So, a story I never told you guys. Sorry, no pictures. This fall just before opening rifle season, I had several roads to clear on a roughly 500 acre parcel of land. I work at a hunt club on roughly 3,000+ acres. This particular parcel sees little use except for rifle season. I took our tractor which has a nice hydraulic grapple attachment on the front, and a landscape (York) rake on the rear. After several wind storms, there were a batch of trees blocking roads. It was about a half days worth of work. Maybee two days without the grapple. Things were going well. I cut and moved the trees and smoothed up some of the road washouts with the rake. I finished up and headed back to the shop. Once there I reached for my ESEE 4, don't even remember what I wanted it for. I just remember that sinking feeling that came over me, when my hand discovered an empty sheath. "I think my exact thought were; "This is not good Mav, this is not good" ***Disclaimer*** This is/was in no way ESEE's fault. I accept total responsibility. Mostly because I'm a dumb a$$. You see, I carry my ESEE 4 inverted most of the time. It rides on my belt at the 3-4 o'clock position like it was born to be there. 99.9% of the time this works out great. I have carried my ESEEs this way since the Rat days. My 3 Mil lived upside down. I learned long ago, it can matter how fast you can draw/access your knife, but it rarely matter how long it takes to resheath it. The inverted position with the blade facing backwards, basically a normal left hand carry only inverted on the right side. This allows me to access the knife faster with winter gear on, and it comes out ready for action if needed. Even the resheath is easier coming up from the bottom with winter garb on. I have carried this way for a very long time and accepted the responsibility that gravity may someday bite me in the butt. This particular day was that other .5%. You see, I often use the factory Paracord Laynard on my 4. (Not really a lanyard it was attached to the bottom of the sheath when it arrived) I just run it through the hole in the pommel, and tie a knot at both ends. With the barrel lock on there as well. This allows me a lanyard loop with the cord lock out towards the ends, or just two strings that are less likely to get hung up on brush with the lock up by the blade. Back to the dumb A$$ part. That day as I mounted the tractor, I must have left it with the loop in place. Still not knowing exactly what happened, I frantically headed back to search for my knife. Not having any idea where I lost it made this a daunting task. I took my bride with me in a side by side for an extra pair of eyes. It was just about dark, snow was in the forecast and Rifle Season was fast approaching. I actually held out very little hope of ever seeing my cherished 4 again. Or worse yet finding it years from now all rusted and destroyed. I had run most of the roads and trails I had worked to no avail. I was making friends with the fact my knife was gone. Or that someone else would find it during hunting season. There are some spurs here, but basically there are two big loops. I had already searched one and was finishing the second. ESEE Philosophy Part 1. Believe it or not, here is where the ESEE Philosophy began to come into play. My distraught mind began to rationalize the whole process. I thought it's an ESEE, it was made to go to work. I can replace it. It won't drain my checking account if I have to. I even took it one step further. I thought with much of the coating still intact, I might luck out and find it in the spring and be able to resurrect it. Nearing the end of the second loop, my hopes were beginning to fade. I was fast running out of real estate. I had raked this section to smooth in some ruts. As I started up a slight rise, I saw something that didn't look quite right. It was all sand and rocks, but there was this odd shape mixed in with it. So I stopped and did some investigating. Sure enough there was me ESEE 4 with just the top half of the handle sticking out f the dirt. It looked like a small stick. It appeared that it had been dragged behind the rake for some distance. But I was just happy I found it. It was almost dark and my bride was half frozen, so we headed home. ESEE Philosophy Part 2; These guys build a tough knife. If you've ever seen a landscape rake work, it's a rolling tumbler of dirt and rocks. Basically material gets dragged until it finds a low spot and fills it in. I have no exact way of knowing exactly how far this knife was dragged. But upon closer inspection I was very pleased. Sure there were some scuff marks on the micarta, but nothing bad. The blade was a different story. I had this thing screaming sharp, it had sustained some damage. The edge had a series of very small chips and dents. But on the up side, nothing was that bad! It was still totally usable, only not pretty and with some edge irregularities. If needed, it could have easily processed a deer or constructed a shelter.. I'm writing this now, because last night I finally got around to sharpening some of the damage out. I spent about fifteen minutes with it. Progressing through, a 320 Diamond, 600 Diamond, Fine Ceramic, Black Paste Strop, Green Paste Strop. Not all the damage is gone yet. But it will slice paper and shave hair. Good enough until I have more time. Philosophy Part 3, Form follows Function. Are ESEE Knives beautiful? Tough call! To me they are rather attractive, but they aren't a California Buckeye Burl Beauty Queen. But I adhere to the Form Follow Function mantra. I think they look good to me because they do what needs doing. If I am to be totally honest here. I have had fancier more expensive scandi grind knives sustain more edge damage just from being dropped from waist height around a campfire. Not the to the extensive amount of multiple chips, but pretty servers chips never the less. Some Scandi grinds are just fragile. If you use your knives, you will eventually incur damage, plain and simple. Even if it isn't as dramatic, eventually you will sharpen them down. After this traumatic event, what did I do?? I washed the dirt and debris of my ESEE 4, hit it with some Frog Lube, shoved it back in the sheath and went about my life. That my friends is the sign of good knife. Like a great older ranch dog, maybe not as pretty as a show dog, but always ready to dive in and get it done. ***The Debrief*** I tried to reenact the incident. To the best of my ability. I think I solved the mystery. I had left the lanyard in its loop state. Something I never do. I'm fairly sure it hooked itself around the lock where at the bottom of the three point hitch control lever. So when I stood up, it pulled the knife straight down and out of the sheath. It probably bounced around on the floorboard before it finally fell off and into the path of the trailing landscape rake. But that is theory and conjecture, I'm just glad to have my knife back! Don't ya just love a happy ending?? LV,
Loops and tractors man! That’s why my pants get their hammer loops cut off. My dad managed to nearly run himself over with a small cultivating tractor as a result of that. And yes ESEE are tough SOBs. Great working knives.
Glad to hear you found your knife again...I get all kinds of crazy warranty stories...hear lots of examples where folks have lots blades and found them years later...always cool to hear that folks find them again.
After reading your story, I think ESEE should "Provide a Tractor" that has all the 3 point snags rounded off! Just My Opinion...... Great Story, Glad it worked out for you.
That seems pretty fair, It is an unconditional warranty after all. I'll need a 60 Horse with hydraulic log grapple out front. No cab necessary. Will that be coming USPS or UPS??
Definitely UPS @Lostviking but im going to request a cab with mine, or at least a garage to keep the seat and console out of the elements.
Glad it worked out for you! I absolutely hate losing things myself. I recently lost a victorinox and I went a little ocd in my attempt to find it. I spent almost 5hrs a night for like 2 weeks looking and I finally found it. I had placed it in the door cubby of the wife's suv. It slide back through a small hole in the rear of the panel and all but disappeared from view. It was just sentimental to me so it drove me nuts looking for it.
I just realized this past week that I have been looking for an orange 3d esee 3 and it also is in my wife’s suv along with some other emergency equipment I put in there for emergency’s It’s hidden in the panel in the back trunk. I hope whoever purchased the car from the dealer I traded it to uses it with great pride….
