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A friend asks, "Lemme hold yer knife a minute." What's your response?
- Thread starter mhawg
- Start date
When I was a young boy scout I had a nice buck 112. It was my pride and joy, expensive, shiny, heavy, a nice leather holster. I would walk around with it in my hand (closed!) just to feel its weight.
Boy scouts, as you may know, are supposed to be trained in safe and effective knife use before they are allowed to carry one. So when an older scout, "Lee", asked to see my knife I handed it right over.
He opened it and swinging from the elbow began to strike glancing blows with the edge against a jagged rock he had been carrying in his other hand. My fight or flight instinct short circuited and I think I made some gurgling noises before managing to stop him. "Just wanted to make sparks" he said.
My respect for the older boys in the troop was forever fractured. It was a very sad coming of age experience. Now when someone asks for a knife I either pretend I don't understand, "uh whut?" until they leave to find someone smarter then me, or do what needs doing myself (if it doesn't involve spark striking).
Boy scouts, as you may know, are supposed to be trained in safe and effective knife use before they are allowed to carry one. So when an older scout, "Lee", asked to see my knife I handed it right over.
He opened it and swinging from the elbow began to strike glancing blows with the edge against a jagged rock he had been carrying in his other hand. My fight or flight instinct short circuited and I think I made some gurgling noises before managing to stop him. "Just wanted to make sparks" he said.
My respect for the older boys in the troop was forever fractured. It was a very sad coming of age experience. Now when someone asks for a knife I either pretend I don't understand, "uh whut?" until they leave to find someone smarter then me, or do what needs doing myself (if it doesn't involve spark striking).
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2006
- Messages
- 1,506
After my experiences in Scouting (I am currently a Life Scout actively involved in Troop 106, with an Eagle Scout project underway), my response to my fellow Scouts when they ask to borrow my knife is an unequivocal "no."
My varying range of experiences includes several stories I like to tell others in person and here on the forums whenever possible:
1. It was the third day on a bus ride from Ohio to the Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, for an intensive, 10-day trek. A fellow Scout in my crew asked to borrow my knife to remove a splinter from his hand. Two faults: one, the knife was not designed for that purpose and I obviously deemed the practice unsafe; two, the knife was a fully serrated Spyderco Military...not exactly tweezers. I gave him a simple "no."
2. The same Scout, two days into the trek, completely destroyed his Smith & Wesson linerlock. First, he bent the edge very nicely playing a game that involved tossing the knife at other Scouts' feet and hitting rocks...then broke the tip prying a stainless steel tent stake out of the ground. Later, he sheared the pivot pin doing only-God-knows-what. After that, he asked me again to borrow my Military, or "my other knife," which happened to be a Dozier. After seeing him decimate his personal knife, I obviously did not trust him. My answer, again, was "no." He asked why...I presented him with a slightly obscene, very obstinate response.
3. Despite my careful supervision, advisement, and teaching, the younger Scouts in my troop are essentially "edge illiterates." One Scout refuses to carry a knife, while another carries a ten-dollar automatic knife he purchased on our Scout trip to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. One carries the typical .88-cent WalMart SAK knockoff, and the last carries a Winchester lockback in a nylon sheath...IN HIS POCKET. Of all the absurd things...Luckily, my fellow older Scouts have paid attention to my ways. The two graduated Eagle Scouts carry a very nice Benchmade automatic and a Spyderco Police, respectively. My fellow Life Scout carries a Spyderco Harpy he purchased at Knob Creek as well...a Star Scout carries a Spyderco Delica. There are two obvious groups in my troop: Scouts that can appreciate an excellent tool and the values of Scouting, and those who are still inexperience and just don't care.
Regardless, I'm still not letting ANYONE take my knife. I paid way too much for my group of Spydercos, Benchmades, and other miscellaenous blades to let someone else take all the fun of using them anyways...I do the job for other people, if necessary.
Another rant, but the state of cutlery and general outdoor education in the Scouts pisses me off...
Excuse the French and the rant.
God bless you, America, and our men and women overseas.
KATN,
Wade
619G6
Glesser for President in '08.
My varying range of experiences includes several stories I like to tell others in person and here on the forums whenever possible:
1. It was the third day on a bus ride from Ohio to the Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, for an intensive, 10-day trek. A fellow Scout in my crew asked to borrow my knife to remove a splinter from his hand. Two faults: one, the knife was not designed for that purpose and I obviously deemed the practice unsafe; two, the knife was a fully serrated Spyderco Military...not exactly tweezers. I gave him a simple "no."
2. The same Scout, two days into the trek, completely destroyed his Smith & Wesson linerlock. First, he bent the edge very nicely playing a game that involved tossing the knife at other Scouts' feet and hitting rocks...then broke the tip prying a stainless steel tent stake out of the ground. Later, he sheared the pivot pin doing only-God-knows-what. After that, he asked me again to borrow my Military, or "my other knife," which happened to be a Dozier. After seeing him decimate his personal knife, I obviously did not trust him. My answer, again, was "no." He asked why...I presented him with a slightly obscene, very obstinate response.
3. Despite my careful supervision, advisement, and teaching, the younger Scouts in my troop are essentially "edge illiterates." One Scout refuses to carry a knife, while another carries a ten-dollar automatic knife he purchased on our Scout trip to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. One carries the typical .88-cent WalMart SAK knockoff, and the last carries a Winchester lockback in a nylon sheath...IN HIS POCKET. Of all the absurd things...Luckily, my fellow older Scouts have paid attention to my ways. The two graduated Eagle Scouts carry a very nice Benchmade automatic and a Spyderco Police, respectively. My fellow Life Scout carries a Spyderco Harpy he purchased at Knob Creek as well...a Star Scout carries a Spyderco Delica. There are two obvious groups in my troop: Scouts that can appreciate an excellent tool and the values of Scouting, and those who are still inexperience and just don't care.
Regardless, I'm still not letting ANYONE take my knife. I paid way too much for my group of Spydercos, Benchmades, and other miscellaenous blades to let someone else take all the fun of using them anyways...I do the job for other people, if necessary.
Another rant, but the state of cutlery and general outdoor education in the Scouts pisses me off...
Excuse the French and the rant.
God bless you, America, and our men and women overseas.
KATN,
Wade
619G6
Glesser for President in '08.
This is not the primary reason I have tight pivots on my knives, but it works out fine for me in the end. I do not grab my crotch and say "hold this" and I actually hand over the knife. But it is more often that he/she just wants to see what new "toy" I have and more often than not, when they use the thumb button, or whatever opening device it has, they find out quickly that they don't have the strength needed to slam it open. I just smile, hold out my hand, and then open it one handed in such a way that the blade just falls into lockup with only a little "snick" heard, and I'm talking about the Strider AR I carry as my edc.
I think a lot of you guys need to start carrying a loaner/beater with you. I have a cheapo folder that I don't hesitate to hand out (although I usually do ask what they want it for)
If my friend wreaks the edge, I'll get to practice resharpening it. If they break it, they'd probably feel worse about it than me, and they would owe me a small favor at most. In either case, I might give them a friendly pointer on what not to do with a knife, after I finish laughing at what they just did with a knife. And we all live happily ever after.
If my friend wreaks the edge, I'll get to practice resharpening it. If they break it, they'd probably feel worse about it than me, and they would owe me a small favor at most. In either case, I might give them a friendly pointer on what not to do with a knife, after I finish laughing at what they just did with a knife. And we all live happily ever after.