Spyderco Forums

I'm a long-time knife user, but more recently dedicated to Spyderco, mostly smaller varieties (Dragonfly, Robin, Cricket, ..). However, I recently bought a Walmart Native FRN, my largest yet, and pulled it out one night at a wine tasting to cut foil off a new bottle. The reaction from people of both sexes (but mostly women) around me was "holy ****", gasping at the size of it (the knife). By the reaction, you would have thought I had pulled out an AK-47. I admit is was a bit of overkill for such a small task, but it was all I had.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? EDC two or more sizes? Don't pull out the big one in mixed company? I'm a little gun-shy about using the Native publicly now.

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

ahearn wrote:Is there a lesson to be learned here? EDC two or more sizes? Don't pull out the big one in mixed company? I'm a little gun-shy about using the Native publicly now.

Or go the opposite route, buy a Military, pull it out first, and when you detect a hint of feces in the air, assume a sheepish look, put it away and take our your Native, which will now look quite small to them.

Dang, guess my age and slow typing are showing. :o

Get a pink delica. If anyone acts scared about that just tell them its pink. :cool:

Even the UKPK is really a little too large and intimidating for EDC in the UK.
The new Urban model should address this problem-when's it going to happen?

The lesson to be learned is that some people look for reasons to be afraid. Nothing you do will likely change that.

I got a comment the other day from a fellow I thought should know better when I pulled out my E4 to slice an apple (I don't care much for using a blade shorter than the apple's diameter). Yet the knife he used for his steak that evening was larger than an Endura....

Knives don't scare people..


People scare people.

Honestly, I quit caring if they scare people. Most of the Spyder's I've EDC'd through the years always had larger blades, i.e. Military, Starmate and several varieties of Endura. Fortunately, here in Louisiana there are no laws governing folder length that I'm aware of, at least not on the state level or locally in the part of the state I live in. I'm a paramedic, so a 4" bladed folder does not draw much attention, esp. since most of the company I keep are other paramedics, EMTs, firefighters and LEO's. Also, during hunting season it is not all that uncommon to see others sporting fixed blade knifes in belt sheaths out in public in plain view and they never even draw a second glance. Guess it helps to live where hunting and the outdoors are a predominate pastime as well as a way of living for some (e.g. guiding, trapping, etc.) I couldn't imagine having to live in some of the places that others do with restrictive knife laws. :rolleyes:

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.

But this makes me very curious about what it is, exactly, that makes people sense "inappropriate" or "dangerous." The 12" serrated fixed-blade Henckels on the table was a much more formidible weapon than my sub-3" Caly3. I could have walked over, gotten the serrated "OJ-Simpson Special" bread knife, and I probably wouldn't have heard a peep from her. So I wonder if it's *carrying* the knife that unhinges sheeple.

Honestly, if I were in a SD situation, I'd take my Yang kitchen knife over my Caly3 any day. But the Yang is a yawner. It's just a "tool."

I look at it like, if people are afraid of my knives, then they are probably pretty scared of life in general, and how sad for them. I've never understood peoples fear of inanimant objects. The same people who may be afraid of a knife, might be the same person driving down the freeway, or across a parking lot, talking on their cell phone, putting on makeup and being oblivious to all the other people around them. That's what's scares me.
These fears of inanimant objects are being instilled in them in public schools, newscasts, newspapers, and everywhere else you look.
I feel sorry for those that are so afraid of tools that they cowar, or have panic attacks if they should happen to see something that they perceive as dangerous.
It's just as you said, nobody was alarmed of a 12" bread knife, but were afraid of a 3" blade folding knife. They are just receiving negative stimuli, from all the wrong sources, and are living in fear.
I've never had a negative or frightfull look from anyone, at least that I know of, with any kinfe I've ever carried, and I normaly carry close to a 4" bladed knife.
Your comment to the person about the 12" serrated knife just proves my point, and her changing the subject without replying, shows you that she was probably embarrassed about the way she reacted, and hopefully gave it some thought later about her paranoia of tools.
Regards Sonny

Seems to me that some people are so afraid of anything that a sharp pencil would scare them. Fortunately, if you are around those people enough, the time will come when you big scary knife will be needed and appreciated. I tend to find humor in some people's reaction to my small knives, until i realize how sissified our society has become.

I tend to think people are more scared of me then they are of my knives.... Must be cause I'm much sharper.... :p Doc :D

The only thing big I can pull out of my pants is my knife. I like the reaction I get at work when I bring out my Manix or waved Endura.

They're not scared of the knife.

They're scared because we're whipping these things out. One second you are a normal person, next second your hand is a weapon of death. The snap and the pop scares them.

I've whipped out my waved endura in front of people several times. Most people have no clue what just happened. They don't even realize I pulled it out. If I ever show it to them then they say it's scary.

At work today I was not carrying my usual retractable box cutter. I did have a Caly 3 so it got the call for cardboard duty. The Temps who saw it used grinned like heck. It wasn't the knife as much as the appearance of it magically appearing then vanishing quickly after use. The hole is to blame. Just so ergonomicly correct.

Same goes for the lame managers who freak following the letter of the company policy. Where I work most people are reasonable but there are a few who aren't.

skcusloa wrote:They're scared because we're whipping these things out. One second you are a normal person, next second your hand is a weapon of death. The snap and the pop scares them.

