Carl Levitian
member
Or, how it saved my butt.
I guess I could begin this with "once upon a time..." as it took place a few years ago, when I was still an old fart, but not as old a fart as I am today.
I've been a loyal sak user for most of my life, and my little classic on my key ring is so often used I made a little leather pouch sheath for it so I didn't have to detach it from my keyring to use. Just take hold of the keyring at the top of the handle sticking up out of the sheath, and pull out of sheath and open whatever blade I needed.
After some years of use, the front handle scale came off, and I glued it back on with Goop. Goop is the recomended glue on the sak forum to reattach scales with. Somehow the tweezers became lost so I needed a new tweezers. I knew there was a knife shop in Frederick that had a large display of saks and accsesories, so off I went.
Now downtown in old part of Frederick on Market street, there is a goodly share of strange street people. In recent years Frederick has changed alot, for the worst I'm aftraid. I found a parking place on one of the side streets and went and got my tweezers at the knife shop. The trip back to the car was not uneventfull.
Walking down the narrow brick sidewalk, I saw ahead of me three young punks of the troublesome type. They were sitting on a low wall that lined the sidewalk, and when they saw me coming in thier direction, they stood up and fanned out across the sidewalk blocking my path. The one in the middle that spoke English asked me if I had any money.
This was a loose/loose situation.
I was not about to take out my wallet, nor was I inclined to give them anything. I don't respond well to this kind of thing. I changed my grip on my blackthorn down a couple inches from the root knob handle. One of the benifits of being documented as 50% disabled by the V.A. is if I clobber some malcontent with my stick, I have a documented use for it. If it got that far.
The change of grip on the stick did not go un-noticed by the three amigo's, and they got a little un-easy. I told them in a no nonsense voice to get out of my way, don't even think about it.
They moved.
Now three young guys against a senior citizen on social security, they could have taken me. I may have got in some good licks, one or two of them would have got hit. But in the end, they would have had me. One of them had a hand in his baggy pants pocket, so he may have had a knife.
But they didn't have guts to try.
They backed off from an old man with a knarled old blackthorn who was ready to start swinging.
If I were carryng a knife, and had to pull it out, would it have been as good?
I'm known by poeple who know me as a great enthusiast of the stick. Always in hand, goes everywhere. I even take it right past airline security when we travel.
Clint was right. "Sometimes there's nothing like a good piece of hickory."
exept maybe blackthorn.
I guess I could begin this with "once upon a time..." as it took place a few years ago, when I was still an old fart, but not as old a fart as I am today.
I've been a loyal sak user for most of my life, and my little classic on my key ring is so often used I made a little leather pouch sheath for it so I didn't have to detach it from my keyring to use. Just take hold of the keyring at the top of the handle sticking up out of the sheath, and pull out of sheath and open whatever blade I needed.
After some years of use, the front handle scale came off, and I glued it back on with Goop. Goop is the recomended glue on the sak forum to reattach scales with. Somehow the tweezers became lost so I needed a new tweezers. I knew there was a knife shop in Frederick that had a large display of saks and accsesories, so off I went.
Now downtown in old part of Frederick on Market street, there is a goodly share of strange street people. In recent years Frederick has changed alot, for the worst I'm aftraid. I found a parking place on one of the side streets and went and got my tweezers at the knife shop. The trip back to the car was not uneventfull.
Walking down the narrow brick sidewalk, I saw ahead of me three young punks of the troublesome type. They were sitting on a low wall that lined the sidewalk, and when they saw me coming in thier direction, they stood up and fanned out across the sidewalk blocking my path. The one in the middle that spoke English asked me if I had any money.
This was a loose/loose situation.
I was not about to take out my wallet, nor was I inclined to give them anything. I don't respond well to this kind of thing. I changed my grip on my blackthorn down a couple inches from the root knob handle. One of the benifits of being documented as 50% disabled by the V.A. is if I clobber some malcontent with my stick, I have a documented use for it. If it got that far.
The change of grip on the stick did not go un-noticed by the three amigo's, and they got a little un-easy. I told them in a no nonsense voice to get out of my way, don't even think about it.
They moved.
Now three young guys against a senior citizen on social security, they could have taken me. I may have got in some good licks, one or two of them would have got hit. But in the end, they would have had me. One of them had a hand in his baggy pants pocket, so he may have had a knife.
But they didn't have guts to try.
They backed off from an old man with a knarled old blackthorn who was ready to start swinging.
If I were carryng a knife, and had to pull it out, would it have been as good?
I'm known by poeple who know me as a great enthusiast of the stick. Always in hand, goes everywhere. I even take it right past airline security when we travel.
Clint was right. "Sometimes there's nothing like a good piece of hickory."
exept maybe blackthorn.