Little SAK's and old school tech.

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
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I'm a minimalist.

Most of you who know me already know that. Theres some that don't, so I just wanted to get it out right at the start. I'm an old school minimalist that spent a lot of years carrying a Case peanut with Sear's 4-way keychain screw driver and a old army issue P-38 in my wallet. The knife was for cutting and the Sear's keychain screw driver and P-38 can opener were my daily carry tools.

I only ended up this way because of my old man. I had the privilege of growing up with guys who scrounged through the great depression and then went off to fight a world war. My dad and uncles were my childhood mentors, and they made a lasting impression on me that lasted to this day and age. I guess you cold say they were all practitioners of maximum minimalism. The carry of a minimal amount of stuff to get through the day and what it throws at you.

For most of my life I've been a SAK fan, but the last 25 or thirty years it been a trend to the smaller of the SAK's. From about 1995 the classic was a steady carry on my keyring to "back up" what was in my pocket. A Buck stockman was a longtime carry, as was my Case peanut. For about 25 years the little classic was teamed up with the peanut, so that left me with a need for screw driving and can/bottle opening. The P-38 and Sear's 4 way did the bulk of that. I've opened a fw cans over the years with a SAK, but honestly, most of my can opening was with the P-38. Maybe its a hold over from my army days, with all those nice green cans called C-Rations, that left a long lasting experience with getting food out of cans quickly. We all had them and every box of rations had a handful of them in there. We carried them in shirt pockets, on keychains, even on our dog tag chains.

Its funny what will stay with you. Over the years, I've run into other vets, and most of them from my era all kept the "John Wayne." That was just one of the names for the P-38, as the actor by that name had made a training film for it during WW2. When we moved to Texas from Maryland in 2015, we got to know and became friends with another couple our age in this 55 plus community, Fenix and Shirley. One evening at a backyard BBQ we were all together grilling dinner over their place and Shirley was opening a can of sauerkraut to put n the bratwurst cooking on the grill. We hear a "Oh heck" and Shirley is holding up the can opener with the crank broke off. Before I could go for my own, Felix had pulled his wallet and a old dark gray P-38 was being used. I just started laughing and he looked over a bit quizzical and I took out and held mine up.

We compared them and both were marked "U.S. Speaker." Felix and I were in the service at almost exactly the same time, he in the U.S. Marines and me in the Army combat engineers. We had a good laugh over both of us having saved and cherished our P-38's from soooo long ago, and both Karen and Shirley just shook their heads amazed at how we could get so attached to such a little gizmo.

Now, having carried a Vic classic and then an executive, both the little SAK's lack serious screw driving or can opening capacity. So The P-38 is still in my wallet and the Sear's 4 way keychain screw driver comes and goes, with the Victorinox Quattro being a steady passenger in my wallet. The little quattro has better shaped Phillips drivers than the Sear's 4-way and is smaller.

I went for many years with a Case peanut in the pocket and keychain screw driver and P-38 in the wallet. Now with the executive I'm back with the wallet tools and somehow I feel okay. I can still deal with all kinds of screws and can opening and bottle cap popping. I haven't carried a SAK with an opening layer in years now, and in truth I don't miss them much. The biggie is the occasional need of a more serous knife blade, so the Vic florist knife fills that need. I love the lightweight freedom of the little SAK's.
 
Your knives are all old school tech and the ones I prefer to carry are mostly old school tech too. Never opened a can of anything with a SAK or P-38, nor do I want to.

As a kid, I have watched my Dad open a can of beans or stew with his knife by simply punching a hole in the lid and cutting the lid off with the knife. At that time, the cost of replacing a knife was difficult and I would never do that unless I was starving. Still won't and I have nothing to prove how tough my knife is. I would have felt better if he used a P-38 or a SAK. But he viewed SAKs as gimmick knives.
 
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JK,
I'm a little different...followed your adventures with peanut & other stuff!Always had a knife...since I was 5yrs.old.Anyhow,I really tried the peanut,
never cared for it...it was just "too"small for me.Could I make it work...of course.....but why??My SAK S18 is as small as I ever want to carry. Minimulism is fine ...to a point...I'm not humping a backpack for umpteen miles!So I don't worry about shaving ounces from carry weight, S18 also has great screwdrivers, a great can opener, & a nice blade ,so I don't need that SEARS thingy you have nor a p-38! GASP...I guess you ...made a minimalist out of me...sneaky like..without me realizing it!GOT ME "AGAIN"!! Take care,
Jim
 
I have a couple Sears 4ways. They are useful enough, often enough, that one is in my wallet, usually. Because of your stories, I've ground the corners off the little bit to make a 2d Phillips that kinda works. And I like my small Classics.

