Less than a year old, my newest copy of my longtime 897UH EDC disappeared yesterday. I know I had it cutting grade strings as my bobcat operator finished grading sections of the pool deck I was readying for a pour next week. And I could have sworn I returned it to my pocket after dismembering the oversized cardboard boxed the ladders and handrails came in. I even though I remembered using it to cut the paracord I used to web the plywood and lumber on top of my truck's side boxes as I loaded from the cleanup. I know I didn't loan it to a worker, all of them are on furlough, and I built these last two pools solo.
But when I got home and went through the ritual of emptying my pockets of change, leftover stainless screws, nutdriver bits, receipts and such... no knife. Last night I sat at my desk eyeing my small wall display frame of eight 897UH variants and oddities wondering which I would have to sacrifice as a new EDC. I left the frame unopened. I did have four production issues, NIB as spares, but all of those have since been given to friends and relatives as special occasion "lures" into the relm of Uncle Henry use and collecting.
Having avoided removing the "special" 897UH's all evening, I decided this morning to look for a six-pack (of new 897's) on eBay. But another hail Mary search of my insulated bib overalls turned up my knife. Those things just have too many pockets!
I'll still get some spares, and still need a Walden issue of the 897UH as well as a 100th edition (a friend sent me one a while back that resides with a postal employee somewhere between here and there), but it is good to have my UH back in my pocket. A year's hard use in construction, weekly if not nightly sharpening, concrete scraped, tubing and wires cut, boxes opened and reduced, many vinyl pool liners shredded, pipe deburred, and the Uncle Henry still has full blades and only a few scuffs to show for all that work. You just gotta respect a knife like that!
Codger
All's well.
)
