Swiss Army Fuse

This is a very simple Instructable based on my own experience of asking a tool to do more than it was designed to do.  MAKE SURE YOU READ THE LAST STEP THE WARNING!

It was 1988.  I used to carry a single blade lock back hunting knife, but MacGyver was popular, so I had a mullet, wore acid washed jeans and started carrying a Swiss army knife.  (I was a teenager)  I had a 1983 Dodge Aries that was just reliable enough to get me to school and back.   One day I went to start my car and the only sound it made was a click and a pop.  I discovered that a fuse was blown, so I replaced it.  I tried to start the car and again,  just a click and a pop.  I kept putting in higher value fuses until I had blown every extra fuse I had.  I started looking around for something metal that I could use in place of a fuse.  I was looking for a paper clip, but all I could find was coins and old french fries.  I then thought of my Swiss army knife.  I opened up the scissors and compared them to the blades of the fuse. It was like it was designed not only for cutting paper, string, and hangnails, but also to be an emergency blade fuse!

I had a Victorinox.  I am not sure if Wenger or other brands would work.

I then placed the scissors into the fuse holder in the car.  The old blue box shaped car fired up on the first try.  I was able to drive my car home!

I know what you are thinking.....I should have checked what was causing the fuse to blow, before replacing it.  When I got home I reached down to pull out the Swiss army knife.  It was so hot that it burned my finger and thumb!  My dad and I found that a battery cable, under the hood, had rubbed on the frame until it had rubbed off its insulation, and was shorting out on the frame.  I was lucky the only damage was the discoloration of my scissors.  So now that you know, you can use a Swiss army knife in place of a fuse, make sure you find out what is causing the fuse to blow, or you could have bigger problems to deal with.  BIGGER PROBLEMS COULD INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:  MELTED COMPONENTS, FIRE, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN DAMAGE, DISMEMBERMENT, DEATH.   FUSES ARE FOR SAFETY.  REPLACING THEM WITH ANYTHING BESIDES THE SAME VALUE FUSE IS FOOLISH, BUT SOMETIMES PEOPLE TAKE RISKS AND DO FOOLISH THINGS.  HAPPY JURY RIGGING.