City folks and knives

One problem is that the non-knife world cannot comprehend the knife world, we have to bear this in mind unfortunately. 'They' probably view 'our ' hobby as something akin to collecting venomous snakes, getting a knife out in some workplaces could be like letting your pet Cobra out for a walk! Most of this is due to manufactured fear, a commodity the media peddles endlessly and deliberately exaggerates for their own ends. Thus knives are allied to malcontents and maniacs, all grotesque distortion. So the very word 'carry' has been demonised, associated with intent to commit crime in some way. The irony is, that most serious knife crime is carried out with to hand kitchen knives,cheap,available and easy to conceal.

Nobody has ever asked me why I use a knife,and I prefer this word to carry, at work probably because I am careful where and how I use a knife. I don't share an office so opening envelopes or packets is no problem. I do prepare fruits and snacks with a 3.5" Traditional knife and the response has been usually to want some of my food. Opening coffee bags should be in the same category I feel. I think that if we are challenged about our knives the response must be calm,friendly and not sarcastic or defensive in any way. I like fruit cut up into pieces and not eaten off the core or stone,too messy. I like to open packets without tearing them to bits or damaging what's inside them, a reasoned response to a potentially unreasonable question.
 
jackknife said:
We can piss and moan all we want to about the sheeple society, and stamp our feet in rage, but it will never change one very important fact; this IS the society we live in, it's not going to get any better, and you just have to get over it, and deal with it.

You all are knife knuts, so you are different than the rest of what you call sheeple. You obsess over knives, use them at every opportunity, and collect them in numbers far larger than needed by any sane person. You even spend time here on a web site just about knives. By the standards of the rest of society, WE are the ones with the problems. And in the real world, they are half right. And they rule the real world.

Any hobby can be over done, and we over do it on many occasions. If we are working in an office environment, why not, when you have to cut something, use a small pen knife? Our fathers and grandfathers did this. I remember most of the men I grew up around in the late 1940's and 1950's, carried a small plain pen knife. I see a great deal of sheeple with the little Victorinox classic on a keychain. Some sheeple actually are smart enough that they know they need a cutting tool, so they carry a sak. The sak is the favored knife of hippy back packers, bird watchers and other outdoor sheeple. So why not, if you work in an office environment with the sheeple, use something that will not be noticed?

Like it or not, we have to go along with the society we live in. The majority make the rules, as well as the mores and customs of the society. We are the minority. Admit it, the only reason you carry what you do carry, is that as a knife knut, you over do it. This is not the wild west, you're not going to be fighting wild injuns on the warpath, you're not going to be skinning any buffalo in the course of your day. You really don't need much knife in the course of a real world day in suburbia and normal office cubicle work environment.

BUT...

You are the ambassador of your hobby. The impression you make on the ignorant sheeple can be a very powerful first impression. You can get along with them and maybe even make a good impression on the of the knife as a tool, or you can be the young guy who flashes a one hand wonder knife of the month like a modern James Dean, and make a bad first impression. Then something comes up on the ballot, and you find yourself living in someplace like Boston with ridiculous blade limits, or San Antonio where you can't carry a knife with a locking blade, or worse. Think of England. Sheeple vote, remember that.

It's all up to you all in how the public sees us as knife knuts. You can try to get along with society, or be the rugged individualist and look like a nut in their eyes. If you want to carry whatever you want, quit your job and move to the boonies and become a mountain man. Go work on a ranch. But if you have a family and need the income, then you have to get along with the populace of the office cubicle world. Sheeple.

There's a reason that the wolf in the old fable, put on sheeps clothing.
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I am living in England.
You adapt to the thinking of "sheeple" "people"that you are in with.
Workmates good-office staff not good.
I work in maintenance so a "knife" is a vital tool.
In the workshop not even a comment about using my Spyderco Terzuola non-locking folder(legal in UK!)
Not in the Office areas,I have even got comments about using my multi-tool.
I agree with that fable.
 
I really don't care what people think about me most of the time but...it's not worth having a "scary" user knife in front of the sissy's and getting fired I always have at least two knives, most of the time three one large fixed blade iwb one modern folder and a slip joint of some kind. It really is sad that people are afraid of knives wen they are just opened let alone used for anything. Just remember that pansies rule the world if someone is afraid of something then you shouldn't be allowed to have one. It makes perfect sense right.
 
Over the years I've learned to choose my battles. Sometimes I can afford to get on my little soap box and lecture people on how my knife and gun are just part of my right and obligation to take responsibility for myself, but on other occasions keeping a low profile is the best course of action.

So far I've never had a problem with coworkers. I make a point of being super careful in my knife use when amongst non-knife people, eventually they tend to realize that my habit of carrying a few tools all the time is beneficial to them as well (I'm always fixing stuff or cutting things for other folks). Like somebody mentioned before, we're ambassadors of our hobby.

In addition to any knives I may be carrying, I always put a SAK in my pocket. The extra tools come in handy quite often and it's great for most urban uses. For instance, yesterday I needed to sharpen a pencil in the middle of an anatomy lesson, the small blade on my Wenger SAK did a great job and nobody gave it a second look. I had a Chinook 3 clipped to that same pocket, while it would have been perfectly legal to whip it out and sharpen my pencil I would probably have attracted some negative attention.

What I mean is that each of us needs to find a balance between defending our right to carry and use knives, and fitting into our work environments. As much as I love knives I need to put food on the table (and more knives in my collection!) so I'm not about to jeopardize my job or get expelled from school.
 
I live in Seattle, I consider it a pretty big city. Where I work nobody asks what you need a knife for. All the young guys always want to barrow mine, all the old guys have their own. Usually a 3 bladed whittler or a stockman, sometimes a trapper. Old Timers are pretty popular.

I was at a fish fry a few weeks ago. The fellow who owned the house is a retired Army Ranger, and he was showing off his BM auto (mini striker I believe). So I showed him my new CS Recon 1. One of the young ladies there asked if I was in the army too. I had to laugh a little. :)

I'm a welder btw.
 
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