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The lifetime SAK.

cbl51 · 24 · 2881

us Offline cbl51

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The lifetime SAK.
on: October 26, 2014, 01:55:20 PM
It was just an ordinary boy scout knife, but to the 12 year old boy, it was a priceless treasure. It was his birthday, and he had just received a boy scout knife from his father. He had joined the scouts, so it was an appropriate gift that would be a powerful influence in his life to come. The scouts taught him a grab deal and from an exceptional scout master he learned what could done with  a sharp knife and a few basic tools.

The boy carried that knife all through middle school and high school. The motto of "Be prepared" was ingrained into him by adulthood, and by the time he was out of high school, the knife had gained sentimental value to him. So when he enlisted in the army not long out of school, he left the well used scout knife home, hearing that sometimes things  disappeared from barracks. After boot camp, he went to engineer school at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri and there was issued the army all stainless steel ML-K knife. The one sometimes called a 'demo' knife. It was in effect just all steel scout knife, so the young soldier was used to the pattern. He carried that knife everyday , even when transferred to a duty station in Germany.

It was there he found the red handle marvel that is Swiss Army Knives. It was while he was walking down a street in Rothenburg Germany that he saw it. In the window of a small knife shop was a giant red moving model of a Swiss Army knife. Blades and tools were moving open and closed in a slow even motion, and the young soldier had never seen anything like it before, either the display or the knives. Because when he went into the shop, he was confronted by a display of red handle shiny bladed wonders. There were big ones and small ones. Ones with just a few blades, and others with a dozen or more. The white haired old man that was the owner of the shop was patient, while the young soldier looked at model after model, and finally picked two. A huntsman and a tinker.

From then on, the young soldier never carried the army issue ML-K knife agains. The tinker rode in buttoned up in his top right shirt pocket, while the huntsman was a weekend knife. His tour in Germany finished, he then served in a little war in southeast Asia in a country most people had never heard of, and the SAK in his pocket  gave good service in the jungle war.

Years passed, and the soldier went on with life, getting married and going to a regular job. There was kids and soccer games and yard work. But the SAK was like an inanimate companion, always being there with helping tool when needed. On the way to the beach with the wife and kids, a crack near the end of a radiator hose had them by the side of the road. There was just enough slack in the hose to cut off the part that cracked near the end, and retighten the hose clamp screw with screw driver tool of the tinker. If his child  got a splinter on the playground, the tiny tweezers got it out and saved the day. On a hike in the woods when his children saw him using a hiking stick, they all wanted one too, so the saw on the huntsman cut down some sticks from a deadfall so the kids had hiking sticks just like dad.

Life went on, and then there was grandkids. The man loved his grandkids, and his grandson  became his regular fishing partner. He taught the boy just like he'd taught his son, by getting out and doing. One day at the little lake near their house, they were fishing, and the boys reel was binding up. It was an old reel, and needed a good cleaning. The old man held out his hand for the rod and reel.

"Give it here, pup, lets see what we can do with it." the old man said.

The old man sat down on the lake shore, and took out a well used old Swiss Army knife. The boy watched in rapture, because to him it seemed like his grandfather could work miracles with that old red handled pocket knife. One by one, the small screws holding the side plate of the reel were removed and placed carefully in the old man's shirt pocket. The screw driver tool was used to gently pry off the cover, and expose the gears inside. What they saw was gunk. Gunk on the gears, gunk on the end of the crank.

"It's a mess, grandpa! Is there anything that can fix it?" the boy asked, not wanting a afternoon fishing trip to be cut short.

"Well, lets see what we can do with it." the old man replied.

The old man rooted around in his pockets, and came up with a small bottle of hand sanitizer and a crumpled up paper towel. Tearing off a small bit of towel, he then dropped a good amount of the hand sanitizer on the towel, than then taking the tweezers from the knife and holding the bit of paper towel with them, he began swabbing out the inside of the reel. Black gunk came off the small gears, and the old man took clean bits of paper towel and used the tweezers from the old huntsman to get into the small areas of the innards of the reel. The alcohol in the hand sanitizer dissolved the gunk, and soon had the reel operating again. With great care, the old man replaced the screws one by one, using the smaller screw driver tip on the can opener to drive them home. The boy tried the reel with a good cast out on the water and he retrieved his lure with ease.

