People are weird about knives - or maybe just weird

OP - just wonder who are someone#1 and someone#2? Are they people working in the restaurant or people going to dinner with you? Is your SAK one of those with like 100+ tools on it?
 
For the most part, I've never had any problems with SAKs, except for one time back in the '90s, I was using the scissors on my Victorinox Classic and a woman said, "I hope you realize that's a deadly weapon!" I've mentioned this on the forum here a few times before, so that's all I'm saying on that. That was mostly it for me as far as any negative reactions to an SAK.

When knife forum members say, "I'd use a Delica, because it's so small and harmless-looking," remember that to most non-knife people, even a Delica looks weird, and probably a lot like a weapon to them. Even a Spyderco Ladybug would freak some people out. What those types don't realize is that more people are killed by cars every year, and a car can easily become a weapon of mass casualties, far more than any knife. That should be well-acknowledged by now, yet nobody seems to look at a car or a truck and automatically assume it's a lethal weapon, or ask why someone is driving it around.

Jim
 
mfunnell said:
The other night I was out at a recently-opened restaurant, with some people I'd not met before. One had brought a nice old bottle of wine along. (Very tasty, it was.)

Cue shock(!) when it was discovered the bottle was old enough to have a cork rather than a Stelvin(tm) closure (ie. screw-top). The restaurant was apparently too modern to have a corkscrew: or at least one that was easily to hand (they were sure they had one, somewhere, though it was never actually produced).

I had a SAK ("climber") in my back pocket, so pulled the cork. One problem solved.

Now I had two new problems. (Though not so many that nobody drank the wine.)

One was horror (still not resolved) that I was "carrying a kinfe". I do. I'm told that is shocking.

The other is that someone (a different someone), picked up my knife to "test it was sharp" because they'd read about that in a newspaper article. (My fault: the knife should have been straight back in my pocket, rather than left on the table while I poured.) They opened the larger blade and "tested" it with their thumb. Then they had to ask the waitress (who still couldn't find the corkscrew) whether she could find a band-aid.

I'm told I carry a "dangerous weapon". Dangerous because if it was less sharp somehow it wouldn't be so, well, dangerous. (Even though the newspaper article which prompted the "test" said, correctly, that sharp knives are safer. I looked it up. The paper should have noted: "except for idiots".)

I should have just stared at the bottle, like everyone else, and been sad that it was impossible to open.

...Mike
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Well those are some odd people. In Utah nobody would bat an eye.
 
James Y said:
For the most part, I've never had any problems with SAKs, except for one time back in the '90s, I was using the scissors on my Victorinox Classic and a woman said, "I hope you realize that's a deadly weapon!" I've mentioned this on the forum here a few times before, so that's all I'm saying on that. That was mostly it for me as far as any negative reactions to an SAK.

When knife forum members say, "I'd use a Delica, because it's so small and harmless-looking," remember that to most non-knife people, even a Delica looks weird, and probably a lot like a weapon to them. Even a Spyderco Ladybug would freak some people out. What those types don't realize is that more people are killed by cars every year, and a car can easily become a weapon of mass casualties, far more than any knife. That should be well-acknowledged by now, yet nobody seems to look at a car or a truck and automatically assume it's a lethal weapon, or ask why someone is driving it around.

Jim
Click to expand...
Did she not realize that she was criticizing a stranger who was holding a deadly weapon? The tongue is more likely to get you killed than anything else.:rolleyes:
 
mfunnell said:
...

One was horror (still not resolved) that I was "carrying a kinfe". I do. I'm told that is shocking.
Click to expand...
I see you're carrying a kinfe too. That's shocking.

mfunnell said:
The other is that someone (a different someone), picked up my knife to "test it was sharp" because they'd read about that in a newspaper article. (My fault: the knife should have been straight back in my pocket, rather than left on the table while I poured.) They opened the larger blade and "tested" it with their thumb. Then they had to ask the waitress (who still couldn't find the corkscrew) whether she could find a band-aid.

I'm told I carry a "dangerous weapon". Dangerous because if it was less sharp somehow it wouldn't be so, well, dangerous. (Even though the newspaper article which prompted the "test" said, correctly, that sharp knives are safer. I looked it up. The paper should have noted: "except for idiots".)
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I would let them go to the emergency room. There is an idiot or someone who doesn't pay attention in most every group. A SAK is pretty dangerous, especially one that isn't very sharp.
 
I think some people would do well with toning down the hyperbole and sheeple stuff.
Everybody gets that we are cool with knives and most are fine with guns on here. But in some areas it isn't common and you might fear or might be wary of something your knife wary buddy might find laughable, be it spiders, heights or some other phobia.
Just my two cents, nobody is gonna change peopöes opinion by ridiculing them. :oops:
 
b00n said:
I think some people would do well with toning down the hyperbole and sheeple stuff.
Everybody gets that we are cool with knives and most are fine with guns on here. But in some areas it isn't common and you might fear or might be wary of something your knife wary buddy might find laughable, be it spiders, heights or some other phobia.
Just my two cents, nobody is gonna change peopöes opinion by ridiculing them. :oops:
Click to expand...

TBH, I haven't noticed anyone on this thread using the word 'sheeple'. So far, it's been a pretty tame and reasonable thread on the subject. But I do agree that nobody's opinion changes by being ridiculed.

