Carrying a fixed blade openly in public

Status
Not open for further replies.
Florida statutes (local laws vary) allow open carry of any blade except a ballistic knife. Concealed carry without a permit is restricted to common pocket knives, whatever that means, until Saturday, July 1, when concealed carry of weapons in general becomes legal (except as limited by local laws, I presume).

Almost every man in this rural area carries a pocket knife. I almost always open carry a knife, but I have seen only a couple other men do so--fixed blades but nothing big.
 
Whether you "can" openly wear a fixed blade depends on the laws of the location.
Whether you "should" openly wear a fixed blade depends on the culture of the location.
Some places in the US, especially rural areas do not have an issue with openly wearing a fixed blade.
But cities and surrounding areas with a higher population usually do. In which case the greatest benefit
of the folding knife comes into play.
 
Here in wonderful NY Shitty must be fully concealed even pocket clips are cause for a "STOP & FRISK "....
One of my fixed blades get mounted.on my seat belt right above where it comes.out of the wall of the vehicle. Peterbilt 379 XD👍👍👍
Second goes small of back or cross draw and folder.goes in side leg pocket with a flap.....
Have had a few bed wetters when I pull out a blade to use😱

Once.I'm up North in the Adirondacks, most don't give me a second look and those that do ask about the knives and maker!!!

How you look does play a part but so does behavior......
 
I don't carry a fixed blade often as I just don't need it for my day to day work/life. They are totally legal in Indiana, for the most part, but I don't come across many carrying them. Every once in awhile I'll see some Tacticool Goober with a large kabar type knife slung low on his leg while wearing flip flops at Walmart for no other reason than someone would walk the ailses with their AR slung over their back...because it's legal and they want to. Perfectly legal way to do something needlessly provocative, IMHO.

I don't mind seeing a FB out in the open. I don't clutch my pearls. I'll often give it a gawk to see if it's something cool. Generally it's a piece of low dollar garbage, but I have seen a couple of well used Beckers here and there.

To each his own, but sometimes doing something because one can doesn't mean one should.
 
Look up Charlie Mike for a great big blade carry system. He had a reverse grip kydex sheath that would hand upside down where just a bit of the handle showed when wearing under your shirt or jacket. It made for a quick and smooth draw. I miss that guy may he Rip.
 
d762nato said:
Look up Charlie Mike for a great big blade carry system. He had a reverse grip kydex sheath that would hand upside down where just a bit of the handle showed when wearing under your shirt or jacket. It made for a quick and smooth draw. I miss that guy may he Rip.
Click to expand...

Funny as Hell too....Some wicked chisel grind blades came .out of Fresno by his hand.....Seeing him grow as a knife maker was something that I fondly remember too!!!! CMFTW lives on thru his knives.......Miss you man!!
Continue. Mission from Valhalla!!!!! 😎 See you when I see you Matt....
 
I carry a fixed blade. I try to keep it under my shirt on my hip. No one here seems to mind much. No one has has ever said anything. I also see people open carrying .45s and Glocks.
To some extent, I don't care what other people think. What I do is 100% legal. Harassing me in public is not legal.
 
In California, too. Just try and carry one and see .... people react more to you and how you behave than the knife. If you forget that you carry it, most people will too.

Now, the 120 would be a little much, maybe. Maybe start with a 119. And it has to be completely visible, don't hide it under your sweater, for instance.

And when asked (in particular in counties with loitering laws), it's a tool for gardening, car mechanics, what have you.
 
dryflytrout said:
I carry a fixed blade. I try to keep it under my shirt on my hip. No one here seems to mind much. No one has has ever said anything. I also see people open carrying .45s and Glocks.
To some extent, I don't care what other people think. What I do is 100% legal. Harassing me in public is not legal.
Click to expand...

I think there is legal and then there is optics one wishes to deal with. You're not going to see me piling on someone for carrying a fixed blade in a discrete manner wherever they please. I'm also not saying that people should make a big deal about someone doing something that is legal. I have several shoulder rigs that I used to wear when I was a tad younger with less back issues that would house a 15" khukuri sporting an 11" blade that held the knife high and tight enough to my chest that with a flannel draped over me, you couldn't notice the 2lbs of steel I was packing.

