Being a knife knut sometimes means you realize that you are on the fringe of things. Society tends to look a bit sideways at people who adore sharp objects. Collect all the stamps and coins you wish, and you'll just be a little strange. But collect knives, and you're a modern Jack The Ripper. Except for SAK's. For some reason, SAK's seem to have a bit of a reprieve on the negative. Maybe all the years of being a backpackers tool, maybe a certain TV show in the 1980's helped. But the little red knife from the land of great chocolate and cheese with holes in it, gets a stamp of respectability.
I never gave a lot of thought to this, as my main love is the traditional pocket knife, with a SAK somewhere in the background. I got my first SAK in 1969, so we have a long history together, even if it rode in a daypack as a 'just in case' instead of in my pocket. But then I met this girl. On a shooting range no less.
A nice summer morning in Texas, and I was doing some pistol practice, and there was this girl with a Smith and Wesson .22 revolver. Notable in it's own right, but she was turning out a target, shooting one handed real target style, better than I was doing with two handed combat style. Over a drink she shared a doughnut with me, halving it with the boy scout knife from her purse. About 8 months later we were married. I figured any girl with a knife in her purse and can out shoot me is a keeper.
Anyways, she loved carrying that old scout knife her dad had given her. It had been his, and he had moved on to a SAK, and given his girl his old scout knife. Seems dad was an ex-navy man and outdoorsman who loved boating, long canoe trips in Maine and the Boundry waters in Minnisota. That was when he wasn't off on a backpacking trip. As our life together went on, my new better half saw my SAK, and in the way wives have, instantly laid claim to it. She loved that it had even more tools than her dad's old scout knife that got retired to family artifact. Then came the kids.
Three kids later, and soccer, and cub scouts, and girl scouts, and family vacations, the kids saw me use my knife many times. My old Buck 301 stockman saw a lot of duty, but so did my new SAK that I bought to replace the one claimed by the wife. Raising three kids on the run means lots of running repairs on stuff while on trips to the zoo, soccer, scouts, and the beach. I eventually learned that kids see and record more than we think.
One day on a little hike in the woods, my oldest boy, John, wants to 'borrow' my knife to whittle a stick for roasting a hot dog over the small fire we'd made. I go to hand him my old Buck, and he says, "no dad, your real knife. The red one." This of course gives me reason to think about this. In spite of all the times I'd used the 301 stockman to cut something,John didn't hold it as high regard as the red handle tool equipped SAK. I later found out my Daughter had felt the same. When Jessica finally got to the point of being old enough to have a pocket knife, I asked her what she wanted. She gave me a funny look and asked if that was a trick question. "No dad, one like mom's. I want a Swiss Army knife. And it has to have a nail file." Okay.
I guess the die was cast early on, with all my kids being sakkist's. Fan's of the SAK. John, my oldest, travels a lot for business, and always carries a SAK. One of the small 58mm's no less. Maybe places like Amsterdam, London, Munich, have an influence. My daughter loved SAK's and won't bother with anything else. I once asked her if she wanted a nice GEC or Case, and she answered in her blunt honest way. "Dad, why would I want a knife that only does one thing?"
I guess she has a point.
That left only my third and youngest kid. Matt. Of all my kids, I think Matt is the one that is most like me. Even as a little kid, he was more practical than his siblings, and more mature at an earlier age. Of course when he got old enough to join the scouts, he did. In that era the scouts had switched to carrying SAK's, with no sign of the great old Camillus, Imperial, Schrade, and other brand scout knives that we had when I was kid. Victorinox seemed to have taken over the scout game by the 1980's, and with the help of a certain TV character, a SAK was what every kid wanted. So my youngest kid was seduced by the Swiss Gods of tool knives. These days, Matt goes through his life a country police officer with a Victoriox pioneer in his pocket. Says he loves to have a screw driver/light pry tool on hand.
The other day, I saw definite sign that the next generation of jackknife clan is going to be SAK people. My granddaughter got a splinter while playing on some big timber climbing thing on the playground. She comes up to where we're sitting on the bench showng the splinter to 'mommy.' With no hesitation, Jess pulls her keyring out of her purse, and takes the tweezers from her bright yellow classic, and pulls out the splinter. Briana goes back to playing, no fuss, no muss. At age 5, Briana is already conscious of edc stuff. She has her own Fenix E01, and a few other items. Not that long ago, she was looking at my keyring laying on the coffee table and noted that I had the same little knifelike mommy's, but in red. Then she made the pronouncement that she wanted one when use got 'old enough.'
