<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by anthony cheeseboro:
When you think about it, carrying a big folder into an office as your main or only blade makes about as much sense as trying to skin a deer with an Applegate-Fairbarn military knife. Sometimes carrying a small, useful knife can do more to educate people than insisting on a big tactical because it is your legal right.</font>
Did you ever have a favorite....anything? You know, the movie you watch over and over, the song you listen to even after it's not popular, anymore? Did you care if the rest of the world liked it?
My favorite folder is the AFCK, and I have one on me ALWAYS (assuming I'm clothed), because it's my favorite. I'm not flaunting my legal right to carry the thing. I just love it. It fits me. I like the way it feels, looks, performs, etc, ad nauseum. It's always appropiate, to my way of thinking. Could I get by with a smaller knife? Sure, but why not carry what I'm happy with?
On the subject of educating the sheep (which sometimes seems a lost cause):
I completely disagree with the notion of educating people with tiny little, undersized, less than optimal for the task, knives. I would much rather the sheeple see a need and use for a full-size knife. Show them what it's good for, and why. I show them smaller ones, too, and explain the compromises that come with both. Anyone can appreciate having the proper tool for the job. And that's how they need to see it-as a tool.
Using little sheeple-friendly toothpicks is just enforcing the notion that larger knives aren't necessary (keeping in mind that in liberalese "unnecessary" and "needs to be banned" seem to be synonomous whenever a knife or gun is the subject).
BTW, I also carry smaller knives, like a blue 940, stainless Dragonfly, and others, but carry them because I like them, not so I can fit into someone's PC group.
And check this out. Three of my coworkers have purchased knives in the past few weeks. All are non-knife people, and all three bought Benchmades (no AFCKs, though
). A fourth wants something small, and has been looking at my Dragonfly. All of these are people who see my knives, and frequently ask me to cut something for them-and it's the AFCK that comes out first, though they've also seen and handled the 940 and Dragonfly. My friend who teaches our Sunday school class wants me to help him pick out a folder, and I may buy him one for a Christmas present-'course he's an outdoorsman, and a much different story. I've also told all of them about Bladeforums, and the information available here.
What's really amazing to me, is how proud they seem of their purchases, especially considering that they were, at best, apathetic toward knives before. The same people who used to say "what do you need that knife for?" are now saying "hey, look what I got!".
Just like everything else, it's not so much what you do, but how you do it. The right words, and the right attitude go alot further than having a blade that's an inch or two shorter, IMO.
btw, anthony, in this post, and others in the past, you question people's motives for what they carry, and say that they should just "admit that is what they are doing" as if you know each individuals needs better than they do. Wake up. Your opinion is just that-YOUR opinion, and everybody else has one, too.
[This message has been edited by OwenM (edited 12-12-2000).]
