I was searching Google the other evening for some research material for a project I'm planning and one of the search terms i used was "Survival", amongst the millions of responses to the search query i got was this knife (pictured) and as soon as i saw it, it bought back loads of good memories as i used to one of these exact knives when i was kid.
The knife as such in retrospect was complete junk, but at the time, a mate of mine who used to live just up the road, still does funny enough, and i used to tear all over the South Downs with one of these on our belts and a Black Widow catapult in our back pockets (nobody blinked an eyelid either, how times have changed) and we used to love the things, if i remember right it never ever took or held an edge, the tang was about a half an inch long and was threaded to accept a nut inside the hollow handle, and in use the blade always used to come off or at least start to come very loose as the nut slowly undid itself, the wire saw lasted about half an hour, the fishing kit was better suited to catching Great Whites off of Cape Town, than three ounce roach in the local pond, the compass showed every direction except north and the sharpening stone on the front, i reckon was cut from a breeze block, but did we care?, nope not in the slightest, they were complete junk, but during our childhoods, they were a prized and envied possession, if i could get another one, i would just for the sheer nostalgia of it.
The knife as such in retrospect was complete junk, but at the time, a mate of mine who used to live just up the road, still does funny enough, and i used to tear all over the South Downs with one of these on our belts and a Black Widow catapult in our back pockets (nobody blinked an eyelid either, how times have changed) and we used to love the things, if i remember right it never ever took or held an edge, the tang was about a half an inch long and was threaded to accept a nut inside the hollow handle, and in use the blade always used to come off or at least start to come very loose as the nut slowly undid itself, the wire saw lasted about half an hour, the fishing kit was better suited to catching Great Whites off of Cape Town, than three ounce roach in the local pond, the compass showed every direction except north and the sharpening stone on the front, i reckon was cut from a breeze block, but did we care?, nope not in the slightest, they were complete junk, but during our childhoods, they were a prized and envied possession, if i could get another one, i would just for the sheer nostalgia of it.
