I gave away almost all my SAK's

K

K.Coper

Joined
Jan 31, 2022
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Last week it occurred to me just how much I use my 58mm Rambler, it must be 99,9% of the time I need a blade or scissors. And 100% of the time I need a small flathead or Philips driver or a bottle opener. My life is strictly an urban life. I need a blade to open letters, cut some twine, open a package and sharpen a pencil. I don't need a knife to process wood or build a shelter in some wood far from civilization. For all of this, my 58mm SAK's have always been more than sufficient.

As such, in a moment of true clarity, I got to the point where I gave away my last five remaining larger SAK's to friends and family last week.

For any serious tasks in around the house, I have always relied on full size tools anyway. And for food I have never used a SAK but dedicated kitchen tools. For me and my life, there was no need to hold on to my Tinker or Pioneer any longer. What is left are two 58mm SAK's, the Classic SD and the Rambler. The Rambler in my right front pocket, the Classic on my car key.

It is all I need. Should I ever get to a point where I would need something larger, I am just one shop or internet order away from it. But for now and for the foreseeable future, I really don't see any need for a larger SAK. And I don't want to be burdened by unused stuff that is just laying around doing nothing. This is my story which I want to share. I am sure I made the right decision for my life.
 
K.Coper said:
Last week it occurred to me just how much I use my 58mm Rambler, it must be 99,9% of the time I need a blade or scissors. And 100% of the time I need a small flathead or Philips driver or a bottle opener. My life is strictly an urban life. I need a blade to open letters, cut some twine, open a package and sharpen a pencil. I don't need a knife to process wood or build a shelter in some wood far from civilization. For all of this, my 58mm SAK's have always been more than sufficient.

As such, in a moment of true clarity, I got to the point where I gave away my last five remaining larger SAK's to friends and family last week.

For any serious tasks in around the house, I have always relied on full size tools anyway. And for food I have never used a SAK but dedicated kitchen tools. For me and my life, there was no need to hold on to my Tinker or Pioneer any longer. What is left are two 58mm SAK's, the Classic SD and the Rambler. The Rambler in my right front pocket, the Classic on my car key.

It is all I need. Should I ever get to a point where I would need something larger, I am just one shop or internet order away from it. But for now and for the foreseeable future, I really don't see any need for a larger SAK. And I don't want to be burdened by unused stuff that is just laying around doing nothing. This is my story which I want to share. I am sure I made the right decision for my life.
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WOW!!!!

My hat's off to you big time. As much as I follow the Maximum Minimalism mantra you've got me beat. Even though I've given away most my 'other' knives' I can't quite bring myself to abandon the Wenger SI. Even though I don't carry it all the time, its there if I need it. It made the cross country trip with me, but around home in Georgetown Texas the 58mm is carried, along with the Leatherman squirt. The squirt is my minimum tool kit away from home, but while home I do use real full size tools. Like you, my life as a senior citizen these days is almost exclusively urban. The 58mm is totally able to deal with that.

But you've shown real fortitude in going the whole 9 yards. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
J jackknife I live in a metropolitan area with approximately 2.5 million other people. 5 days a week I go out of the door at about 7:00 and I am back home by 18:00 or so. In between I work in an office. The closest thing to 'wild nature' I see most of the year, are the parks in the suburbs or downtown. And so, I started thinking. You see, Victorinox has basically two lines of pocket knives. The original Swiss army lines of knives with the 'Officier Suisse' stamp. This is a line that for most part is geared towards people who like to do camping and such. You get can openers, a little stouter knive blades, an awl etc.

Then there is a line which is geared more towards people living in urban areas. What I'd call their 'civilian' line of pocket knives. These are the 58mm and 74mm pocket knives. Instead of an awl or saw, you get scissors, a nail file and a small 'pen blade' (perfectly made to perform the crucial task of sharpening a pencil(!)

