Who are you and what do you use your knife for?

[addyb]

I just figured I'd add this little addendum to this thread:

I use my SAK every day, without fail. (I prefer the Driver model as an EDC). But occasionally I think to myself "I won't take it with me today, I won't need it." and then Murphy's Law comes into effect and I find that I desperately need the knife. My lesson from this is to take a pocketknife with me whenever and wherever I ago. I figure that if I'm putting on a pair of pants, I should probably take my SAK with me.

I also admit that I baby the little guy. At the end of every day I clean the blades and tools off if they are particularly dirty, and then I strop the knife on a piece of leather loaded with some buffing compound courtesy of Old Jimbo. (And again, thanks a million!) This way the knife stays razor sharp and cuts everything that I ask it to.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here with this post is that I think a lot of people my age have forgotten about the usefulness of a knife in everyday situations. I'm always aghast when I see friends showing off their knives that are duller than a butter knife because no-one took the time to teach them proper blade safety and sharpening skills. (Why on earth do people my age seem to think that sharpening a knife is something mystical that requires an out-of-this-world skill?)

And in the end, it's a pity. It's almost as if we're taking a step backwards as a society. If a three inch blade is seen as a deadly weapon and confiscated, I don't know, but I think we've lost something sacred.

Adam

 

[Deleted member 4605]

As far as my job is concerned I have absolutely no justification for carrying any sort of knife around, but as a card-carrying geek I always have my Gerber multitool with as I'm often asked to look at odd hardware problems for people.

As a Scout leader I always carry my SAK, in fact it now lives permanently in Scout shirt pocket.

At home and out in the field my Frosts Mora is always at hand.

Out of all my tools, a knife is by far my favourite tool and is always used - possibly because I always have one to hand!

However part of my 'relaxed' attitude towards knives is directly influenced by where I live - on recent trips to Bradford and London I had to make a conscious effort not to pack my SAK or Multitool as I didn't want the hassle of trying to justify them.

 

[Chele]

A knife is one of mans first tools..and quite usefull id say..i make them ,but i use them as we all do each day..i find the further i get on the road the bigger i want my knife to be as i have many uses for it..from chopping wood to picking a splinter out of my fingers...

one must remember like most things..a knife a tool ...its what one does with something thats good or bad...such as i can take this pencil and write a love letter or stick it in your ear..its never about the object but the person.

 

[hardyferret]

Iam a fitter, on industrial machines, and always have some knife on me either a kershaw lock blade or my issued army clasp knife.
I know poss the kershaw will be viewed as illegal by police but and a big but to me I have done nothing wrong with it and it is not on display.
I feel once again it is the old story ban/restrict is easier than tackle the root of the problem.
Sad country we live in,hopefully one day things will improve.......

Regards to you all

Hardyferret

 

[mrostov]

In American society nowadays most people have a jackknife, folding lockblade, Swiss Army Knife, or multitool on them, in their pocket, in a pouch on their belt, or in their briefcase/purse, etc. It's surprising nowadays just how many women are packing a Swiss Army Knife in their purse.

When I was a kid in the 70's, virtually everyone in rural America had a Buck 110 or Buck 112 on their belt. one of my first knives as a kid a was a Buck 112. Nowadays there's a huge selection of decent and semi-decent folding knives, including attractively priced el-cheapo folders from China, so the Buck 110 isn't the all-present uber-knife that it used to be, but it's still a very popular blade, especially with hunters. In 2005 they made the 16 millionth Buck 110 to be manufactured.

I've found that when not out in the bush, it draws a lot fewer stares not to carry a sheath knife, even when it's legal to do so - even a small one.

So I always have multi-tool on me which I use a lot, and I usually carry a 3-3/4" folding lockblade which I also use on a regular basis. No one blinks an eyelash at me carrying two folding knife pouches, and it's a common sight here for a man to have a knife pouch on their belt, both in town, in the larger city, and in the country.

In a rural and semi-rural environment you really kind of want to have a dedicated knife for a lot of cutting jobs. This saves wear and tear upon the Leatherman, and the larger blade is also a lot tougher.

The knife laws here vary from state to state. Arizona has virtually no laws against knives. You can walk down the street with a katana if that's what you want to do (but some cop might stop you and ask a couple of questions just to be sure you're not a nut).

In Texas, they still have an anti-Bowie knife law on the books from the late 19th Century that was implemented because too many people back then were slicing each other up in fights. Shooting someone was one thing, but knife fights with bowie knives tended to be rather ghastly in the opinion of 19th Century society. So, unless you are on your prvate property or on public land engaged in an outdoor activity, you cannot walk around Texas with a knife blade longer than 5-1/2".

