Show a child how to use a knife.

messer454

messer454

Joined
Oct 2, 2006
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I really like the feel of things on the ESEE Forum so I am gonna tell you all an interesting story...

I had the pleasure of taking 300 5th grade students outdoors this week. We went on a nature scavenger type hunt on trails and fished with a lot of volunteer help.

When it came time for one group to begin the scavenger hunt we were out of sharpened pencils. I told the students that I would use my "antique" pencil sharpener. Since we were fishing I had my Leatherman and I pulled out the well sharpened blade and the students asked "that will work?" I said "well sure it will." They asked "won't you cut yourself?" and I said "I don't believe I have ever cut myself sharpening a pencil." The students all gathered around at a safe distance as if I was performing a magic trick as I sharpened about 20 pencils in short order. I showed them how it was much more effecient than their school pencil sharpener and waisted less of the pencil. (I find this modern safe technolgy not working as well, mildly amusing to frustrating.)

Several students whose parents I knew said "I'll be darned it does work" and they were genuinly surprised. These are parents whom I went to summer camp with and played ball with. I was shocked that this is information that was foreign to so many.

Friends, I believe we can join any club or political action group we want but if we don't take some time to help out with kids fishing, scouts, church camps or just our neighborhood kids Knifecraft will be lost to the next generation. It will be cheap kitchen cutlery and weapons only. Please help in "educating" some kids soon. Thanks for listening
 
Great message. I already have my newborn son's first knife picked out, and I've helped teach many a child the "magic" of safe knife usage. :):thumbup:
 
berandom said:
What would that knife be 42?
Click to expand...

39.jpg


The Mora #39
It's the closest thing still in production to my first knife--an Erickson Mora with a curly birch handle, steel pommel cap, guard, and laminate blade (though I didn't know it at the time!) They just don't make them like they used to, but this is close enough. :)
 
I really think your right about the kids losing touch with the outdoors and knives. If you were to hand a knife to most kids these days they'd have no idea what to do with it. I'm 32 and got my first SAK when I was about 5, then set lose to carve up whatever wood I could get my hands on.
 
Did you say 300 5th graders? If so, great job teaching them a valuable lesson. My son just turned three and I've let him slice up a banana a few times with my Izula. It's pretty sharp but I keep close supervision on him.
 
I love pulling out my knife to cut whatever and my friends even adults gasp and ask why you have a knife. They think your gonna kill them all. People really freak when they find out I carried 2 folders instead of one.
 
Something we've used with Cub Scouts to work on knife safety and hand placement while not putting a knife in their hands is to use a bar of Ivory soap and a popsicle stick. The Ivory soap is soft enough for the popsicle stick to carve it.
 
Great post! You are totally right about the need for us to pass our knife knowledge and experience on to the youth. Although I didn't have a parent or other influential figure who got me into knives, I was fortunate enough to have been encouraged as a child to be in the outdoors and to be resourceful. Knives just kind of occurred to me to be a sort of a next step. My Mom, after I begged her incessantly and even though she is afraid of knives, is actually the person who bought me my first knife (a Gerber E-Z out). I recently bought her a pink izula to pay her back which she never uses ;). I fully intend to teach my children (whenever they should come along) to use knives safely and responsibly and to impress upon them that knives are nothing more or less than an effective tool by which they can be more capable and self- sufficient.
 
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Great job on passing on the knowledge!!

This reminds me of a sad time at my brothers house one Christmas.

His son had to have been 10 or 12 years old at the time. He was opening a gift that had the plastic bands wrapped around the box. He was trying to pull them apart and my brother said "Here Boy, use my knife.

Unfortunatly my brother had been too busy drinking beer while his son was growing up to teach him how to use a knife.

I could not believe my eyes when he opened the knife and started to cut the bands with the back side of the blade.

Luckily I stopped him before he folded the blade over on his fingers.

My brother got to add in "Damn Boy, don't you know how to use a knife"

The good news my brother is now 56 years old and off the bottle. Bad news is he was drunk the whole time his son was growing up and now they have no kind of relationship at all.

I thank God every day for the relationship I have with my kids.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Great message. I already have my newborn son's first knife picked out, and I've helped teach many a child the "magic" of safe knife usage. :):thumbup:
Click to expand...

I have pink Victorinoxs from Swiss Bianco and pink Spyderco Delicas I picked up at BLADE last year for my 2 girls. One will start the education this summer.
 
great post. i agree, im 26 and its amazing how many friends in my age group share the same ignorance for the out doors. i feel good that i have been able to get a select few of my friends into camping, hunting, knives, guns and overall just a love of the out doors. maybe some day i will be lucky enough to have a child of my own that i can rais to love and understand the outdoors.
 
Great story man. The first knife I give my daughter will be an Alox SAK. After that it will be a ESEE Izula. My daughter is currently 7 years old and has a Spyderco Ladybug that is white and fully serrated (but neither she or I trust it as a "first knife")
 
My kids already have becker neckers and they are 1 and 3 years old. They already know what a knife is, where the edge is and some uses for it. Soon they will be handling a knife on their own, just a few more years. Educating kids on the knife and soon it just becomes a tool, instead of this mysterious troublemaking reputation the knife has grown to have.
 
When man abdicates his knowledge of the blade, he abandons his greatest faculty, the ability to adapt.
 
I am stunned. But then, as my kids say, I am retroguy. My girls have been using their pocket knives to sharpen pencils and for other cutting chores since they were small. I taught my little ones how to use a knife early on after seeing a lady friend cut up her son's steak for him. I didn't want my girls to ever seem that helpless. She wouldn't even let him have a Swiss Army knife when he joined the Boy Scouts. The lady is a school teacher. It's our job to teach our children how to use knives and other tools safely. Besides, the more they can do, the less we have to do for them. Good for you for showing the kids and their parents a simple task that anyone over 6 years old should be able to do. :thumbup: Kids love to learn stuff like that. Then we send them off to school to get stupid.
 
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