OK Gonzo’s What Knives Did Hunter S. Thompson EDC ?

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

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Mostly I’m interested in the folders but would like to hear about fixed blades of course.

“What’s the score here ?” “What’s next ?”
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PS: Gonzos in the journalistic sense (not the knife company).

 
Don't have a clue but if I had to take a wild guess I'd go with something like a 15" bowie strapped to his back, just for that shock n awe factor whenever the steel hit the sun.
 
But... you never turn your back on a drug.
(In Fear and Loathing, it was a 119, iirc)

Why do I want to say that he had a knife on him during "Where the buffalo roam.". But for the life of me, I can't remember what it was...

I can see him with a 110 in his pocket. The whole Americana vibe makes me think this...


eta: 119 was in the hotel room, 110 was in the diner.
Just love the name of his "horse"...
 
He would check in to good hotels with a maitre d'affaires and call in lists of odd things he required. Apparently a bowie knife was often on the list, so it was whatever the man could find on short notice. The mind boggles.....
 
I don't know what he actually carried, if anything, but I like to think it was something along these lines:

cache_500_1_1_img_38987_97937440-1.jpg
 
I don't think it was a "too weird" type of thing, but more along the lines of a "he's making a damn fool of himself again" look.

Trust me, I know the look. I get it plenty of times from the Misses and my friends.
 
I was just reading that early in his carrier he got busted and jailed in the depths of South America for shooting rats in the local dump with a .357.
He ditched the gun before they nabbed him.

The police in the station were getting to know him and they were all getting to be pals. They had dropped the charges and were about to release him when Hunter put his feet up on something . . . you know . . . all relaxed like and his spare shells started dropping out of his pocket onto the floor.
The story goes that it took the American embassy to get him out.
 
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He was a customer of Abercrombie and Fitch in the 60's, 70's, so some of the knives they sold back then probably made it into his kit. He also made mention of carrying various SAK knives and Italian type stilettoes over the years in interviews.

Also he attended a few of the early Soldier of Fortune conventions, he makes mention of buying a couple of Al Mars, a pen disguised spike, and an Italian type stiletto on pages #161 - 162 here - http://books.google.com/books?id=tw2q2mny50IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hunter+s+thompson+soldier+of+fortune&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8y9Two-LUAhWIFz4KHYauATwQ6AEIIjAA#v=onepage&q=hunter s thompson soldier of fortune&f=false .

Also in a book of his letters, he mentioned buying a 6 inch hunting knife for defense. He had taken a beating by a teenage gang in Manhattan, and figured he needed something. No brand mentioned, but this was in the late 1950's.

Also in the Fear and Loathing book, the knife is a Gerber Mini Magnum -

GerberMiniMagnum-3.jpg
.
 
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Not the knife world, the journalistic and literary world.
I guess it is more along the lines of his outlook on life and how he experienced and viewed the world. Along with how the world is changed by the viewer, or perceived to have changed, that sort of speaks to the more direct chords of one's mentality or inner voice.

His stance was more often about what was going on and how it is immediately perceived and relates to him personally and affects his world, due to this he primarily ends up being the central role in which the piece is written, perspective wise.

That, and he rarely, if ever, held anything back.
 
Lol, and most of us know that you, like Hunter, Rarely, if ever, hold anything back.
 
Dang it, now you've made me want to pull out all my HST books and reread them. As if my reading list isn't already overlong...
 
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