I miss my old trusted friend

At about 13 years old (in 1977), I bought a Schrade medium stockman whose main blade was stamped "razor-blade stainless". In my teen years, that was a main carry knife for me. I also had a Camillus-made Buck Cadet stockman, but the edge on the schrade came sharper and easier to maintain.

Later, my only carry knife when I moved overseas for years was a Victorinox Spartan. I carried that knife even after I came back home, which totaled about 10 years. I carried that knife through airports in Taiwan, Hong Kong, S. Korea, Japan, and the U.S. Those days are over, but that knife went all of those places with me. I retired it, not that it had to be. I just felt that knife represents a special time in my life.

Then I got back into knives big-time with all the modern one-handers. I've accumulated a bunch of knives, many of which I don't use, but some which I have, and have come to appreciate.

The knife I carry now and can call a 'friend' is my black Vic Executive. It's always with me, regardless of whatever other knife(s) I may have on me, wherever a knife is legal to carry. It's used a lot, too. Been carrying it about 10 years, too. But I generally use another knife if heavy cutting is in order.

I went ape with the knife-buying in the late '90s to the early '00's. My purchases have lessened considerably. I'm very careful now if I buy a knife and am usually successful at it now. Anyway, I am glad to have the opportunity to have the choice of which knife(s) I can carry.

The idea of function can be a mental struggle for me, though. If I choose a slippie like a stockman, etc., I wonder if I'll need the screwdriver or other tools of an SAK. Yet some slippies can do harder cutting longer than an SAK. Then does this or that SAK have enough of the tools for some unlikely scenario I might need it for? Do I need to carry multiple SAKs just in case? It almost seems like a type of OCD. Man, I hope it's not.

Jim
 
I thought I had it all figured out a few years ago when I was carrying a Camillus cigar jack. Those carbon blades would get razor sharp and stay that way. I really thought Iwould die and be buried with that knife in my pocket. And then I made the mistake of buying a Case knife and then another.

Finally I ended up with a Case 54 trapper with a warnecliffe blade. I thought that was it until my six month old granddaughter took it out of my hand to use as a teething toy. Well she will be getting that knife for her first birthday present here in a couple of weeks.

But since I have pretty much whittled it down to a Case peanut in my left front pocket and a yellow handled 54 trapper in my right front pocket. Both are gifts from my children and do carry special meaning to me.

As for the Camillus my youngest son has it and carries it every now and then. I bought him a small Case saddlehorn a couple of years ago and everytime I ask him if he wants a new pocket knife he tells me he has a good one and asks why he needs anymore (the boy worries me) and believe me if he asks me to sharpen it for him I had better have it back to him in ten minutes or less or he just hovers where he can keep an eye on me.

God Bless
Tracy
 
Back
Top