"Sir, I beg your pardon but my knife is indeed awesome": The Mother of all Swiss Army Knives!

They say you shouldn't bring a knife to a gun fight, but if you brought the Mother of all Swiss Army Knives along you’d at least have the choice between many different types of knives AND a gun. I've always believed that having a Swiss Army Knife handy is a great bet for your amateur and professional DIY’er alike; it’s just a great multi-tool for getting those little jobs done when you haven’t got a tool kit to hand. I think a .22-caliber revolver might be a little overkill though; although saying that the whole thing might slide easily into that category!

This crazy multi-tool actually pre-dates the Swiss Army Knife we all know and love. It was created around 1880 by a guy called John S. Holler in Germany, and the Swiss Army Knife didn't come into production until 1890. Until then the 19th century gentlemen had to make use of this bad boy; although with 100 functions packed into its no doubt hefty weight they would be hardly short of choice. What, though, exactly makes up this knife that meant it was granted such a lofty title? Well, here are a few things it can help you with.

Want to butter your bread? No problem, the butter knife has you covered.

Want to open a bottle of champagne? Yep, there’s a corkscrew.

Want to saw something? That’s a done deal too.

Want to cut your cigar? Want to use some scissors? Want a pair of shears? Check yourself out in a mirror? Shoot someone (not advised!)? Write something? Tune a piano? You can do all that and more, so what’s not to like? Well, there’s two things I suppose; the fact that it will take up quite a lot of space in your pocket, and will weigh you down like a sack of spuds.

Unfortunately opening your bottle of beer is out of the question, but I'm sure it would have been included if the bottle cap had been invented at the time that John S. Holler decided to whack everything he could think of into one ‘small’ tool. Thankfully you’d still look like the perfect gentlemen with the exquisitely crafted tortoise-shell handle. There are even tiny tools embedded inside the case, just in case you need to do some miniature crafting on your walk down the cobbled streets of a smoky London.

If you want to see the Mother of all Swiss Army Knives up close and personal, head along to the Buffalo Bill Centre of the West in Wyoming, USA. I can’t find one similar that you can actually buy, but this decent selection of multi-tools from Toolbox will do the job just fine.

(Via Neatorama)