Knife etiquette: some folks just don´t get it.

M

Matt Seling

Joined
Oct 12, 1998
Messages
285
I guess all of you have had the situation once a while that a non knife person or somebody that doesn´t care about your knives as you do yourself( which is practically everybody except you) handles your knives in a say disrespectfullv manner.
When I got my SOCOM over a year ago, a friend of mine( drummer in my band) asked me to see it. I had no objections so I handed him the knife. He took it examined it carefully and with appreaciation but then forcefully jabbed it hard into an innocent harwoodsurface to see"If the tip would hold up". Nothing happend, after all it was a SOCOM but still that´s what i call disrespectfull.
Today: lockerroom after my FMA training. Most of the guys and girls carry knives so we show them around , talk about preferences. Today I had my brandnew Starmate on me. My training buddy asks me to see it I show it to him. Then this other guy comes up, kind of a geek but good with the balisong comes up takes it out of my friends hand while I talk with the guro and starts to flip it.Now I have nothing against flipping, but I´m the one that´s doing the flipping on my knives. Kind of the same like dancing with my girlfriend. I do not mind if my girls dances with another guy, but the slow and sensual dances are reserved for me.
Crooked analogy but hell.
Matt from Munich
 
Matt,
As for your first encounter, what did you expect?
He's a DRUMMER!!!!!
Just be glad you didn't give it to the bass player, otherwise it'd be stuck in some roadkill on the Autobahn by now.
wink.gif


Hoping you're not the bass player,
VG

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Vampire Gerbil: similar to a domestic gerbil, except for the odd accent and little black cape.

 
Tell your friends that your knives are valuable and that you don't want them abused before you let them handle them. Most folks can't conceive of $100 or $200 dollar knife. If they now it is expensive, they will show restraint. If they don't then you show some restraint and tell them they can't handle your knives.
 
What do you call someone who hangs around musicians?

A drummer.

Thank you, I'm here all week.

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James
San Francisco, CA


 
I remember the time I got my Sebenza.... It was the most expensive knife I'd ever owned until that point, and I showed it to a friend, who immediately flicked it open.
I gently explained that this was improper and that it's not good to do to a knife. I also explained that it cost more than his bridgework and that he should keep that in mind should he ever do something similar in the future. He apologized and I forgave him.
The moral of the story is that sometimes a lesson can be learned through the threat of violence.
smile.gif


StJames, LOL.... I'll come back NEXTweek!
heh heh heh
(Man, I'm in a funny mood tonight!)
 
My first non-junk knife... a buck 110...show it to my best friend out in his yard & he drops it... on the only stone out there and rolls the point over...ARRRGHHHHH!!!!
needless to say, he never handled one of my knives again.
 
I hate bad folder etiquette. When you hand someone a knife it should be closed. It should be returned the same way.

I don't make an exception when someone can't figure out how to disengage the lock. Don't borrow a tool you don't know how to use.

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Three guys all die of knife wounds (obligatory knife related content) and arrive at the Pearly Gates at the same time. St. Peter approches and says “Before you pass into paradise, I must first ask of you two questions.” He turns to the first man. “Tell me son, how much money did you make last year?”

The man beams proudly and replies, “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

“Oh,” says St Peter, “And what did you do on Earth?”

“I was a Doctor.” And the clouds part beneath him and he falls, screaming, towards the firey bowels of Hell.

St. Peter turns to the second man and asks, “And you, my son, how much money did you make last year?”

The man grits his teeth and says “Two point five million dollars.”

St. Peter shakes his head and asks, “And what did you do on Earth?”

The man hangs his head and replies, “I was a Lawyer.” And the words have not so much as passed from his lips when he is sucked down, screaming (of course), into the burning pit of damnation with such speed that he passes the first man only half way down.

St. Peter turns to the third man and says, “And now you, my son. Would you tell me how much money you made last year?”

The third man scratches his head and says, “I’m not sure, but I think around twenty-five hundred dollars.”

St. Peter smiles and asks, “So, what do you play?”

The Hits Keep Coming!


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James
San Francisco, CA




[This message has been edited by stjames (edited 28 September 1999).]
 
I had a similar experience when I showed a friend one of my first handmade lock folders.
I had worked long and hard on the knife, and he decides to check for side play on the blade by using obvious force to try to wiggle the blade from side to side!!!

Lucky for him that the pivot pin didn't show any change in the flush buffed appearance.

I don't show him any of my folders any more.

Thomas Zinn
 
All this reminds me of the time a "friend of a friend" started playing with my model railroad, revved up a $250.00 HO steam engine and deliberately sent it off the tracks into a ravine while exclaiming, "Watch me make it crash!" To my disbelief he couldn't understnad why I was so bent out of shape, why it bothered me that he had damaged some little "toy."

Don't share a foxhole with somebody like that.

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I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but I would prefer THAT to their being educated by the state.
 
The only rules I am really anal about are:

1. Don't point it at me.
2. Don't get within arm's length of me.

I don't care if you're James Keating himself. Always maintain situational readiness. Your body will thank you for it.
smile.gif


Other than that, I can work with people. For example, I encourage others to respect my knives as real tools, not a toy. I also encourage others to learn to pass knives handle first. Handing a folder this way is fine too, as is handing a folder closed.