Jim
 
danbot said:
Did she not realize that she was criticizing a stranger who was holding a deadly weapon? The tongue is more likely to get you killed than anything else.:rolleyes:
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Actually, it was back when I was in court reporting school (which I ended up working in for awhile before switching careers). She was another student, also in her 30s at the time. When I think back on it, I'm not sure if it was the little knife, or just me she had a problem with.

Jim
 
James Y said:
Actually, it was back when I was in court reporting school (which I ended up working in for awhile before switching careers). She was another student, also in her 30s at the time. When I think back on it, I'm not sure if it was the little knife, or just me she had a problem with.

Jim
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Oh, so it was like bringing a scissor knife to school.
 
sharp_edge said:
OP - just wonder who are someone#1 and someone#2? Are they people working in the restaurant or people going to dinner with you? Is your SAK one of those with like 100+ tools on it?
Click to expand...
Both were people I was having dinner with, neither off whom I'd met before. My SAK was a "climber" model, as noted earlier. So at the "fewer" end as far as number of tools go. (According to the web site "14 functions", though I have added a pin and corkscrew screwdriver to mine.)

...Mike
 
I'm curious . . . how many PhDs , Mechanical Engineers, or MDs at the table ?
 
mfunnell said:
I have added a pin
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And yet another deadly weapon ! ! ! !
How dare you walk around in civilization with a veritable arsenal !

PS: I wonder how many would have fainted and or called the SWAT Team if the Chef or restaurant owner had came out and carved some meat near the table ?
 
Two guys walk into a bar. The first one I can understand, but you'd have thought the second one would have had sense enough to duck...

A baby seal walks into a club... Thank you, I'll be here all night, don't forget to tip your waitress!

Oh, on topic: I carry a 4" fixed blade everywhere it's legal, and have no compunctions regarding pulling it out to cut a steak if the cheap piece of generic
Chinese stainless they provide is not up to the task. I believe a steak should be CUT, not torn or sawn...
 
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It's such a shame that utilitarian folding knives have become taboo to so many people.
I've not many such people in my area, but a few who weren't my kind of people regardless.
 
Many years ago, I was at a salad bar in a pizza place, and a cop walked up to me and said I would have to remove my knife from my belt, and put it out in the car.(I had no car, and had walked there) I asked him why, and he told me it was illegal. I told him it was a single edged blade, less than six inches in length, was not concealed, and was legal for me to carry anywhere. He asked me how I knew this, and I told him that I had called downtown to check the law, and that perhaps he should do the same. He got a little testy, and told me I should still take it off because it made other people nervous. I said that was THEIR problem, not mine, and that maybe they should stay at home. He just looked at me as I carried my salad back to my table to finish my dinner, but never said another word.

I don't understand, and have little sympathy, for people who are scared of inanimate objects. Of course, I don't understand adult males who scream like an eight year old girl when they see a spider, either...
 
mfunnell said:
The other night I was out at a recently-opened restaurant, with some people I'd not met before. One had brought a nice old bottle of wine along. (Very tasty, it was.)

Cue shock(!) when it was discovered the bottle was old enough to have a cork rather than a Stelvin(tm) closure (ie. screw-top). The restaurant was apparently too modern to have a corkscrew: or at least one that was easily to hand (they were sure they had one, somewhere, though it was never actually produced).

I had a SAK ("climber") in my back pocket, so pulled the cork. One problem solved.

Now I had two new problems. (Though not so many that nobody drank the wine.)

One was horror (still not resolved) that I was "carrying a kinfe". I do. I'm told that is shocking.

The other is that someone (a different someone), picked up my knife to "test it was sharp" because they'd read about that in a newspaper article. (My fault: the knife should have been straight back in my pocket, rather than left on the table while I poured.) They opened the larger blade and "tested" it with their thumb. Then they had to ask the waitress (who still couldn't find the corkscrew) whether she could find a band-aid.

I'm told I carry a "dangerous weapon". Dangerous because if it was less sharp somehow it wouldn't be so, well, dangerous. (Even though the newspaper article which prompted the "test" said, correctly, that sharp knives are safer. I looked it up. The paper should have noted: "except for idiots".)

I should have just stared at the bottle, like everyone else, and been sad that it was impossible to open.

...Mike
Click to expand...
Be careful who you associate with and share drink with only the most trusted .

Only drink wine from boxes . So much simpler ,most have a tap built in .

Don't let anyone touch your knife !

If you let idiots and fools ruin your day , you'll have few good ones .
 
Got no problem with people who simply don't like spiders, but I have seen this(the screaming) happen, and I just laugh. But, I AM weird, and will pick up wild tarantulas and let them crawl on me from time to time. Don't much care for the brown recluse or black widows, but generally spiders, scorpions, and centipedes don't frighten me in the least. Same with snakes. Various rat snakes, king snakes, and bull snakes are favorites, I'm quite fond of the larger N. American constrictors! I don't play with rattlesnakes, or any other venomous types, but I don't kill them, even on my own property. They were here long before I was, and will be here long after I am gone.

mfunnell, are you in Oz, by any chance? The Funnel-web is one I greatly respect, anything that can put its fangs through a toe-nail is worthy of that respect. Brown snakes, taipan, etc, would also be on my no-play list! Oz is the only place in the world with more venomous species of snake than non-venomous. Evolution is a marvel...

OK, just googled the 'spiders that can kill me' part, yup. Oz it is. Good on ya...
 
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