I like that
The unfortunate part is that, being afflicted with a knife obsession, there's almost no chance of me sticking with this humble little setup. If I were a more practical man, like my old man (who has carried nothing but a little Leatherman Micra for years), I could have just stuck with what works , and in the process saved myself thousands of dollars.
Oh yeah, that's part of being one of the afflicted, the obsessed, knife nuts. We can't be pragmatic because of our affliction, so we accumulate much more than what we need. It's been a struggle, but I have managed to cut back a lot. I keep remembering something my old man once said. He told me that it's really impossible to carry everything we'd need to take care of anything we run into. Just impossible. You'd be humping an 80 pound pack and still run into things you didn't have just right tool for. So he explained the principle of
maximum minimalism as the carry of a few items that can be pressed into service to make do. Kind of like the carry of a peanut, a Sears 4-way keychain screw driver, and a P-38 can opener, and a lighter. Maybe toss in a penlight. That's pretty much it. That way you are set for the most common problems like a loose screw, a bad conection on something, having to cut something, or open a can, or see in a dark room.
You are not going to carry enough tools to rebuild something, but you can take care of the small things that are common. And, with a little imagination, you can improvise with what you have to do more. Kind of like the old saying; "The more you know, the less you need to carry." Like when my son showed me many ways to open a b eer bottle without a dedicated opener, it was liberating for me. I now knew I didn't need a particular object to do a particular task. Or how to take down a small sapling with a peanut by notching, and breaking it off. Liberating.
I forgot it for a while, but now I try to keep
maximum minimalisim in mind. Early man used great imagination in reshaping their environment to their needs. The chipping away of a piece of flint to make a sharp edge, making fire. They looked around and figured what to do with what they had available. In the 21st century we've lost that to a degree. Too many people trying to always have the right tool for the job, when you can't. Sometimes we put blinders on our minds. Take them off and use that lump of gray stuff that took us from the cave to the moon.
Carl.
