Inspired by this post on A Continuous Lean about British army knives, I went onto eBay to find something cool frivolous to buy. I ended up with this guy:

According to the auction description, this is a WW2-era British Army knife made by Wade & Butcher. It’s made of some sort of plastic plus stainless steel, although this steel’s a little stained. The thing seems to horrify my girlfriend.

I gather that the long, punch-looking thing might be called a “marlin spike.” I was hoping the knife blade would be somewhat sharp, but it’s not. I’ll have to sharpen it. I was also hoping it would be something I could put on my keychain, but it’s like five inches long all folded up, so that seems unlikely.

I still need to clean this up a little bit. I have in my pen cup a $10 pocket knife I bought out by Gallup, New Mexico on a fly fishing trip. It’s been my trusted package opener for the last few years. This purchase might replace it.

If you’re interested in getting something similar to the above (although I’m not sure why…?), I see there are like five on eBay. I’m not the seller. They’re Italian World War II knives, so if you want to indulge your Ezra Pound fetish, you could get yourself a nice little fascist letter opener for less than $15.