I don't get on with other keychain tools. The Vic quattro looks too small. I've tried to like the p38 and the Micra, but can't. Squirts are useful, but I don't use pliers that often, and it's too bulky for the keyring. I like minimalist because I don't like a lot of stuff in my pocket, and the stuff that is there really needs to prove itself out before getting a permanent or semi permanent spot. Classic, bandana (or a Buff, which i use for masks lately), listerine mint strips and the Sears driver in my wallet. A couple pens and Gerber EAB at work. I like small.
 
I have a couple Sears 4ways. They are useful enough, often enough, that one is in my wallet, usually. Because of your stories, I've ground the corners off the little bit to make a 2d Phillips that kinda works. And I like my small Classics.

I don't get on with other keychain tools. The Vic quattro looks too small. I've tried to like the p38 and the Micra, but can't. Squirts are useful, but I don't use pliers that often, and it's too bulky for the keyring. I like minimalist because I don't like a lot of stuff in my pocket, and the stuff that is there really needs to prove itself out before getting a permanent or semi permanent spot. Classic, bandana (or a Buff, which i use for masks lately), listerine mint strips and the Sears driver in my wallet. A couple pens and Gerber EAB at work. I like small.

I don't like to weigh down my keyring either, so I keep the keychain tools in my wallet. The P-38 has always been a wallet tool, as is the Sear's 4-way. As minimalist as I am, I wish Victoriox would up-size the quattro to the same size as the Sear's 4-way.

For a bit over 20 years I carried a classic in a leather pouch sheath that was on the keyring and it was my sole pocket knife on many occasions. The squirt and micra are too heavy for a keyring, and now that I have one of those new fangled car keys with all the electronics in it, I keep my keyring much lighter.

Certainly a classic and few tools will see one through a day just fine! I think being an aficionado of something makes you over think it a great deal. Like the car nut that thinks you need a Porsche to go to the store or the knife nut that thinks you need a tacticool knife to open your mail.
 
That's a pretty cool little SAK card! Got me looking at them. ;)
 
My carry has certainly been downsized over the last year. Primarily my knife which 99.9% of the time is the Executive. This unfortunately has also caused me to peruse the forums less. I no longer look for the perfect knife. The couple of times I have strayed, I end up missing my Executive by midday. It's the scissors and SD tip. The blade can handle all that I throw at it except maybe to cut a lot of cardboard boxes down to tote size. It will do the job, but I prefer my Florist or Opinel for that job. In addition, I always have my buff in the left front pocket over top the Executive...keeping it snug in it's place. My Fenix E05 clipped to my right front pocket. In my wallets zippered compartment you'll find 2 paperclips, a small safety pin, a P38, some twine wrapped around a card, and Victorinox quatro. I haven't strayed from this set up in quite some time. I must admit that I've rarely used the small accessories in my wallet, but the couple times I've needed that paperclip for a "small pokey thing", it saved the day.
 
My carry has certainly been downsized over the last year. Primarily my knife which 99.9% of the time is the Executive. This unfortunately has also caused me to peruse the forums less. I no longer look for the perfect knife. The couple of times I have strayed, I end up missing my Executive by midday. It's the scissors and SD tip. The blade can handle all that I throw at it except maybe to cut a lot of cardboard boxes down to tote size. It will do the job, but I prefer my Florist or Opinel for that job. In addition, I always have my buff in the left front pocket over top the Executive...keeping it snug in it's place. My Fenix E05 clipped to my right front pocket. In my wallets zippered compartment you'll find 2 paperclips, a small safety pin, a P38, some twine wrapped around a card, and Victorinox quatro. I haven't strayed from this set up in quite some time. I must admit that I've rarely used the small accessories in my wallet, but the couple times I've needed that paperclip for a "small pokey thing", it saved the day.

I wonder if downsizing is just part of the growing 'older' process where you have learned from experience what you need, and more importantly, what you don't need?

The executive has handled all I need, and the few times it didn't, the florist knife or Opinel did. The few tools have all been used, from the SD tip of the orange peeler for lifting out the take down peg of a Ruger LCP .380, to nail file tip being used on the tiny Phillips screws on some electronic gizmos. The serrated edge of the orange peeler cuts the plastic strapping stuff on the big paper lawn bags from Home Depot and small plastic zip ties. Doesn't do a bad job on oranges either.

With the stuff that I keep in my wallets zip compartment, I mange to get by in modern suburbia well. I'm sure if I were to be dropped in the Alaskan wilderness or the Amazon basin, I would need a different tool set. But for suburbia, the paper clips and safety pins are handy. When a splinter is broke off at skin level, and even a SAK tweezers can't get a hold on it, the safety pin will get that splinter out in a jiffy.

