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.
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.