Multi-tools on Airplanes??

LAX is the WORST.
I fit the profile that no one wants to. I have waist-length hair, wear a motorcycle jacket with assorted metal things all over it, have tinted glasses, and on top of it all , I look half my age. I often have guards that are younger than me calling me 'kid' and expecting me to react to them as teenagers do. I put my jacket through the detecter, and while they're puzzling over the fealty chain looped over the arm or the keychain bullet that serves as a zipperpull, or whatever else is on there that week, they don't even look in the tray. The downside of the entertainment of seeing them scratch their heads and try to tell me that I can't have a 1" set of tin handcuffs on the plane is that they're looking for something to bust me for. So if they notice my Gerber, they're going to give me hell for it.
Gollnick has the right idea, I just can't stomach it, so I usually just stay friendly and explain the x-ray of my jacket to them in an entertaining way, (Can I get a printout of that? I know a modern art gallery that would LOVE it!) and they stop wanting to hassle me so badly.
I still keep wondering what I could sneak onto a plane in my steel toed boots, though.

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Oz

"Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
In 1980 I walked through a detector with a Bone fixed blade stuck in the back of my belt(forgot all about it, really) no bells, no whistles. I did turn beet red when I remembered but it was too late to turn back.

Two years ago at the same airport my knives were in my luggage, no problem.
they did spend a lot of time checking out my belt buckle and steel toe boots.

Heaven help you if you have a lot of internal hardware!

Some of the gaurds might be glad to see "survival tools" going on board. I'm kind of suprised that the "crew" does not include a mechanic.
 
I've always taken my multi-tool with me as well as my various folders and never had a problem. The secret is to put them in your carry on bag, that way it looks as if you don't have them on hand for quick use. As soon as you're through the checkpoint, they're back in your pocket no problem. Knives on my person for my last plane trip: mini-afck, SAK Rucksack, CS bird and trout, gerber multitool.

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Non Serviam
 
True story follows...

At BWI last year on the way to the Bladeshow in Atlanta...I was waiting for my Carry-On Bag to come through the X-Ray...

I reached for it and it was snatched from my grasp by a little bowling ball of a woman.

I try to remember at times like these that the security company who is the lowest bidder on the contract gets to play Delta Force Commando at the Checkpoint.

Anyway, the little Butterball, slightly above Minimum Wage Troll snatched my bag as I grabbed for it...she started rooting through it as if she had a purpose in life other than being a rude virago...

She was not being what I would refer to as "respectful" or "gentle" with my belongings either...there was a 35mm Camera in there, and I did not want that broke and she was really like, pushing stuff around rather hard.

So I am steaming now..."Well damn, what is the problem I am thinking to myself...there's nothing in there!"

Well, there was. She saved the world! That Delta flight would have surely went down...

She held up my One Pound Gravity Gripp ball. For the uninitiated, it is like a Comtech/Szabo "Snowball." It has some sort of filler in what amounts to a heavy rubber balloon. It is for squeezing.

There was a Camera, 4 extra AA Batteries, another 35mm film canister, a zippered Dayrunner Address Book/Planner, some pens and whatnot...the Ball...sunglasses, mints...what else? Normal things, yeah, a couple of books...stuff like that.

She held the ball up high for the world and her Supervisor to see that she had saved the Delta flight!

"I'm a hero!"

I'm thinking to myself, "Well, you're pretty damned sharp, you must have thought the batteries and grip ball thing was a damned bomb.

So, in short, I'm glad that she is not teaching at the local school for Bomb Squads. She would have blown us all to bits slamming things around like that.

2+2 does not always equal 4. Had she really thought it was a bomb, she must have been one idiotic little woman to think one should start slamming things around to find the device.

To me, it is a simple matter of respect. Respect in this case would be, unzip...move stuff around, calm, cool, polite...you're free to go...

Instead, this rocket scientist that suspected a bomb, went RRRIIIIIIPP and unzipped it so hard the one end of the bag jumped off the table and started forcefully pushing stuff around...a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

If she was not stupid...I have to assume that she really did not think it was a bomb or she would not have been so forceful with the opening and search.

So, she was either stupid or rude. Take your pick.

I don't carry anything with an edge on board, regardless of what other people have taken through and testify to. It's just not worth the hassle to me because of morons like the one I encountered.

 
I hate to say it, but image matters. I have
a lot of respect for people who won't play
the image game, because it rightfully should
not matter... but I try to play.

Back when I had "engineer" on my business
cards, I got bothered about a Spyderco at a
smaller airport. I handed the guard my card,
explained what I do; he relented and let me
pass with the knife. Since then, I've been on
dozens of flights without any issues at all.

A friend of mine with similar credentials is
a fan of taking his Victorinox Swisstool on
flights. So far, he's been bothered about it
once, and after explaining what he does, was
also allowed on the plane with his tool.

Plausibility does seem to carry weight...

T.
 
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