So on and so forth.

How many Bladeforum members does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

19.

1 trying to screw it in with a knife. 2 to debate how unsafe it is and recommend a Leatherman Wave instead. 3 to counter that it is indeed possible with a knife if only it was a [insert favorite brand name here] and it'll only cost your deposit on your car. 4 to tell you that a fully serrated version is better. 4 more to say that a plain edge works better. 1 to come in recommend a Dirty Harry .357 and be done with it. 2 more to warn against the blood trauma that would be inflicted by broken shards of glass and recommend Kevlar gloves, vest, and helmet. 1 more agreeing with the Kevlar idea saying, "I've been there. Still got scars on my thumb." And finally, 1 moderator to step in to close the thread because it's either gotten way too long, or people are beginning to flame each other.

Of course, the light bulb never gets screwwed in in the first place. But what do we really care anyways, when we've already fitted our knives with Tritium inserts and SureFire mounts?

[This message has been edited by SB (edited 27 September 1999).]
 
I have a very simple rule: I don't let anyone besides myself touch my knives.

 
I have the complete opposite opinion!! I use bad knife etiquett in my favor! When I come out with a new design I bring it to work and let all my co-workers handle, play with, stab things,cut fiberglass insulation, drop, put in sheath backwards, and experiment with the rockwell tester on it.... THEN, I hear several long winded commentaries on just what they think of the design. Once it survives all that I have a good feeling about how the knife will perform!!!!
Neil Blackwood

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http://members.aol.com/blademakr/BlackwoodWP.html


[This message has been edited by Dr.Lathe (edited 28 September 1999).]
 
how about this one.At my last gun&knife show I had a guy look one of my blades over real good then as he puts it down he just kind of tosses it and it landed on the knife beside it and gouges the brass guard,then he smiles at me and leaves like nothing happened.what do you do then

[This message has been edited by beknives (edited 28 September 1999).]
 
Yeah, Beknives! Tell me about it! I'd would have give him a lesson! (Verbally that is) I've met friends who thinks they know a wee-bit about knives and they start treating YOUR knives like the ones they see in K-Mart!
(not that K-mart don't carry expensive ones but...you know, the $20 copies.) Once this guy nearly put my Wharncliffe to a stabing test! Stoped him in the last minute!

But the funny encounter i had was with my mom! I showed her my CS Trailmaster and she insisted me to let her cut meat with it, to test how good the blade is.....strange one from my mom.
 
beknives, put your knives in a case so that those things don't happen. That kind of thing used to happen to my stuff when I sold knives at shows. People would come up and look at a Spyderco or Benchmade and whack the spine on the table edge, and then casually toss the knife to the table and walk away. Some people were oblivious to the sharpness of Spyderco's blades they would pick one up and cut themselves almost immediately. My girlfriend started bringing band aids in the cash box. The one that got me the most was a guy who came over and took a BM 44 (tanto bali song) from a fellow who was interested in it, and started flipping it wildly without asking. Then he asked me how much I wanted for it, $85 which included Jeff Imada's book. He replied as if I kicked him in the jewels. The other fellow bought it.
As for the rest, no one gets to see my knife unless there is a real need, or they have a knife as nice that I can hold while they look at mine.
 
Peoples stupidity seems as endless as the imagination of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Matt from Munich
And yes you are right about drummers.
BTW I´m the lead vocalist and guitar plarer
 
Besides the obligatory drop open for folders (hmm, I guess you can't use your thumb and push it open), there's the flipping with balisongs.

I've done it myself, you see people go up to the counter of the knife store and expect a balisong to be loose enough to flip around, then they get frustrated when they have to open it with two hands (I call it banana style opening).
 
I let a guy wear my glasses once for a video project we were doing. He wanted to look smart because he wasn't naturally talented. Well it turns out that he couldn't read the lines written on the cue card for some odd reason (hmm?), so he took off the glasses and palmed them while smashing a chair with the same hand in frustration. This guy was brilliant, a really genius too. I am much bigger than him...you can guess how the situation ended.
 
2 specific instances:
1) Kershaw Amphibian, 1986- Girlfriend using it (why that knife?) to de-bone a chicken while I was at work- drops it onto the tile floor point-first. Broken point.
2) My first "Hand-Made" knife mid-'80's. made from an old file by a neighbor at the Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, VA- nothing special- not annealed properly, but MoFo sharp. Idiot buddy in one motion asks "can I see this" as he throws it into a tree- Blade goes "ping". Broken knife

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Runs With Scissors
AKTI# A000107
 
I always carry at least 2 knives.One is an old Case linemans knife(spear point blade and a locking screwdriver blade)carried in a pouch.That is my lend out(temporarly)knife,with the usual admonition"careful it is sharp". The good stuff stays in my pocket or the other belt sheath. Most non-knife people have no idea how much we invest in a knife or how sharp we keep them. Only a real knife person should handle your good knives.Keep an old beater around to let them make fools out of themselves with.

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Those who beat their arms into plowshares will plow for those who do not

 
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