Shirogorov pen in Monkey Edge frag pattern. I've got a Shirogorov pen in a different design, and it’s a favorite of mine.
I don't need any more watches... or do I?... hmmm.
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