That said, without going off on a tangent too much, people are jumpy these days when it comes to "weapons" out and about. It's easy to fall back on our rights, which we totally have, but i also think discretion is advisable when applicable. Here in my town a few months ago a guy targeted a girl at Walmart and shot her in the face with a 9mm during the company team meeting where all the associates gathered before their shift late in the evening. Quick thinking saved her life, but not her eye. The guy then decided to trade gunfire with local PD who swarmed the building before being taken out. Kudos to the brave officers that ran TOWARD the gunfire to get the bad guy. However, my point is, like a week later some dude decides that it's good idea to sling his AR and walk through WalMart because it's his right to do so. Cops were called. No charges pressed as it IS legal and IS his right, but was it "right" for him to do so? Local folks were nervous about a shooting taking place where this sort of thing doesn't happen. What was his point in doing so? It's his right. I don't want to take that away from him, but I also question that if a knucklehead thinking he's making a "statement" about packing a long arm through a store in a state that already heavily supports the 2nd but the community is still shaken up after a shooting shouldn't be sat down and explained what a myopic poser is. YMMV.

That's where I think the open carry of a FB comes into play. There are ways to do so where you follow the letter of the law without flaunting it. About 12 years ago I was visiting Virginia. My CCW was not recognized but open carry was totally legal. I carried a Ruger LCP OWB at 1 o'clock in a black nylon flexible holster that was not super form-fit to the outline of the gun. I had the chunky black Otterbox of my phone snugged right up next to it. The large tourist camera around my neck was black on a black nylon strap. I had an open short sleeve shirt as my overshirt and was packing a big diaper bag backpack over my shoulders. I was 100% legal as my shirt never covered the gun, but the LCP was probably the 4th or 5th thing you noticed about me if you took 30 seconds to look me over. I only dressed around my gun because I had to. Any other time I would have just plunked it in my front pocket.

Given the choice, I don't want anyone to easily spot my pistol or my knife and keep them as concealed as possible. I don't want to upset anyone who isn't keen on knives and/or guns, and I don't want to give any advantage to someone who means me harm. I'm not exactly what one would call a soft target, so any escalation of a situation to that of violence is either going to be due to a heated argument that gets out of hand, not likely as I am a borderline pacifist who skirts confrontation, or that person has decided to do me harm for some other reason. I'd prefer to play every card I have in that situation very close to the vest.
 
I am surprised to see so many negative comments about fixed blades in public on Bladeforums of all places. I've never had a second thought about seeing a fixed blade in public except "cool". My reaction is the same as when I see people in public with any tool. No harm than who cares?
 
I prefer to carry a fixed blade that I can edc, tucked in a pocket or a larger blade that I can scout carry. Also, I don't bring attention to myself. I don't record myself going to the store, buying groceries then releasing the video on social media.

Not a Kardashian. My butt isn't big enough.
 
ferider said:
In California, too. Just try and carry one and see .... people react more to you and how you behave than the knife. If you forget that you carry it, most people will too.

Now, the 120 would be a little much, maybe. Maybe start with a 119. And it has to be completely visible, don't hide it under your sweater, for instance.

And when asked (in particular in counties with loitering laws), it's a tool for gardening, car mechanics, what have you.
Click to expand...
Agreed on all points, especially with the individuals behavior. I'm a firm believer that dictates the tone of most interactions.

No issues for me well inside L.A. county, but I'm also not typically carrying anything larger than 3" for a FB when I do.
 
luethge said:
Be careful of certain county’s as well , what is legal in central California may be illegal in Los Angeles, or vice versa.
Click to expand...
You beat me to it. California state laws are fairly liberal concerning knives, but some counties and cities have more restrictions. State law allows one to openly carry a fixed blade knife of any size, or even carry a fixed blade concealed if the knife is not readily available, such as being in a backpack. I wouldn't though, because law enforcement may have a different opion of what constitutes "readily available" than you.

I have lived in a county that borders on Los Angeles County my entire life (56 years), and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen someone openly wearing a fixed blade knife. It is very uncommon in my area of California, and will very likely cause concern with the public and garner police attention.
 
