Lost 2 knives at airport

[garytelecastor]

I wouldn't chance taking one of my better knives on a plane trip. TSA will grab it, no doubt.
They claim that their charge of authority includes not only the airports, but the entire highway
system and all waters in the territorial limits of the US, including subways, railroads,etc.

 

[Bob6794]

Yeah I remember hearing something about that awhile back, I wonder how many people will actually listen to them though outside of an airport. They don't exactly have a good reputation, I kind of suspect they need to come in force for anyone to take them seriously or be packing heat. But then they be approaching local PD/Sheriff/etc territory if they tried to actually exert this authority, don't think they take too kindly to this either.

 

[simioh]

The problem here is access--you made it very easy for someone to discretely and quickly take the knife out of your bag.

DJK

Yeah, that's what I usually do. Most of the time it goes inside a shoe. It sucks that the one time that I couldn't do that I get jacked.

I'm gonna keep an eye out on the exchange for a grip with Cuscadi or custom scales now. Although I don't remember seeing any with the sheepsfoot blade before.

 

[JimSocks]

i stuff my blades at the bottom

 

[willseeyalater]

......I bury it deep in my luggage, usually wrapped in a sock and/or underwear and inside a shoe at the bottom of the bag. If they want it, they are going to really have to dig through everything to get there and repack it all. None of that can be done without other inspectors knowing what they are doing and raising suspicion (they can't just dig through bags, they must have a reason).

Before doing all that I also put my knife or knives in a plastic bag and duct tape the snot out of the thing to make it even less convenient to do a quick pick from my luggage. Then it goes into a sock bundle which goes into my boots which get a pair or two of boxers added to the top. TSA can clearly see that there is a legal knife in my boot but it would take them a minute or two of much obvious behavior to access it. One thing I saw on local news was a airport worker here in the Twin Cities who took bags of interest and set them aside to go through later on his breaks. He got busted on hidden camera because so many suitcases and bags were delayed on his shift and is now getting to know the judicial system or vice versa. They have to move bags along at all points in the system and anything that gobs up the works draws attention from supervisors.

 

[Skimo]

Most of my knives have lanyard holes, I use a cable to attach them to the frame of my suitcase.

 

[Lamina]

In short business trips I like to carry all my luggage with me in the cabin - to make sure it doesn't get lost.

That means that when I travel (100 days per year) my knives stay at home.

Now I'm thinking about dropping the bag at check in so that I may travel with my knives and maybe a flash light. But then... The inconvenience of lost / delayed luggage would be worst than not having a knife with me...

I'm hesitating...

 

[eric_j]

Zombie thread alert!

I used to fly a lot and I never lost a knife. Then again, I was also lucky because I flew mostly between airports with good TSA reputations.

One time I forgot to throw my EDC in my bag (a pretty expensive knife) when checking luggage and caught myself with it at the security checkpoint. I ran back to the JetBlue counter to see if my bag was still around, but it wasn't. It was 20 minutes until take-off. The guy at the counter said he remembered my bag and would get it in there. Sure enough, when I landed, I found it in the bottom of my bag. He was my freaking hero.

My recommendation is to put your knives in a separate bag within your luggage (I call mine my "Bag O' Tricks", since I have nearly anything I might normally need on a trip in there) and plant that bag under your clothes. If you have a toiletries bag, putting them in a weird zip pocket there would work well, too. Avoid anything that gets the TSA to do additional screening of your bag, like messy wires, opaque to x-ray items, and items with odd shapes/properties that might look suspicious.