Once upon a time, I was a knife Knut.
There, I said it, and I'm not holding a candle. But its all on StuntDouble's door step. I used to be a real knife nut, carrying sometimes various number of knives. Opinel's, Buck knives, stockman knives, Barlow knives, even a sodbuster now and then.
But then came that post by StuntDouble on just multitools. I admit that once in a while I carried only a multitool, backed up with a smaller multitool. Lots of SAK's over the course of a lifetime. I think I've carried a SAK over most of the world's hemispheres. Germany, England, France, Libya, (in the pre Gadafi era when Wheelus Air Force base was in operation.) And even Vietnam for a tour.
BUT...that little three letter word...there was always some "real" knife around. In Vietnam my Buck knife. On the job in the Army engineers a Mercator K55 in Germany, sometimes a well worn Douk-Douk, whatever. But as I got older, the SAK started taking over. But I always hedged my bets, and there was that shallow one dimensional knife close by.
But...its all changed. More and more the SAK was starting to reign as my sole EDC. Up until this past year, there was a little Christy knife or Opinel number 5 in one of the pockets. But then StuntDouble got me to thinking of how often the SAK was my sole EDC, many times far from home like on vacation in Key West, and the world kept on turning, the sun still rose in the east, and I survived. A humble little classic fixed a motor scooter in Key West, fixed a defective gummed up fishing reel, fixed an electric trolling motor on a Maryland lake saving me a long paddle back. Coutless times having a screw driver handy fixed the situation.
Its been a while now since I've bothered carrying one of those one dimensional knife things now. In my pocket is an alox bantam, or cast, or my old war horse the Wenger SI. If I need pliers, the Leatherman squirt is on my keyring. But for quite a while now all my cutting has been done with a SAK of some sort. Including un boxing the big sofa my sister in law ordered online, and was cocooned in layers of cardboard. In fact, it was mummified in cardboard and packing tape. They must have held stock in a cardboard company. Yet in spite of people saying how SAK's don't hold an edge, I unpacked and then broke down about 10 square miles of cardboard without sharpening. Okay, maybe not 10 square miles, bu tit felt like. Once, the blade started to seriously drag, and thought I was going to have to touch it up on the little diamond hone in my wallet, but on close examination, it was just a build up of glue on the blade. Some Purell hand sanitizer on a paper towel clean dit off and I kept on cutting. At the end of the job, the tinker was still cutting clean. So much for lack of edge holding.
Soooo, here I am an old fart in the winter of my years, and I no longer carry a shallow one dimension knife. A one trick pony. Since I no longer carry then, I'm seriously thinking of giving away my few last remaining knives. If I'm not carrying or using them, why should I bother keeping them stuffed away in the back of the sock drawer? I'll just be a pure SAKist. When my shelf life is finally up, they won't find anything but SAK's in the sock drawer. Oh, the one well used Leatherman squirt will be there.
It'll be all StuntDouble's fault!
There, I said it, and I'm not holding a candle. But its all on StuntDouble's door step. I used to be a real knife nut, carrying sometimes various number of knives. Opinel's, Buck knives, stockman knives, Barlow knives, even a sodbuster now and then.
But then came that post by StuntDouble on just multitools. I admit that once in a while I carried only a multitool, backed up with a smaller multitool. Lots of SAK's over the course of a lifetime. I think I've carried a SAK over most of the world's hemispheres. Germany, England, France, Libya, (in the pre Gadafi era when Wheelus Air Force base was in operation.) And even Vietnam for a tour.
BUT...that little three letter word...there was always some "real" knife around. In Vietnam my Buck knife. On the job in the Army engineers a Mercator K55 in Germany, sometimes a well worn Douk-Douk, whatever. But as I got older, the SAK started taking over. But I always hedged my bets, and there was that shallow one dimensional knife close by.
But...its all changed. More and more the SAK was starting to reign as my sole EDC. Up until this past year, there was a little Christy knife or Opinel number 5 in one of the pockets. But then StuntDouble got me to thinking of how often the SAK was my sole EDC, many times far from home like on vacation in Key West, and the world kept on turning, the sun still rose in the east, and I survived. A humble little classic fixed a motor scooter in Key West, fixed a defective gummed up fishing reel, fixed an electric trolling motor on a Maryland lake saving me a long paddle back. Coutless times having a screw driver handy fixed the situation.
Its been a while now since I've bothered carrying one of those one dimensional knife things now. In my pocket is an alox bantam, or cast, or my old war horse the Wenger SI. If I need pliers, the Leatherman squirt is on my keyring. But for quite a while now all my cutting has been done with a SAK of some sort. Including un boxing the big sofa my sister in law ordered online, and was cocooned in layers of cardboard. In fact, it was mummified in cardboard and packing tape. They must have held stock in a cardboard company. Yet in spite of people saying how SAK's don't hold an edge, I unpacked and then broke down about 10 square miles of cardboard without sharpening. Okay, maybe not 10 square miles, bu tit felt like. Once, the blade started to seriously drag, and thought I was going to have to touch it up on the little diamond hone in my wallet, but on close examination, it was just a build up of glue on the blade. Some Purell hand sanitizer on a paper towel clean dit off and I kept on cutting. At the end of the job, the tinker was still cutting clean. So much for lack of edge holding.
Soooo, here I am an old fart in the winter of my years, and I no longer carry a shallow one dimension knife. A one trick pony. Since I no longer carry then, I'm seriously thinking of giving away my few last remaining knives. If I'm not carrying or using them, why should I bother keeping them stuffed away in the back of the sock drawer? I'll just be a pure SAKist. When my shelf life is finally up, they won't find anything but SAK's in the sock drawer. Oh, the one well used Leatherman squirt will be there.
It'll be all StuntDouble's fault!
