Lost a knife friend today...

nygiantsfan3342

nygiantsfan3342

Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
1,539
So there I am in line at customs filling out my declaration form. Live animals, no. Hazardous materials, no. Medical stuff, no. Weapons, ???. Then I realized I had my new Shallot in my luggage!:eek:

Being the paranoid idiot that I am, and not wanting to spend a week in a Mexican prison (and possibly miss the Giants b-slap the Packers), I ask a customs official about my knife and if its legal to bring into Mexico. The customs guy gets real serious and brings me to a table to inspect my bag. Well I always put my knives in my shoe under rolled up socks so the knife doesn't bounce around or open in my luggage. But the Customs officer starts asking me why I tried to hide the knife????? Then he takes the knife and tries to open it. As some of us know, the Shallot is what Thomas refers to as a "hot" opening knife. The thing doesn't ease open like the Offset. The Shallot flies open. Well I guess the customs officer didn't like that either (it scared him enough to drop the knife!) By then there are two more officers watching me show the first how to close the knife, since frame-locks are apparently DaVinci Code mystery...Then the Switchblade references come out: Why do I need a switchblade, etc...

Long story long: They told me I was not permitted to enter with the knife because it was a switchblade. English was not their first language, god bless em, but they made it clear that the knife wasn't coming in. So they either confiscated it, or pocketed it, but I don't know enough about customs laws to have protected myself. I travel with my knives so often that I view them as tools, not weapons. But traveling to Mexico is different than travelling domestically and I should have anticipated it. the funny thing is that they didn't notice the Baby Boa on my keychain (thank god)!!

Ya'll be careful when traveling. Don't be dumb like me. Now I gotta go--those Dos Equis are starting to kick in and my typing is starting to suck mucho. Bienvenidos Amigos!
 
nygiantsfan3342 said:
So there I am in line at customs filling out my declaration form. Live animals, no. Hazardous materials, no. Medical stuff, no. Weapons, ???. Then I realized I had my new Shallot in my luggage!:eek:

Being the paranoid idiot that I am, and not wanting to spend a week in a Mexican prison (and possibly miss the Giants b-slap the Packers), I ask a customs official about my knife and if its legal to bring into Mexico. The customs guy gets real serious and brings me to a table to inspect my bag. Well I always put my knives in my shoe under rolled up socks so the knife doesn't bounce around or open in my luggage. But the Customs officer starts asking me why I tried to hide the knife????? Then he takes the knife and tries to open it. As some of us know, the Shallot is what Thomas refers to as a "hot" opening knife. The thing doesn't ease open like the Offset. The Shallot flies open. Well I guess the customs officer didn't like that either (it scared him enough to drop the knife!) By then there are two more officers watching me show the first how to close the knife, since frame-locks are apparently DaVinci Code mystery...Then the Switchblade references come out: Why do I need a switchblade, etc...

Long story long: They told me I was not permitted to enter with the knife because it was a switchblade. English was not their first language, god bless em, but they made it clear that the knife wasn't coming in. So they either confiscated it, or pocketed it, but I don't know enough about customs laws to have protected myself. I travel with my knives so often that I view them as tools, not weapons. But traveling to Mexico is different than travelling domestically and I should have anticipated it. the funny thing is that they didn't notice the Baby Boa on my keychain (thank god)!!

Ya'll be careful when traveling. Don't be dumb like me. Now I gotta go--those Dos Equis are starting to kick in and my typing is starting to suck mucho. Bienvenidos Amigos!
Click to expand...

*sound of taps playing in background, standing with hat in hand and head down* my deepest sympathy in your time of loss. Drink up it helps to dull the pain. ;)
 
DAMN IT!!!...that sucks......try to put it into another perspective....perhaps you've made another Kershaw customer.
Sorry you lost your shallot....... maybe we can take up a collection and get you a new one......I found em selling for like $43 in one place.
 
Jeremy, there is a word that I am sure you, as a Star Wars fan are familiar with. that word is "Fierfek". that about sums up the loss of the shallot. if you know what it means (us your imagination). my condolences. I would hate it if they took one of my knives during customs........
 
So sorry to hear about that one, bro. And a brand new model that you haven't even had a chance to play with much!!!:grumpy: At least your team won tonight, and in sudden death overtime!!!

Cheers,
Jon
 
hmm, i find it ironic that you cant bring a pocket knife into mexico, but once you set foot in mexico, just about every other shop you come across sells nothing but butterfly knives, blowguns, ninja stars, knock off viagras, playing cards with pornograhic images on them, painkillers, steroids, crackpipes and bongs, and people trying to sell you weed and coke everywhere you turn.
 
I take it that there wasn't any way that you could have had the time to mail the knife back to your home address, rather than give it to the airport "knife collectors"? Some airports have padded envelopes that you can use for that purpose. It might be a good plan for all travelers to carry a self-addressed, postage-paid padded envelope for those "just in-case" times. It would be alot cheaper than buying another knife to replace the one "given-away" to "customs" and/or airline security.
 
Jeremy, that sucks man! My brother traveled with me to Alaska a few weeks ago and he unknowingly went the entire flight up there with his 0301 in his carry on!!! The TSA screener guy was b.s.ing with me about the Oregon State football game the day before since I had on my Beaver hoodie. He totally missed it.
 
Man, that stinks. I myself don't go down there anymore. Last time I went they threatened to strip-search me because my left hand was shaking. It took my cousins, who I was with, and me explaining for like fifteen minutes that I have a little neurological damage I got in a child-hood vehicular accident which causes my hand to shake. I've decided that there is nothing down there that I need.
BTW, you have a good first name!
 
jonnymac44 said:
So sorry to hear about that one, bro. And a brand new model that you haven't even had a chance to play with much!!!:grumpy: At least your team won tonight, and in sudden death overtime!!!

Cheers,
Jon
Click to expand...

The Giants win does kinda dull the pain of the knife loss!:)

I'd had the knife few a few weeks now, and it had been in my pocket LITERALLY every day since I got it. It was a great cutter, and loved cardboard! At least I didn't bring my BORON Damascus Leek :eek:, they would have had to pry that knife out of my cold dead hands!
 
Tim Galyean said:
Jeremy, that sucks man! My brother traveled with me to Alaska a few weeks ago and he unknowingly went the entire flight up there with his 0301 in his carry on!!! The TSA screener guy was b.s.ing with me about the Oregon State football game the day before since I had on my Beaver hoodie. He totally missed it.
Click to expand...

That doesn't surprise me. Thomas told me a similar story about a flight he took with a few prototypes that he packed in his carry-on by accident. He made it on the flight with no problem.

I, on the other hand, was flying to Milwaukee in October, and brought my RUBBER mousepad that is shaped like a saw blade. As my laptop bag was going thru the x-ray machine, the TSA guy gets real excited and starts pointing. Then a couple guys walk up to me and ask: "Sir, is there a reason your carrying a saw blade in your bag?" I laughed and showed them the "saw blade", and I think they felt stupid. I don't know why it showed up, or why it wasn't see-through, since it is rubber. At the time it made me think of the movie Airplane--where they stop the little old lady going thru the metal detector, and then let a half dozen terrorists with AKs and RPGs go right thru while they're distracted!:)
 
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