If you are new to my blog, you may not be familiar with the term “smelt” in the way that my in-laws use it. For them, “smelt” means to make from nothing. As in Saturday Night Live, circa 1987. The idea of smelting began as an alternative to buying full-blown retail prices, to keep the expense of Christmas down, to encourage considerate gift giving. It was a way to focus the crazy, out of handedness that Christmas can sometimes bring.
Here is the smelt (the in-laws consider the word a noun, verb, and adjective) that my husband received:
Made by his brother, this is one of the ultimate and most considerate smelts because it contains everything he could want during a Boy Scout campout. On the other side, it’s personalized with the troop number. What is this thing exactly? I call it a multi-tool with…
- a hammer head
- an ax
- a crescent wrench
- three socket wrenches
- a claw to remove nails
- a hole to hang it in storage
- a leather wrapped handle for comfort
What more could an adult on a Boy Scout campout need?