I know who I am, where I live and what my needs are. They are not opening cans of beans in my kitchen where I have a dedicated can opener. Neither are they using the blade of a Pioneer to open a small package. A small blade like on 58mm SAK, is far better suited for that task since the very thin blade stock acts almost as if it were a box cutter. Now that is what need. Or the scissors to cut a coupon etc. etc. You get the idea.

As such, I do not feel any sort of regret at all for giving away those SAK's. And, like I said, any SAK that I would want in the future should my needs drastically change, is only a few mouse clicks and 24 hours away. So there is no loss. In fact, it feels great!
 
K.Coper said:
J jackknife I live in a metropolitan area with approximately 2.5 million other people. 5 days a week I go out of the door at about 7:00 and I am back home by 18:00 or so. In between I work in an office. The closest thing to 'wild nature' I see most of the year, are the parks in the suburbs or downtown. And so, I started thinking. You see, Victorinox has basically two lines of pocket knives. The original Swiss army lines of knives with the 'Officier Suisse' stamp. This is a line that for most part is geared towards people who like to do camping and such. You get can openers, a little stouter knive blades, an awl etc.

Then there is a line which is geared more towards people living in urban areas. What I'd call their 'civilian' line of pocket knives. These are the 58mm and 74mm pocket knives. Instead of an awl or saw, you get scissors, a nail file and a small 'pen blade' (perfectly made to perform the crucial task of sharpening a pencil(!)

I know who I am, where I live and what my needs are. They are not opening cans of beans in my kitchen where I have a dedicated can opener. Neither are they using the blade of a Pioneer to open a small package. A small blade like on 58mm SAK, is far better suited for that task since the very thin blade stock acts almost as if it were a box cutter. Now that is what need. Or the scissors to cut a coupon etc. etc. You get the idea.

As such, I do not feel any sort of regret at all for giving away those SAK's. And, like I said, any SAK that I would want in the future should my needs drastically change, is only a few mouse clicks and 24 hours away. So there is no loss. In fact, it feels great!
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K. Coper, you're logic is impeccable! I wish I'd come to that same conclusion in my life at an earlier time. I did make the discovery that a build up of possessions can very easily take over your life. You get swamped in your 'stuff' and it becomes a burden. I still do remember the huge liberating feeling I had with my first big downsizing. All the knives, guns, tools, prepper junk, all got sent down the road and it felt great. Just address your needs of day to day and you're 98% home free. You can go nuts trying to cover all the "what if?" scenarios, and end up spending a lot of money on stuff that maybe will never even get used. I know looking back on my life, doing backpacking, canoe camping, kayak camping, car camping on cross country trips to all the National parks over the years, I've never needed anything but a SAK in my pocket. When I sold off the big Randall's and other fixed blades, they had not been used hardly at all. Now as a genuine retired old fart going about a life of fishing, woods loafing, and traveling by car on long trips with some camping along the way, I still have no use for anything but a SAK in the pocket. All those fanciful scenarios of survival never came to be.
 
Lately I've been doing lots of thinking on this subject. When I walk the streets of my city, do I need a Pioneer with an awl? My conclusion is that I do not. What I do need is the sd-tip on my Classic. Like the other day when the very small screw that fixes the plastic cover plate/lens to my bike light, came loose. The sd-tip fixed that problem in a matter of seconds. What good would an awl have been, I wonder. My day-to-day 'problems' are the problems of someone living in a modern 21st century urbanized area in the so-called 'western world'.

I do not camp out under moonlight in some Finnish forest above the arctic circle where I need a stout knife to cut the sticks that will keep my fire going. I just need to sharpen a pencil to jot down a shopping list. Or open that Amazon box that gets delivered to my door in the evening, just as I am sitting in my night coat and pyjama, sipping some fine Scotch.

The original Swiss army knife was developed to deal with the real world problems of the Swiss army. I believe it was mostly about maintenance of a certain rifle they used, for this reason a screwdriver was on that very first SAK. Later on a market was created and the knives were developed for civilians as well and geared towards outdoor activities. A great example is the SAK Camper, basically the original officer's knife with an added saw. All the other ones are basically variations on a theme. And that theme is outdoor activities where certain full size tools may not be available, the can opener being a great example.

