SAK's, the little bundle of tools that can solve a host of small problems that fate loves to toss in our way. A few screw drivers, an awl, a blade just big enough to cut a seat belt or slice some cheese and baguette in the back country.
It's been 53 years since I got that first SAK, and its been a constant in my life ever since. Even when I went though my knife nut years, and even though I had the next shiny cult worship item in my pocket to fondle and coon finger, a SAK was never far away. In the pack, the jacket pocket, under the motorcycle seat, or just in another pocket. On the few occasions I did leave the SAK home, I made sure I had the old standby from another era tools; the Sears 4-way keychain screw driver and P-38 in the wallet. I grew up watching dad deal with and fix all kinds of things with that old timey combo, and an occasional paper clip or black electrical tape.
But it took a lot of years as a knife Knut to very slowly come to the realization that those "other" knives were not really needed. Did I really need a pocket knife with three different knife blades but not a single screw driver to deal with a loose side plate screw on a S&W revolver or cable adjustment in an old BMW R60? Or just an easy way to pop off the top of a cold one after the job is done.
I know that my time in the army, the old 'demo' knife, the M-L-K-818 Camillus was a highly prized item, to the extent that the supply sergeant kept them under lock and key. They tended to disappear at a fast rate, and it got so that if you needed a new one, you had a to turn in the old broken/worn out one. People seemed to have a love of a pocket knife with few tools on it. In Vietnam, with all the issue MKII's Air Force survival knives, Buck knives from the PX, it was the humble demo knife that was hot goods 'downtown' on leave for trade goods for a case of iced down '33', or other things a GI on leave may want.
It seems like having a pocket knife with some tools on it is an old idea. The Civil war era saw pocket knives with hoof picks, spoons and other tools. Theres even a specimen that supposedly is from the Roman era with knife, fork, awl/pick, and some other tools on it. I in the old days there were pocket knives with awls billed as harness jacks for the repair and maintenance of horses bridles and harnesses. Good for fright wagon or stag coach drivers. Sailors had marlin spikes, miners had pocket knives with a little wrench for adjusting the carbide lamps on their headgear. In the heyday of the Sheffield cutlery, they turned out all kinds of gentleman knives with all kinds of tools on them from button hooks to pipe stem reamers to scissors and nail files.
Just as there are people who wander through life not even bothering to carry any knife at all, I wonder if there are people out there who think 'wait a minute, if may need a knife, then maybe may need a screw driver or other tool?" These are people who may live life a teeny bit more deliberate, with a itty bit more forthought about what they are doing. A sort of state of mind that is a bit more proactive, a bit more deliberate in being prepared for those little emergencies that life loves to toss in our path to see if we trip over over it. I know that I can't count the times I've been out someplace far away from a tool box, like a rented boat out on the flats west of Key West, or at the far end of a long and winding lake with a balky trolling motor, or anyplace else and having that 'uh-oh' moment where something is not working right, and its a very long way back. But having that little SAK, and being able to get "into' it to monkey around and get things going again in the right direction was a day saver. A day of vacation in a far off place saved by that little red handled Swiss gizmo.
I started our my knife life with a boy scout knife at a young and tender age, and it may have set a sort of mental reset point in my brain. It had the Boy Scout motto molded into the handle, "Be prepared" and it sort of stuck there. Even now, a lifetime later, my old war horse Wenger SI is just a better finished version of the basic scout knife and army issue demo knife that I carried for so many years. After I got over my knife nut craziness, I came back to my default zone, the scout knife/SAK. For everyday life, it just makes more sense to be prepared. And if b being prepared means carrying a few tools, then a SAK is my default. It must be a lotto people's default, otherwise they would not be the worlds most produced and sold pocket knife.
That speaks of a definite state of mind of a lot of consumers.
It's been 53 years since I got that first SAK, and its been a constant in my life ever since. Even when I went though my knife nut years, and even though I had the next shiny cult worship item in my pocket to fondle and coon finger, a SAK was never far away. In the pack, the jacket pocket, under the motorcycle seat, or just in another pocket. On the few occasions I did leave the SAK home, I made sure I had the old standby from another era tools; the Sears 4-way keychain screw driver and P-38 in the wallet. I grew up watching dad deal with and fix all kinds of things with that old timey combo, and an occasional paper clip or black electrical tape.
But it took a lot of years as a knife Knut to very slowly come to the realization that those "other" knives were not really needed. Did I really need a pocket knife with three different knife blades but not a single screw driver to deal with a loose side plate screw on a S&W revolver or cable adjustment in an old BMW R60? Or just an easy way to pop off the top of a cold one after the job is done.
I know that my time in the army, the old 'demo' knife, the M-L-K-818 Camillus was a highly prized item, to the extent that the supply sergeant kept them under lock and key. They tended to disappear at a fast rate, and it got so that if you needed a new one, you had a to turn in the old broken/worn out one. People seemed to have a love of a pocket knife with few tools on it. In Vietnam, with all the issue MKII's Air Force survival knives, Buck knives from the PX, it was the humble demo knife that was hot goods 'downtown' on leave for trade goods for a case of iced down '33', or other things a GI on leave may want.
It seems like having a pocket knife with some tools on it is an old idea. The Civil war era saw pocket knives with hoof picks, spoons and other tools. Theres even a specimen that supposedly is from the Roman era with knife, fork, awl/pick, and some other tools on it. I in the old days there were pocket knives with awls billed as harness jacks for the repair and maintenance of horses bridles and harnesses. Good for fright wagon or stag coach drivers. Sailors had marlin spikes, miners had pocket knives with a little wrench for adjusting the carbide lamps on their headgear. In the heyday of the Sheffield cutlery, they turned out all kinds of gentleman knives with all kinds of tools on them from button hooks to pipe stem reamers to scissors and nail files.
Just as there are people who wander through life not even bothering to carry any knife at all, I wonder if there are people out there who think 'wait a minute, if may need a knife, then maybe may need a screw driver or other tool?" These are people who may live life a teeny bit more deliberate, with a itty bit more forthought about what they are doing. A sort of state of mind that is a bit more proactive, a bit more deliberate in being prepared for those little emergencies that life loves to toss in our path to see if we trip over over it. I know that I can't count the times I've been out someplace far away from a tool box, like a rented boat out on the flats west of Key West, or at the far end of a long and winding lake with a balky trolling motor, or anyplace else and having that 'uh-oh' moment where something is not working right, and its a very long way back. But having that little SAK, and being able to get "into' it to monkey around and get things going again in the right direction was a day saver. A day of vacation in a far off place saved by that little red handled Swiss gizmo.
I started our my knife life with a boy scout knife at a young and tender age, and it may have set a sort of mental reset point in my brain. It had the Boy Scout motto molded into the handle, "Be prepared" and it sort of stuck there. Even now, a lifetime later, my old war horse Wenger SI is just a better finished version of the basic scout knife and army issue demo knife that I carried for so many years. After I got over my knife nut craziness, I came back to my default zone, the scout knife/SAK. For everyday life, it just makes more sense to be prepared. And if b being prepared means carrying a few tools, then a SAK is my default. It must be a lotto people's default, otherwise they would not be the worlds most produced and sold pocket knife.
That speaks of a definite state of mind of a lot of consumers.
Last edited:
