Author Topic: Have you adapted much of your gear to suit your needs and wants?  (Read 5189 times)

gunwharfman

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Whenever knives are mentioned I always think of my first wife and our five years together. I met her in the middle 60s, she was a Civil Servant, 5' 2" in height, slim and I have to confess very, very pretty, and a maths wizard! She used to hitchhike alone, to and from Wales to Kent to visit her parents and she didn't like to spend money unnecessarily.

Her parents obviously were scared for her safety so I was surprised when she showed me what she always carried in her handbag when travelling, a full-blown, full-sized Bowie knife with a serrated top edge!! Her dad bought it for her and said if any car or lorry driver "tried to get fruity" just get it out and pick at your fingernails with it. She never had any trouble.

Her dad's claim to fame was that he was an engineer who worked on the first jet engine in a factory near Gloucester.
The things we remeber!

For my part, I've only ever carried a small penknife and a pair of scissors. I've never had occasion to use the knife.

GoneWest

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...
Her parents obviously were scared for her safety so I was surprised when she showed me what she always carried in her handbag when travelling, a full-blown, full-sized Bowie knife with a serrated top edge!! Her dad bought it for her and said if any car or lorry driver "tried to get fruity" just get it out and pick at your fingernails with it. She never had any trouble.
Her dad's claim to fame was that he was an engineer who worked on the first jet engine in a factory near Gloucester.
The things we remeber!
...



Some knife* and some handbag!

*Utterly illegal to carry around habitually these days, of course, unless "scaring off randy drivers when hitching" counts as a "good reason" - which I doubt!
« Last Edit: 11:27:36, 12/07/20 by GoneWest »

gunwharfman

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Different then, I bet she'd be horrified to be reminded of it today. When I was a lad most of us who lived in the country carried knives, folding ones usually, I can't remember if they were used for anything useful though? Then there was a period when the newspapers went into full scare mode over 'flick knives' and from my memory, that's when attitudes started to change. Now we read and see on the TV that many youngsters are back into knives, what comes around goes around. Have I got that back to front?

Little Foot

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Weird, I think needing a knife in case some psycho maniac invades your tent in the middle of the night is one of the best reasons to have one, so I find it rather confusing that the law doesn't agree.  ;D


I'll make sure to check my weight on purchasing something. I doubt I'll ever need a multi-tool that includes a corkscrew lol.


GWM - That story certainly made me smile. I can picture it a guy gulping at the sight of the lass doing her nails!

gunwharfman

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When I had five pigs try to get in my tent I relied on one of my hiking sticks, a knife would have been useless. It only held them at bay, luckily for me after about 20 minutes, they heard a dog bark and ran! They demolished my tent though.

Little Foot

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That sounds a moment to remember! Pigs can certainly do a lot of damage.

Booga

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Regarding knives I used to carry a Draper "Swiss Army" style copy but realised that I didn't use 90% of it. So I put the removable toothpick and tweezers in the ziploc bag that is my first aid kit and leave the rest at home.
As for adapting kit, I have used some silicone tubing on the wire handles of my titanium cooking pot to give some heat proofing and a more secure grip when handling it full of boiling water. Mine was an offcut from a motorsport company but I believe it's also available online as fuel line for radio controlled cars.
My stove is a meths burner made from a drinks can but I guess that's more DIY than adapting existing kit.

 

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