Have people reacted to your knife with shock or fear?

Silverthorn said:
I carry a sleek Kershaw folder, and I always take it out covertly. Where I work I carry a crappy Winchester folder..lol and everyone knows I carry it and its for work so its never been a problem.

I have only had to defend my self with a knife twice in my life.
One of the two times it was the attackers knife that I used after causing him to drop it.
The other time the person never knew I had a knife until they suddenly didn't want to try to harm me anymore.
Never gotten in trouble for my EDC because I pay close attention to the laws of the area I live in, and where I am traveling.
Perfect example what I can carry concealed in VA or MD may not be the same as in DC where I might end up, so I carry to the DC rule to prevent ever having a local problem.

Brandishers are typically what give gun and knife people bad names. The "Look at me I have a weapon" or "Get back I have a weapon" people are a train wreck.
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No offense, but if you have had to use a knife to defend yourself 'only' 2 times so far in your life, you might want to take a step back and look at what you are doing with your life. Most people go through life without ever getting in a fist fight, much less using a knife to injure/ fight/ defend yourself. If you are putting yourself in positions that you have to fight and use weapons on a regular basis then I doubt you are being a good upstanding citizen. Even if I'm wrong and you are, you are at least putting yourself in bad situations. I don't really care what you do with your life but I just thought I would point out that your experiences are not normal if they are indeed real.


jbmonkey said:
No offense but knife stabbings in public places in the states is rare. Like I said I can't remember any where I live. Lots of shootings in public though, sadly. Canada and the usa are like brothers. Our cultures and backgrounds, histories are very similar, but there are vast differences as well. Same could be said about each state in the usa as well. Each state is like its own country in a way. We are a nation due to our union. In the end canada is a very great, but very different place from where I live and here stabbings in public places are an extreme rarity.
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I think you might be surprised. Many things happen that you don't hear about in the news, even in small towns. I have come to learn that if you really want to find out what goes on in your community, find someone who works in the local hospital. My wife works in the operating room and there are all types of shootings and stabbings that happen that you never hear about. I would be surprised if even 10% of the local shootings/ stabbings are reported. Not only do you find out about various injuries, but I also find out about the more famous people in town because doctors usually know these people and like to talk about things. I hear all types of stories about people such as our well known football coach and a few of the more wealthy residents. Anyways, while I hate to admit it, stabbings happen all too often even if it usually involves wannabe gangsters and intoxicated drug addicts. I live in a fairly small city so I can't imagine what happens in a large city that doesn't sleep. Even here there are a couple stabbings and shootings every week. I wouldn't call that rare.
 
@FlaMtnBkr

You are absolutely correct, in your assessment, on many points.
Some would say that I spent a long time looking for trouble.

In my youth, I was not particularly careful about where I went and what I did, and who I did it with.

More than once I lived in terrible parts of town because I had no choice, and a year out of high school I was homeless for a while.
I was a roadie for a friends band for a few months.
I also ran security at an after rave night club, was a bouncer at a few clubs, and for a while owned my own security/consulting company. So I did get in more trouble than people in other circumstances.

I guess the "only 2 times" could seem weird to someone reading it with out that perspective.
Maybe it should have read "of the many times I was involved in a violent altercation, or attempted to stop the criminal or violent act of another, there were only 2 times that I defended myself with a knife" But then it might of come across like I was trying to be Jason Borne or something.

Even with the incidents in question, I had never had a fear reaction from my edc because I don't carry a big, scary, or "tactical" knife, and I never brandish it.

That was all that I was trying to get across in my original post, without going into a detailed description of my life.

I actually consider myself lucky that I am here to casually chat about it.
I got out of the security business, and got a much safer and less exciting job.
I married a wonderful woman, who gave me a beautiful daughter, life is good.
 
