I'm a cell tower climber, and a knife enthusiast, and have never found that one "perfect" knife that I will never leave the house without. Seems like every week I carry a slightly different combination of 2 knives on my weekly travles across New York State, and then there's the fishing trips on the weeksends, you guys know how it goes, who am I kidding.
Yesterday I spent 5 hours climbing down a tower leg, it's a brand new tower we just built, 350ft tall, and I was making my way down, fastening the wires for the beacons at the top of the tower every 5 feet with, get this, three wraps of 2"wide electrical tape, 3 wraps of the packing type tape with the nylon strings run in it, and then 3 more wraps of the electrical tape. This is what holds the wires and cable in place untill all the antennas and such are mounted to the tower and the clip fasteners are all attached to the tower permanently. So I have a Boker automatic. Yea, it's illegal here in NY state. 1- I don't care. It is very handy for working in my profession, where I can grab it and keep a firm grip on it and push the button and it's open, and 2- what many don't know in NY state, is that they are leagle if you are hunting or fishing and have the vallid licence for the activity. I've always got my pole in the truck, you never know when your going to a job site with fish near by, so I figure what the heck, good enough excuse for me.
Anyhow, I clipped the Boker to my harness at the beginning of my long climb up, and at some point on my way, something, maybe one of my fall arrest hooks, maybe the 400ft measuring tape, maybe my own arm as I reached for a step bolt, something pushed the knife up and off it's pocket clip and it went down. I know I was up high when it happened, because I never heard it hit the tower below because of the wind howling in my ears, and it was found later in the day by someone on the ground a good 60ft from the base of the tower. Point "A" in all this... From a good 100ft + fall, hitting hard earth, and probably bouncing off a couple peices of tower steel, the knife still worked fine. For a $30 buy the knife seems pretty damn tough. It's been through hell, now it's fell to it.
When I realized it wasn't on me (when I started wrapping tape and went for the knife for the first cut) I had no choice but to digg into my pocket, weaseling my hand through my harness and squeezing it into my pocket, and take out my little Case pocket knife. With the automatic knife I could open it and close it and clip it onto my harness and grab it again in another 20 seconds for the next cut over and over pretty darn efficiently with one hand, holding the tape with the other. With that option gone, I found myself like a pirate holding the Case in my mouth for the next 180ft (or 2+hours) and realizing how practical that Boker automatic really is for specific working environments, but also how important a back up is for everyday "whatever may come" issues.
Auto's aren't just for punks, drug dealers and mercenaries, and pocket knives aren't just for grandpa to whittle sticks on the front porch. That's the epiphany I had at around 300ft. Thought I would share. Mark.
Top- My CRKT that a lot of the time is clipped just inside my tool bag when I go up.
Middle- My well used and 3 year old Boker auto. The large scrapes on the blade are from actually using it for a half hour one night shucking clam shells (gotta do whatcha gotta do sometimes)
Bottom- My Case pocket knife. Was my grandfathers, handed down to me when he passed away in 1997. even without the point and a slightly bent broken tip, it's always sharp and gets the job done, from deer to tape.
Yesterday I spent 5 hours climbing down a tower leg, it's a brand new tower we just built, 350ft tall, and I was making my way down, fastening the wires for the beacons at the top of the tower every 5 feet with, get this, three wraps of 2"wide electrical tape, 3 wraps of the packing type tape with the nylon strings run in it, and then 3 more wraps of the electrical tape. This is what holds the wires and cable in place untill all the antennas and such are mounted to the tower and the clip fasteners are all attached to the tower permanently. So I have a Boker automatic. Yea, it's illegal here in NY state. 1- I don't care. It is very handy for working in my profession, where I can grab it and keep a firm grip on it and push the button and it's open, and 2- what many don't know in NY state, is that they are leagle if you are hunting or fishing and have the vallid licence for the activity. I've always got my pole in the truck, you never know when your going to a job site with fish near by, so I figure what the heck, good enough excuse for me.
Anyhow, I clipped the Boker to my harness at the beginning of my long climb up, and at some point on my way, something, maybe one of my fall arrest hooks, maybe the 400ft measuring tape, maybe my own arm as I reached for a step bolt, something pushed the knife up and off it's pocket clip and it went down. I know I was up high when it happened, because I never heard it hit the tower below because of the wind howling in my ears, and it was found later in the day by someone on the ground a good 60ft from the base of the tower. Point "A" in all this... From a good 100ft + fall, hitting hard earth, and probably bouncing off a couple peices of tower steel, the knife still worked fine. For a $30 buy the knife seems pretty damn tough. It's been through hell, now it's fell to it.
When I realized it wasn't on me (when I started wrapping tape and went for the knife for the first cut) I had no choice but to digg into my pocket, weaseling my hand through my harness and squeezing it into my pocket, and take out my little Case pocket knife. With the automatic knife I could open it and close it and clip it onto my harness and grab it again in another 20 seconds for the next cut over and over pretty darn efficiently with one hand, holding the tape with the other. With that option gone, I found myself like a pirate holding the Case in my mouth for the next 180ft (or 2+hours) and realizing how practical that Boker automatic really is for specific working environments, but also how important a back up is for everyday "whatever may come" issues.
Auto's aren't just for punks, drug dealers and mercenaries, and pocket knives aren't just for grandpa to whittle sticks on the front porch. That's the epiphany I had at around 300ft. Thought I would share. Mark.
Top- My CRKT that a lot of the time is clipped just inside my tool bag when I go up.
Middle- My well used and 3 year old Boker auto. The large scrapes on the blade are from actually using it for a half hour one night shucking clam shells (gotta do whatcha gotta do sometimes)
Bottom- My Case pocket knife. Was my grandfathers, handed down to me when he passed away in 1997. even without the point and a slightly bent broken tip, it's always sharp and gets the job done, from deer to tape.
