I’m no carpenter, but when I’m building my IKEA furniture, I use my higo to mark the spots on my affordable Swedish crap where I need to drive the screws. Brown paper packages tied up with string - these are a few of my favourite things… to cut.There’s something inherently badass about eating an apple with a knife. Here is a short list of things I’ve personally used this knife to do, but don’t let it limit your imagination… What are they good for? Well… I don’t mean to be glib but - everything! Not only is it an excellent pocket knife, but it’s also what I like to call a “Junk Drawer Knife”, the one you reach for when you need to open a letter, Amazon package. Simply sharpen the blade flat on the original bevel from time to time, and tap the hinge with a ball-peen hammer when it begins to feel loose. Sharpening them is really easy, and the design ensures that there’s virtually nothing that can break. By omitting any bells and whistles, they’ve ended up with an exceptionally rugged tool with a really low chance for failure. The simplicity of these blades is truly what makes them remarkable. Nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done! The methods for manufacturing these Higo knives has gone essentially unchanged since the year 1894 - they completely embody the ideology of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”! The blades themselves are forged, left with a rough forged finish, and are made using a simple variety of SK Carbon steel. The friction in the swivel and the force of the user’s thumb gripping the “chikiri” (the tab at the top of the blade) keep the blade in place during use. To further simplify the design, there is no locking system. The handle is made out of a single sheet of steel folded in half to create some rudimentary “scales”. These little blades are hand-made in Japan by 5th generation blacksmith Mitsuo Nagao-san with steel from the Yasugi district. The Higo-No-Kami (or, simply, Higo) knife is handy, affordable, high-quality, cool to look at, and easy to use. Dundee’s signature belt knife still holds a special place in my heart, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that frightening off street-thugs with a pocket sword doesn’t come up much in my day-to-day routine. Nowadays, my affection for well made tools as fashionable accessories is still a thing, but my tastes have changed. I can only assume he is as hilarious and charming as I remember. Whether or not this film, or Paul Hogan’s titular character, has aged well is something I cannot speak to, as I’ve made a conscious decision to let Crocodile Dundee remain blissfully unaltered in my mind from the last time I saw this movie when I was ten. To the best of my recollection, Crocodile Dundee is the absolute best movie ever made by human beings. One of my personal heroes and life coaches at the time was none other than the incomparable Crocodile Dundee. Ever since I was a little kid, I always liked the idea of carrying a pocket knife.
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