"It works fine now, grandpa!" the boy exclaimed. "Is there anything you can't fix with that Swiss Army knife?"

The old man chuckled to himself.

"Oh, there maybe a few things. But it's surprising how much you really can fix with just a few tools. I remember my  old man telling me that sometimes you get along it you can just get into it and fiddle around a bit. A screw driver lets you do that."

"Did you always carry a Swiss Army knife, grandpa" the boy asked.

The old man was quiet for a bit, thinking about his answer.

"No, I didn't. I started out with a scout knife, carried an army issue scout knife than a Swiss Army knife. But I had other gives along the way. Kind of collected them for a while. But it was a funny thing, I'd carry what I thought was a better knife, but when I did, I always missed my Swiss Army knife. I'd run into a loose screw, or a bottle or can that needed to be opened. or some other thing. And that fancy other knife wouldn't do it. For a while there in my middle yeas, I had quite a collection of other knives. But one day I woke up and looked at them and thought what the heck am I doing?  It was kind of like waking up from a temporary insanity. Ended up selling off and giving away most of them. Now I'm back to carrying a Swiss Army knife like I used to because they always work for odd jobs that come up. A knife is just a knife, but a Swiss Army knife is a pocket full of solutions to life's little problems that pop up now and then."

"Like a gummed up fishing reel?" the boy asked.

"Yup, like a gummed up fishing reel. " the old man said.

They fished on, and soon had a nice stringer of pan fish.

"We got lunch, boy. Lets go home and fry up some fish!"

They gathered up their gear, and as they walked back the path to the old man's truck, the boy asked him when he could get his own Swiss Army knife. The old man thought back to when he'd given his son his first one, and realized the boy was almost at that age. He thought about the sporting goods store near the house that had a nice display of Swiss Army knives.

"Maybe soon, boy. Maybe soon."

Don't get too serious, just enough will do.


gb Offline Mike, Lord of the Spammers!

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #1 on: October 26, 2014, 02:05:09 PM
Great story as ever mate. Real heartwarming stuff :)

I still think you need to put all your Swiss reminiscences onto kindle or some such, as I would definitely buy it :tu:

Sent from the astropathic choir.

Give in, buy several Farmer's!!!!!!


us Offline SAK Guy

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #2 on: October 26, 2014, 02:09:23 PM
:2tu:
- Robert




Quo Fata Ferunt
"It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues." - Ten Bears


us Offline colt 1911

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #3 on: October 26, 2014, 02:14:47 PM
Great read !!


Sak's  rule !



CHEERS


us Offline arizonaranchman

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #4 on: October 26, 2014, 04:51:19 PM
A great read yet again, this story made my morning complete as I sipped my coffee  :tu:
EDC: Vic Pioneer


us Offline HarleyXJGuy

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #5 on: October 26, 2014, 07:24:37 PM
Well played Sir, well played.


dk Offline Freaver

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #6 on: October 26, 2014, 07:37:43 PM
A great read yet again, this story made my morning complete as I sipped my coffee  :tu:
That was what I was missing!

cbl51, you have a great way of painting images in the head of your reader; excellent story and writing. :D :tu:


nl Offline Serena

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #7 on: October 26, 2014, 08:05:21 PM
Really nice story!!!


us Offline nj2656

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #8 on: October 26, 2014, 10:51:51 PM
Incredible story. I've also tried other knives but have always gone back to my SAK's.


ca Offline derekmac

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #9 on: October 26, 2014, 11:28:50 PM
Ah man, thank you for posting that!  What a great read!! :cheers:


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us Offline ironraven

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #10 on: October 27, 2014, 02:56:14 AM
OK, when Megan gets around to rebuilding the front side web page that none of remember exists, maybe this should be there.

And I thought my grandfather was the only one who called grandkids "pup".
"Even if it is only the handful of people I meet on the street, or in my home, I can still protect them with this one sword" Kenshin Himura

Necessity is the mother of invention. If you're not ready, it's "a mother". If you are, it's "mom".

