I heart you, Victorinox Black Huntsman Swiss Army Knife

My first Swiss Army knife was not “Swiss” at all.  It was a red, Chinese-made knockoff I bought in Big Lots for $1.99.  I think I got it because I was completely enthralled with MacGyver.  He used his knife for everything; it was his best friend, and it saved his life.  I longed for a relationship like that…a relationship with an inanimate object.  That knockoff knife was horrible: the spring tension was far too great for my 10 year old fingers; the tools had rough, unfinished edges; the knife seemed to leak this machine oil from the hinges.  I was disappointed, and almost thought that all knives were like this.  Two or three years later, I splurged and bought myself a genuine Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, the Huntsman model, as a Christmas present for myself (I’ve been known to buy my own Christmas presents…mainly because no one gets me anything, and no one understands what I like, what I want).  Why the Huntsman?  At the time, it was the only one available in a color other than red; red was too common for me.  Once I opened that main blade, with the words “Swiss made” engraved on it, I knew this was the knife I was looking for.  We would have adventures together, and have been having adventures together for the past 20+ years.  If you look closely, you can see that it is “battle-damaged”: part of the black plastic exterior has a slight divot from a piece of hot metal touching it;  the main blade has two burn marks in the metal, from when it made contact with a charged high-power capacitor.  Everything still works great.  Since then, I have purchased three other Swiss Army Knives, and each is unique, and each have different stories to tell.  But ‘Blackie’ is my first knife, and will usually be the knife you will find in my right front pants pocket.