May 2012

...missing a bit of me...

The story of my Leatherman begins in 2004, when I was still in grade 9. Now it took me quite a long time to save up to buy WAVE and still falling short of the price I convinced my dad to give me a hand in buying it. On the same day showing it to one of my friends he almost cut his finger off with it.  So two very happy years go by, always having it on my side when I leave the house heading to the field or going fishing and countless times it helped in the gutting or even trap building process. So after three years I send it away for a service, now there was nothing wrong with the tool back then so they just polished and oiled everything again and the best part off all, receiving the note when you get it back telling you what a pleasure it was to service the tool.

So by now I am quite a bit older and the WAVE starts to do some heavier work like skinning and gutting and chopping full size game animals, building wooden bridges in the bush, building tree houses and even helped in our pyrotechnics phase. Every time, everywhere no matter what - the WAVE delivered ... by now I have hand sharpened the blade a good couple of times and the outer walls of my wave are showing some good mileage. So then I send it away for a second time this time receiving a note that I have abused my wave to an unnatural order but it was still a pleasure to repair and service the tool, at that moment I felt this warm and fuzzy feeling making me proud to be part of the family.

So my life goes on and I use it on a daily basis doing just about anything from using it as a hammer to knock in screws even all the way to handle the hot braai utilities and even chopping off trees, so by now the WAVE starts to show off some serious mileage after nine years of constant use.   So just last week we went to a huge agricultural show/expo called Nampo Harvest Day, and of-course there was a Leatherman service station and product stall, so I took it in and kindly asked the one lady working there that I have sent it away three times and never have they sharpened my knife blade and with all the time I sharpened it myself the blade made a hollow groove as the sharpening always took some metal off, I just asked her if they cannot maybe just replace my blade? Now I did not have any high hopes on the situation...then she just looked at me and smiled...said... no worries sir, here you go and she took mine and replaced it with a brand new WAVE!! - with none of my old battle scars...none of the wear and tear.