Had my first "non knife" guy moment.

I would have backed up too. I was taught in Scouts to give people room if they are using a saw, ax, knife, etc. It's common sense to not stand too close to avoid accidents, especially when a stranger of unknown skill level is using the tool. The clerk did the right thing by giving space to work.
 
macknife12 said:
I always take four steps back when someone breaks out a broom or a mop.
Just don't want to get involved. The clerk was probably approaching break.;)
Cheers
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I sure do take some steps back when someone breaks out a bandsaw, or a drill.

Maybe you had a grumpy look on your face re: the box being banged up.
 
Relax, Evan. You missed my point. I'l play again.
FYI my Dad died when I was young and my Mom raised me alone. So yes, I understand being raised by a Mom by herself. No one is attacking your Mom, or Mother's Love, or Apple Pie.

I'm glad you turned out well. I've managed to stay out of prison or rehab so far myself, thanks. Our Moms deserve a lifetime of gratitude, no joke.

I stand by the fact that for the first time we are seeing a generation of unprecedentedly domesticated, urban-indoors young boys turning working age who mostly have little or no experience of knives or tools, or repairing and fooling around with cars and machines, enjoying wilderness, rudimentary weapons safety and a lot of other skillsets that until very recently were part of becoming a Grown Man. Some of those young guys will continue along growing in life and turn out just fine, like you. But from what I see, many more will not. These boys are growing up with little or no exposure to traditional masculine skillsets. Huge societal implications there.

We all see our society is undergoing sweeping socio/psychological transformation, and that society's 'mainstream' attitude towards knives is changing for the worse, which is how most of us interpreted the OP's post.

The OP perceived the store guy as excessively afraid. I said that he may have just been giving the customer/OP reasonable room & normal caution.
Either way, there's a growing climate of free-floating fear and anxiety in a lot of the population today, causing social changes. Unfamiliarity (knives, strangers) breeds fear, often in excess of normal prudence. So "knife control" will likely result in bans and criminalization here, as it already has in the UK and Europe, because more people live in fear of everyday things their ancestors would not have feared, and a big part of that is generational.
 
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Well, the thread has gone from a few simple thoughts about the reaction of the clerk to attacking each other, with all the "demonizing" and psychoanalysing" which was supposedly being heaped upon the original subject turned upon each other.

Which is lame.
 
Bigfattyt said:
The lady at the customer service counter said "That's a weapon".
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I would ask if she had any bigger knives in her kitchen and what in her kitchen justified her having a big weapon. But then I sometimes completely ignore people that are being so obviously unreasonable.
 
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the one subject that would clear up all the questions. SA. The world is full of nutcases. Someone you don't know pulls a knife and flicks it open you step out of immediate range even if you know the intended purpose of the knife.
 
To be fair, we also know nothing about what has happened in the lives of others. I had a coworker who lost it a bit when I popped out my 0561 to open a package, and she told me she had been cornered and narrowly avoided being raped by a guy with a switchblade when she was a young woman. Not the same knife, obviously, but it's a quickly-opening blade with a very noticeable sound. I told her I would two-hand open the knife around her in the future.

It's easy to criticize the reactions of others when you don't know their perspective. That guy could have been seriously injured or threatened, he could have a phobia - any number of things. I always announce my use of a knife at work to avoid customer complaints. "I don't want to alarm you, so I'm just letting you know I'm going to use a knife on this." No surprises, no shock.
 
GronK said:
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the one subject that would clear up all the questions. SA. The world is full of nutcases. Someone you don't know pulls a knife and flicks it open you step out of immediate range even if you know the intended purpose of the knife.
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Also true - for every responsible and sensible knife owner, there are two or three unstable people or careless owners. Don't blame the reaction soley on the reactor, but on those that have given them cause to see knives as a potential threat.
 
Generational changes. I don't know how many generations removed the Retail Lady who exclaims 'That's a weapon!" might be from her own ancestors who used knives to kill and dress game, meat, fish for family survival for the last 100,000 years or so, but her attitude is a generational change. Lose the skillset from earlier generations, and the mindset changes as well. Knives are among our oldest human tools, so when the sociology of knives changes something major and primal has shifted.

A lot of us are at an age where we can see firshand the dramatic change in the skillset bell curve from the generations of the early/middle 20C. to today. My farmer granddad inherited 19C. wisdom about raising livestock, planting, a whole oral history library of knowledge that mostly passed with his generation as their children left the farms. My generation's grandmothers sewed much of the family wardrobe, and well; today many people have never attempted to sew a button back on. It's obvious from Amazon knife reviews that many knife owners can't seem to conceive of sharpening a dull knife; may not even occur to them as an option; once dull you retire it and have to buy a new one that's sharp.

