Do Your Knives Scare People?

[Bolster]

X: I don't think there's any real middle ground between 'that guy has a dangerous-looking knife' and 'that guy doesn't have a knife.'

B: There is a middle ground between "no knife visible" and the "where did that open knife come from?"

X: "Meh. I don't buy into conspiracy theories, generally..."

B: We weren't talking about conspiracy theories. We were talking about one of the best persuasion technologies known to exist: sitcoms. There's nothing secret about sitcoms, or the agendas of those who author those designed to persuade. And you are correct that a knife playing a positive role in a sitcom would help.

X: Which people are those? Most people have their minds made up about knives, or (the sheeple) have their minds made up for them.

B: On issues that are not particularly involving to them, most people have a malleable attitude. Sure, there are nut cases that have extreme opinions on most every topic. Most people I meet, however, don't have a particularly strong opinion of knives unless a knife is whipped out and brandished. Occasionally you find someone who hates knives as vicious weapons, and some who like them and want one "just like yours;" and you find a lot of people that aren't strongly aligned with either side. Those are the ones I'm concerned about, and the people I'm most likely to give a knife to.

X: There's not much point turning this into a political debate, so I won't respond to your latter statement except to say that I disagree, and to refer you to my thoughts on conspiracy above.

B: Politics is integral to the knife debate, the knife-banners are most certainly politicized, politics is not a conspiracy...but I also respect your preference not to talk about the politics of knives.

X: I'm with myself.

B: A good point of differentiation. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, "We must hang together or assuredly we will hang separately." (kniferights.org!)

[sublime422]

The only knives that I ever got a real sheeple reaction for using in a small group 4 people other then my self all the same age were the Dodo and the one that I thought one of my friends almost messed himself over was the Karambit. I was only cutting a sub in half with the Dodo and then had to show the Karambit when they saw half it sticking out of my pocket when it is clipped.
Louie

[Vincent]

In the post office today, I was mailing a package, when the lady 2 people in front of me was up. She bought a ReadyPost box and tape, but she was taping it up really fast. I went up to her offering to help her cut the tape and she was so scarred she just starred at me and backed away. I then just went back online, she ended up getting a piece of tape caught in here throat and she said she had to now go to the ENT doctor or Emergency room. Her coughing was pretty crazy. I have had the same thing happen to be. its no pleasure, especially if it goes near a lung.

A knife would have saved her time and a doctors visit, but the general fear of them, won this one.


The best was when I worked at the Circuit city and I was opening a new Acer desktop for a customer. We had a tech bench and the customers would come and watch me do my work for a Friday night movie. It so happened I was carrying my Military, when I pulled that big thing out to open a box, you should have seen the faces on this Mexican Family. They later asked for another Technician to work on there computer, I guess they weren't fond of my ways. This has happened quite a few times. Not even surprising anymore.

[Axlis]

I don't care what the sheeple think.

If my EDC is within the law, I use it where and whenever I please.

I hate it when people ask me why I carry a knife, that is the STUPIDEST question in the entire world. Everyone knows we carry knives to stab people, why bother asking? :rolleyes:

I wonder when pocket knives become so uncommon. :confused:

[Xplo]

We weren't talking about conspiracy theories. We were talking about one of the best persuasion technologies known to exist: sitcoms. There's nothing secret about sitcoms, or the agendas of those who author those designed to persuade.

In order for sitcoms to universally support an anti-knife agenda, as you suggested, it's necessary for a group to exist outside of corporate or artistic boundaries that has the power to control the media to further that agenda. There's your conspiracy. The particular debate I don't want to get into - apart from whether this conspiracy exists, and I have given you my thoughts on that - is whether or not the media is really controlled by liberals (those being both accused of media control and biasing, and of wanting to disarm the populous)]Most people I meet, however, don't have a particularly strong opinion of knives unless a knife is whipped out and brandished.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, since what you want to be able to do is whip out a knife and brandish it - or at least, use it as a tool in plain public view, which is effectively the same thing - it's those strong opinions you'll ultimately be butting your head against.

You can probably get anyone to agree that a pocketknife is useful and it's a good idea to carry one around, but that won't stop them from freaking when you actually pull one out, and it won't raise popular support for pro-knife laws, or make them lift a finger to stop legislators who try to lock them down harder to "stop crime", because when it gets to that point, they won't care again.

