Spyderco Forums

BAL wrote: Also outlawed are food donations to homeless shelters because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and
fiber content. ..... Seriously.

Really?? Same city? Wow.

racer88 wrote:Wasn't the invention of the "switchblade" so that disabled (one-armed) workers could deploy a folding knife on the job?

Civil War amputees were definitely among the target audience for them. So too were schoolgirls, yes you read that right schoolgirls. Automatics allowed them to sharpen their pencils and re-cut the tips of their quill pens without the danger of breaking their nails posed by nail-nick slipjoints.

racer88 wrote:Really?? Same city? Wow.

I'd love to say that it is a joke, but it is not.

I don't believe in talking politics, so it's not about that. It's about
peoples attitudes and the way that people think. So it's not surprising
that some people want to ban knives or guns.

Where I live the phobia might be justified. It's a freak show in my city everyday, and unfortunately many of these freaks carry knives. Stabbings on our city streets, muni buses, train stations, even football and baseball games occur with disturbing regularity. Police statistics shown on the news a few weeks ago report a dramatic surge in street muggings for iPhones and iPads. Typical MO is a thug will pull a pocket knife on the victim, demand the goods and run. This is occurring in broad daylight and on crowded city streets, bus stops, etc. :mad:

racer88 wrote:Yes... I've seen it. But, I've had folks be VOCAL about it.

"Holy crap! Why do you carry a knife?"

"Oh my gawd!"

"GEEZUS!"

But, if we were chatting in the kitchen and I grab a 10-inch knife out of a butcher block to slice a tomato.... nothing.

Why? Because people are irrational, emotional animals. That's why.

An older woman I used to work with saw me cleaning a carrot in the office kitchen with my Delica ZDP and exclaimed "Wow, that sure is a big knife your using for that!" she then proceeds to go into the utensil drawer and pull out a 4" steak knife to cut open her packaging for her microwaveable meal." When I asked her why she was so surprised when the knife she was using was larger than my delica, she said something like "well that just looks bigger." I guess its the "tactical look" that surprises people.

Mako109 wrote:Where I live the phobia might be justified. It's a freak show my city everyday, and unfortunately many of these freaks carry knives. Stabbings on our city streets, muni buses, train stations, even football and baseball games occur with disturbing regularity. Police statistics shown on the news a few weeks ago report a dramatic surge in street muggings for iPhones and iPads. Typical MO is a thug will pull a knife on the victim, demand the goods and run. This is occurring in broad daylight and on crowded city streets, bus stops, etc. :mad:

I'd say the fix for that would be to require EVERYBODY to carry a knife and get some basic self defense training! Muggers don't want a fight. They want an easy theft.

Onionman wrote:An older woman I used to work with saw me cleaning a carrot in the office kitchen with my Delica ZDP and exclaimed "Wow, that sure is a big knife your using for that!" she then proceeds to go into the utensil drawer and pull out a 4" steak knife to cut open her packaging for her microwaveable meal." When I asked her why she was so surprised when the knife she was using was larger than my delica, she said something like "well that just looks bigger." I guess its the "tactical look" that surprises people.

Delica.... "tactical".... LOL!

I work in construction and am occasionally on site. I often wondered why people on a site would be startled by a knife when the places are littered with far more lethal tools and building materials. I'd take a 6 foot light weight aluminum ladder over any knife, never mind steel pipes and rebar etc.

The answers in this thread have been very insightful, thanks all.

tobii3 wrote:No, they can't [hurt you by accident].

Knives don't jump out of your pocket and stab you. They don't climb out of knife blocks in the kitchen and chase you through the house.

The HUMAN FACTOR is what does that.

Yes, it generally requires some human action for a knife to cut somebody. That's not the same as saying that knives can't hurt people by accident. I feel confident predicting that more than one of the people who have posted in this thread have cut themselves by accident.

