I have allways hard to understand why scouts of today is so focused on the less safe folding knives insteed of using a fixed knife. A small victorinox or multitool i can understand but with anything for carving, ropework, food prep etc my first pick is a fixed blade knife. For those with smaller hand a Mora carving knife junior is perfect as a starter knife. For somewhat older kids they can learn to oil a handle and/or stain it as part of the knife training.
I think it is a combination of things:
Unless you know where to shop there are aren’t a lot of places that sell fixed blade knives.
For food prep etc then the scout group will provide the knives, so the scout doesn’t need to own their own.
Parental concern, with all of the publicity around knife crime, many
assume that it is all sheath knives, zombie knife etc, rather than the kitchen knives which are easy to get hold of.
With my Scouts, the group own 10 fixed blade, plastic handled mora knives, to teach the skills, because as has been said they are safer as they won’t fold back on their hands.
Cubs (8-10.5) can bring a penknife on camp, but it is handed in and only allowed when that is the activity.
Scouts can bring a penknife or sheath knife and providing I judge they are competent and safe keep it on them to use as needed, if I don’t judge them safe then it is as per the cubs. Only one scout has had a sheath knife and that was my sone, I bought it when he moved to Scouts. Most of them get a penknife and just use that all the way through.
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