Yeah, its a funny thing, when I stay away from the forums more, I don't feel the need for any more knife than what I've already got in my pocket. Same for knife magazines, gun magazines, car magazines, fishing magazines, and so on. I'm sure advertising firms have spent big money on psychological studies to find out how to push certain buttons.
 
Back in the ‘80s into the late ‘90s, when my only carry knife was a SAK Spartan, I was completely unaware that the steel used in the knife that was so useful to me over so many years “sucked.” It was only years later, when I read some posts on the forums, that I learned that the sole knife that I used had “inferior” steel. ;)

I haven’t reached the point in life where I want to go completely minimalist. I simply enjoy and use what I like. As I’ve mentioned many times (probably ad nauseum), my most consistent EDC knives are my Executive, accompanied by either my Spartan or my Pioneer. Many people seem to hate the idea of carrying two SAKs, even if the two combined would contain the ideal features they’re looking for. For myself, instead of wishing about one SAK that combines all my desired features in a single bulky unit, I simply carry the two SAKs in separate pockets, and don’t obsessively stress that they’re not one single model. The two SAKs are always in the same separate pockets, anyway...Executive in the RF pocket, and the Spartan (or Pioneer) in my LF pocket. Each SAK is thin, light, and compact enough to be barely noticeable to me as I go about my day. Being so familiar with these models, I also instinctively know where each implement is on each knife just by feel, and being 2-layer models, that makes it even easier.

Jim
 
Yeah, its a funny thing, when I stay away from the forums more, I don't feel the need for any more knife than what I've already got in my pocket. Same for knife magazines, gun magazines, car magazines, fishing magazines, and so on. I'm sure advertising firms have spent big money on psychological studies to find out how to push certain buttons.

I suspect it is called "the power of suggestion."
 
I'm probably a fair bit younger than a lot of fellas here at 32. I've been attempting to find the perfect solution to my needs for some time now. I live in a rural county in Western New York, and own my own business (tree removal, stump grinding, plowing snow in the winter and that ilk) I've found that a larger folder in the 3.5 inch range works best for most of my needs, and a belt knife in about that size when things get really ugly. My favorite primary carry is a Douk Douk. After breaking every Leatherman I've ever owned which is close to a dozen since my days of working on local dairy farms in the early 2000s, I decided to try dedicated pliers and an sak. I experimented with a full sized tinker we gave our son for Christmas, didn't care for the size in my pocket and switched to the small tinker because I liked the toolset. Then I found the rambler which rides in my bag for the scissors and small sd tip. I just got a pioneer last week and I'm thinking I might have hit the jackpot... Along with the aforementioned rambler and my 5 inch knipex pliers most of my short notice repair needs are covered. 1595461052689619088523.jpgI also tuck a Zippo butane torch lighter in my pocket for dressing rope ends and whatnot, and a Fenix single aa light for getting under the hood of our aging work trucks.
 
I'm probably a fair bit younger than a lot of fellas here at 32. I've been attempting to find the perfect solution to my needs for some time now. I live in a rural county in Western New York, and own my own business (tree removal, stump grinding, plowing snow in the winter and that ilk) I've found that a larger folder in the 3.5 inch range works best for most of my needs, and a belt knife in about that size when things get really ugly. My favorite primary carry is a Douk Douk. After breaking every Leatherman I've ever owned which is close to a dozen since my days of working on local dairy farms in the early 2000s, I decided to try dedicated pliers and an sak. I experimented with a full sized tinker we gave our son for Christmas, didn't care for the size in my pocket and switched to the small tinker because I liked the toolset. Then I found the rambler which rides in my bag for the scissors and small sd tip. I just got a pioneer last week and I'm thinking I might have hit the jackpot... Along with the aforementioned rambler and my 5 inch knipex pliers most of my short notice repair needs are covered. View attachment 1382834I also tuck a Zippo butane torch lighter in my pocket for dressing rope ends and whatnot, and a Fenix single aa light for getting under the hood of our aging work trucks.
I confess, I know next to nothing about the Knipex pliers. I have not knowingly seen one in stores here on the southern Minnesota Prairie. I have seen a couple of photographs of them that brings a question to mind. Are the Knipex pliers geared to give more leverage in closing the jaws?
 
I confess, I know next to nothing about the Knipex pliers. I have not knowingly seen one in stores here on the southern Minnesota Prairie. I have seen a couple of photographs of them that brings a question to mind. Are the Knipex pliers geared to give more leverage in closing the jaws?
They don't have gears or anything, they're just a convenient size, and German quality. The button in the middle is the adjuster and they open pretty wide for a small tool. 15954642574431214629776.jpg
I find them indispensable on brake jobs, and most importantly moving the grate around on my charcoal grill!
 
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