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Friday, February 18, 2011

Thomas Jefferson’s Pockets: Jefferson’s “Swiss Army knife”

Anonymous said...

    Thought you and the kids would enjoy seeing Thomas Jefferson's SAK!

    February 18, 2011 10:05 AM

Nice find, thanks!
Incredible that Jefferson would carry something so similar to what we’re talking about.
By the way, does anyone recognize the rest of the tools? Is that a silver lighter?
Check out his multi-tool. These where high quality, apparently made by Kippax:


This is VERY similar to the Huntsman II. Its like the one I bought for my son and nephew, but with a saw instead of the magnifying glass. Yes, I think this one is better since the saw can be more handy than the glass, but they didn’t have this one in the store.
Victorinox Swiss Army Huntsman Pocket Knife (Red)
Victorinox Swiss Army Huntsman Pocket Knife (Red) $27.63

Check the website linked above in the comment. The tool is part of Jefferson’s EDC, his “pockets", but apparently those in charge ... lets say... “decided” ... not to show Jefferson’s most controversial EDC, his handgun.

"Before they built this new visitors center, the old visitors center contained what I remember to be this set of items, and the set was called "Jefferson's pockets."  In the old visitors center - this display set contained an additional item:  A pistol with a removable barrel.  The pistol is no longer on display with this set.  When I inquired as to why it was no longer there - I was told that "it was taken off display."  Since I could already see that - I asked about the decision process.  They told me it could have been removed for any number of reasons.  I didn't inquire any further."

Is it possible that they have a liberal agenda and dont want people to see that the founding father packed steel daily as the most ordinary thing? I hope they had a good excuse to remove the gun from the “Thomas Jefferson pockets" display, and weren’t driven by some politically correct agenda.


FerFAL

11 comments:

Doug from Oz said...

I was wondering, what is the hook on the SAK used for? I notice the Jefferson knife has one as well.

Anonymous said...

I once lived near Monticello (Jefferson's estate). It's in a politically conservative area that isn't anti-gun, so I have my doubts that there is a liberal agenda behind it.

Anonymous said...

It's not a lighter - it is a case for the miniature drafting set, compass etc spread out next to it. The little "ruler" I believe is a tiny engineer's scale. The "feeler gauges" are ivory sheets upon which he wrote with a pencil - a notebook. Notes still visible.

Jack Rabbit

Anonymous said...

Oh I still live near Monnticello - Charlottesville, VA is the blue dot in the red state.

Don Williams said...

1) While Charlottesville , Virginia is politically conservative, the University of Virginia has many liberal professors. (I graduated from the University.)

2) I think Mr Jefferson's views were pretty clear in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

HOW you abolish the old government is left as an exercise for the reader.

3) Something for Americans to remember , given that the concentration of wealth within the top 1 percent of the US population has increased from 20 percent in 1979 to 36 percent today -- showing that the USA is one of the most inequitable societies on the planet.

Meanwhile the top 1 percent has increased their share of the national income from around 10 percent in 1979 to almost 22 percent today. Our Gini coefficient shows that we have one of the most inequitable distributions of income on the planet.

Ref: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

tjbbpgobIII said...

Ferfal, the other tools shown are dividers and scribes for surveying, I believe, and I just don't think cigarette lighters or even cigarettes had been invented yet. It may have been used to carry some of the other items. The hook on the knife was probably was used for a number of things from cleaning his pipe to cleaning a horses hoove. That is similar to other things that I have seen carried for hooves.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who would quote Jefferson is now considered potential terrorist. Where will they stop? There is likely a agenda behind the reason not to display the gun. It is not necessarily a liberal one. The left-right political paradigm is slowly fading as more understand the real politic. Liberal verses Conservative in the U.S. is just a show and distraction from the corporatist agenda both sides enact. To better understand the economics and conditions the U.S. and the world faces, look behind the curtain. a

Anonymous said...

In 1785 Thomas Jefferson wrote to his fifteen-year-old nephew, Peter Carr, regarding what he considered the best form of exercise: "...I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks."[1][2]

Evidence exists to show that Jefferson was a fair marksman. At twenty-five he noted in his accounts: "Won shooting 1/6."[3] In a later contest during a muster of Captain Jacob Moon's Albemarle County militia company he lost 2/6.[4] But as he grew older, Jefferson limited his exercise to horseback riding while restraining his attachment for firearms and hunting.

References to ownership of arms and accoutrements may be found throughout his manuscripts and accounts. A cursory compilation shows that he owned a shotgun called a "two shot-double barrel," purchased in France, a number of pistols and other shoulder weapons. Further evidence that he used these may be found in the columns of his account books. In 1775 he paid to have a pistol repaired; a year later he bought a "double barrel gun-lock for £5-5; in 1799 he had Henry Yost, a Staunton, Virginia gunsmith, mend his pistols (possibly those he carried for protection when traveling) and, as late as 1817 he was charged eight dollars for having a gun put in order by a Charlottesville repairman.

Unquestionably, the finest arms that Jefferson owned were a pair of Turkish pistols received from the estate of General Isaac Zane in place of a money bequest. He described them and, at the same time, modestly alluded to his ability as a pistol shot: "They are 20. inch barrels so well made that I never missed a squirrel at 30 yards with them..."[5]

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/firearms

Halsey, Ashley Jr. "How Thomas Jefferson's Pistols Were Restored." American Rifleman November (1969): 21-22.
Halsey, Ashley Jr. and John M. Snyder. "Jefferson's Beloved Guns," American Rifleman November (1969): 17-20.

Reproductions
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/images/15295.jpg

Doug from Oz said...

I've just found out what the hook on the modern SAK is for. It's a package carrier!

Jack Rabbit said...

I've found that the hook on a SAK is useful for pulling a spring back onto a mount.

izzit said...

envy the saw blade on that pocketknife.