It doesn't get used often, but it can make you a very popular man at a party. The tweezers are a godsend, too.

I don't have Bowser's camping experience, but I always like a good knife on me when in the bush. They're an all-purpose tool, useful for sharpening sticks, cutting string, slicing cloth or plastic, opening containers and packaging, scraping stuff clean, removing thorns, that sort of thing.

Most of my camping has been done on small islands, using a boat to carry my gear, so weight was not an issue. But I usually carried a Swiss Army in my pocket, a razor sharp foldable line cutter with fine and rough duty blades (like the one in the illustration) on my belt, an Air Force Survival knife in the toolkit, a fish fillet in my tackle box, and two cheap Sears "hunting" knives in the lazarette. The latter rusted very easily, but would keep a very good edge, and were disposable, so you didn't care if they got abused, lost or broken.

Incidentally, none of these knives was very good for fighting. Except for the AF survival knife (which was indestructible but wouldn't take an edge) none had a grip suitable for protecting your hands from self-inflicted wounds when stabbing people.

That's what those two little finger stops do on a switchblade; keep your hand from sliding onto the blade when thrusting. That, and concealability, are why they are forbidden.

I've never actually seen one myself, except in the movies.