My first knife was a cheap scout/camping style one, received when I was about 12. The blade had "Sheffield" on the tang. It had both a corkscrew and a Phillips (useless) on the back. Kind of a Spartan and Tinker rolled into one, minus the awl and small blade. Despite its average build quality it served me well until it disappeared a few years ago. It set my preference for multifunction pocket knives.I replaced the knife with a Handyman for the extra tools. When I bought a Sportsman not long after, I was taken right back to that original knife, and the Sportsman and Spartan/Tourist patterns have been among my favourites ever since. My first SAK was a Swisschamp I bought used for very little about 20 years ago. It was lost (stolen, I think) within a year, if I remember rightly, and it was about 18 years before I bought another. It displaced the Handyman as my preferred comprehensive SAK.
Spartan/tourist patterns are also some of my favourite knives.
The Swiss Champ is a great knife. What do you think of the Cybertool 41 for a comprehensive SAK?
Do you think that appreciation originated with your Evo 10?I don't know as I don't have one! I have little need for all the screw driving functionality, you see. I guess it's the technician's equivalent of the Swisschamp. I can certainly understand it having a fan base. Do you have one?A digression: If I wanted a CT I'd go for the 34/M instead. I had an interest in the Deluxe Climber for a time and the CT 34 is a smart evolution of the older model. Nice move there by Vic. I know they don't add much more bulk, but how often does a technician need a wood or metal saw? The CT 34 is concise. I love the Swisschamp. Besides its practicality, it has a certain romance about it. It sums up the classic spirit of the SAK. It brings the indoors, outdoors, and workshop together in a single package. The magnifier invites exploration of the minute. The scaler's not just for fish, you know (I hear it's good for the purpose). Among other things you can use the ruler to show the scale of small items. Isn't that neat? The SC covers a great deal of tasks and emergency situations I encounter. I've used every tool on it, and I nearly always have one close at hand. If I'm going to carry any 91mm thicker than a Camper, it may as well be a Swisschamp.
Penultimate Fuzz Day 29My first pocket knife given to me when I was about five. It was a hot sunny summer's day and I was eating my lunchtime piece (sandwich) sitting on the bench outside the back door probably with my legs dangling over the edge gently kicking back and forth. My mum, who must have been watching me from the kitchen window, came out with a clenched fist and asked me if I wanted this? After my initial flight or flight response had settled, I realised I wasn't in trouble and that she was infact smiling. In compliance to her request I outstretched my little hand and she plopped this shiney blue object into it. It was her pocket knife from when she was a little girl, given to her by my grandfather. In that moment I considered it to be unquestionably the greatest possession in my tiny known world.(Image removed from quote.)
Do you carry your SC on the belt? Seems a little big for the pocket. And do you ever carry the SC with a 2-layer like the tourist?
This one my first one...(Image removed from quote.).. as mentioned in the MTo Unleashed Challenge...
It actually fits nicely in my jeans watch pocket! It feels loose and heavy in any other pocket. Ha, at work, I mate it with a Camper (my primary knife) and sometimes an alox Soldier as well. Love cargo pockets, but I've used a small camera pouch for extra knife carry too. Away from work I tend to carry either the Tourist or Camper in the watch pocket. A SC lives in my go everywhere shoulder bag. I find it really a bit too much of a handful for simple cutting tasks.
My first SAK was the Recruit. Such simpler times then. I keep one in the kitchen that gets used quite often.
I have never voluntarily been without a SAK in my pocket on any day since then.
My first knife was the Victorinox Master Craftsman/Astronaut I bought with the first 2 weeks wages from a part-time job at my local Tesco in the summer of 1981 - I well remember the stand in the small jewellers in Bridge Street in Truro advertising the fact that it was the knife used on NASA missions, though the Philips driver seemed more useful to me than a corkscrew (the mini-screwdriver didn’t exist then, and as a lifetime spectacle wearer, it has been a really handy tool - that came on my second SAK a 91mm Golfer ( called a Compact these days) which I got in 1990-91). That first SAK went with me everywhere, either in a pocket, or as part of my cycling emergency kit - hard to imagine these days, but no-one turned a hair when I had it in school! It’s original, much battered red scales got replaced a few years ago with some blue plus versions to increase its versatility further.
I believe I've told the story of my first knives elsewhere on the forum, but my first SAK - with age providing a failing memory, today I'm going to say that it was probably my Climber.It's got the screw pivot for the scissors, rather than a fixed rivet, and, whilst retired to the archive box now, it's been almost everywhere in the world that I have.I keep nearly buying a new Climber in its honour, but my newly-acquired Fisherman fills roughly the same position for me, or the Huntsman, Ranger, Wenger...let's just say I have quite a few with those magical scissors, so a new Climber does feel a bit superfluous to requirements.That said, I can't help but think about getting a Super Tinker...
I no longer have my first knife, but it was an Irish Imperial, and it looked like this (photo snagged from the web):(Image removed from quote.)I carried that knife everywhere I went. A few years later my grandfather gave me an Imperial “Diamond Edge” stockman for Christmas, and I carried that through high school and college. During my first year in the Army, in 1986, a friend loaned me a Huntsman to cut a tree branch, and—amazed by that marvelous saw—I purchased one of my own the following week. There was no turning back after that. I have never voluntarily been without a SAK in my pocket on any day since then.
Sounds like you and that knife have a long history. Nice As a fellow Brit, I envy you being able to carry your knife in school. Haha. It wasn't acceptable when I was in school. I carried my knives throughout college and uni though.I too appreciate the mini screwdriver. It should come with all corkscrew models, don't you think?
Yeah, those Victorinox scissors are second to none, and the climber is awesome. Have you thought about getting a Deluxe Tinker? Or are pliers not your thing?
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