I was using the awl of my Wenger SI last night to make some starter holes for wood screws, and had a sudden thought, or call it an enlightenment. I looked at my SI and realized that I had been using a basic scout patter like the Pioneer/SI since I was 12 years old.
When I was 12, my dad gave me a scout knife. A nice one with the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared" o the handle. I used that knife until I went off to the army not long after high school. I left it home because I had heard of the threat in barracks. Once at my permanent party station, the supply sergeant handed me a army issue 'demo' knife, the unlike an all steel scout life wth "U.S. " stamped on the steel scale. I used that for some years. It was free, easy to replace by just going to supply and getting another one.
Then came Germany.
I got posted there, and while walking down the street in a small town, I saw a giant red SAK in a window of a knife shop. I left that shop with a couple SAK's, one of them was a Pioneer. Aside from the red color of the alox, it was a twin to the army issue knife I had been carrying, but was better finished. That SAK, and a few others became my "EDC" long before the term became popular.
Now, after 70 years, I've carried every SAK from a classic to the huntsman, but the basic Boy Scout pattern has been the main one. The pioneer, the Wenger SI, the cadet, has been a mainstay. I' ve dabbed with those "Other" knives in my 40's and early 50's while infected by the knife Knut disease, but they came and went, mostly went, and the humble SAK has been my base, the touch stone of my life as far as knives go. All those 'other' knives are long gone now, but theres a SAK of some sort in my pocket now and always. I still can't believe its been 70 friggin years. Now I really feel old.
When I was 12, my dad gave me a scout knife. A nice one with the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared" o the handle. I used that knife until I went off to the army not long after high school. I left it home because I had heard of the threat in barracks. Once at my permanent party station, the supply sergeant handed me a army issue 'demo' knife, the unlike an all steel scout life wth "U.S. " stamped on the steel scale. I used that for some years. It was free, easy to replace by just going to supply and getting another one.
Then came Germany.
I got posted there, and while walking down the street in a small town, I saw a giant red SAK in a window of a knife shop. I left that shop with a couple SAK's, one of them was a Pioneer. Aside from the red color of the alox, it was a twin to the army issue knife I had been carrying, but was better finished. That SAK, and a few others became my "EDC" long before the term became popular.
Now, after 70 years, I've carried every SAK from a classic to the huntsman, but the basic Boy Scout pattern has been the main one. The pioneer, the Wenger SI, the cadet, has been a mainstay. I' ve dabbed with those "Other" knives in my 40's and early 50's while infected by the knife Knut disease, but they came and went, mostly went, and the humble SAK has been my base, the touch stone of my life as far as knives go. All those 'other' knives are long gone now, but theres a SAK of some sort in my pocket now and always. I still can't believe its been 70 friggin years. Now I really feel old.
. 