Meanwhile, Victorinox kept on doing what they had always been doing so well. And that is to make an exceptional line of smaller knives geared more towards people living a more 'urban' life. The classic lobster patterns of the 58 and 74mm range. An example would be the Executive with the often scoffed at orange peeler. Now there are many ways to peel an orange. Still, it would be far more likely that I used that tool on my lunch break to peel an orange, than I would use the saw on a camper.

My conclusion is thus that I have been using the wrong kind of SAK for my lifestyle for too long. And it was about time to revert that situation. Goodbye I say to the can opener, a warm welcome there is for those little scissors.

I believe there is something to think about for all of us SAK users.
 
K.Coper said:
Lately I've been doing lots of thinking on this subject. When I walk the streets of my city, do I need a Pioneer with an awl? My conclusion is that I do not. What I do need is the sd-tip on my Classic. Like the other day when the very small screw that fixes the plastic cover plate/lens to my bike light, came loose. The sd-tip fixed that problem in a matter of seconds. What good would an awl have been, I wonder. My day-to-day 'problems' are the problems of someone living in a modern 21st century urbanized area in the so-called 'western world'.

I do not camp out under moonlight in some Finnish forest above the arctic circle where I need a stout knife to cut the sticks that will keep my fire going. I just need to sharpen a pencil to jot down a shopping list. Or open that Amazon box that gets delivered to my door in the evening, just as I am sitting in my night coat and pyjama, sipping some fine Scotch.

The original Swiss army knife was developed to deal with the real world problems of the Swiss army. I believe it was mostly about maintenance of a certain rifle they used, for this reason a screwdriver was on that very first SAK. Later on a market was created and the knives were developed for civilians as well and geared towards outdoor activities. A great example is the SAK Camper, basically the original officer's knife with an added saw. All the other ones are basically variations on a theme. And that theme is outdoor activities where certain full size tools may not be available, the can opener being a great example.

Meanwhile, Victorinox kept on doing what they had always been doing so well. And that is to make an exceptional line of smaller knives geared more towards people living a more 'urban' life. The classic lobster patterns of the 58 and 74mm range. An example would be the Executive with the often scoffed at orange peeler. Now there are many ways to peel an orange. Still, it would be far more likely that I used that tool on my lunch break to peel an orange, than I would use the saw on a camper.

My conclusion is thus that I have been using the wrong kind of SAK for my lifestyle for too long. And it was about time to revert that situation. Goodbye I say to the can opener, a warm welcome there is for those little scissors.

I believe there is something to think about for all of us SAK users.
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It sounds like you're coming to some of the same conclusions I did in my early 50's. I reached a stage where I had to ask myself, who was I, what was I doing, and where was I doing it?

I came to the end thought that as a middle age guy, in Washington D.C. and working in a machine shop with all kinds of tools, I really didn't need much. A small SAK, My Case peanut that I used to carry a lot, I had noticed that a lot of my tools and other stuff was getting smaller as I aged, and think that at some point a new reality breaks into our consciousness. A reality of truth vs fantasy, of who we are, and what we are. I know I wasn't Steven Sagal taking a trainload of terrorists, nor was a a caped crusader defending Gotham. I was a middle age soccer dad driving a minivan of kids, and the small SAK scissors was handy for cutting rubber bands out of a 12 year olds tangled pony tail than a commando knife for taking out enemy paratroopers while yelling "WOLVERINES!" Being able to sharpen a pencil for keeping score of the lacrosse tournaments was more important to me than being able to baton logs into toothpicks.

In the end, it all really boils down to who we are, what we're doing, an where we're doing it.

