Most unusual thing you've done with your own Swiss army knife?

[RAPPLEBY2000]

I have carried a mini Swiss Army Knife (SAK) in my pocket for decades now.
I'm on to my 2nd tiny knife as the first I'd used it so much and after years of hard use, the plastic eventually fell off the handle.

My knife often comes in handy, but what is the most unusual thing you've done with it (try to keep it clean).

I'll kick off with my ill-advised useage that comes with a "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME" warning!

SAK Dentistry
I shall first explain for those with good teeth, and good teeth cleaning history...
I admit it, I was a bad boy, I didn't brush my teeth enough and ended up with many cavities...grim!

At one point just before a 10 day expedition in Scotland I had root canal work done, it's an unplesant dental proceedure that removes nerves from a tooth that is very bad, it leaves a weak, mostly empty, but painless tooth. It is filled with a metal crown, which is basically a huge filling which I think involved some sort of screwing in to the remaining tooth stump...nice! It was a long proceedure and it ached for a couple of days afterwards, but you end up with a pain free but dead tooth that just hasn't fallen out!

A week or two later on an mountain stage of an expedition, the tooth crown had become loose and fell out on the ground, I never found it. thankfully it wasn't painfull.
The remains of the tooth had very sharp edges that made my mouth/tounge sore and and I was in the mountain for a few more days. I used the SAK file, to file down the sharp edges of my tooth, and it worked, I carried on for the rest of the week pain free and no longer had sore mouth, when I returned home I went to the dentist which fixed it for a while.

I would NOT advise you to do try same thing! I already have a mouth full of filings so i wasn't too bothered about the state of my teeth, but, a healthy tooth could have been irreversibly damadged.
If you have good teeth don't risk it, even if you crack or damadge a tooth get to a dentist, they may be able to fix it, DON't File it or it may not fix as well. also remember my tooth had no nerves it was dead already, filing a health tooth with nerves would be agony!
The tooth was eventually removed after the dentists 2nd failed attempt to save the tooth (it had nothing to do with my amature dentistry).

Please brush your teeth

So...whats the most unusual thing you've done with your own Swiss army knife?

 

[Magentus]

Well certainly nothing like that!

Most unusual for me was when I was a support worker for a guy who used a wheelchair. We spent the day in Weston-Super-Mare and halfway through the day his wheelchair started coming apart. I used my Huntsman to tighten everything up sufficiently to get us through the day, and then back at home I went over it again with proper tools.

Can't count the times that my SAK has helped with a situation. I wouldn't be without one.

Fingers crossed I never need to resort to dentistry though.

 

[Nice65]

Not me, but this is a fairly extreme use. I won't embed the video, it involves a tooth extraction at Everest basecamp.

Its not too gory, but I know a lot of people don't like to watch this kind of thing.

https://youtu.be/o_DPqhQl4AM


My most extreme use was years ago. I was cutting open my dads shotgun cartridges to get the gunpowder and almost severed my index finger as the blade closed on it.

 

[John Fenna]

I have file the edges of a tooth that I broke on a Rabbit Stew my wife cooked, repaired all sorts of screwed together items, drilled holes in a coconut, carved callouses off my heels on a 1000km walk and cut off the ragged edges off a cut I received to a finger.
And shaved my big toes....

 

[Nice65]

I have file the edges of a tooth that I broke on a Rabbit Stew my wife cooked, repaired all sorts of screwed together items, drilled holes in a coconut, carved callouses off my heels on a 1000km walk and cut off the ragged edges off a cut I received to a finger.
And shaved my big toes....

Shaved your toes?

Coconuts. Forgot about that one. Spent many weeks slobbing around on Thai beaches, too hot and humid to do anything fast. Settled at one bamboo hutted place while they were doing the end of season coconut harvest. It involves a very sharp metal bar buried in the sand (year round, not installed, very like a steel spear), a 12 yr old Thai kid who wallops the coconut onto it and slowly gets the husk off. Then another kid with a machete cracks each coconut into two almost equal halves. All the halves are laid out on the ground for the sun to dry. Geckos, insects and birds are all over them.

Because it's the beginning of the rainy season, the husks need turning quickly if the monsoon rain hits. Myself and a friend were still there, so helped with the process and got our meals free. Once dry, another Thai kid or one of the mammas rams each half coconut onto a rotating spiked steel ball powered by a basic electric motor. This is how desiccated coconut is made on a small scale.

For want of a pastime in the monsoon rain and heat, we both used our SAKs to carve bowls from the discarded shells. It's hard stuff, and of the few I made, I only brought one home.

 

[jcr71]

i recently cut the wood out of a pine door to fit a latch. didn't want to spend out on a chisel. worked surprisingly well.

 

[Guzzi Goose]

More dentistry I'm afraid, a wobbly milk tooth taken out, half way around a Crazy Golf Course in Greece.

Pliers on a Swiss Champ and it came out with a little pop!

 

[bearbait]

Not a SAK but similar - my Leatherman multi-tool.

Many years ago in a hotel room on some Greek island there was me with a bottle of wine - and no SAK to open it with.

Looked around and thought about it. Removed a picture from the wall that was hanging on a screw. Using the aforesaid multi-tool I unscrewed the screw from the wall and then screwed it into the cork. Using the pliers part of the multi-tool I then removed the cork from its location in the bottle, screwed the screw back into the wall, rehung the picture and had a pleasantly refreshed evening with my companion.

 

[Nice65]

Not a SAK but similar - my Leatherman multi-tool.

Many years ago in a hotel room on some Greek island there was me with a bottle of wine - and no SAK to open it with.

Looked around and thought about it. Removed a picture from the wall that was hanging on a screw. Using the aforesaid multi-tool I unscrewed the screw from the wall and then screwed it into the cork. Using the pliers part of the multi-tool I then removed the cork from its location in the bottle, screwed the screw back into the wall, rehung the picture and had a pleasantly refreshed evening with my companion.

Nice little story, I like that

 

[Robson Valley]

Last night. Wanted a slurp while I prepared supper. A very good dark rum.
The *&^&^%# twist-off metal cap came loose with the binding band and would not separate.
Made me very thirsty. Trusty SAK cut the band off. Two fingers over ice was just right.

 

[KenThis]

In a previous life, as a student, I studied the evolution of Spanish grasshoppers.
I collected grasshoppers in Northern Spain, brought them back to the UK to breed, record, and study them.
Every other day I used the SAK to cut the grass I collected to feed them.
Used to get some very strange looks cutting handfuls of grass with my SAK.
On my first trip to Spain I also realised my grasshopper containers needed air holes and used the awl to make sure they'd survive the flight in the over head lockers.

 

[Robson Valley]

Ken: that's as good an explanation of care for wild life as I've read in a long time.
They don't have to be bison or condors or eagles or wrens.
It speaks to kindness and comfort. I can only hope that your research was productive.