cb51
Active Member
I hate to admit I was a knife nut for most of my life. I obsessively carried at least three knives on me at all times, and I wasn't happy if one of them wasn't up to fighting off Chinese paratroopers or injuns on the war path. I even dropped lots of money on Randall made knives.
Then the epiphany. Happened in my mid 40's, and I looked at all the stuff I had collected and thought "What the hell am I doing?" Sold off all the Randall's, gave away a lot of the other stuff to friends, nephews, niece, brother, and boy scouts. The reality dawned on me of "how much knife do I need walking around Montgomery country Maryland?"
I've always liked miniature things, a hold over from my ultra light backpacking days. I'm always wondering how small can an item be and still function at it's intended task? I never liked single blade knives, seemed too much of a one trick pony. I had carried a boy scout knife my dad gave me at age 12, until I joined the army and carried the issue 'demo' knife that was in effect an all stainless steel scout knife. Then I got into Swiss Army knives after the army.
For the last 20 years or so, a little Swiss Army knife, the littlest they make in fact, has been taking over as my edc knife. It rode on my keying so I couldn't leave home without it, and more anymore I used it for all my pocket knife stuff. In spite of having a blade barely over an inch, it opens mail, cut open boxes and plastic blister packages, cut string, in addition to dealing with all kinds of small phillips and flat screws, cleaned my nails, snipped things that needed a scissors, and even pulled splitters with the tiny but effective tweezers. I think the first one was like 7 dollars at Walmart, and it lasted a few years before the wifey glommed onto it and it was other keyring. So I bought another one at Walmart and by that time it was like 8.99. Still a steal. Bestthing about it was,it went into all kinds of government buildings downtown with no problems.
I liked it so much, and used it so much, I made a leather pouch sheath for it to go on my keyring. That way the knife wasn't really attached to the keys, and it made things a lot easier to be able to just pull out the knife, use whatever blade/tool I needed, and put it back. Of course, once the wifey saw the leather sheath, it got transfers to her keyring, so I had to make another one. You long term married guys know how that works, right?
Victorinox makes a fine product, and it's rare to wear one out, but I managed to wear out my little keyring Swiss Army knife in about 10 years. Being a sub 10 dollar knife, it was my beater knife. The knife I used when I didn't want to mess up what was in my pocket. Or the knife I took on trips and didnt mind if the luggage thieves got it. It took a while, but that nonsense stopped. Little by little I stopped carrying the other knives. Now, retired and living in Texas, I still don't seem to need much knife in my day to day walking around town life. I'm doing more fishing than ever, but I have my old Buck sheath knife in my fishing kit.And the scissors on the little Swiss Army knife go right through fishing line. If I'm doing home repair or garden stuff, a Stanely 99 is one the garden/tool kit. For self protection, there's a firearm in my pocket. Texas lets us do that. But even back in Maryland, I carried a stout blackthorn or hornbeam walking stick and pepper spray if I went "downtown", so knives never figured as a weapon to me. Growing up in northeast D.C. I learned how effective a padlock with a bandana through it was in keeping my lunch money.
So here I am, a happily retired guy living in a warm climate and fishing every other day, with the littlest Swiss Army knife on my keys, and happy with it. Weighs almost nothing, takes up almost no room, and can be replaced at the next box box store I come to for the cost of lunch at a chain restaurant. It's been about 20 years now I've carried one, and I love these little things. Leaves room in my pockets for other stuff like the Bic lighter for my pipe, tobacco pouch, little bottle of hand sanitizer, and the RONCO pocket defibrillator in case of a vapor lock.
Then the epiphany. Happened in my mid 40's, and I looked at all the stuff I had collected and thought "What the hell am I doing?" Sold off all the Randall's, gave away a lot of the other stuff to friends, nephews, niece, brother, and boy scouts. The reality dawned on me of "how much knife do I need walking around Montgomery country Maryland?"
I've always liked miniature things, a hold over from my ultra light backpacking days. I'm always wondering how small can an item be and still function at it's intended task? I never liked single blade knives, seemed too much of a one trick pony. I had carried a boy scout knife my dad gave me at age 12, until I joined the army and carried the issue 'demo' knife that was in effect an all stainless steel scout knife. Then I got into Swiss Army knives after the army.
For the last 20 years or so, a little Swiss Army knife, the littlest they make in fact, has been taking over as my edc knife. It rode on my keying so I couldn't leave home without it, and more anymore I used it for all my pocket knife stuff. In spite of having a blade barely over an inch, it opens mail, cut open boxes and plastic blister packages, cut string, in addition to dealing with all kinds of small phillips and flat screws, cleaned my nails, snipped things that needed a scissors, and even pulled splitters with the tiny but effective tweezers. I think the first one was like 7 dollars at Walmart, and it lasted a few years before the wifey glommed onto it and it was other keyring. So I bought another one at Walmart and by that time it was like 8.99. Still a steal. Bestthing about it was,it went into all kinds of government buildings downtown with no problems.
I liked it so much, and used it so much, I made a leather pouch sheath for it to go on my keyring. That way the knife wasn't really attached to the keys, and it made things a lot easier to be able to just pull out the knife, use whatever blade/tool I needed, and put it back. Of course, once the wifey saw the leather sheath, it got transfers to her keyring, so I had to make another one. You long term married guys know how that works, right?
Victorinox makes a fine product, and it's rare to wear one out, but I managed to wear out my little keyring Swiss Army knife in about 10 years. Being a sub 10 dollar knife, it was my beater knife. The knife I used when I didn't want to mess up what was in my pocket. Or the knife I took on trips and didnt mind if the luggage thieves got it. It took a while, but that nonsense stopped. Little by little I stopped carrying the other knives. Now, retired and living in Texas, I still don't seem to need much knife in my day to day walking around town life. I'm doing more fishing than ever, but I have my old Buck sheath knife in my fishing kit.And the scissors on the little Swiss Army knife go right through fishing line. If I'm doing home repair or garden stuff, a Stanely 99 is one the garden/tool kit. For self protection, there's a firearm in my pocket. Texas lets us do that. But even back in Maryland, I carried a stout blackthorn or hornbeam walking stick and pepper spray if I went "downtown", so knives never figured as a weapon to me. Growing up in northeast D.C. I learned how effective a padlock with a bandana through it was in keeping my lunch money.
So here I am, a happily retired guy living in a warm climate and fishing every other day, with the littlest Swiss Army knife on my keys, and happy with it. Weighs almost nothing, takes up almost no room, and can be replaced at the next box box store I come to for the cost of lunch at a chain restaurant. It's been about 20 years now I've carried one, and I love these little things. Leaves room in my pockets for other stuff like the Bic lighter for my pipe, tobacco pouch, little bottle of hand sanitizer, and the RONCO pocket defibrillator in case of a vapor lock.