Those are the ones I'm concerned about, and the people I'm most likely to give a knife to.

Give 'em to the legislators who are still neutral on knife laws. Maybe they'll learn to appreciate them if they use one for a while. It's amazing how many bad laws get passed simply because the people making them didn't understand the issues very well.

Or, y'know, give them to someone you're sure will appreciate and use them, but I don't imagine those people will have as much in the way of political influence.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin, "We must hang together or assuredly we will hang separately."

True, but he was talking about altogether weightier issues, like armed insurrection against England, and building a stable nation in the ensuing chaos.

I've noticed that people who would not necessarily support my political causes still expect me to support theirs; for that reason, and because no organization exists that holds exactly the same beliefs I do, I prefer to remain unaffiliated, and lend my support to others when they support my politics, and withdraw it when they do not. That way, I do my insignificant part to mold America as I see fit, and ultimately, is that not the essence of democracy?

(Wow, I sound really pompous now.. heh.)

[DRod]

An older coworker told me my D'Allara made his a bit nervous and was a bit scary looking.. My old lead man was visibly nervous by it and my E4. I don't work with them anymore and am in more or less better knife company. Though I use the shorter Para now and keep the E4 SE in back pocket for dirtier jobs, IE hydraulic hoses and such. I cut a sub in the cafe the other night with my para and everyone was pretty much oblivious to it. One guy at the table asked, "**** thats pretty sharp, why don't you use a plastic knife?" I said, "I forgot it and don't want to walk all the way over there when I have this in my pocket." He said, "Oh, that makes sense." He said he liked it but was put off when I told him how much it was. :o He just doesn't know... He carries a knock off kershaw chive looking knife.. Not quite NKP but almost.

[SonnyD]

I don't care what the sheeple think.

If my EDC is within the law, I use it where and whenever I please.

I hate it when people ask me why I carry a knife, that is the STUPIDEST question in the entire world. Everyone knows we carry knives to stab people, why bother asking? :rolleyes:

I wonder when pocket knives become so uncommon. :confused:

Man, I agree. I'm just so tired of people getting into stuff that really isn't any of their bussiness. "why do you feel the need to carry that knife"?........."why do you feel the need to ask"? I guess I could do the same thing back to them.........when they pull out a cell phone,.........I could get a scared look on my face, since we all know that terrorist have used cell phone
to ignite bombs........."why do you need that cell phone"?.......you aren't setting of a bomb are you.
Like a Knife, a cell phone is just a tool, Sheeple are going to read into a Knife or any other fear they have, not from what WE do, but what they see and hear repeatedly on the news.
Regards Sonny

[Bolster]

Xplo, I think this conversation between you and me is no longer productive. We were having an intereting discussion, but now you seem to be more interested in scoring "straw-man" points against positions I don't hold. I don't even recognize a number of the statements and positions you say are mine, as mine. In fact, some of my positions are the opposite of what you impute. Let me state my own positions, thank you.

I'll sign off by saying that parts of our conversation were very enlightening, and I look forward to discussing other issues with you in the future. Now back to the thread...

[Kaizen]

Outside of work, I don't care what people think. I do make sure that I'm behaving responsibly in general. I don't pull out my knife randomly and start punching and kicking the air. Aside from that, I'll pull my knife out whenever I would normally do so as long as it's legal.

[Slick]

This thread is depressing to me.

For my final two cents I'll add I try to not use real knives at work as they are officially not allowed. If a task is safely do-able with a box cutter I use the box cutter. When a knife is required it will quietly get the call. The go-slow-low-impact deployment is good but when I am in a big big hurry I really can't spare any time. Anyone who knows me at work is mostly cool with my using knives.

Outside of work I try to be gentle with the NKP. No need to freak them out to save a second deploying. If they can't deal with my legal carry and use it is their problem but a 'flashy' deployment is uncalled for although it is natural for me.

A big exception is at a store when I'm trying to make change from a 'loaded' pocket. I never ever want to see the look of fear in the eyes of a casheir as I try to remove change from around my Lil'Temp. Not easy to do since that knife is big and HIGH profile to boot. The Lil'Temp is the safest knife I own but it scares everybody. Go figure.

We live in the world we live in. Not in the world we would wish. I try to accomadate the community I live in as my friends and co-workers accomadate me.