PS- I only regret that Victorinox, for some unfathomable reason known only to them, never pushed the 74mm's like they are doing with the 58's. It would have been a nice thing to find the executive or ambassador for not double the price of a classic, and even available as widely as the 58's.
 
jackknife said:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It sounds like you're coming to some of the same conclusions I did in my early 50's. I reached a stage where I had to ask myself, who was I, what was I doing, and where was I doing it?

I came to the end thought that as a middle age guy, in Washington D.C. and working in a machine shop with all kinds of tools, I really didn't need much. A small SAK, My Case peanut that I used to carry a lot, I had noticed that a lot of my tools and other stuff was getting smaller as I aged, and think that at some point a new reality breaks into our consciousness. A reality of truth vs fantasy, of who we are, and what we are. I know I wasn't Steven Sagal taking a trainload of terrorists, nor was a a caped crusader defending Gotham. I was a middle age soccer dad driving a minivan of kids, and the small SAK scissors was handy for cutting rubber bands out of a 12 year olds tangled pony tail than a commando knife for taking out enemy paratroopers while yelling "WOLVERINES!" Being able to sharpen a pencil for keeping score of the lacrosse tournaments was more important to me than being able to baton logs into toothpicks.

In the end, it all really boils down to who we are, what we're doing, an where we're doing it.

PS- I only regret that Victorinox, for some unfathomable reason known only to them, never pushed the 74mm's like they are doing with the 58's. It would have been a nice thing to find the executive or ambassador for not double the price of a classic, and even available as widely as the 58's.
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Well, my "early 50's" are just over half a decade away 😀. And it is very much true that I see things very differently than I did a decade or so ago. I don't have to impress anyone. Most certainly not with a knife. But when I look around on the world wide web, most of what I see are middle aged guys, guys about my age, praising insanely large, aggressive looking one-hand-opening folding knives, for everyday carry. It's just crazy. And it's mainly to impress 'the other guy'. Because there is nothing handy about opening a letter with such a bizarre creation.

It is in those moments that I shake my head and reflect on the past. The stuff my parents or grandparents carried. My own grandfather who for all his life got by with a very small single bladed, no-name carbon steel folding knife. As a forced labourer in WWII, he fled Berlin through Austria to eventually get home again. On his escape he literally had to jump over the dead bodies of those who had perished. And all the while, he was content with what he had. His small, little knife. And after the war, his Agfa Clack camera to take many precious family photos. Stuff that was no more than what was needed to do the job. His Agfa camera I still have. My brother has his knife. And in some small way, with only those small SAK's that are left now, I hope I've become a little more like him.
 
K.Coper said:
Well, my "early 50's" are just over half a decade away 😀. And it is very much true that I see things very differently than I did a decade or so ago. I don't have to impress anyone. Most certainly not with a knife. But when I look around on the world wide web, most of what I see are middle aged guys, guys about my age, praising insanely large, aggressive looking one-hand-opening folding knives, for everyday carry. It's just crazy. And it's mainly to impress 'the other guy'. Because there is nothing handy about opening a letter with such a bizarre creation.

It is in those moments that I shake my head and reflect on the past. The stuff my parents or grandparents carried. My own grandfather who for all his life got by with a very small single bladed, no-name carbon steel folding knife. As a forced labourer in WWII, he fled Berlin through Austria to eventually get home again. On his escape he literally had to jump over the dead bodies of those who had perished. And all the while, he was content with what he had. His small, little knife. And after the war, his Agfa Clack camera to take many precious family photos. Stuff that was no more than what was needed to do the job. His Agfa camera I still have. My brother has his knife. And in some small way, with only those small SAK's that are left now, I hope I've become a little more like him.
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This is something I too have pondered on for a long time. Growing up in the 1950's, every grown man I knew carried a pocket knife. These were men who lived through and survived th great depression, then went off and fraught a vicious WW2. They came home and went about living a so called normal life. My Uncle Charlie got wet at the invasion of Normandy and walked most the way to Berlin. After the warm he still carried the same knife the army gave him to set up Communications, a Camillus TL-29. He used that knife down to a nub and I brought him home a new one when I was on leave.

