A Gentleman's Knife....
I can’t think of many things more useful than a small knife.
I remember my grandfather getting one for his 80th birthday. I remember 80 seemed really, really old (I was only about 5) and a little pocket knife was quite a curious thing.
He explained it as a “gentleman’s knife” – not some sort of massive weapon used for skinning dragons, not all that useful for chopping down trees, but just the thing for the small tasks that come up every day.
Then I went and grew up doing scouting and running around in the woods and really learned the wisdom of having a little something to cut some string, open a package, work on some food…. One of my pet peeves going though school was that I couldn’t carry my favorite tool – one of my small little “gentleman’s knives.”
Then I got to college and the regulations were more relaxed: machete – no, folding knife – yes.
Today I’ve got a tiny little knife on my keychain and a little mini-multitool gadget in my pocket. Neither of them would count much as a weapon, but I get a lot of use out the multitool in particular.
It’s one of the little perks my health insurance company sends me about every month for exercising regularly and recording it on their website. Every couple months I get a new little pliers/knife/screwdriver thingie. They’re not all that high a quality, but I have a pretty steady stream of replacements and the old ones fit well into tackle boxes and backpacks.
I also have a Leatherman I got for my 13th birthday. It’s helped me out of quite a few jams from fixing a suitcase in Australia to building monkey bridges in North Carolina. Just this week I’ve been using its can opener after my fancier mechanical model cracked and broke. But the high-quality knife is a good bit bigger and heavier and I don’t want to lose it, so it mostly lives in my car.
The little mini-multitool has some pliers, scissors, some screwdrivers, a small nail file and a few little tools I don’t really know what they do…. It fits nicely in my pocket and pretty much just lives there while it’s waiting to be needed.
And it’s needed pretty often. With bikes and computers and golf clubs and flintlocks and the like, it’s in pretty regular service.
Tell you what. This week I’ll try to keep a list of all the things it gets used for.
I’ll keep you posted….
I remember my grandfather getting one for his 80th birthday. I remember 80 seemed really, really old (I was only about 5) and a little pocket knife was quite a curious thing.
He explained it as a “gentleman’s knife” – not some sort of massive weapon used for skinning dragons, not all that useful for chopping down trees, but just the thing for the small tasks that come up every day.
Then I went and grew up doing scouting and running around in the woods and really learned the wisdom of having a little something to cut some string, open a package, work on some food…. One of my pet peeves going though school was that I couldn’t carry my favorite tool – one of my small little “gentleman’s knives.”
Then I got to college and the regulations were more relaxed: machete – no, folding knife – yes.
Today I’ve got a tiny little knife on my keychain and a little mini-multitool gadget in my pocket. Neither of them would count much as a weapon, but I get a lot of use out the multitool in particular.
It’s one of the little perks my health insurance company sends me about every month for exercising regularly and recording it on their website. Every couple months I get a new little pliers/knife/screwdriver thingie. They’re not all that high a quality, but I have a pretty steady stream of replacements and the old ones fit well into tackle boxes and backpacks.
I also have a Leatherman I got for my 13th birthday. It’s helped me out of quite a few jams from fixing a suitcase in Australia to building monkey bridges in North Carolina. Just this week I’ve been using its can opener after my fancier mechanical model cracked and broke. But the high-quality knife is a good bit bigger and heavier and I don’t want to lose it, so it mostly lives in my car.
The little mini-multitool has some pliers, scissors, some screwdrivers, a small nail file and a few little tools I don’t really know what they do…. It fits nicely in my pocket and pretty much just lives there while it’s waiting to be needed.
And it’s needed pretty often. With bikes and computers and golf clubs and flintlocks and the like, it’s in pretty regular service.
Tell you what. This week I’ll try to keep a list of all the things it gets used for.
I’ll keep you posted….
posted by John Derrick | 1:14 PM
1 Comments:
A gentleman's knife is a fine thing. It's amazing what a small blade can do for both utility's and convenience's sake.
Thanks again for the beer, we've gotta get together to food it up.
Peace,
John
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