[Spyderwings]

I have gotten many nasty glares about my para when i spyder drop it. I dont really care though. I just continue what im doing and put it right back in my pocket. The worst though is when i carry my ao leek. Wow that gets sheeples attention.

[Jordan]

This could be just because of my geographic location, but it is a rare thing that my pocket knife frightens somebody. I only take it out when I am clearly going to use it for some cutting chore (in public anyway... I am prone to playing with whichever pocket knife I am currently holding in idle moments) and for the most part people seem to understand that I do not intend to start a massacre with my Police. People have been put off every now and again, to be sure. But they generally just ask me if my pocket knife is legal (most nkp in Texas honestly believe that state law limits the legal carry size of a knife to the length of one's palm), and after being assured that it is... they move along. The particular fashion by which I open the knife or remove it from my pocket has yet to be relevant. I can only conclude that most of you are substantially more frightening than I am when you flick open your spydercos, or that you keep the company of extraordinarily nervous individuals. :p

[D-Roc]

Next time, bring a Civilian to cut off the foil. That way every knife you use after that will seem small by comparison :cool:

This is what I would do...

[firespec35]

I work with EMT's and firefighters and still get **** for my knives. I give up explaining. I wanna use it I use it. The unfortunate part is there are a lot of misconceptions about knife laws in MI. I've had to quote chapter and verse to a retired LEO who was working as a Security Officer at a local hospital that told me my CRKT mo' skeeter was illegal

[rolyat1978]

I had a similar experience. I was at a party, where people were eating grilled sandwiches. I was the assigned griller. One of the women wanted her sandwich cut, so I pulled out my Caly3 and opened it, and which point she gasped, said "OMG!" and pretended to swoon with fear. I said, "Does this seem like a big knife to you?" "OMG!" she said. And I pointed out that we had been using a 12" serrated Henckels bread knife earlier, to cut the bread. "I'm very curious what makes people perceive a knife to be big or dangerous," I said, and she did not answer, just changed the subject.

Maybe she was just concerned about the cleanliness of the knife...

[clovisc]

no problems here in the appalachian mountains...

i see many, many people carrying knives in pouches on their belts.

the last two times i used a knife in front of a crowd were at educational events for school children. the first time, this old man asked to see my william henry, and looked at it, and sorta snickered and was like "yea, well i have a CASE knife." the second time, this politician stared at my volpe a long time, touched at the edge respectfully, and said "that is a SHARP knife, son!!!"

i've also used knives at meetings with government agencies (sharpening a pencil)... no one really minds. :D

[vampyrewolf]

all depends on where you are... both location and crowd.

At work I've had a few "complaints" about my "weapons" :rolleyes: but when they fail to tell me what crime I've committed (as thats the only way you can call a tool a weapon), they leave it alone. I've just gone to carrying either my frn/se endura or ce millie and a smaller hoplophobe one(lava, polywog, ss 'fly, kiwi). If they see me cut my food at work it's either the smaller one or the main blade on my vnox.

Last time someone asked why I was using such a large knife to cut my food I told her "this is the small one" and she went away.

I've got a few quotes regarding being armed and equipped, but many of them aren't family friendly enough for this place.

"If you believe that my having a knife in my possession makes me a dangerous killer, folks should start looking at you when all you think about is killing" and then give them a worried look as you BACK AWAY SLOWLY.

****, I was out camping this last week, public campsite. Conservation Officers and RCMP making semi-normal passes through the park. Wore a vest all week, open, with my millie on my neck. Never got hassled at all about it. But then again, the few times I was at my site when they came by I either had the 8lbs splitting maul or shortsword going on wood

[Jordan]

As I peruse this thread over again at this late hour... a thought occurs to me. Yes, we might occasionally get bothered about our pocketknives. Yes, nkp can be irritating in their irrationality. But, for every time they get to give us nonsense about having a knife, we get to see them gnaw at a plastic bag or vessel of some kind like a trapped wolf chomping off its leg. In my book, it's a wash.

[Cscoop]

The more I am around sheeple the more I like dogs.

[dalefuller]

The more I am around sheeple the more I like dogs.

Amen!

I remember every one of the 16 dogs I've lived with, but very few of the people I've known (and the few I do remember are the ones that liked my dogs).