Once, my ColdSteel XL Espada was sent to the police arms and explosives department for clearence. I went down to the department and the police officer returned me the knife. On the way out of the police HQ, the knife slipped out of my bag and dropped on the floor- the impact opened the knife. The people around who were chatting suddenly turned silent. The look on their faces were epic! Anyway, i picked up the knife and walked away quickly.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
I think you might be surprised. Many things happen that you don't hear about in the news, even in small towns. I have come to learn that if you really want to find out what goes on in your community, find someone who works in the local hospital. My wife works in the operating room and there are all types of shootings and stabbings that happen that you never hear about. I would be surprised if even 10% of the local shootings/ stabbings are reported. Not only do you find out about various injuries, but I also find out about the more famous people in town because doctors usually know these people and like to talk about things. I hear all types of stories about people such as our well known football coach and a few of the more wealthy residents. Anyways, while I hate to admit it, stabbings happen all too often even if it usually involves wannabe gangsters and intoxicated drug addicts. I live in a fairly small city so I can't imagine what happens in a large city that doesn't sleep. Even here there are a couple stabbings and shootings every week. I wouldn't call that rare.
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I am surprised. Where in florida are you Sir? Not saying stabbings never happen I am saying ones in public between strangers are rare. That excludes gang on gang attacks as that isn't what we all are talking about. We have really been talking about strangers attacking people with knives. Remember the discussion was about someone using a knife and people being scared of it cause they could get attacked with it. Gang on gang and crazy husband stabs wife stuff in private is a bit different. At least that is my point random in public stabbbings are ultra rare and the new media would jump all over those stories if they happened often as you suggest. I guess ya'll live in one dangerous small town.


Your point has interested me enough to go look at the crime statistics though. Maybe I have a very warped sense of knife attacks as I described above. Thanks for your thoughts on the subject ,Sir.
 
jbmonkey said:
Gang on gang and crazy husband stabs wife stuff in private is a bit different.
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Statistically, you should be FAR more worried about crazy husbands or wives with knives and guns than gang members.
That's where the murder numbers are really at.
Gang violence is just more sexy for media fear induction.
 
"There is more to life than a bunch of easy-tabs"

one time my female manager gave me the "what do you need that for?" when I pulled out my flashlight. My response was definitely restrained.

I get that more than anything "what do you need that for"

But if you use your knife when nothing else can do the job quickly than.... uh.... I need it for this.

I feel that's the best way to promote pocket tools is use them when appropriate and instead of getting the FREAK association you get the HANDY association.
 
KeithAM said:
I seldom get a negative reaction.

I think it's mainly because I'm generally clean cut, middle aged, and don't come accross as a scary, aggressive, badass punk.
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Maybe that's my problem. I definitely have a don't mess with me look. Long hair, beard, boots, trucker hat, and early twenties.
 
I was telling my old lady about this thread. She said, "Omigod! One of the guys at work was using a pocketknife today to open boxes and I forgot to freak out! Totally forgot to freak out!"

:eek:

:rolleyes:
 
I like what Sinza of www.exoticautomatic.com says...

Public places=anywhere outside your own property. Step past your property line and a judge will say you are now on pulic land.

Again, there are laws and we all choose which ones to follow and which ones to break.

You can carry whatever you want.
In my 20's I carried a Silver Shadow.

I had to pull it a couple of times but it never got past that. I called it 'my wallet'.

It's just the thing about 'if you can't do the time then don't do the crime'.

Carry whatever you want, just know that jail really suck! It's boring and the people are rude and in a bad mood. The beds are hard, the rooms are cold and people watch you take a shit. No privacy, no quiet, no women, no 'vices', very little if any happiness. Crappy food, beatings, rapes, killings.
But you will get to shower with your new buddies! If you're young...unless you can fight...you can be gang raped then made into someones Bitch. He owns you and you do as he says. Bend over. When he get bored he'll trade you for a pack of smokes to the next 'owner' who gets to do whatever he wants with you.

Alway consider what you're doing and if it is really worth possible outcomes.

The reason I don't carry a gun is I would shoot someone in the head. No problem. I'm not willing to take that risk. I'll carry something else and look like someone you just want to leave alone. Motorcycles and leathers are great for that. People just assume you are packing something...cops too.
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stabman said:
Statistically, you should be FAR more worried about crazy husbands or wives with knives and guns than gang members.
That's where the murder numbers are really at.
Gang violence is just more sexy for media fear induction.
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sorry i typed that poorly. i'm not really worried about either. cause i'm not in gang or live near them, so the chances of me being caught in a crossfire or stabbing attack are slim to rare. same with crazy wife or husband deal . i avoid people who are on edge, so i won't be sititng watching baseball in their living room when the knife fight or gunfight begins.

