Yep, it’s a Victorinox, and I paid 50 cents. It’s the pruner knife. And a beauty. A Swiss Gardeny Knife.
The shears are “electricians scissors” but my former neighbor the journeyman didn’t know how he’d use them. Handy, small, and stout. Sharpening scissors is quite simple if you take your time.
The wire stripper is no mystery. I like having both the smaller ones and the larger ones. The smaller pair gets a lot of use in wiring musical instruments.
But the fork? Why a fork? To tune the instruments?
What you see is a beforefork, two pruned forks, and, finally, a formerfork now a bona fide woodworker’s striking knife. You can pay lots of bucks for one of these, but for 50 cents or so, a brief flirtation with a hacksaw, a few minutes at the grinder, and some buffing, you’ve got a great tool with a history.
The best forks have rosewood handles, but any nice one will work. Even the wood handles that have been abused in the dishwasher will sand up (and if they’re rosewood, will re-oil themselves before your very orbs).
And you thought there was nothing, ahem, remarkable about one of those forks.
-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"
6 comments so far
Barry Heller
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14 posts in 824 days
#1 posted 763 days ago
The scissors are “electricians scissors”, but very few electricians would have used them. They were primarily used by Telco cable splicers or communication workers. Usually for wire gauges under 20 gauge. The industrial, commercial or residential electrician could have them, but I never saw them in the field. Some of them had small grooves cut into the outer edge of one blade to serve as a stripper for the 3 most common wire sizes in communication cable. Probably more than you wanted to know about electricians scissors.
-- I grow ever more accomplished at turning a perfectly good piece of wood into sawdust.
Gene Howe
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3199 posts in 1601 days
#2 posted 763 days ago
Good forkin idea for the marking knife.
-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton
Dave
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9206 posts in 1012 days
#3 posted 761 days ago
I like the marking knife to. The wife will never miss it… I aint paying 50 cents when she has a drawer full.
-- Superdav "No matter where you go - there you are." http://chiselandforge.com
mafe
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8057 posts in 1261 days
#4 posted 580 days ago
Love that marking knife idea.
So simple.
Best thoughts,
Mads
-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.
ShipWreck
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534 posts in 1925 days
#5 posted 391 days ago
I had to look here after your kind response to my ” marking gauge or pencil” post in the hand tool forums.
Awsome idea for a marking knife Lee. Looks like the wife is going to be a little light in the cutlery drawer tonight.
V/R….. John
Lee Barker
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1889 posts in 1022 days
#6 posted 391 days ago
I was prowling through one of my many “miscellaneous” drawers and found three stainless steel hemispheres. I took me a minute to figure out they were soup ladles, hapless victims of the run of striking knives.
Kindly,
Lee
-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"
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