PEAR TREE LOG
pear tree log: I started this blog to keep my younger son, Jonny, in touch with life in Lincolnshire, while he spent a year working in China. That year turned into five! Now he is home and training to become a physics teacher. This is simply a patchwork quilt of some of the things I enjoy - life in rural Lincolnshire, our animals, friends, architecture, books, the gardens, and things of passing interest.
That Stiff Penknife
Sometimes it is very difficult to open a penknife. The spring may be stiff or you may have broken a thumbnail so that you cannot open it in the ordinary way.
Here is a very simple way out of the difficulty.
Take a strip of fairly stiff paper, fold it across at the middle and slip the fold under the blade of the knife. Then, gripping tightly the two ends of the folded paper, pull them up and the knife-blade will will be lifted sufficiently to grasp it and pull it right up.
Now aren't you pleased you read this little post?
This handy little tip is brought to you courtesy of EVERY BOY'S HOBBY ANNUAL, 1931
I will treasure this little nugget of information and one day, I will dazzle someone with my handy wisdom!
ReplyDeleteI needed to know that last week when someone borrowed my scissors and I had to find my trusty utility knife. When I couldn't get that open, I took the package next door to the road super, whose scissors also had been borrowed, but he had a bench full of sharp tools and the box of W-2's was opened. We will be able to supply government forms to all employees next week. But next time, if my scissors don't return, I'll know how to open the knife!
ReplyDeleteHi Ms Sparrow and Joanne,
ReplyDeleteI just love these really old Boys Annuals. They are packed with so much interesting stuff from how to build a home laboratory to how to build a home ... well, a wigwam! So much more fun than the ones which I have for girls of that era.