Colin Fletcher was a well respected guru of the backpacking world. His book The Complete Walker, in all it's revisions are the bibles of many old school backpackers. In his later years, Fletcher wrote of backpacking trips where his only knife was a small Victorinox classic. Cettainly not my choice of a knife, but then I am a knife nut. But for many among those who are not knife nuts, but recognize they need some kind opt sharp tool, they go off on trips with the classic as their only knife. For Mr. Fletcher, who spent 6 years of WW2 in the famed British Royal Marine Comando's, and backpacked the whole length of the Grand Canyon, and was THE authority on backpacking for many, it seems a strange choice, but there it is.
There has been a time or two in the past 20 years I've been carrying a classic on my keying, that I was in hurry to go someplace, the pressure was on to change clothes to make a showtime or whatever, that I forgot my main pocket knife. Since I have my classic on my keys, and it's literally impossible to leave the house without them, I will always have the classic. On those few times the classic was my only knife, I did not perish, nor suffer any evil fate. My dad, who lived his whole life with a little Case peanut as his pocket knife, always told me that saying. "It doesn't have to be big, just sharp."
Perhaps Mr. Fletcher knew my dad someplace along the line?