My Uncle Sony flew B-17's out of eastern England over Germany, and got shot down over the Netherlands. He hid out in the top of a windmill living off bread and cheese until he and a few of his fellow crew stole a fishing boat and escaped west on the North Sea to England. Got picked up by a British navy MTB. He carried an issue scout knife, the all stainless steel demo knife with U.S. stamped on one side. Later in his Air Force career, that went 28 years he carried a Victorinox huntsman in his flight suit while flying B-52's. In civilian life he had a few SAK's that he carried according to what he was doing that day. He remained a die hard SAKist for life.

My Uncle Mike served in PT boats, and got ball shot up in the English Channel one night when they tangled with two German S-boats, and got blown out of the water. He came out of it withal a face, but just went back to his life on the Chesapeake Bay as a working waterman, harvesting oysters in winter and crabs in summer. He carried the same slip joint stockman the rest of his life. He had a bucket full of stainless fish knives on his boat, but inches pocket was a plain old well worn Camillus stockman. No large locking blade monstrosities of a knife.

Its a huge credit to the cutlery industry and the advertising form they hired to figure out how to sell a knife hat few people really need. Those large aggressive one hand opening knives bought by office cubicle hipsters for the macho image is all I can wonder about. If the men who really fought a life and death war didn't need them, then W.T.F.???

If men like Chuck Yeager can go into the Sierra Nevada mountains for two weeks with a SAK executive, what the hell do I need anymore?
 
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I live in a country that many will consider to be very liberal (in the US sense of the word liberal). A certain former US President of not too long ago, would likely regard it as a society he'd wish to avoid at all costs 😁 Anyhow, knives are not something people regularly carry as a tool. The great thing about the 58mm line though, is that nobody cares when I use it on the subway or downtown. That's another element I like a lot about the 58mm line. Sadly, I also have to take that part of knife ownership into consideration. It is what it is I guess.
 
K.Coper said:
I live in a country that many will consider to be very liberal (in the US sense of the word liberal). A certain former US President of not too long ago, would likely regard it as a society he'd wish to avoid at all costs 😁 Anyhow, knives are not something people regularly carry as a tool. The great thing about the 58mm line though, is that nobody cares when I use it on the subway or downtown. That's another element I like a lot about the 58mm line. Sadly, I also have to take that part of knife ownership into consideration. It is what it is I guess.
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I experienced the same living in Washington D.C. for most my life. Even aside from the government buildings and the security, it was not an environment for knives. Don't think most people, except for the criminals, even bothered to carry a knife as a day to day tool. If they did, it was a small keychain size thing, like a SAK classic or very small pen knife. The little SAK classic was a common sight on key rings. Growing up in that environment probably had an affect on what I grew up liking and using and most of all, being used to. After a lifetime of using what was considered a "normal' pocket of 1950's standards, I never could begin to understand the whole tacticool knife thing. Or the unstated weapon thing. And they are just a weapon first. If they were a true working knife, then why did the whole generations of men who worked outdoors like trappers, freight wagon drivers, cowpokes, sailors, and tradesmen carry knives like Barlow's, trappers, and stockmen?

If people these days look sideways at people carrying a knife, the knife industry has nobody to blame but themselves with an artificially created market for a knife that has very little real world use to the common man going about his workday.

Uh-oh, I got on my soapbox again.:(
 
When in highschool in 1991 or so, there was this guy who one day showed up at school with a butterfly knife that he showed to me and some other guys in my class. Of course, at age 12 or so, all of us were very impressed by it and when the word got out, it was quickly confiscated by our teacher at the time.

From that the day on, this guy turned into 'that guy' and was known throughout all the school as a knife carrying dude you'd better give some respect or else.... I even remember that there were some nights organised for parents who were afraid and wanted to talk about the matter with the school board.