"I love democracy" Sheev Palpatine, upon his election to Chancellor.


gb Offline Fast Bill

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #11 on: October 27, 2014, 08:43:59 AM
Heart warming stuff. It's hard to think of anything else, so simple, functional and understated, that it is thought of with such affection by so many :tu:
Per Titanium Ad Tearoom.
Apex predator of fruit cake


gb Offline Zed

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #12 on: October 27, 2014, 09:01:37 AM
Great read mate  :salute:


ca Offline Toolslinger

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #13 on: October 27, 2014, 03:34:16 PM
Thank you for sharing this story.


us Offline Monrogue

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #14 on: October 27, 2014, 04:11:14 PM
That was a great story, and very well written :tu:  Thanks for sharing it with us :salute:
K-Tibbs


de Offline coSAK

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #15 on: October 27, 2014, 05:36:10 PM
Wow. Awesome.
Should be the next Victorinox trailer!
 :salute:
WANTED: Red Farmer, Red Harvester, Soldier/SI 1975, Genuine Horn scales, Wenger 19th Hole Cigar Cutter


ca Offline Megan

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #16 on: October 27, 2014, 06:03:14 PM
OK, when Megan gets around to rebuilding the front side web page that none of remember exists, maybe this should be there.

And I thought my grandfather was the only one who called grandkids "pup".

Love to!
-Megan
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spam Offline comis

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #17 on: October 27, 2014, 09:10:59 PM
Great, great read! :tu:

I hope the boy one day will be hooked on SAKs, and join MT.O, who knows...may even reading this thread many years later to remember this story of his own. :cheers:


us Offline Donald

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #18 on: October 27, 2014, 09:34:57 PM
A moving story cbl51. Thanks for posting it.

IIRC, I saw a variant on the fishing reel part of the story. I think it was by jackknife over on SOSAK. There a Vic Classic or other SAK was used to open the reel and the Grandpa used bit of graphite from a pencil stub to lubricate the sticking reel.

P.S. Before I hit the post button I looked to see if I saw the other great story, that I remembered. I found it, and it was called The Grandpa.


mx Offline Dragon Lord

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #19 on: October 28, 2014, 05:05:58 PM
Good story! Tanks


nl Offline Serena

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #20 on: October 28, 2014, 06:06:42 PM

A moving story cbl51. Thanks for posting it.

IIRC, I saw a variant on the fishing reel part of the story. I think it was by jackknife over on SOSAK. There a Vic Classic or other SAK was used to open the reel and the Grandpa used bit of graphite from a pencil stub to lubricate the sticking reel.

P.S. Before I hit the post button I looked to see if I saw the other great story, that I remembered. I found it, and it was called The Grandpa.

The link doesn't work…


us Offline nate j

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #21 on: October 29, 2014, 05:21:12 AM

A moving story cbl51. Thanks for posting it.

IIRC, I saw a variant on the fishing reel part of the story. I think it was by jackknife over on SOSAK. There a Vic Classic or other SAK was used to open the reel and the Grandpa used bit of graphite from a pencil stub to lubricate the sticking reel.

P.S. Before I hit the post button I looked to see if I saw the other great story, that I remembered. I found it, and it was called The Grandpa.

The link doesn't work…

The link only works if you are a member of SOSAK on KF and logged in there...


us Offline Donald

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #22 on: October 29, 2014, 05:24:28 AM

The link doesn't work…
You have to be a member specifically of that forum on Knifeforums, which is probably why the link will not work for you. It is not an especially active forum any longer. A lot more Saktivity here. It currently works for me. If it has been awhile since I have logged in there or my browser has been changed, it would probably not work for me either, unless I logged in first as you will not get into that particular forum until logged in. Sorry, nothing I can do about it.

While I was typing this, I see nate j. also provided the same answer, in a more succinct manner. :)


us Offline Ashley

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Re: The lifetime SAK.
Reply #23 on: October 30, 2014, 11:44:09 AM
Would you be or know jackknife from bladeforms? He writes just like this. Beautiful story


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