@Stabman, I love your tagline. Evan (who I don't know) seems to have missed my point, and maybe gotten his feelings hurt. Not my intention, and I hope my reply set that straight. Generational transitions do not have to apply to every individual among tens of millions. I'm not casting aspersions on his or any forum member's manhood, his family values or his worthiness as a human being.
I said I see today tens of millions of young men being raised, largely by default, to be metrosexual urbanized indoors cubicle dwellers, young men who have more behavioral traits and mindset/attitudes in common with their sisters than with their grandfathers. That generation as it inherits the reins will change many things in America, including the mainstream mindset towards these knives we all appreciate so much. "That's a weapon!" I'm not suggesting Evan is among that vast legion, and I'm glad for his sake that he is not.
 
Tallahassee said:
Generational changes. I don't know how many generations removed the Retail Lady who exclaims 'That's a weapon!" might be from her own ancestors who used knives to kill and dress game, meat, fish for family survival for the last 100,000 years or so, but her attitude is a generational change. Lose the skillset from earlier generations, and the mindset changes as well. Knives are among our oldest human tools, so when the sociology of knives changes something major and primal has shifted.

A lot of us are at an age where we can see firshand the dramatic change in the skillset bell curve from the generations of the early/middle 20C. to today. My farmer granddad inherited 19C. wisdom about raising livestock, planting, a whole oral history library of knowledge that mostly passed with his generation as their children left the farms. My generation's grandmothers sewed much of the family wardrobe, and well; today many people have never attempted to sew a button back on. It's obvious from Amazon knife reviews that many knife owners can't seem to conceive of sharpening a dull knife; may not even occur to them as an option; once dull you retire it and have to buy a new one that's sharp.

@Stabman, I love your tagline. Evan (who I don't know) seems to have missed my point, and maybe gotten his feelings hurt. Not my intention, and I hope my reply set that straight. Generational transitions do not have to apply to every individual among tens of millions. I'm not casting aspersions on his or any forum member's manhood, his family values or his worthiness as a human being.
I said I see today tens of millions of young men being raised, largely by default, to be metrosexual urbanized indoors cubicle dwellers, young men who have more behavioral traits and mindset/attitudes in common with their sisters than with their grandfathers. That generation as it inherits the reins will change many things in America, including the mainstream mindset towards these knives we all appreciate so much. "That's a weapon!" I'm not suggesting Evan is among that vast legion, and I'm glad for his sake that he is not.
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We're straight.

My apologies as well, not having a good day and I let my emotions get the better of me.
 
If I have need of a sharp tool in less than ideal situations(businesses) I open it behind my leg since it is one of Ken Onions with a thumb stud, no need to spook sheeple in the process.
 
Agreed, you never know who has a past personal trauma.
Phobia on the other hand is an acquired/taught mindset. No previous personal trauma is required. Just a taught, conditioned attitude of fear.

And yes, basic knife etiquette becomes all the more important. Announce your intentions, move carefully, don't alarm bystanders or frighten the horses.

Our grandparents only had to be concerned with not cutting themselves. They weren't today's walking bundles of potential psychotrauma with phobias all a-bristle.
 
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evanPGH said:
We're straight.

My apologies as well, not having a good day and I let my emotions get the better of me.
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No apologies required, thanks, but accepted anyway, and well said Sir. Glad to meet you here. You sound like you are making a great life your generation should envy. And your Mom, I am sure, is very proud of you, and with every good reason.
 
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Tallahassee said:
I stand by the fact that for the first time we are seeing a generation of unprecedentedly domesticated, urban-indoors young boys turning working age who mostly have little or no experience of knives or tools, or repairing and fooling around with cars and machines, enjoying wilderness, rudimentary weapons safety and a lot of other skillsets that until very recently were part of becoming a Grown Man. Some of those young guys will continue along growing in life and turn out just fine, like you. But from what I see, many more will not. These boys are growing up with little or no exposure to traditional masculine skillsets. Huge societal implications there.
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And I've seen many many of these young ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many without any of the "manly" experiences you describe above before joining the military. They are and will be fine. Some of every generation lament the generation after them. My grandparents' generation did so with my parents' generation. My parents' generation with my generation. The next generation never quite measures up. If that's true, our generation is screwed up and not really not better than the next. Same with our parents' and grandparents' generations.
 
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Seems some of you really have this store clerk figured out :p

I'll play.
I think he instintively executed the "four steps back and ready to attack" rule his trainer taught him.
If the OP had made one wrong move I doubt he would be here to tell this tale.
 
Ken44 said:
Seems some of you really have this store clerk figured out :p
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Well, as a security guard that is just one of my many powers.
On Saturday, due to weird international shipping regulations, I technically made it from Windsor to Poland and back in 5 minutes.
That gives me a speed of about 108000 miles per hour! :thumbup:

Deciphering the motivations of a clerk is child's play in comparison to that. :D
 
I dont see why these people just don't carry box cutters at work like I do! lol. Then they wouldn't need you guys to bust out your EDC and then they wouldn't get scared . I work retail too and I almost always have my cutter on me, it will outcut any knife I have in the cardboard world. If I do forget it in my car or something then yes I always use my zdp endura. Never had a problem with customers or co-workers, thank God. Thanks for the stories.
 
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