December 2008

My Leatherman (Plural, My 4th)

I had several of the foreign versions years ago and they were junk. My wife and I used to work at a ski resort, she in housekeeping and I in maintenance. She found a Leatherman lost by a maintenance person and left it in my office. When I identified the owner he told me to keep it as he had bought a new one. His had one short piece of tip broken off so I ground the other to match and used it for 2 years before it 'disappeared' from my desk. My wife bought me a new one and the first thing I did was to engrave my name, department and radio number on it with a diamond bit. I left it on jobs several times and if I didn't get a radio call, a housekeeper usually returned it to me.

I retired and began working around the East coast for friends. It went everywhere with me. In DC I wasn't allowed in the Library of Congress with it, so I would not go in as they did not have a secure holding area. The following year my wife and I visited friends in Beijing, China where she had taught English 2 years before. Everywhere we went there were venders selling look-a-like’s. Every place that asked to see my Leatherman immediately tried to get me to swap for theirs. There were some very interesting offers, far exceeding the value, but I declined.

This Spring I ended up working in Durham, NC for my sister where one of my employed helpers helped himself to my Leatherman. I replaced it with the Fuse, as they did not have anything else. I was not happy with it and when my friend from China visited us I gave it to him. Finally today my wife bought me my 4th one. This, a Core, is about the same as the first 2 that I owned. Next, I will be in my workshop engraving my name and phone number on this one.

Don Y.
Dixfield, ME