Several interesting possibilities here if you break it down:

1) Frightened that I have a knife on my person.
2) Frightened that they did not know I had a knife on my person.
3) Sudden appearance of knife.
4) My non-chalant "skill" at deploying it, or casual over-familiarity with it.
5) The "snick" sound of the blade locking.

Next time I'm around sheeple and I need to use my knife, and if I happen to give a care about their reaction at the time, I think I'll try this:

1) Take the knife out of my pocket and turn it over slowly in my hand, keeping it closed. Perhaps lay it on the table for a moment, ignore it like it's uninteresting and commonplace. Let people see it, get used to it. Continue talking.

2) Pick it up and open it as if it were a slipjoint, no use of spyder hole, no fast opening. In fact, very slow opening, as if it's difficult to open. Will "thumb" the release so it doesn't snap or click loudly as it locks up. Keep the tip "hidden" between thumb and forefinger for a moment (a little dangerous but I think I can do it).

3) When open, keep the knife low and use very small motions to cut.

4) Slowly close and repocket. Make no mention of knives and act like the whole thing is boring as ****. In other words, suppress my natural inclination to start a conversation about nifty cutlery.

OK, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Start the mockery if you will, start shooting blanks into the air about how rotten our society is, write a manifesto, accuse me of being a coward, whatever you want. (You know who you are!) This seems like a reasonable way to use a knife in public to me, although I am open to arguments from reasonable non-ranters if I can improve this sequence in some way. Call me "sensitive," but I do not want to startle people unless that's my intent.

Bolstermanic wrote:Several interesting possibilities here if you break it down:

1) Frightened that I have a knife on my person.
2) Frightened that they did not know I had a knife on my person.
3) Sudden appearance of knife.
4) My non-chalant "skill" at deploying it, or casual over-familiarity with it.
5) The "snick" sound of the blade locking.

Next time I'm around sheeple and I need to use my knife, and if I happen to give a care about their reaction at the time, I think I'll try this:

1) Take the knife out of my pocket and turn it over slowly in my hand, keeping it closed. Perhaps lay it on the table for a moment, ignore it like it's uninteresting and commonplace. Let people see it, get used to it. Continue talking.

2) Pick it up and open it as if it were a slipjoint, no use of spyder hole, no fast opening. In fact, very slow opening, as if it's difficult to open. Will "thumb" the release so it doesn't snap or click loudly as it locks up. Keep the tip "hidden" between thumb and forefinger for a moment (a little dangerous but I think I can do it).

3) When open, keep the knife low and use very small motions to cut.

4) Slowly close and repocket. Make no mention of knives and act like the whole thing is boring as ****. In other words, suppress my natural inclination to start a conversation about nifty cutlery.

OK, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Start the mockery if you will, start shooting blanks into the air about how rotten our society is, write a manifesto, accuse me of being a coward, whatever you want. (You know who you are!) This seems like a reasonable way to use a knife in public to me, although I am open to arguments from reasonable non-ranters if I can improve this sequence in some way. Call me "sensitive," but I do not want to startle people unless that's my intent.

You might want to lay a white hanky over the entire knife while cutting this way no one will even be aware that you have a knife or on second thought don't even use your knife in public...try using your teeth :p Doc :D

Depends on which knife. The people I work with are fairly accustomed to me now, so the fact that I have a knife doesn't bother them, but some of the knives I carry tend to frighten people.

The ATR tends to freak people out just because of it's size. Ironically, if I carry a Bali, noone freaks out, they're too busy trying to figure out how I opened it to be scared.

I think, as previously mentioned, the bigger issue is the fact that we're carrying the knives with us. Kitchen knives are not considered a big deal, because they're kept in the kitchen. If you pulled a 12 inch chef's knife out of your pants to open a box at work, I'm sure you'd get at least as big a sheeple reaction as with an Endura.

It gives me the S@#ts that we can't openly use our tools to avoid getting split nails, broken fingers etc when we have these said tools in our pockets/ strpped to our waist/ hidden in our socks/ stuffed down our jocks/ taped in a pretend scar on our neck :rolleyes: etc...

OK, sure, so you can go to the kitchen to get a paring knife to cut an apple up, or to the study to get a pair of scissors/ box cutter to cut up that cereal box for recycling. But hey...'pooof !' magically a blade was in your pocket..... **** should I use it? If no one is watching are you allowed to use it? We're not even allowed to carry a ubiquitous SAK in my country, yet many people consider Australians to be quite 'handy' fix-it-up types...or Crocodile Dundee...or even Crocodile Hunter !! :eek:

Crazy political correctness gone wrong (brainwashing I think i used to be called...or even propoganda...OUCH!). As mentiopned previously, I don't think it is the size of the blade that scares people. Maybe the shape (bread knives are glorified serrated sheepsfoot) has a scare factor. But the fact that someone would carry a dangerous 'weapon' HAHAHHA :confused: in their pants so close to their nether regions may be the defining moment of the "OMFG WTF is that and why have you got one!"

I've even managed to scare my receptionist and my parents with a Ladybug :confused: :eek: You should've seen my Dad's face when I flicked open my Chinook (for self defense Dad ! ...not for opening boxes or sandwiches)