My wife loves this kind of kitchen gadgetry. Even better, it’s something we don’t already have. Thank you Rich!
My god, a blast from the past. When I lived in California there was one 20 minutes away and kids would have their birthday parties all the time there.
I’ve always liked knives and edged implements in general. I don’t generally use more than a plain box cutter, but I have had this Gerber Gator for, geez, thirty or more years?
Then there’s something like this for more serious work:
Seriously, though, I also have an ancient Buck knife, the ones with the brass fittings and wood handle, about the size off the Gerber. And of course a couple of Leatherman multitools and a few Swiss Army knives.
When I was in like 4thh grade, in Cub Scouts, I really, really wanted a Swiss Army knife. The PX (we were living in Berlin at the time, Army part of town) had them behind glass and my mother had to call them to let them know it was ok for me to buy one. I thought it was so cool.
Then I pretty much never used it after about a week.
Well this thread has made me pick up a Leatherman PS4 multitool. Sigh. I used to have a Gerber Curve on my keychain until a couple years ago until I was told I couldn’t get into the Scotiabank arena with it so it was either leave the line and go hide it somewhere or turn it over. So I turned it over.
Some years ago, maybe ten or fifteen years ago, can’t recall exactly, my father in law, who has since then passed away, surprised my wife and I with a trip to Hawaii with him. Now, we really didn’t have much interest in joining a two-bus caravan of mostly octogenarians who normally went on Catholic pilgrimages together (my father in law was a devout Catholic and visited everything from Lourdes to Medjugorje), but, eh, we couldn’t say no.
I’ll leave aside the existential horror that was that trip in general, but @Canuck’s experience brought back one vivid memory. In the airport in Honolulu, for the trip back, the TSA people had conniptions over my father in law’s money clip. It was something he had had for decades, and it had a folding sort-of knife blade about an inch and a half long and maybe a third of an inch wide. The blade part had not been used in eons, and it was clearly, in the hands of an 80+ year old man, less of a threat than a solid ball-point pen. But they refused to let him board with it, so he had to ditch it then and there. We were furious; the whole TSA security theater zero-tolerance (and zero intelligence) approach to “security” making us oh so safe again.
I’ve had this balisong for a while, but I don’t carry it. The play is kind of loose, but it has good balance and there is a neat black dragon motif on the handle.
I used to carry a 3.5 or 4" butterfly knife all through highschool on my back pocket. Just to be cool, I guess. Twas a different time.
Balisongs were the rage among the martial arts fans in my high school era, when Bruce Li movies were considered holy writ and the man himself a new messiah. The number of people who bought numchuks, too, and managed to knock themselves unconscious or knock out a few teeth was prodigious as well.
No shit, right? Those little utility knives they’ve taken from me had a 1 inch blade, maybe inch and a half. I’d be more scared of a full sized butter knife.
That kershaw i posted earlier went through TSA without anyone noticing.
It was clipped into the outside of my bag, and i totally forgot about it. I didn’t notice until i got to my destination, at which point i retroactively freaked out.
What’s crazy, is that it wasn’t even in the bag, and they pulled my bag and searched it, because i had a pack of stickers with our company logo on them that they thought looked weird. But they didn’t notice the knife clipped into the shoulder strap of the backpack.
And its not a tiny knife. It’s a 3 inch blade.
TSA does nothing of value.
So say we all.
I’ve been through the TSA check with so many things: utility knives, long screwdrivers and attachments, large scissors, etc.
But they ding me and pull me aside every single time I forget a bottle of water or a container of lotion that it too big. I also carry a lot of cables and small electronic items (job related) and get searched quite a bit due to that. That part I guess makes me feel better as seeing wiring and whatnot would be something you’d expect them to stop and check.
I had to post this:
I have a pretty boring £30 swiss army knife.
It has scissors, a bottle opener and a few little blades that are just the right length to get into awkward parts of my rifle to scrape the carbon off.
I only ever use this knife for army stuff lol.
This is the model I have:
I have no idea what the blunt hook bit does.
I can recommend it for ease of carriage and general usefulness.
I miss the old Swiss Army magnifier. It was glass and pretty strong.
Thanks!!!
I will use it for my next shopping trip…
I used the little Victorinox keychain in the 90s but replaced it with a Leatherman Micra.
You can still get Micras, but I strongly prefer the Style CS, which has been my keychain for several years now. The problem with the Micra is that you have to open it to open the knife or file from inside it, and then you risk sticking yourself with the tips of the scissors.
My working knife is a Ka-Bar made in the style of the traditional Buck lockback. My dad gave it to me when I was a young teenager, and I’ll never need another non-keychain knife.
Speaking of my dad, he always carried a small traditional penknife, but he stopped a few years ago because with age his fingernails aren’t strong enough to pull the little notch anymore. He was overjoyed to receive this gift from me, also by Buck, and now carries it everywhere.
For actual traditional pocketknives: if you want a really nice one, search for the brand Fight’n Rooster. They’re made for collectors, and I would never pay that much for a pocketknife no matter how nice it was, but I do appreciate them.
So, as luck would have it, the Mrs bought me a new pocket knife.
And she even engraved the blade for me.
This was totally unexpected and never asked for.
Happy me.
She’s a keeper!
And so is the knife. ;)
Nice!