The interesting thing is that hatchets tend to fall outside the scope of most knife laws in this country (the same as flamethrowers curiously tend to fall outside the realm of most gun laws).

 

[Draven]

I'm a college student, so I can't carry a knife to work, but whenever I'm working (on pretty much anything really) outside college, I'll carry a folder, and sometimes my Clipper. And I use them for pretty much anything as well... eating, cutting string or rope, stripping wires, opening letters.

Even a single-bladed knife is more of a multitool than most people seem to realise

 

[Bjorn Victor]

I work in the Tropical Institute in Belgium.

I carry a Fallkniven U2 or a SAK in my pockets.
I have a Leatherman Blast in my backpack.

U2 or SAK get daily use. Leatherman is there in case I need the special things (pliers, ...)

Bjorn

 

[Selous]

I work in an office.

I own a number of pocket knives. My knives are all razor sharp. I take the view that a blunt knife is much more dangerous than a sharp one. I always carry a knife in my pocket, at work and ... wherever.

I don't do anything heroic with it. I have never saved anyone's life with it, nor do I anticipate doing so. I have never been involved in a "survival situation", nor do I realistically think I ever will be.

I use it every day. I wouldn't be without it. I use it to sharpen pencils, cut string, peel and core fruit, cut paper, whittle wood, open parcels, clean under my fingernails, take splinters out.... my family always know that dad will have a penknife if they need one.

When I was a lad every boy had a penknife. Nowardays, I'm made to feel like a psychopath for carrying one. Women in particular positively shy away from me if I take a knife out of my pocket, even though I'm doing something totally inocuous like opening an envelope.

I've no doubt at all that in very short order it will be illegal to carry a knife at all. It has never ever occurred to me that my penknife could be used as a weapon. On reflection, it couldn't really: a folding blade knife would be very dangerous to the user if it were used to stab someone. Anyway, I'd rather run away.

And when they've made knives illegal, they'll have to ban something else. Because banning something is easy, even if making positive laws isn't. Scissors? Saws? Axes? Chisels? All very dangerous in the wrong hands. Ho hum.

 

[Robby]

I'm an office worker and sometimes have my SAK on my belt. It generally lives in my car though, it gets used for anything and everything.
My Dad always had some sort of knife close to hand and saw it as being the most important tool you could ever have to hand. It's that definition of tool or weapon that is at issue.
With regards to it being classed as carrying an offensive weapon, They better start banning Biro's because that's what seems to be the weapon of choice for Shell suit clad hooligans in and around Glasgow.

 

[Hawk Hawkins]

I always have a Case XX mini trapper in my left pocket. I use it for about everything from opening boxes to doing the occasional carving. sometimes in my right pocket I have a traditional leatherman tool. It goes with me when im outdoors. Ive also used it for various repairs around the restaraunt I manage.
Hawk

 

[sam_acw]

I'm a school teacher so I don't carry anything on a daily basis. If I'm out and about I'll have my SAK Electrician Plus and probably either my nessmuk or Bark River PSK.

 

[buckley]

I'm an office worker and sometimes have my SAK on my belt. It generally lives in my car though, it gets used for anything and everything.
My Dad always had some sort of knife close to hand and saw it as being the most important tool you could ever have to hand. It's that definition of tool or weapon that is at issue.
With regards to it being classed as carrying an offensive weapon, They better start banning Biro's because that's what seems to be the weapon of choice for Shell suit clad hooligans in and around Glasgow.

Indeed, a chav tried to stab me with a fountain pen the other day! The little bugger.

 

[Klenchblaize]

They better start banning Biro's because that's what seems to be the weapon of choice for Shell suit clad hooligans in and around Glasgow.

On the basis that a Bush person, all be they given of some considerable skill, can fully butcher an antelope with no more than a stick, let’s add trees to the list! No problem with a folding and non-locking three inches of blackthorn though!

Cheers

 

[Spacemonkey]

I'm an embalmer so I always have a selection of scalpels etc in my bag, but I also carry a SAK in my daysack that carries all my work kit, along with first aid kit and all sorts of other 'just in case' stuff. Doing this, I have always managed to be prepared for most things that daily life throws at me without relying on other people to come out and help. I even spent 6 years living in london like this with no problems. My biggest problem, is that as I am a travelling embalmer, I spend all day driving between my clients which are at least an hour apart form each other, so I have to carry spare equipment in the car so that I can finish the job in hand even with equipment failure. Some of these 'spares' look quite horrific, but they stay in the car as it is way too much hassle to keep removing them. I imagine one day trying to explain to a dimwitted copper just what a 'trocar' is for....

Yet again, a few yobs in the inner city scumbag areas use knives as weapons and the 99% of the rest of the population have to suffer the consequences in their everyday lives.