Polite knife

Shorttime

Shorttime

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Messages
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My wife found a group of local homeschoolers, and I get dragged to "playdates" sometimes. It's all professional moms and professional professionals.

I'm a professional shovel-slinger, and my idea of "formal dress" is black jeans instead of blue.

So I'm looking for a folder that won't scare these people if, God forbid, I actually need to get something done around them. Not that whipping out my Timberline Delta-18 in front of them wouldn't be the kind of fun I like to have...
 
I find Swiss Army styled knives (Victorinox / Wegner) don't cause much of fuss.
 
SAKs are a good option. I have a Cold Steel Mini Tuff Lite on order. It has a very short blade (1.25" cutting edge) and looks pretty harmless - to me.
 
Urban meterosexuals are tech geeks, so a SAK in a flashy color will excite them. I'm an urban professional too, but knife nut first. Once I showed some artists a Ti Lite, they were surprisingly cool about it.
 
smallish sak with accessories, or traditional slipjoint, works the best. people have become used to those being more like tools and less perceived(incorrectly of course) as weapons.
 
Yeah, but artists are all about "the new", which can sometimes mean "what they haven't seen before".

I geek for anything Benchmade, so the Benchmite was a fun couple minutes, but Morrow's suggestion got me thinking about a small multitool instead. I like to think of myself as the kind of guy who naturally would carry a multitool, and they mostly circumvent the "Oh my God he's got a knife!" reaction, because... it's a "tool". Never mind the damn thing has a knife on it anyway, but that's the difference between reality and perception.

My all-black Mini-griptilian actually got me an "Oh my God!" one time.

Now if I could just find a multitool with a one-hand opening linerlock knife...

It probably exists...
 
Smallish sak with accessories, or traditional slipjoint.
Click to expand...

+1. Most reasonable people can appreciate these as just a "tool" as noted. If it has pretty bone handles they are likely to even want one for themselves in my experience. Works just about everytime.
 
Shorttime said:
Yeah, but artists are all about "the new", which can sometimes mean "what they haven't seen before".

I geek for anything Benchmade, so the Benchmite was a fun couple minutes, but Morrow's suggestion got me thinking about a small multitool instead. I like to think of myself as the kind of guy who naturally would carry a multitool, and they mostly circumvent the "Oh my God he's got a knife!" reaction, because... it's a "tool". Never mind the damn thing has a knife on it anyway, but that's the difference between reality and perception.

My all-black Mini-griptilian actually got me an "Oh my God!" one time.

Now if I could just find a multitool with a one-hand opening linerlock knife...

It probably exists...
Click to expand...

sak victorinox trekker/german army knife is one hand opening with a sort of liner lock setup. so there is at least one out there. although disengaging the lock is backwards for a right hander though. so more of a one hand opener, two hand closer, unless you are left handed. i carry one with me often in my back pocket.

of course that's assuming you even like sak's. i prefer 'em to true multi-tools, but that's me and you are you.
 
Shorttime said:
Now if I could just find a multitool with a one-hand opening linerlock knife...

It probably exists...
Click to expand...

I like my Leatherman Skeletool. Compact, lightweight, carabiner to clip to a belt loop, small pliers fold out, 2 screwdriver bits, and -- ta-daaa -- a one hand opening hole small blade on a liner lock on the outside.

Of course, all the Wave and Charge variants have knives on the outside also, but they are big multitools. Skeletool practically hides inside my fist, 4.25" overall.
 
Nothing says polite quite like a Case Peanut or Jack knife, however if you want a modern folder of some sort I would recomend the Spyderco Dragonfly 2.
 
A Chris Reeve Mnandi is about as pretty as a knife can get and still be really useable.

2Mnandis-Insingo.jpg
 
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Carry whatever you want, but put a Sponge Bob sticker on it. Sponge Bob makes everything less scary.

spongebob.gif
 
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