i can definitely see the reasoning behind steve keeping the nail bat being that his first encounter with the demogorgon legitimately fucked him up that badly, but
but
in my mind it's purely a matter of convenience. like, i fully believe he looked at the nailbat post demogorgon fight and thought, "okay well. we can't guarantee we're NOT gonna get some use out of it" and also "like hell am i sitting down and breaking a thumb trying to piece together another one of these fucking things, i've got a game on friday"












