A sailor must have a good knife
I’ll admit it, I have always been a fan of a nice knife, and back in my pre-boat days, I had acquired a small collection of production, and semi-custom knives. I was even a Spyderco dealer for a time, which I’ll confess was largely so that I could purchase their blades at wholesale prices (I was definitely my own biggest customer). A sharp knife can play a valuable role for a sailor, as sometimes cutting a line quickly can be a matter of life and death. Keeping a blade sharp and rust free on a boat can be a challenge though.
In one of my recent post shares, the Christmas shopping list for the Real boaters in your life, I recommended the Spyderco Atlantic. The blade of that knife is made from some type of steel that is apparently impervious to rust. Our friend Chris, from LTD Sailing, had one, and I was always envious of how his knife remained rust free, while my Spyderco knife, made from a different type of steel, did not.
If I was envious of that knife, I became even more jealous when Chris returned from the Annapolis boat show with his Boye sailor’s knife. It is made out of some futuristic sounding steel (Dendritic Cobalt?), also supposedly impervious to rust, and has a functional titanium marlinspike on the side. Did I want one? Hell yeah, but it was way out of my budget, and I’ve learned to resist that kind of emotional buying urge.
In addition to keeping a good folding knife on my person, I have been known to position cheap knives (think steak knives) in various places on the boat (ex. cockpit, mast, near windlass), just in case.
It’s been some time since Chris acquired that knife, but when we shared drinks together a week ago, I wasn’t surprised to see that he was still carrying it. Being the well-prepared sailor that he is, he seemed to always have it with him. What did surprise me was when Chris offered me his knife as a gift! In fact, I was totally caught off guard.
The spontaneous decision to offer the knife to me was not based solely on my admiring it. Apparently, through an interesting turn of events, Chris shared that he had another, brand new one waiting for him back at his house. Even still, that was a crazy gift, and one I won’t soon forget. Probably never actually. Maybe I’ll use it to carve all our names in some post in Patagonia!