I fear she's already lost to the world of jigged bone and carbon steel. But at least she'll have a knife on her if needed.
I never gave a lot of thought to this, as my main love is the traditional pocket knife, with a SAK somewhere in the background. I got my first SAK in 1969, so we have a long history together, even if it rode in a daypack as a 'just in case' instead of in my pocket. But then I met this girl. On a shooting range no less.
A nice summer morning in Texas, and I was doing some pistol practice, and there was this girl with a Smith and Wesson .22 revolver. Notable in it's own right, but she was turning out a target, shooting one handed real target style, better than I was doing with two handed combat style. Over a drink she shared a doughnut with me, halving it with the boy scout knife from her purse. About 8 months later we were married. I figured any girl with a knife in her purse and can out shoot me is a keeper.
Anyways, she loved carrying that old scout knife her dad had given her. It had been his, and he had moved on to a SAK, and given his girl his old scout knife. Seems dad was an ex-navy man and outdoorsman who loved boating, long canoe trips in Maine and the Boundry waters in Minnisota. That was when he wasn't off on a backpacking trip. As our life together went on, my new better half saw my SAK, and in the way wives have, instantly laid claim to it. She loved that it had even more tools than her dad's old scout knife that got retired to family artifact. Then came the kids.
Three kids later, and soccer, and cub scouts, and girl scouts, and family vacations, the kids saw me use my knife many times. My old Buck 301 stockman saw a lot of duty, but so did my new SAK that I bought to replace the one claimed by the wife. Raising three kids on the run means lots of running repairs on stuff while on trips to the zoo, soccer, scouts, and the beach. I eventually learned that kids see and record more than we think.
One day on a little hike in the woods, my oldest boy, John, wants to 'borrow' my knife to whittle a stick for roasting a hot dog over the small fire we'd made. I go to hand him my old Buck, and he says, "no dad, your real knife. The red one." This of course gives me reason to think about this. In spite of all the times I'd used the 301 stockman to cut something,John didn't hold it as high regard as the red handle tool equipped SAK. I later found out my Daughter had felt the same. When Jessica finally got to the point of being old enough to have a pocket knife, I asked her what she wanted. She gave me a funny look and asked if that was a trick question. "No dad, one like mom's. I want a Swiss Army knife. And it has to have a nail file." Okay.
I guess the die was cast early on, with all my kids being sakkist's. Fan's of the SAK. John, my oldest, travels a lot for business, and always carries a SAK. One of the small 58mm's no less. Maybe places like Amsterdam, London, Munich, have an influence. My daughter loved SAK's and won't bother with anything else. I once asked her if she wanted a nice GEC or Case, and she answered in her blunt honest way. "Dad, why would I want a knife that only does one thing?"
I guess she has a point.
That left only my third and youngest kid. Matt. Of all my kids, I think Matt is the one that is most like me. Even as a little kid, he was more practical than his siblings, and more mature at an earlier age. Of course when he got old enough to join the scouts, he did. In that era the scouts had switched to carrying SAK's, with no sign of the great old Camillus, Imperial, Schrade, and other brand scout knives that we had when I was kid. Victorinox seemed to have taken over the scout game by the 1980's, and with the help of a certain TV character, a SAK was what every kid wanted. So my youngest kid was seduced by the Swiss Gods of tool knives. These days, Matt goes through his life a country police officer with a Victoriox pioneer in his pocket. Says he loves to have a screw driver/light pry tool on hand.
The other day, I saw definite sign that the next generation of jackknife clan is going to be SAK people. My granddaughter got a splinter while playing on some big timber climbing thing on the playground. She comes up to where we're sitting on the bench showng the splinter to 'mommy.' With no hesitation, Jess pulls her keyring out of her purse, and takes the tweezers from her bright yellow classic, and pulls out the splinter. Briana goes back to playing, no fuss, no muss. At age 5, Briana is already conscious of edc stuff. She has her own Fenix E01, and a few other items. Not that long ago, she was looking at my keyring laying on the coffee table and noted that I had the same little knifelike mommy's, but in red. Then she made the pronouncement that she wanted one when use got 'old enough.'
I fear she's already lost to the world of jigged bone and carbon steel. But at least she'll have a knife on her if needed.
