Had my first "non knife" guy moment.

Leghog, good to read that. Sure enough, every generation should see the one before as better, gives us something to aspire to. I know the older I get (since about 28) the more my Boomer generation leaves me unimpressed, and the savvier and tougher and more get-er-done the WW2 generation of our parents looks. Both genders.

Historically we've probably been going downhill since the generation of the 1860s-1880s.

Mark Twain wrote that when he ran away from home at age 18 his daddy was the dumbest, most ignorant, uninformed fool, and Twain felt embarrassed for him.
Then when Twain came back at 25 after roughing it in the school of hard knocks he was suprised to find how much smarter the old man had suddenly become while he was away.
 
Tallahassee said:
Leghog, good to read that. Sure enough, every generation should see the one before as better, gives us something to aspire to.
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The reverse holds true too. If the next generation behind yours is a mess, it is yours that reared them so your generation can't escape blame for the mess. If your generation is a mess, it is your parents' generation that reared you so their generation can't escape blame for the mess.
 
The resolve for all of this is to two knife edc. A little schrade old timer or sak in one pocket and whatever you carry in the other. For me its a trapper with a 3.5 inch blade in my bag and essentially a pen knife in my pocket.

Not knowing what others might think for good or bad its the polite gentlemanly thing to do which is to use the tiny pen knife when around strangers.
 
Next time, just gnaw on the package till it tears open.
That's the civilized way to open things. :)
 
I believe the account of the Op. I have had reactions like this. it is just stupid people being stupid.
 
Hell, it could have just been surprise that someone carries a knife at all. If you are unused to people around you having them, and only really see them in the kitchen, the mere sudden appearance, loud thwack, and swift opening of a pocket knife from out of seemingly nowhere might make you jump.

It seems knife carriers are extremely rare in some groups, not necessarily age oriented. I work in Air Force Comm, and in my squadron only me, the First Sergeant, and my Commander carry knives (the Commander even carries an Auto, super illegal in England!). Out of 100 or so people, many of whom work with tools every day. Every time we get new people in, they are very surprised by my knives. After a while they get used to them, and eventually they start asking me to cut things for them all the time. I do still get the "why do you carry a knife," question right after cutting things for them sometimes, but I just patiently tell them why.

In the Security Forces squadron, almost everyone carries a knife on duty, but most don't carry when they are off, and seem surprised that anyone else does. It is simply not a necessary tool for most people. Even for me, I don't really need it very often, but I do find it very convenient to have, and superior to many of the less functional substitutes.

I did have one time when a CRKT Eros I had clipped to my pocket fell off in a college class on base. I didn't notice it at the time, but after I left I called the education center and asked if they had found it. When he said yes, I told him I was going to come pick it up after work. When I showed up, they had turned it in to my First Sergeant, since it was a "dangerous weapon". Luckily, as I said before, he was the only other person in my unit that regularly carries, so he gave it back to me and told me to be more careful about where I leave it. Still, I will never forget that look of confusion and slight fear when the Education Center clerk told me that the knife had been turned in. He really didn't understand why I would want to carry such a thing, and especially why I would have it in class (I was in uniform during that class, as it started immediately after my shift ended, and it just happened to still be clipped there). Of course, he is British, so that explains part of it...

Oh and the Air Force is very heavily Conservative, and there is a rather large amount of Tea Party/hardcore Libertarian's, so its not just Liberals that don't get the knife thing.
 
larson1122 said:
His reaction doesn't sound all that unusal to me. I could see how a stranger flipping open a fairly good sized knife next to him in a public store may cause him to think twice about your intentions.
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I'm a knife guy and even I would look at you funny. Guess I just don't trust people lol.
 
I snap my knife out whenever I need to use it pretty much regardless of the circumstances.

There are consequences to doing something like this in injudicious locations these days and you should should be willing to face them if you do so.

I don't find the clerk's reaction to be at all unreasonable.

In fact, I would have half expected a cruiser to be waiting outside for you after the manager reported a "disgruntled customer who brandished a knife at a clerk and demanded a discount".

The world is funny like that. Sometimes people perceive events differently.
 
I was at a clothing store and there was this pretty hot girl helping me behind the counter with my purchase. She had two garmets that were hinged together with those plastic ties they use for labels.
Anyways, so I she was trying to find a way to pull them apart without damaging the clothes and I asked her if she needed a knife. She said yes and I whipped out the waved Emerson with a loud clang and she held it up to me to cut. She was not taken back at all. I think I should ask her to marry me.
 
