February 2009
Gearing the Oils
While at university, I had been cooking part-time in a pretty low grade pub outside my dorms. And by "cooking" I mean mostly slicing, cutting, sawing off, screwing, opening industrial size cans and putting out small fires.
A multi-tool was pretty much mandatory. My go-to tool was actually a large Swiss Army knife with a locking blade, which I won't go into the details on. Suffice to say, I got by.
I also had a Juice S2, carried "just in case" (for show; that thing is just gorgeous) in the change pocket of my jeans. It rarely left there, being mostly eye candy.
Then one day, we had an(other) emergency: the temperature control valve of a big fryer just fell off. Some thirty liters (8 gallons for you Americans) of oil were boiling up. And the customers were getting angry, too.
What remained of the valve was an exposed bolt head. The place had pliers, but they were buried somewhere. My SAK had pliers, but as Mr. Leatherman had already noticed once, they're not up to a real challenge. I'm not sure they'd even get a grip over the big screw, let alone move it.
That's when my Juice S2 had its Bar Mitzvah. Calmly, I pulled out the slick tool, opened the handles and, in a few easy turns, brought the fryer temperature back to normal. All present (one alarmed bartender) gazed in awe.
I have since swapped the Juice for a larger, if not prettier, Fuse for (slightly) more serious tasks. The big SAK was replaced by a smaller, more elegant version.
For show.
Rodion F.
Pardes Hana, Israel
OK, you voyeur, you. Enough of reading other people's stories. It's time you told your own tale of gripping heroism or even just neat DIY'ism. We know there's a Shakespeare in you somewhere. Don't make us use the Steens to find it.