It was Sunday and my daughter and myself were going to my wife’s
85-year-old Aunt to help her with her packing and her moving
preparations.
The hard question was what knives to take? It was an old Victorian
House with lots of big rooms and old antique type furniture. I did not
know what to expect, so I took my Swiss champ (recently customised with
blue translucent handles) and my Alox soldier.
Well, with a quick stop at the supermarket to pick up some empty cartons, we were on our way.
First job, take down about 50 pictures, the soldier knife came in handy, using the large screwdriver blade to take the hangers out of the walls.
Then I used the knife to cut down the cartons to pack the pictures and make some spacers out of the cut off cardboard.
I wanted to make a list of what we were packing but I had forgotten my pen, I’m sure there was a pen in the house, but with half the contents packed already it was easier to use the one in the Swiss Champ.
How can anyone remember to take a felt marker but forget a pen?
Time for refreshments. A bottle of San Miguel washed away part of the dust. The Soldier and its bottle opener came in handy again.
Up to the attic, some old furniture, wrapped in brown paper and twine. Cut the twine, (Soldier) and unwrapped the paper, no antiques here, just some old broken ‘60’s furniture. Something else for the junk pile.
China cabinet next. No key? I gently levered open the simple door catch with no damage to the cabinet.(Soldier) Some beautiful bone china from the Far East, brought home during WW2. It had survived the blitz so it needed careful packing to survive this next chapter in its life. More cartons to cut down. (Soldier)
Next a small wiring job, an electric hair dryer with a broken wire. Stripped the wires back (Soldier) (first time I’ve ever used the notch on the screwdriver blade, it worked great) and re-tightened the screws. The hair dryer works fine now.
Re-tightened a couple of handles on my Aunt’s marble comports (?) (Soldier) ( I don’t know what comports are either, but they sit on either side of her marble clock.)
Peeled a couple of oranges (Soldier) and made our way home, stopping on the way to check some sizes at her new apartment. The pen came in handy again.
So there you have it. The Swiss army knives were, as usual, invaluable. The Swiss Champ for its pen and the Soldier for everything else. So the only thing wrong is the title of this article. The Swiss Champ was a Victorinox, but the Soldier was a Wenger, I preferred having a bale on the Wenger so I could use a lanyard. It is my only Wenger but the quality is as good as any of my Victorinox. But what else would you expect from a Swiss Army Knife.