Look, knives have been around a long time. In that long time, one of knives' intended purposes was cutting flesh -- man and beast alike. People can say "a knife is just a tool," sure. But the fact that I can go out and get a "skinning knife" or a "tactical knife" or a "self defense knife" indicates that these tools are probably intended sometimes to cut open a living (or recently living) being.

People who aren't all caught up in all the other, positive stuff that we can do with knives are kind of freaked out by that darker, flesh-slicing side of Knife World. There's nothing all that strange about it. Knives can cut people; lots of people don't want to get cut. Ergo, knife phobia.

We're allowing people to be afraid of everything, responsible for nothing, and can't be trusted to act responsibly.
Fear the person with a knife in their pocket, fear terrorists, fear fear fear.
Your not responsible for your actions, guns kill people not you, you raped or murdered someone, that's because your parents didn't love you enough, it's not your fault.
You can't be trusted to own a knife, a gun or anything else because a criminal had one and look what they did with it.

I'm not saying all these fears don't have some value but we're starting to act like idiots with some of these things. Fearing someone with a knife opening a box is silly, unless of course you feel empathy for the box or the tape...
If your opening a box or making a sandwich your not being dangerous so why would people be afraid? If you drink a beer do people assume your going to get in your car and run someone over? NO because that would be jumping to conclusions but if they see a knife oh lawd you must be jack the ripper coming to kill everyone and eat babies!
I do want claws like Wolverine I could see people being scared then though.

Look at dog breeds I owned a breed origianlly bred to hunt man but responsible ownership training and management meant she never bit anyone.
That's not to say she wouldn't have if the situation arose , yet the most feared breed pit bulls are in my experience very people friendly it's the hype created around them and the sick dog fighters that have caused this.
Show somebody a piece of cheese wire and they would see it as a pretty unintimidating item yet this could cause serious injury used maliciously I know I've gone way off topic , but the principle is mind set .
Yes knives can be dangerous so can electricity , fire etc , etc .
The key IMO is early education I can give my daughter a knife to look at and be confident she won't injure herself why because I've taught her how to hold it , what not to do and how to leave it or put it down.
She views knives as camping accessories , fishing tools food prep tools she knows they can cause damage but doesn't view them as weapons .

Half Sack wrote:We're allowing people to be afraid of everything, responsible for nothing, and can't be trusted to act responsibly.
Fear the person with a knife in their pocket, fear terrorists, fear fear fear.
Your not responsible for your actions, guns kill people not you, you raped or murdered someone, that's because your parents didn't love you enough, it's not your fault.
You can't be trusted to own a knife, a gun or anything else because a criminal had one and look what they did with it.

I'm not saying all these fears don't have some value but we're starting to act like idiots with some of these things. Fearing someone with a knife opening a box is silly, unless of course you feel empathy for the box or the tape...
If your opening a box or making a sandwich your not being dangerous so why would people be afraid? If you drink a beer do people assume your going to get in your car and run someone over? NO because that would be jumping to conclusions but if they see a knife oh lawd you must be jack the ripper coming to kill everyone and eat babies!
I do want claws like Wolverine I could see people being scared then though.

Great post Half Sack. People fear the things that they don't know about or understand.
The fear of the unknown scares people more than the actual thing.

In movies, its the person, ghost, monster that you can't see. Something is killing people
our here and we don't know what it is. Think about Jaws or the original Predator. When
teh soldiers were walkign around the jungle in Predator and something was taking them
one by one and no one knew what it was. Not even Dutch. How bout that.

If people were to learn about knives and guns, I don't think that they would fear them.

BAL wrote:Great post Half Sack. People fear the things that they don't know about or understand.
The fear of the unknown scares people more than the actual thing.

In movies, its the person, ghost, monster that you can't see. Something is killing people
our here and we don't know what it is. Think about Jaws or the original Predator. When
teh soldiers were walkign around the jungle in Predator and something was taking them
one by one and no one knew what it was. Not even Dutch. How bout that.

