Viking Lars | Saturday, 4 April 2020
Knife… Knives… Man’s oldest tools are not knives, but cutting tools made of flint, which one can argue is also a knife, but I’m not going to do that. I am going to go on about knives, because I like knives and I always bring one when I go fishing. Sometimes two :-).
Just like I took up fly tying and rod building around the same time I began fly fishing, I built my first knife more than 25 years ago. Of course I’ve built many since, including one for Paul. I have one home made knife myself after I’ve given a few away not long ago. My own knife was forged by my dear friend, Jens Pilgaard and I made the rest myself (handle and sheath). This knife is very special to me, but I use it - as you can see. It’s due for a little maintenance.
I’ve ordered a custom made blade, so I’ll be building one soon. This will be a small fixed blade for “everyday use” - not everyday in its literal sense, but one I’ll have on my belt on excavations and when fishing. And I even get to tie the other big interest in my life together in this knife. From an archaeological dig many years ago I’ve kept and stored some bog oak, which I’ll use for the handle.
It’s good to bring a knife fishing. I happen to have a small folding knife in each of my “kits”. An Abel folder/plier combo in my salmon/seatrout kit; a small Gerber in my saltwater kit; a small Leatherman in my trout/grayling kit and a diving knife permanently attached to my pontoon boat. It’s not that I need a knife as such, but I almost always end up using it. Lying in the grass or on the beach, I like to find a twig and whittle away at it. Sometimes I’m lucky and find a good, dry twig I can whittle away at for weeks and months, and in doing so, my daughters have many small twigs with their names in, a face, a small troll, a heart, a trout etc. And it’s nice to have a knife to cut some fruit, bread, open a can - whatever.
Have a great weekend!
Lars