Actual users

[Sumdumguy]

When we moved to Idaho, my wife (she's a doctor) had the nurses at the hospital trying to show off their carry pistols to her.

Tom, do nurses shoot unruly patients in the US? :eek:

No, but they'll cut you if you eyeball em' wrong.

Well my wife will. :p

[A.S.]

Techno and Spydiechef.

[TomAiello]

When we moved to Idaho, my wife (she's a doctor) had the nurses at the hospital trying to show off their carry pistols to her.

Tom, do nurses shoot unruly patients in the US? :eek:

Only with hypodermic needles. :)

[Hopsbreath]

I’ve worked in Tennessee and Oregon so very close to Georgia and Idaho respectively. Just seems to be the tone of people I’ve encountered, especially Spydercos, they’re scared of what they don’t understand. Other than that ER doc I mentioned, I can’t recall ever seeing another knife at work; lots of trauma scissors though.

@Hops

It’s so interesting to me that in a profession where people are almost fascinated by blood and guts, not to mention surrounded by tools to disassemble the human body, that there is such an aversion to edged tools. I can assure you that your experience isn’t an isolated one, i’ve heard many in healthcare relate similar stories.

Where are you guys located?

When we moved to Idaho, my wife (she's a doctor) had the nurses at the hospital trying to show off their carry pistols to her. She said the difference between Georgia (where she's from) and Idaho (where we are now) was "in the South, every boy has a gun...in Idaho, _everyone_ has a gun."

I don't think I've ever heard a story from her about anyone in healthcare here being averse to edged tools.

[Hopsbreath]

@Hops

It’s so interesting to me that in a profession where people are almost fascinated by blood and guts, not to mention surrounded by tools to disassemble the human body, that there is such an aversion to edged tools. I can assure you that your experience isn’t an isolated one, i’ve heard many in healthcare relate similar stories. And there always seems to be so many things to cut, packages to open, etc!

Having seen my fair share of stab wounds, I actually kind of “get” the squeamish reactions to knives. Experiencing people in shock with their body forever disfigured in a brief moment makes for some of the most searing memories of my career. It’s typically kitchen knives though that do the damage, not folders. I’ll share one very graphic story...girl showed up to the ER, driven by her friends, very pretty and in her early 20’s, had HUGE lacerations to the bone on both thighs, her abdomen, hands, arms, but somehow had avoided taking one to the face. Just looked like hunks of meat hanging where there were multiple wounds close together, and yes, her bones were easily visible. We patched her up quickly, placed her on a ventilator, and sent her to the OR for extensive reconstruction of complete muscle lacerations. Apparently she had got into it with a girl at a club who was a cook and had just had her chef’s knife professionally sharpened that she was carrying in her purse, over a guy. Can you imagine? A 9” razor sharp Victorinox swinging at you because some jealous chick. As they say, nothing good happens after 2am. I was fairly uncomfortable even pulling out my Ladybug around the nurses I was working with that night.

At the patient care level, i.e. bedside healing, there’s actually very few edged tools. You’ll see the occasional scalpel with central line placement and the like, but usually it’s a single cut made an inch or less in length before the scalpel is immediately discarded. Even the ER doesn’t have much flesh cutting; all I can come up with on the top of my head, aside from line placement, would be abscess drainage, and that’s usually a hole gouged out with blunt objects like fingers after the initial cut. I’ve always thought that could be done more efficiently with edged instruments, but it’s just not common practice. Move into the operating room and that’s a different matter, but frequently the patients are sedated and everyone is covered in a sterilize gown. No personal items are accessible in the OR.

Knive culture is a funny thing, it’s nowhere near mainstream. “Polite” society has very little need for high quality edged tools in our pockets. Once you get one in hand and use it though they become fairly indispensable. Still, good luck convincing a NKP a Ladybug is “worth” the cost when compared to a $10 pair of scissors.

[tvenuto]

Ha yea. “I don’t like knives.” [Folds open scissors and holds them grasping one edge]

Interesting story on how the experiences in the fragility of humans can affect you. Thanks for relating that.

[ross8425]

Easy.

PM2
SAK cadet
CRK sebenza 21

[Pelagic]

As an update post, after a few days of using my new cruwear pm2, this knife is permanently in my rotation. Toughness and corrosion resistance are very important to me and I'm finally beginning to understand why so many of you are cruwear nuts :D

So it's now:

s110v Military
204p Military
CruWear Paramilitary 2

One day in a perfect world:
DLC Maxamet Military or Shaman
CruWear CQI Military or Shaman (fine with either in titanium as well).

[TomAiello]

I’ve worked in Tennessee and Oregon so very close to Georgia and Idaho respectively. Just seems to be the tone of people I’ve encountered, especially Spydercos, they’re scared of what they don’t understand. Other than that ER doc I mentioned, I can’t recall ever seeing another knife at work; lots of trauma scissors though.

Which part of Oregon?

Oregon has two very different cultures. There's southern/eastern Oregon, which is very much "mountain west" and then there's Portland.

FWIW, my wife carries her Ladybug everywhere, which includes work in hospitals.

[Hopsbreath]

Ha! You already know it, Portland. Once passed a kid and his dad out on a trail, they appeared to be from Portland and had .22’s for squirrel hunting. The kid apologized to me for carrying a gun and I just laughed, “this is an open carry state, no need to apologize!” The dad looked grateful as I’m sure he had a **** of a time convincing his son it was okay.

I’ve worked in Tennessee and Oregon so very close to Georgia and Idaho respectively. Just seems to be the tone of people I’ve encountered, especially Spydercos, they’re scared of what they don’t understand. Other than that ER doc I mentioned, I can’t recall ever seeing another knife at work; lots of trauma scissors though.

Which part of Oregon?

Oregon has two very different cultures. There's southern/eastern Oregon, which is very much "mountain west" and then there's Portland.

FWIW, my wife carries her Ladybug everywhere, which includes work in hospitals.

[vivi]

....
If I paired down my collection to the essentials, it'd be:

Pacific Salt SE (EDC)
Pacific Salt PE (PE EDC)
Swick (FB EDC)
Aqua Salt (Camping/hiking FB)

I'd only carry one at a time.

Everything else is fluff for me.

H1 is great stuff.
I carry a 'salt' knife pretty much every day. My only ask would be a few more FRN colors besides yellow and black.

It's either a Pacific Salt or Large Voyager for me these days. I love simple FRN lockbacks in quick to sharpen steels. Both are easy to get hair popping sharp on my UF bench stone I keep on my dresser.

[DVC]

Military+PM2 CTS-204P

[Don W]

Manix 2 x30V and a tasman salt