San Diego, California resident.

I openly carried various fixed-blades here in urban San Diego for many years, and I never encountered a negative reaction, either from the general public, business employees, or any of the many members of law enforcement who saw me carrying it, and I'm a biker.

There was a time when I was reluctant to openly carry a fixed-blade, but then I started using one all day at work, and I didn't bother to take it off when going out for lunch or running work errands. I got used to carrying in public, and so I started carrying all the time.

Then I retired early, and no longer had a daily need for a fixed-blade (or pretty much any knife), and one day as I was putting on my knife I realized that it had been a long time since I used it for anything, so I decided to stop carrying, which itself was kind of a hard decision as a FB had been a daily companion for so long. There were other contributing factors as well to my decision, but lack of need was the primary reason.

Despite my positive experience I can fully understand peoples reluctance to openly carry. I often think about carrying again, but since I started shaving my head and growing my beard, that plus the rest of my biker regalia, I became somewhat scary looking, scary enough without carrying a fixed-blade. If I felt I had a need to carry I would, "need" being the dominant factor, but since I don't I really don't want to scare the citizens unnecessarily. That's my personal version of societal courtesy.

Whatever a person decides on openly carrying a fixed-blade, I say more power to you. It's entirely an individual choice.

These are the fixed-blades I openly carried. There were a few others that I sporadically carried when I was a younger man, but these are the ones I regularly carried for work, and elsewhere.

XALwfQd.jpg
 
I believe it comes down to location, given the demographics. Society as a whole may have changed, they forgot that the knife is a tool used daily in some lifestyles. But when they're banned in a given city, chances are people from the area would look at you like you're some menacing savage. Others may think it makes you look like a dork depending on the setting. Cowboys and ranchers pull it off well, city folks come off sort of as "mall ninja" like or Tacboy. And then there's your typical train hopping gas station methhead who taints the picture here. For some of us we carry our fixed blades daily while for others it's strictly for camping and hiking. Given the EDC trend and lifestyle, I think it will be more common to see people carrying compact fixed blades.
 
Last edited:
ShitsInaBush said:
I believe it comes down to location, given the demographics. Society as a whole may have changed, they forgot that the knife is a tool used daily in some lifestyles. But when they're banned in a given city, chances are people from the area would look at you like you're some menacing savage. Others may think it makes you look like a dork depending on the setting. Cowboys and ranchers pull it off well, city folks come off sort of as "mall ninja" like or Tacboy. And then there's your typical train hopping gas station methhead who taints the picture here. For some of us we carry are fixed blades daily while for others it's strictly for camping and hiking. Given the EDC trend and lifestyle, I think it will be more common to see people carrying compact fixed blades.
Click to expand...

Hey, you can definitely wear a fixed blade wherever you can shit in a bush :)
 
I will carry a small fixed blade occasionally. I carry several folding knives everyday. I also appendix carry my CWP when I'm not working. As others have stated, it's your attitude that determines whether someone notices you. Ideally, no one will remember me or my appearance at the end of the day.
 
I prefer a fixed blade but carry folders too. I carry fixed on my property a lot but not so much when I go to town unless I’m dressed in work clothes. I live in a ranching/agricultural area and small fixed blade carry is fairly common here. Few restrictions on blades. Open firearm carry and concealed are both legal here but I don’t want the attention a large knife or open carry of a firearm brings. I also think it depends on where you are, how you are dressed and how big of a statement you are making which may be dictated by the size of the knife and how it is being carried among other things. A reasonable 4”ish or less fixed blade (Which I consider a working blade, though no less lethal) doesn’t draw too much attention for the most part but I occasionally see someone open carrying a fairly large blade and the same goes for open carry of a handgun.
“Open” Carrying a long gun is legal as well although I suspect it would immediately draw attention from law enforcement if you were walking down the street with one.
It’s their right and I don’t question that but I always wonder about their state of mind when making bold moves similar to what I described. It seems aggressive to me and I am a gun and knife enthusiast.
Seeing the print of a poorly concealed handgun gives me no angst at all. I go about my daily business expecting a great percentage of people to be armed. Just my thoughts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top