Anyone else had immediate family knife scrutiny?

SW-EDC

SW-EDC

Joined
Dec 4, 2015
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What I mean is this.
My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law are absolutely cool with my knives as is my wife. They are from Denmark where if you are caught carrying a tiny SAK, your done in that country.
We went over for dinner tonight and my brother-in-law, who is 40 and been here all his life (and quite Conservative), said after showing him my new knife, "you have enough knives!..geez".
This after buying him a couple but he has never carried them.
I guess what I'm getting at is some are ignorant about these tools we carry. To them they are scary or something.
I am officially done trying to convince anyone about the practical use and carry of knives because it's always, "Why do you need that many knives?".

Feel like asking them, "Why do you need that many steak knives?".
Is there a difference?
 
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I haven't personally been questioned or thought of as weird for knife carry, but my family does joke about my carry of multiple blades saying that if there was a bank robbery I have enough weapons to go around 😁 but what I carry are tools, and in actuality I only carry my neck knife ( 2.5" oal ) a smaller and larger blade ( sometimes a fixed blade + slipjoint, but currently a vic classic and a sak style Sabre ) and my leatherman fuse with a blade I don't use. So basically 3 I use and one that might as well not be there.

Some people just don't get knives as tools because the media has given them a stigma ( most crimes are committed with cheap janky kitchen knives not edc cutting tools )
To me not carrying a knife is one thing but I think only carrying a knife sometimes is even worse.
 
meh ... everyone with a passionate interest experiences something similar.

Geez, you have enough knives/guns/cars/dogs/shoes/...
 
My sister in law says the same thing. You spend so much money on knives! Meanwhile she spends thousands of dollars on her shoes, clothes, and makeup. You just can't win with these people
 
Yes, there is so much more to life than "How much did that cost?" and "How many do you have now?"

I've gotten better the last 4 or 5 years on showing someone my new to me knife (proud). I do my very best to keep it in my pocket and listen to their new 4wheeler, lawn mower, etc stories. (Which I enjoy to hear)
 
Well, to be honest, they are kind of right when they say I have more than enough knives from a practical viewpoint.

I have lots of knives because I like collecting them. But most of my actual use cases could be covered by owning a mere handful of them. The more knives you buy, the harder they get to justify purely on a basis of usefulness or practical value.

When I bought my 5th knife I could make up excuses about what it added in utility next to my first 4. This was already a lot harder comparing the 11th vs. my other 10. And 21st compared to the previous 20. And don't get started on the 31st compared to the other 30 that were already taking up to much space. It seems to get exponentially harder the more knives you have.

However, I think that everyone is allowed a hobby as long as they can responsibly afford it. It sure is a lot more responsible than smoking or doing cocaïne as far as hobbies go. (Although some would argue it's just as addictive :) ).

And I would speculate that if you were to investigate the matter, you would find that people with disposable income anywhere all spend money on hobbies/products/services that aren't strictly necessary from a practical standpoint.


All this reminds me of a nugget of wisdom my hairdresser shared last time I was there: "Men will never change from when they were children, it's just the toys that get more expensive.". I found myself unable to deny the truth of it. And, let's be honest, growing up is overrated anyway. :D
 
If the hobby isn't "addictive" you are in the wrong hobby. Find a new one that is. Don't expect anybody else to understand.
 
While you are free in your interests, so are the others.
You made the right decision, you need not convince other people (except if you are a salesman).
 
SoCalEDC said:
We went over for dinner tonight and my brother-in-law, who is 40 and been here all his life (and quite Conservative), said after showing him my new knife, "you have enough knives!..geez".
This after buying him a couple but he has never carried them.
Click to expand...

That kind of sounds like an issue of knowing your audience. If you've bought him several knives, but this is his attitude, perhaps you're buying him something that's meaningful to YOU with YOUR hobby, but not to HIM with HIS hobby.
 
SoCalEDC said:
What I mean is this.
My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law are absolutely cool with my knives as is my wife. They are from Denmark where if you are caught carrying a tiny SAK, your done in that country.
We went over for dinner tonight and my brother-in-law, who is 40 and been here all his life (and quite Conservative), said after showing him my new knife, "you have enough knives!..geez".
This after buying him a couple but he has never carried them.
I guess what I'm getting at is some are ignorant about these tools we carry. To them they are scary or something.
I am officially done trying to convince anyone about the practical use and carry of knives because it's always, "Why do you need that many knives?".

Feel like asking them, "Why do you need that many steak knives?".
Is there a difference?
Click to expand...

IMO, there's a big difference between the average joe owning 10 steak knives and a knife knut owning 10 EDC knives.

The average joe needs 10 steak knives for hosting a dinner where he serves steak. The knife knut doesn't need 10 EDC knives. He only needs one. And this is problem that happens when a knife knut shows off a "new knife". The average joe sees it like somebody showing off a newly collected stamp or a coin. It doesn't make any sense to them.

My family knows I like knives and they tolerate it. But I don't try to get anybody into knives beyond gifting them things like Leatherman Micras. A few guys in the family get it and will talk knives occasionally, but I don't seek it out.

Here's a quote by Bob Loveless that I think of when topics like this come up...

"A knife is a tool, and if we don't treat our tools with a certain familiar contempt, we lose perspective." - Bob Loveless

I don't show people my new screw driver or hammer or my knife.
 
