ronsec said:
You know guys, this isn't about being a "sheeple", its about good manners. I've never or never have seen anybody whip out a pocket knife to cut their meat in a restaurant. This has nothing to with intimidating people with your knife but all to do with the impression you make on other people. Maybe you don't care about yourself, but it does reflect on those eating with you such as your wife and kids. I can understand using your knife to trim your kids straw or maybe help open a gift at a restaurant, etc., but using it to cut your steak - I don't think so.
As far as not washing your hands after using the bathroom, that's so disgusting I won't even go there. :barf:
Since when was using a knife to cut meat bad manners?
I don't think we are talking about standing up, pulling out a balisong, and then doing a 5-minute routine to open the knife and cut the meat.
We are talking about using a knife to cut meat.
If someone looks down on me for that, then I do not care what they think. It isn't that I do not care about myself. That is silly. It is that I care about myself enough not to act like a moron and use a dull knife when I have a proper tool on me.
Manners... I would consider it good manners to not judge someone and his/her family because he used the proper tool to do the job. What concern is it to someone else how I cut my steak? It is none of their damn business.
It isn't that someone who is willing to use their own knife doesn't care how they look. How silly of you to suggest that. I care how I look- before I set out each day I put on the clothes I like, brush my hair how I like it or throw on a cap, and make sure I look how I want to look that day. I care how I look, but I look how I want to look, not how you want to look. I do not think using a pocket knife makes me look bad. I think a fool with a dull knife looks bad. You think I look "low-class" for using a tool that I own when it is better than the one provided, and I think you look "low-class" for being unwilling to do the same thing because of fear and vanity.
I admit I am not exactly Mr. Manners, but I do have very good manners, actually. I do not want to ruin anyone's meal at a fine restaurant and I understand that there is a proper way to behave in such situations. But I do not think that me using a simple pocket knife ruins anyone's meal more than struggling with a dull knife will. Not only will struggling with a dull knife or asking for another one cause more of a distraction to other people, but it sure causes more trouble to me. Using my own knife saves my experience, and that of people around. THAT is real manners, not putting the fork in the right place. That is called meaningless.
I have never had to use my own knife at a restaurant, but I would be willing to do so if I felt it was needed.
WadeF said:
I've seen another knife person use their EDC to cut their food and it made me cringe, and I'm a knife person. I carry a knife to use as a tool for cutting things. I use table utensils for food. My knife usually isn't clean enough, for my standards anyway, to use on food. Also my knife isn't serrated, so using it on a plate would damage the edge, and then it wouldn't perform as well for cutting things that the knife should be reserved for cutting. If I was cutting food on a paper plate the knife would be to sharp and would cut through the plate.
If I had to cut food and I was in a position where there was nothing else available, like at a picnic, I would consider using my knife.
I would never pull it out in a public resturant and start cutting my food. To me that would be a real low class thing to do.
You can cut food on a plate without touching the plate. You use the knife to cut almost all the way through, and then use your fork to seperate the last bit. And if the knife does hit the plate, it doesn't damage it, it dulls it. This is normal fair for a knife.
The modern world is very ignorant about knives. Knives are seen as weapons used by criminals. "Knife culture" means drug dealers and gang-bangers to the media. This will not change any time soon if real knife knuts are to afriad to use their knives in front of people to do innocent things like cut food. And if, in addition to that, we are afriad to use our knives because they will "get dull", then there really is no hope.