If people were to learn about knives and guns, I don't think that they would fear them.

It's not that people don't know about them or understand knives in general because most people own and use kitchen knives so that argument really doesn't get anyplace.

The problem is the connection of knives outside of kitchen use.

Enter movies, TV Shows, advertisements showing knives as weapons and just stupid people with knives acting stupid.

That makes knives an easy target for the politicians.

Yes it really is that simple......

KrisOK wrote:I'd say the fix for that would be to require EVERYBODY to carry a knife.

Everybody did!

Then Politicians got involved.

I have taught more than a few people, both male and female in the workplace about the use of knives in actual use.

Most of them carry some form of a box cutter or utility knife and some of us know how useless they really can be for the most part.

I usually carry a Military or Para 2 at work.

Examples:

There was a pallet of stock in shrinkwrap and that stuff isn't easy to cut, the female was about to try and cut it with a case cutter, she started to hack away at it, I already had my Para 2 out and sliced it all the way down from top to bottom in one motion. She just stood there in awe like **** I need one of those.

We needed to break down a bunch of cardboard displays and they really are a pain, while a few others watched me take my Military and make short work of them. They were like man my box cutter can't do that.......

You guys are way off. The lobbying groups for criminals and trial lawyers are to blame for this, they are nothing without each other and both of them want you defenseless, otherwise neither could find much work... Oh, and if you want to blame a movie, that mugging scene in Crocodile Dundee was a real eye opener for criminals.

Ankerson wrote:It's not that people don't know about them or understand knives in general because most people own and use kitchen knives so that argument really doesn't get anyplace.

The problem is the connection of knives outside of kitchen use.

Enter movies, TV Shows, advertisements showing knives as weapons and just stupid people with knives acting stupid.

That makes knives an easy target for the politicians.

Yes it really is that simple......

I think that we agree in theory. I was including guns in my thoughts.
I know of many that have a "fear" of guns until they have the opportunity
to get out and handle them and actually shoot them.

People that don't know about the civilain AR15 platform have this thought
that they are all automatic assault weapons and why would anyone need
somethign like that. Shooting and hunting to many is simply a sport.
Similar thought patterns with a knife. Knife people look at the craftmenship,
steel, scales and overall design of the knife. To some the only need for a knife
is kitchen purposes, or a small 3 bladed utility Shrade type knife.

Many don't understand and don't care to.

Predators aren't as scared of armed citizens as we would like to think. At least not on a Hollywood level. They have experience and act preemptively; that a ton of ground to make up for an encounter that can last 10 seconds.

Likely the crack down on weaponized tools is simply due to statistics. Once someone stabs another person they add to the stats/fear (and the crime scene looks horrific). Whether a hardened mob type or normal Joe facing a court case it generally doesn't help the cause for mainstream folks. Not nearly in the way the gentleman saved his young son from a mountain lion earlier this year.

The knife community needs as many responsible people as it can get. Civil folks who open packages and carry knives in suit pockets or to help with a hard day's work in the warehouse. Seemingly there are more hot heads, knife flippers, and aggressive "it's my right!" folks. At least on the Internet. We propagate the stigma. Look up, "self defense knife" and see what turns up.

Agree Blerv.
It seems like all that we ever hear on the news about
knives and guns is bad news. Someone was killed by a gun......,
gun fire downtown was heard ....., A man was stabbed several
times by ...., A woman was held at gunpoint.....

Seldom, if ever do you hear about situations where someone was
saved because they had a knife or gun. Or attackers were held off...
One of the gun magazines that I get has a regular column about
civilian's taking matters into there own hand. But only gun people
read these and they already know the score.

Automobiles and trucks kill over 40,000 Americans every year - yet most people aren't scared witless by cars...
"Wow, that's a fast car. Aren't you afraid that you are going to kill someone with that thing?"

I take that back - I am afraid of cars...I've got a teenager living under my roof... :eek:

TedP