I would tell them 'it's a hobby, why don't you get one so I don't have to talk to you this much'
Lol.. Family
 
Doesn't sound to me like he was questioning the knife as a tool or saying it was scary or anything like that. He was stating you already have several knives, so why do you need another. He's right. As has already been mentioned, no one "needs" 10 different EDC knives but if you have a big family dinner or party then yes you might need 10 steak knives. Your answer could have just been simply you like knives and consider it a fun hobby which is why you purchased another. And that answer would be just fine. As someone also said, if you keep gifting him knives but he doesn't use them, then you should probably gift him something he'll actually like or use in the future. A gift is supposed to be tailored to the recipient's interest/needs and not the giver's interests. In any case, I personally discuss knives with people that also have an interest them. I don't discuss them with people that don't have an interest in them unless there is a specific need/purpose to do so. Why would I? I don't want people talking my ear off about things I consider boring, so why would I do that to people.
 
People who do not have the urge / interest / personality quirk that leads to collecting hobbies, or having significantly more of an item than actual legitimate need would dictate, often can't understand why someone wants 10 or 20 or 100 of a thing where one or two is quite sufficient for basic needs.

Since I am into knives, I can understand why someone might want to get into watches, or fountain pens, or some other form of collecting / accumulating activity. However, I have no interest myself in those particular items, as I see them as only tools (I don't even own a functioning watch, and I have no fountain pens). But since I do have over 100 pocket knives and could easily get by with one or two, I get the idea.

The ones who look at us and shake their heads are probably at least in some sense more sane than we are, since they aren't spending money on something beyond the basic practical needs. If they are that way in general, then I envy them because they would probably own the least number of material things necessary to function reasonably. Though it is often the case that their unnecessary spending habits just happen to go in a different direction, which may seem perfectly OK to them but I might shake my head at.

But bottom line is, once you have your basic needs accounted for, if you have some wealth left over, it's normal to spend it on recreation or entertainment of some kind. Hence the existence of hobbies, games, sports, art, and other human activities that are not just about putting food on the table and a roof over the head. If your form of entertainment is buying and appreciating pocket knives, so be it. If someone else prefers to spend their money and time on going out to the opera frequently, or building model railroads, or bird-watching, more power to them. In another 0 to 100 years (depending on when your time comes) we'll all be dust anyway.
 
GatorMedic said:
Doesn't sound to me like he was questioning the knife as a tool or saying it was scary or anything like that. He was stating you already have several knives, so why do you need another. He's right. As has already been mentioned, no one "needs" 10 different EDC knives but if you have a big family dinner or party then yes you might need 10 steak knives. Your answer could have just been simply you like knives and consider it a fun hobby which is why you purchased another. And that answer would be just fine. As someone also said, if you keep gifting him knives but he doesn't use them, then you should probably gift him something he'll actually like or use in the future. A gift is supposed to be tailored to the recipient's interest/needs and not the giver's interests. In any case, I personally discuss knives with people that also have an interest them. I don't discuss them with people that don't have an interest in them unless there is a specific need/purpose to do so. Why would I? I don't want people talking my ear off about things I consider boring, so why would I do that to people.
Click to expand...
^^^^
This covers it
 
19-3ben said:
That kind of sounds like an issue of knowing your audience. If you've bought him several knives, but this is his attitude, perhaps you're buying him something that's meaningful to YOU with YOUR hobby, but not to HIM with HIS hobby.
Click to expand...

This is a fair point. Although it's disappointing when one's enthusiasm over a hobby isn't reciprocated, or worse--opposed, it doesn't have to be anything worse or larger than an interest you don't happen to share.

My family's pretty cool with pocketknives. Ironically, it's most of my long-term friends and acquaintances who don't "get it" -- so I usually keep my knives to myself in their company.
 
Every one of the males in my family has some sort expensive hobby, such as guns & knives, hot rods, motorcycles, etc; & we all sort of keep up with each others interests. So I can't say I've ever had that problem. Occasionally my son will comment that I have too many knives, but that's only because he thinks that I should give him one or two that I'm "not using." :)
 
Well first off, a man shouldn't need a reason to buy another knife.

Secondly: "Too much is never enough!"

Yet there is no reason to intentionally introduce friction into a family gathering. After many years of marriage, I know what the hot-buttons are with both sides of my family, and choose to avoiud them.An EDC tactical knife is one of them.

My EDC is one of the larger model multi-tools. Among other things, it has both a pointy snooth edged balde and a sheep's footed serrated blade (~3" each) that can be deployed one-handed. When both blades are out it forms a sort of double edged dagger. This tool rides in a horizontal belt sheath that is "in plane view" yet drawa little notice.

Whenever a cutting tool is needed, out comes a blade and no-one has any objections. My obsession with cutlery is just not an issue that I bring to family gatherings.

Believe me, life is just too short for family drama over whatever bothers them about knives.

BTW— and not that it matters—the EDC multi-tool I prefer is a Leatherman Wave.
 
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Just last night I was at a school function (parent day or something) and they had munchies and drinks for the visitors (parents and so forth). I grabbed a small pack of peanut crackers and tried to open them the usual way by pulling the sealed ends apart. No go. I didn't want to break up all the crackers by yanking really hard. So, out comes my SAK and a little poke... crackers open. The guy sitting there said.... that's what a pocket knife is for!

Probably wasn't allowed to have a knife inside the school building. But ya know, those rules are for the students.

The only scrutiny I have had from family is about cost or the amount of money spent on knives and other toys.
 
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