i meant more to the effect, that we should all realize knives will be used by crazy wife on husband or vice versa as well as gang member on gang member. allot like shootings and muders in general it's usually someone you know who attacks or kills you, kind of thing. rarely a stranger.

that has bearing obviously in this discussion, but the topic was more so originally on a guy using a legal tool in public hence cutting a sandwich or whatever, and a perfect stranger or strangers seeing it, and freaking out cause they might get attacked by legal tool user deal. i think that is a very rare event. not that it never has or never will happen, i think we all know better than that....but that it doesn't very often at all. it's the attack in public by a stanger on a stranger that i think is very rare.....i am still researching to see if i am out in left field on that one, and i may be.

as for the news media...they would love to put up stories about innocents sitting in the resturant and random stranger pulls out their pocket knive cuts his sandwich in half and then goes on a stabbing spree. the media loves that kind as much as gang violence.

so i still think people being afraid of knives being used as a tool, are being silly. i can understand the fear of the unkown thing, and i can also get the being weary/observant until knife is pocketed or sheathed after legal cutting task is done. no problem, but really i think allot of people overreact way too much, over a pocket knife.
 
I always have my SAK with me to take over for public cutting tasks, unfortunately some people even find the iconic SAK to look dangerous.

On the subject of sheeple, my uncle was fired for leaving his paring knife unattended in an office. He was paring some fruit, left for a second, a woman passed his desk and freaked out.
 
Where I live, everyone carries a knife. Even at my college. When I lived in New Hampshire, it was even more lax. You could even carry a knife in high school as long as it was <3.5".

After reading this thread, I'm eternally grateful that I've managed to avoid the suburbs.
 
The Logical One said:
Somebody mentioned this in a different thread, and it is VERY true. People are not scared of the knives, they are scared of the person with the knife or in the manner they are using it.
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I find exactly the opposite. I have had friends, coworkers and family members who know me as a very mild mannered, even tempered individual who never displays a hint of agression, who reacted with worry and fear when I pulled a small SAK or slipjoint out of my pocket to open a package and ask nervously why I am carrying a weapon... sigh.
 
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stabman said:
Didn't they ban assisted openers in Texas?
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No, actually they did the opposite. A law was signed in 2009 to clarify that one-handed and assisted open knives are NOT automatic knives and that there is no state law banning their possession. Occasionally we do get some laws in Texas that actually make sense. :)
 
When I go for my edc knife in the office people look at me like im nuts! Normally my office edc knives are a cadet and or a sog twitch 1. The other day a ladys chair was wobbling and sure enough I got tired of her complaining about it so I offered to fix it. Whipped out my Cadet and tightend up the screws and cut some plastic away from the pivot point and boom it was fixed.

Thank got I don't bring my normal EDC blades and tactical blades to work, I would he fireed for sure lol
 
I get weird looks all the time but then again I EDC my Spyderco Military with camo G10 and a black Blade, so maybe I deserve the looks for carrying around such an aggressive looking blade. :(
 
Funny story, I met an Aussie friend whom I haven't seen in a long time. We got to talking and the topic turned to knives. I showed him my ZT 301 and showed him how to open it. This guy married a Filipina from the hinterlands who grew up around bolos and machetes and cutting tools of all kinds. The wife was with us during this conversation and the funny thing is that after a few years in Australia, the wife looked at the both of us in disgust and asked why we enjoyed looking at "weapons". I asked her if she remembered how useful the cutting tools were at the place where she was born and raised. She just answered that she hated weapons.
 
singularity35 said:
Funny story, I met an Aussie friend whom I haven't seen in a long time. We got to talking and the topic turned to knives. I showed him my ZT 301 and showed him how to open it. This guy married a Filipina from the hinterlands who grew up around bolos and machetes and cutting tools of all kinds. The wife was with us during this conversation and the funny thing is that after a few years in Australia, the wife looked at the both of us in disgust and asked why we enjoyed looking at "weapons". I asked her if she remembered how useful the cutting tools were at the place where she was born and raised. She just answered that she hated weapons.
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Sounds she has been corrupted by Society and associations, it happens to a lot of people depending on who they are around.
 
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