Just saying, even 50 or 100 years ago not everyone would have a knife on them, and if they did it would likely be something like a Stockman-type penknife.

I'm pretty sure you could easily get the same reaction from that Benchmade in a 1950s-era department store...

Remember the switchblade bans started in 1954...
 
Just give strangers a verbal " heads-up" before you pull your knife out and tell them what you're going to do with it. No surprises and more often than not , no shock factor. Simple. Not a tactical situation.
 
This brings to mind a scene in Se7en where Morgan Freeman opens his old school auto knife to cut the paper off of the back of the painting. Brad Pitt says "what the F**K is that?" like he just pulled out a backpack nuke or something. David Fincher is one of the best directors of all time, but I hate they way this scene presented auto knives. So stupid.
 
TMorita said:
I personally find it very disturbing when people start referring to non-knife/non-gun people as "sheeple".

Here are the first three steps of eight steps to genocide as defined by Genocide Watch, shortened for brevity's sake:

1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi.

2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups.

3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder.

More info here:

http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocide/8stagesofgenocide.html

So, let's examine the term "sheeple".

"sheeple" indicates stage 1 has already been reached because it separates "us versus them" e.g. knife/gun people vs non-knife/non-gun people.

"sheeple" indicates stage 2 has been reached because it is a name of a classification.

"sheeple" indicates stage 3 has been reached because equates non-knife/non-gun people to animals (sheep).

I hope you find this disturbing too.

Toshi
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Every group has a right to its own shared body of opinion. As long as the negatives don't lead to actual attacks on outsiders, the shared body of opinion only defines a hobby.

When the world has daily examples of real genocide, defining any negative attitude as leading to it is absurd.

If you need to obsess over these distinctions, take it to the Political Arena.
 
Situational awareness is human nature, it's our biggest and quite frankly best defense. And if any person uses a knife near me I'm going to naturally go through the thought process of mental self protection and subtley give him a little space to do his thing - be it cut open a box or cut his belt off so he can get naked in a manly hurry.

That shop guy would defy his natural instincts if he closed in on the knife and had a close up look! expect any half alert person to give you breathing space when you pull out any potential 'weapon'. And weither we like the idea of our pocket knives being ignorantly called weapons we need to appreciate that nature is in us all, and we do live to protect ourselves!

With all that said and done, here in England it's even less common for dudes to whip out their blades in public due to the puppeteer press deluding and scareing people. But, I still put a knife in my pocket with the full intention to use it safely as and when it needs to be. Even in an Oxfam second hand shop (thrift store?), I helped an elderly employee pry open a plastic pot full of paper clips with my spyderco and to my suprise she didn't think anything of it and thanked me. Also I am a large built dude, with tatoos, a skin head and hillbilly face hair. However, I am well spoken and polite and offered my help.

When I was at my local shooting club where I go to practice poking holes in paper with the range's Ruger 10-22 rifles, I had to open a little box of bullets. I have no finger nails due to the extensive torture I experienced when I was in the cocaine business (I jest, I cut them short..with my knife.) so I used my spyderco ukpk to slice the tape stuff and pop open the lid and a young lad at the club was pretty much fixated on me and my knife that was on the table. Not the box of bullets and rack of guns the guys had been shooting but my pocket knife! I don't believe he was threatened but intruiged that a guy had a knife! lol

Another time at that same club I was going through some safety runs with a range officer. We were going though the safety process of loading and unloading a prone .22lr single shot rifle using dummy rounds in the chamber. Boring story short, the little red plastic dummy round got stuck and the old boy pulled out his knife (a very small sak type thing that is just a tad larger than one of those keyring sak's) and I was a little like 'oh, the old dudes got a cool little knife!' lol. He failed to get it out with his knife though and I offered mine (again the spydie) and he said 'nah it's ok I'll get a barrel rod' and shared no care of it.

SO, from what I've learend is that everyone is a little different. And in any situation you may get mixed reactions. My advice is continue to use your knife safely, be polite and try to appreciate that some people are more alert and anxious than others and with a little display of manners will take a subconcious lesson home with them not everything/everyone out there is bad. :)

This is my ignorable, yet intruiging knife that sleeps in my pocket.. untill any tape or potsout there need a good seeing too! ;)

 
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