I had lunch the other day with my friend Chester. Chet is part of our Friday morning breakfast club, but sometimes the breakfast club membership has lunches too.
Chet is an interesting character. He uses a 58mm sak almost exclusively. He hunts, fishes, goes on long camping trips, and has an active outdoor life that would have me thinking he'd carry a large Case trapper, if not a sheath knife. But Chet is also a knapper.
He's given me some lessons, and I admit it's a facinating thing to do. Being able to chip out a usable cutting edge from a piece of flint or even obsidian if you have it, is enlightening. But for Chet it proved a different kind of lesson.
Chet loves primitive stuff. One day we were talking about the minimalist approach to life, and he told me that early man was a classic example of what we didn't need. When Chet goes camping, he carries a small hatchet, and his ever present mini champ. That's it. No large sheath knife, no large folder. Just the small hatchet and small sak. He uses the hatchet for everything his little sak won't cut. Chet keeps a very sharp hatchet, and he whittles with it, guts and cleans fish with it, splits firewood with it. Learning to use small flakes of obsidian the size of a pen knife blade has influenced Chet in his choice of cutlery. One day we were comparing sak's, and I was slicing a ham sandwich in half with my classic. Since it was a little small for the job, and in a brain fart moment I had walked out of the house that morning without a pocket knife, it had to do. Since the classic is attached to my car keys, I can't leave home without it. I was using short over lapping slices, and Chet made a remark I'll never forget; "You know Carl, you would have have done well 20,000 years ago, you're using the same technique we use with small obsidian flakes."
I told him about the park ranger out at Mesa Verde who my better half, Karen, and I, had watched skin out a haunch of road killed deer with a small obsidian flake. He had used the short overlapping strokes, and I found that to work very well with very small pen knives. Like Vic classics and similar size knives.
Chet is also a gunsmith/locksmith and handy fix-it man. I've watched him use the tools on his mini champ like a surgeon or bomb disposal man. He'll take the cuticle pusher and use it to scoop up a tiny amount of dry gaphite powder and taping with a finger tip put it right where he wants it. The hooked orange peel thing get used when he's making a primitive bow or new atal atal, and he has to scarpe fine amounts of wood out. I think at one time or another, I've seen him use just about every feature on his mini champ. I asked him once why he didn't just get a bigger sak, like a 84 or 91 mm. He said so far in his life, he didn't need it, and didn't want to take up the room in his pocket with a bigger knife/tool. Having watched him field dress a deer with a 2 inch flint knife, I don't think he really needs any bigger tool.
It's interesting to me, that a man who can make all his own stuff from what he finds in the woods, chooses a Vic mini champ as his all around pocket knife. But then, with a very sharp small hatchet near by, maybe that's all that's needed.
Chet is an interesting character. He uses a 58mm sak almost exclusively. He hunts, fishes, goes on long camping trips, and has an active outdoor life that would have me thinking he'd carry a large Case trapper, if not a sheath knife. But Chet is also a knapper.
He's given me some lessons, and I admit it's a facinating thing to do. Being able to chip out a usable cutting edge from a piece of flint or even obsidian if you have it, is enlightening. But for Chet it proved a different kind of lesson.
Chet loves primitive stuff. One day we were talking about the minimalist approach to life, and he told me that early man was a classic example of what we didn't need. When Chet goes camping, he carries a small hatchet, and his ever present mini champ. That's it. No large sheath knife, no large folder. Just the small hatchet and small sak. He uses the hatchet for everything his little sak won't cut. Chet keeps a very sharp hatchet, and he whittles with it, guts and cleans fish with it, splits firewood with it. Learning to use small flakes of obsidian the size of a pen knife blade has influenced Chet in his choice of cutlery. One day we were comparing sak's, and I was slicing a ham sandwich in half with my classic. Since it was a little small for the job, and in a brain fart moment I had walked out of the house that morning without a pocket knife, it had to do. Since the classic is attached to my car keys, I can't leave home without it. I was using short over lapping slices, and Chet made a remark I'll never forget; "You know Carl, you would have have done well 20,000 years ago, you're using the same technique we use with small obsidian flakes."
I told him about the park ranger out at Mesa Verde who my better half, Karen, and I, had watched skin out a haunch of road killed deer with a small obsidian flake. He had used the short overlapping strokes, and I found that to work very well with very small pen knives. Like Vic classics and similar size knives.
Chet is also a gunsmith/locksmith and handy fix-it man. I've watched him use the tools on his mini champ like a surgeon or bomb disposal man. He'll take the cuticle pusher and use it to scoop up a tiny amount of dry gaphite powder and taping with a finger tip put it right where he wants it. The hooked orange peel thing get used when he's making a primitive bow or new atal atal, and he has to scarpe fine amounts of wood out. I think at one time or another, I've seen him use just about every feature on his mini champ. I asked him once why he didn't just get a bigger sak, like a 84 or 91 mm. He said so far in his life, he didn't need it, and didn't want to take up the room in his pocket with a bigger knife/tool. Having watched him field dress a deer with a 2 inch flint knife, I don't think he really needs any bigger tool.
It's interesting to me, that a man who can make all his own stuff from what he finds in the woods, chooses a Vic mini champ as his all around pocket knife. But then, with a very sharp small hatchet near by, maybe that's all that's needed.
