The next day I went to replace it and pick up an extra one for the gf. She’s by no means a knife nut but I catch her using it daily. Now she wants that sterling silver one. It’s all she needs in a knife, she isn’t hiking the jungle or fending off ninjas, she’s at a desk.
I have often wondered if the women folk have a boat more common sense than we do. It was my wife that got me into the classic. Until about 1995ish, I always considered the classic kind of a joke. I carried a tinker, or my old Wenger SI, or a huntsman. The dinky little classic? Nahhh!
Then one day the wife comes home from work with a SAK knock off made in a large Asian nation, that was the biggest POS I'd ever laid eyes on. The scissors folded the paper instead of cutting, and the knife blade had to saw through room temperature butter. Her boss had bought a bunch of them to hand out with their company logo on them. I couldn't take it. The next day I bought a real classic and gave to the spousal unit. Karen took it to to work and showed the boss, and to his credit he collected all the Chinese classics and sent them back, He got real Victorinox classics with the company logo on them and handled them out.
But I still didn't think much of the classic. I watched as Karen used and abused her little red SAK. After all, it was sooooo tiny it couldn't stand up to much, right? I kept expecting to hear a tinkling as it fell apart and the pieces hit the floor. It didn't happen. I took to sneaking into Karen's purse when she was in the shower to check on the thing. No, it was still in one piece. A little wobble in the SD nail file, but not bad for prying up patio stones.
I secretly bought myself a classic and set about the great experiment. For the next month, then two, then threee, I made it a point when faced with a pocket knife job, to pull the teeny tiny classic our before my Buck stockman, or even Case peanut. It cut, it unscrewed, it screwed, it snipped, it plucked, and it cut some more. It did everything I needed, with only food processing as a fail. Just not enough blade to cut through a loaf of nice fresh Italian bread or an apple pie.
Slowly, as I gained trust in the little SAK, it became my real world pocket knife. For food duty, I had kitchen knives. If I was going fishing, my old Buck 102 woodsman was on my belt. Same with hiking or camping. But for most my time in modern suburbia, where I really live, the 58mm SAK was fine, and it left room in my pockets for other stuff, like flashlight, Bic lighter, pipe, tobacco pouch, car key/house key/motorscooter key, hand sanitizer, RONCO pocket deffibrilator in case of vapor lock, arthritis meds, note pad, pencil, bandana, phone and Eagle Creek trifold wallet. My normal EDC stuff.
My wife and daughter's loyalist feeling for the classic sent me into the fanatic fan club of the classic.