That was 1991, in the days that the Labour Party in our country could still win landslide victories in elections. It was so liberal that looking back at it, even I am sometimes amazed that those days really happened. Politics aside, it was a nice era to grow up in. Apart from that guy and his butterfly knife 😁.
 
K.Coper said:
I live in a country that many will consider to be very liberal (in the US sense of the word liberal). A certain former US President of not too long ago, would likely regard it as a society he'd wish to avoid at all costs 😁 Anyhow, knives are not something people regularly carry as a tool. The great thing about the 58mm line though, is that nobody cares when I use it on the subway or downtown. That's another element I like a lot about the 58mm line. Sadly, I also have to take that part of knife ownership into consideration. It is what it is I guess.
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I think it's more about the flash with which one portrays the knife. I certainly am aware of myself taking things out in public, but there's more that I consider than just blade length - color, the task I'm doing vs size, etc. Been carrying a Police 4 and a SAK nowadays, and I used both in public when the task called for it. If I'm just cutting an apple, the SAK will do it. Opening package, small blade. Evil clamshell, the Police 4 comes out. Cutting some leather off a couch? Police 4. Never been looked at sideways, and that Police is a bit over "4, it has a wave feature, but I do not use that to just flash it open out and about.

While the teal color helps, I really think it's my behavior that has never lead anybody to comment on a knife of mine before. I think my Swiss Army gets the most comments.
 
I love SAKs. I carried a Tinker all over the world as a soldier, and it served me well. I also carried a switchblade and a bayonet, but they were for other things and didn’t get used for much. The switchblade got used when needing to cut something without needing to use both hands on the task, and it was useful for those tasks.

When on a patrol in a combat zone, a big sheathe knife on my gear seemed appropriate, but again never got used for much.

I work in an office daily, and carry an Executive, with a braid of paracord on the key ring to make it long enough in the handle to really be easy to use. I have large hands and find a Classic fairly useless. I still carry a 91mm SAK regularly as well. Much more efficient for using for anything more than trimming a string, or maybe sharpening a pencil. Cutting up an apple with a 1” pen blade (especially if only attached to a tiny, short handle) is annoying. Some other things really need more blade than that, as well. Still, most cutting tasks on the daily are done efficiently and effectively with a sliver of steel between 1 and 3 inches long, and usually on the shorter end of that.

I guess I’m still in the knife nut category, though. I just bought a knife roll for the first time in my life and nearly filled it emptying my top drawer. I usually have a Spyderco in my pocket or gear, and a traditional slippie because I just like them and prefer them for some things. I still get out in the woods regularly, and as a result I like to have a substantial knife on me most of the time. On my most recent car trip a few weeks ago, I had occasion to use it (the Spyderco) to cut damaged parts off the car after we hit an animal out in the middle of nowhere, and it was much more efficient for the job than any of the other tools I had with me would have been. Could I have done the same with something else? Probably, but not as safely, or as quickly. Much as I like my pen knives and SAKs, I like having more than a pen knife available when needed.

There was a birthday party last week, and someone brought cake but no knife. My Spyderco Sage was declared “cute” and employed by one of the ladies to cut and serve birthday cake. I suppose my larger SAK could have served, but it would have been more of a mess to clean up afterwords. The Executive would have been useless.

I like to give knives away, too. This afternoon, I mailed my 10yo nephew a Boker Barlow and an Arkansas stone, and last week I gave a female coworker a little single blade slippie when I saw her wrestling a package open.

My grandfather was a WWII infantry vet, and after the war, worked in several industries before becoming a general contractor. When he passed, he had enough pocketknives that every kid in the family (50 grandkids) who was interested got at least one. One of my brothers wasn’t interested, so I got his as well. They ranged from simple penknives to a folding trench knife he bought as a joke to bug my grandma with whenever he pulled it out in public. Bet it would have been a dandy for cutting the cake last week! :D

All that is to say, I think I came by my knife nut status by blood, and while I think I could stand to downsize the accumulation a bit, they aren’t hurting anything, either, and I don’t think I’ll give everything away just yet.
 
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