Do Your Knives Scare People?

[bluemist]

My SS ATR SE was called "that evil knife". I took it as a compliment.

[Agent Starling]

I don't want to go there, so I won't pull out a knife besides my tiny keychain SAK around NKP...I just assume straightaway that everyone is an NKP unless proven otherwise...I think even my regular-sized SAK would be fine around NKP, for some reason SAK's have a level of acceptability by most everyone.

Starling :D

[Denix]

I usually don't have too much trouble with my knives. Surprising thing considering that I work in a white-collar environment in Canada. The one thing I regularily do when I need to use my folder is to slowly open it with both hands. I usually carry either a Sebenza or a stainless Caly Jr. Both knives are good to look at, and that usually wins out.

However, if I'm in a crowded setting, I usually use the Swisschamp, which never draws any concerns.

Once, someone did comment about the large Caly. I opened up the Swisschamp main blade and showed it alongside the Caly. The guy was surpised to see that the blades are about the same length :)

[dialex]

My Spydies don't scare anyone here... but this is understandable, considering all my friends and acquaintances know about me and... well, knives :rolleyes: However, when I first took out a LLC... oh, all those wide eyes! And when I took out the second one (hey, it was that I just received them and I couldn't help carying a nice pair) :o ... well, let's just say their eyes got whiter (well it could also be due to the kinetic opening on the leg...) :eek: Obviously, the leg opening part was a joke
But as I said, spydies are in order. :) Besides, I like to think pocket knives are still part of our culture here and nobody gives too much attention - not in a negative way, I mean. :)

[GarageBoy]

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.

IIRC, you're technically not supposed to walk into a PO with a knife

The only negative experience I have was when I used a BM5000 to cut the band off a cake that the birthday girl was trying hard to tear off

[tap]

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

Pulling out a folding knife to cut someone elses food is almost never a good course of action. That is direct from Miss Manners.

[SpydercoKnut]

Unfortunately they do. I hate to pull out a knife in a crowd because the majority of the people I hang around with do not carry knives.

:spyder:

[Slick]

One time at work we were having a steak dinner cookout for lunch ("lunch" was at 1 am )

Even though we had disposable tableware nobody brought the standard plastic knives. So I offered my Delica as a pass around steak cutter. It sounds good to this point but no one, not even me could cut up their steak without shredding the paper plates. It was a mess.

Do not run with sharp sissors.

DO NOT use stupid sharp knives with paper plates.

Also on a personal note... DO NOT use my stupid sharp knives on ceramic plates. The NKP will break the stupid edge.

[Bolster]

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

Pulling out a folding knife to cut someone elses food is almost never a good course of action. That is direct from Miss Manners.

I knew I should have responded to this before it snowballed. This was a picnic type of situation. We were using hand cleaner to sterilize all utensils, and everyone witnessed this. I was using plastic type gloves to prepare the food, and was teased throughout the evening for being "Mr. Clean." The woman wanted her sandwich cut. The knife was cleaned before use. The woman's issue was not hygiene; she referred to the size of the knife. I did not include the detail for the sake of brevity. What does Miss Manners say about assuming the worst regarding other people's hygiene?

[tap]

Bolstermanic, "Miss Manners" stands by her original statment and makes reasonable assumptions. You said that you "pulled out"... "and opened it". When you say "pulled out" on these forums it is assumed by everybody that you are pulling it from a pocket or other concealed place in your clothing. In order to do this you would have had to remove at least one glove and then apply "hand cleaner" (at least to the blade) and then wipe off most of the "hand cleaner" and then put on a new glove before you could cut her grilled sandwich. All this while she is gasping. It would have been much easier AND more appropriate to go get the bread knife. There is a reason why kitchen knives are not "folding" knives where the blade resides "in" a handle.

[Bolster]

Pulled from top edge of pocket with thumb and forefinger, yes. Removed glove, no. Sterilized glove and blade with cleaner, yes. Wipe off hand cleaner, yes. The conversation about the 3" knife started during this process, and was onto other topics by the time the sandwich was cut. Bread knife (which was also mine) in use by other person in other area at the time, and was not easier to get--don't assume it, you weren't there. Didn't go into hygiene and protocol details b/c I couldn't imagine anyone on this forum would be interested in them--trying to stay on topic here, not a court of law. Others witnessed her reaction to the knife and funned her about it. She made one or two anti large-knife comments then changed topics. I repeat: Hygiene was not the issue. The size of the knife was the issue.

You can imagine that I might resent being publicly accused of bad hygiene and bad manners due to "reasonable assumptions." Now let's return this thread to topic. Further hygiene discussions or forensic details, let's post those in the off-topic section, OK?

[doubleclaw]

All this rigamarole about knives scaring the weak-minded and foolish gets me to thinking:

I wonder what they'd think of the field-made 1918 Trench Knives some of us carried in Iraq? We made and carried those for the express purpose of scaring people, and it worked like a charm on the Iraqis. I used a blade off of a US M7 bayonet for mine, and it was just as sharp as my Spyderco E2. They weren't much intimidated by rifles or even crew-served weapons, but pistols and big, ugly knives put DA FEAR into even the most confrontational Iraqis. Must be a cultural thing...

I still don't understand this current trend of being deathly afraid of inanimate objects. Utter foolishness, IMHO...

[Sleeping Robot]

... 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", or if there is, you're not gonna get there by waiting to open it.

Looking for that middle ground is part of why my EDC is a fancy engraved Kopa with obvious sentimental value. It's still tough out here in California.

Best regards,
Ron

[deeker]

Are programs like Survivorman or Man Vs. Wild doing anything to show the benefits of carrying a knife to the public, or are they in situations that are too 'unreal' for most people to see the benefits?

I have had a few people comment on my knife, but I give them a surprised "you don't carry one?" or "see how useful it is when someone carries a knife?".

[Michael Cook]

Are programs like Survivorman or Man Vs. Wild doing anything to show the benefits of carrying a knife to the public, or are they in situations that are too 'unreal' for most people to see the benefits?

:spyder: NKP would likely be terrified if they met either of those folks. :spyder:

[peacefuljeffrey]

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.

I think that the use of the knife in the company of people you (evidently) could not vouch were going to react normally to the knife was in poor judgment. It may not be reasonable, and we may not like it, but it's a fact we still have to deal with and work around: many people, stupidly, are uncomfortable around knives. (I know, it's a retarded viewpoint.)

I shudder when people talk about doing things like that with knives, to tell the truth. And yes, it behooves you to carry around an exceedingly small "beater" to do tasks like what you needed to do.

It appears that you've taken the lessons you were supposed to have taken from this. I would add, "Make sure that when you use a knife, it's not because you're subconsciously hoping to 'wow' people with the cool knife you have. That's apt to backfire."

-PJ