Rule 9
"Never go anywhere without a knife."
When I saw the first episode of NCIS and Gibbs cited Rule 9, my response was, “Well, duh!” I have travelled all over the U.S. and many parts of the world - Antarctica, Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Okinawa, the Philippines & Scotland - and have never gone anywhere without a knife, at least not for long. Given the restrictions on carrying knives since 9-11, I have done some air travel without a knife when I didn’t check a bag, but I either had one waiting for me when I landed or, more recently, I bought one when I got there.
For years I carried a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife - the venerable Tinker, which I still have. But then I was given a Hiker, which is the same as the Tinker but with a marvelous little saw which is probably the single most useful thing on it next to the toothpick & tweezers. To make a long story only slightly shorter, I temporarily lost the Hiker but found that I really missed that saw so even though I went back to the Tinker in the interim, I finally got around to replacing it with the Wenger Serrated Backpacker - an odd one that I found on sale in Henderson, NV (that’s the knife that I bought “when I got there” as mentioned previously), odd in that the scales were black rather than the usual red.
(Note: Wenger is now a subsidiary of Victorinox and both are considered “true” Swiss Army Knives even though Victorinox was first.)
I quickly grew to love that knife: while the serrated blade isn’t as good for spreading cream cheese on a cracker, it is a vastly superior cutting tool to the standard blade which, as with all stainless blades, I have the devil’s own time trying to keep sharp. When I subsequently found my previously lost Hiker, I pretty much consigned it to backup duty along with the Tinker.
Last October the Wenger went on walkabout: I thought it had fallen out of my pocket at the Veteran’s Club and that someone had picked it up. (Yes, I have a propensity for losing knives. Why do you ask?) I had become so attached to that serrated blade that I soon replaced it with another Wenger, though the new one had red scales - the black ones weren’t available anymore. Then, just the other day I was walking across the lawn to my truck. I happened to look down and there it was! Nine months of rain, snow, sleet, mud and being mowed over almost completely disappeared after about an hour with a toothbrush, a brass brush, a greenie (Scotchbright) and of course, some WD-40. The result is below:
So now I have four Swiss Army knives: two by Victorinox - the Tinker and the Hiker - and two Wenger Serrated Backpackers.
So I definitely need never go anywhere without a knife.
When I saw the first episode of NCIS and Gibbs cited Rule 9, my response was, “Well, duh!” I have travelled all over the U.S. and many parts of the world - Antarctica, Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Okinawa, the Philippines & Scotland - and have never gone anywhere without a knife, at least not for long. Given the restrictions on carrying knives since 9-11, I have done some air travel without a knife when I didn’t check a bag, but I either had one waiting for me when I landed or, more recently, I bought one when I got there.
For years I carried a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife - the venerable Tinker, which I still have. But then I was given a Hiker, which is the same as the Tinker but with a marvelous little saw which is probably the single most useful thing on it next to the toothpick & tweezers. To make a long story only slightly shorter, I temporarily lost the Hiker but found that I really missed that saw so even though I went back to the Tinker in the interim, I finally got around to replacing it with the Wenger Serrated Backpacker - an odd one that I found on sale in Henderson, NV (that’s the knife that I bought “when I got there” as mentioned previously), odd in that the scales were black rather than the usual red.
(Note: Wenger is now a subsidiary of Victorinox and both are considered “true” Swiss Army Knives even though Victorinox was first.)
I quickly grew to love that knife: while the serrated blade isn’t as good for spreading cream cheese on a cracker, it is a vastly superior cutting tool to the standard blade which, as with all stainless blades, I have the devil’s own time trying to keep sharp. When I subsequently found my previously lost Hiker, I pretty much consigned it to backup duty along with the Tinker.
Last October the Wenger went on walkabout: I thought it had fallen out of my pocket at the Veteran’s Club and that someone had picked it up. (Yes, I have a propensity for losing knives. Why do you ask?) I had become so attached to that serrated blade that I soon replaced it with another Wenger, though the new one had red scales - the black ones weren’t available anymore. Then, just the other day I was walking across the lawn to my truck. I happened to look down and there it was! Nine months of rain, snow, sleet, mud and being mowed over almost completely disappeared after about an hour with a toothbrush, a brass brush, a greenie (Scotchbright) and of course, some WD-40. The result is below:
So now I have four Swiss Army knives: two by Victorinox - the Tinker and the Hiker - and two Wenger Serrated Backpackers.
So I definitely need never go anywhere without a knife.