Cutting Christmas trees with own knife?

Jens Schuetz

Jens Schuetz

Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,162
Since 4 years we are cutting our own trees on Christmas tree farms in the rural vicinity of our small town.
I know they provide saws and they are usually better than my Kukris but guess what's more fun for the kids? Also they can't really overcome the resistance of a saw yet but make their little chops quite easily. I always ask if it's OK to use our own knife.

Normally there's no issue and a really old feller even thought it was pretty cool and undeservedly commented that with more people like me the country will be better off.

Last year however we got a bit of flak. The farm guy who helped us (not that we needed any) said they don't like it because the trees wouldn't grow back as well but since nobody is seeing us among all those trees it should be fine. We also had to saw clean the chopped off stump for the tree to grow back better. No biggie. The kids liked playing with the good smelling left over.
When done I strapped the Kuk to the outside of our backpack. Then we went to the Hut to pay for the tree. The mid 30s burly foreman came bursting out of his shed and said something like, the Sheriff could arrest us for it. What did I do? He was alluding to concealed carry. He went on that he himself got in trouble for this.
However CA law is pretty clear and even allows carry inside a backpack since it may be concealed but isn't accessible easily. Either way, that he saw the Kukri from quite a distance, through a window, also meant that it wasn't concealed at all.

Just by the words I could have thought it was a fellow knife nut being overly concerned for my legal well being.
Its just that he looked quite angry and followed us a bit to our car. Later when the Kuk and backpack were in our car he kept observing us across the street when we did some other shopping. I just nodded, he didn't seem to happy. The kids were a bit confused and wife didn't say anything.
Wouldn't go there again.

What do you guys think? Am I overreacting? Should I leave my knife at home next time in order to avoid this, even though it's perfectly legal?
If it was just them not wanting knives on their property for insurance or other reasons I'd not have written anything it's just that he thought I broke some law and was behaving quite weirdly.

Thank you.
 
Last edited:
Danke42 said:
Trees don't grow back from stumps.

Can the kids run a chainsaw?
Click to expand...
I thought so too though saw some which grew back. They didn't look too pretty.
Of course they only use handsaws there. :-D I had my first chainsaw with 16 only. I don't think my kids could handle one before that but we'll see.
 
You can maybe have an odd branch growning off a stump but not much else. You can get a whole new tree growing out of a dead stump.

Unless you just top the tree. That leaves the tree looking pretty ugly though and I can't see how you could ever cut a second tree out of it again.
 
Jens Schuetz said:
What do you guys think? Am I overreacting? Should I leave my knife at home next time in order to avoid this, even though it's perfectly legal?
Click to expand...
I would still carry the knife and use it as you have been doing so. This is now a Family Tradition that your children enjoy.

Jens Schuetz said:
If it was just them not wanting knives on their property for insurance or other reasons I'd not have written anything it's just that he thought I broke some law and was behaving quite weirdly.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

If this was a company thing, he would have gained more ground while building customer relations by taking a different path.

Had he of come up to you and simply said, "Look, I know that we don't have anything stating that you Can't use that knife, but it has made some people rather uneasy, and we have had some complaints."

You would likely have had some respect and complied with his request.

Personally, I would go about it as he didn't say a thing to me, and just go about my normal business next year. Go through with the Family Tradition as you have and stay within your rights.
Don't be obnoxious, flamboyant or overly concerned and seemingly nervous about it, that will only draw more ire.

And most importantly, I would enjoy my holidays with my family as We saw fit.
 
I hope the OP is kidding and assume this is his reaction to the slew of recent inane threads.

If not, then use your kuk where and when legal.
 
CBwiOkT.gif
 
BladeScout said:
I hope the OP is kidding and assume this is his reaction to the slew of recent inane threads.

If not, then use your kuk where and when legal.
Click to expand...
I wish I'd be kidding. It's just my nature to avoid inconveniencing others and not to draw too much awkward attention.

But its getting better. Kids are actually a good way to overcome this. At least I'm much more outgoing now, still don't like confrontations.

Also, if I make a joke you'll probably notice :-p
 
Danke42 said:
You can maybe have an odd branch growning off a stump but not much else. You can get a whole new tree growing out of a dead stump.

Unless you just top the tree. That leaves the tree looking pretty ugly though and I can't see how you could ever cut a second tree out of it again.
Click to expand...
I don't know what magic they do. They have complete trees growing out of the side of the stumps. Thus the stumps cutting surface shouldn't matter unless a irregular shape makes it dry out faster.
They also had artificial irrigation and who knows, might even be employing phyto hormones.
 
I'm surprised they would care. Some people use hatchets, and to me a kukri is just another cutting tool.

I'm not big on confrontation either, and I also don't like being given a hard time when I am giving someone my business, so I would probably just not go back to that particular business.
 
NJBillK said:
I would still carry the knife and use it as you have been doing so. This is now a Family Tradition that your children enjoy.



If this was a company thing, he would have gained more ground while building customer relations by taking a different path.

Had he of come up to you and simply said, "Look, I know that we don't have anything stating that you Can't use that knife, but it has made some people rather uneasy, and we have had some complaints."

You would likely have had some respect and complied with his request.

Personally, I would go about it as he didn't say a thing to me, and just go about my normal business next year. Go through with the Family Tradition as you have and stay within your rights.
Don't be obnoxious, flamboyant or overly concerned and seemingly nervous about it, that will only draw more ire.

And most importantly, I would enjoy my holidays with my family as We saw fit.
Click to expand...
Thanks NJBillK
You are right. I shouldn't care. We will probably just pick another farm. There are easily 10 or more within 20 minute driving distance. The smaller the operation the more friendly they seem.
I'm only a little bit tempted to go there again this year, with all 4 of us carrying our own Kukris :-D
 
popedandy said:
I'm surprised they would care. Some people use hatchets, and to me a kukri is just another cutting tool.

I'm not big on confrontation either, and I also don't like being given a hard time when I am giving someone my business, so I would probably just not go back to that particular business.
Click to expand...
Maybe the company as a whole didn't care and it was just this one guy.
I guess he was angry that he got in trouble with the Sheriff for something knife related and thought I shouldn't get away with it.
That leaves two possibilities. Either he got in trouble because he did something different from me and illegal or the local sheriff doesn't know too much about Ca knife law details.
I was thinking about emailing the Sheriff to get some idea of what he thinks but why put myself on the radar?
 
Jens Schuetz said:
I don't know what magic they do. They have complete trees growing out of the side of the stumps. Thus the stumps cutting surface shouldn't matter unless a irregular shape makes it dry out faster.
They also had artificial irrigation and who knows, might even be employing phyto hormones.
Click to expand...

Crazy. Up here we just plant more trees.
 
My guess is that very, very few people harvest their own Christmas trees from tree farms with a Kukri (which is pretty awesome, by the way.) That doesn't make it "wrong" -- just "unusual" in the sense that you innocently breached an invisible social norm. Happens all the time.

Next Christmas, I would simply ask permission beforehand from those running the show to use your Kukri(s) to cut down the tree. Show them the Kukri(s) so nobody gets confused.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top