Show a child how to use a knife.

I went to a three roomed Indian School in the Ozarks that had K-9 grades in it. Every body wore a sheath knife to school. Never, never did I see or hear of anybody hurting somebody else, unless it was just a bad mumble*peg throw.
 
Good on you. And I agree. I have been taking my kids camping, hiking, etc from birth. They are used to machetes, large knives, small knives, etc... being used as tools on a daily basis. And they are under the age of 10. Then I have some of my 8th grade students gasp when I use the saw or scissors on my LM Blast. So many kids, and adults for that matter, are way out of touch with nature.
 
Good story, I've also been surprised at some guys I know who have been shocked at sharpening pencils with my knife. These are manly guys, too, the kind who actually use their hands to fix things.

Then again, my dad did a lot of carpentry work when I was young, and that was the only way to sharpen the flat pencils he used.
 
nowadays parents are too overly concerned with their kids safety... if a kid has a good parent/mentor, he/she will grow to be a good parent/mentor...

knife skills are really good to have... more important, LIFE SKILLS are important to have as well...

Too many parents are too obsessed with their own things and don't pay attention to their kids as it should be...

GREAT MESSAGE!!!
 
cool story.
I have already started giving my daughter rubber knives (trainers) and letting her get used around them. She's 3. She'll have to wait some more years for the real deal, but she already knows where the sharp and pointy side are :)
 
Excellent job passing on a bit of knowledge. It sounds like a spark caught with some of those kids.

My dad bought my oldest his first knife (Cold Steel Pendleton Mini Hunter) when he turned five last year. I've been working with him since to pass on what I learned from my father, and he's always looking for sticks to shave down and whittle on when we go hiking.

I'm always amazed at how people of my generation react to knives. My wife had a friend over a while ago who noticed my CS Scimitar clipped to my pocket. She was shocked that I carried a knife in my own house. I shrugged it off, since it's a tool I use dozens of times a day. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had a .38 in the other pocket.
 
Great story! Thanks for sharing.

I remember a time when you didn't get expelled or arrested for bringing a pocket knife to school and I'm a young 41.:D

My parents bought me my first jigsaw and power drill when I was 8. I was always out in the woods or on a construction site looking for stuff to cut up.

I took my girlfriends two sons to the lake last week. They were amazed that I could skip a rock across the water. They were really amazed when they learned to do it themselves.:thumbup:

Seems the kids of today don't know much unless it takes batteries or has a cord hanging out of it.
 
I almost teared up when my g/f asked me for a knife to use as a pencil sharpener last week. :D
 
shok said:
Seems the kids of today don't know much unless it takes batteries or has a cord hanging out of it.
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I think you hit the freaking nail on the freaking head.

My Mom was cleaning out her basement laundry room/storage room a few weeks ago. She found a box of my old Lego (25+ years old - I'm 38) and gave it to me. My kids didn't know what to do with it, "But what does it do, Dad?" "IT, doesn't do anything, you have to use your imagination and make something out of it." :rolleyes:
 
I handed down my Old Timer that my father gave to me when I was 8 to my eldest daughter and taught her how to use it. A SAK followed. She always kept the OT nice and oiled. Both knives became commonplace tools to her. So much so that she started packing 'em in her pocket book on the way out to school, unbeknownst to us. It was a sad day when I had to explain to her that she couldn't bring any knives to school. She was at first confused that someone could confuse these necessities with weapons, but ultimately she got it. Unfortunately now she's a PITA 13 year old and wants nothing to do with uncool stuff like pocket knives, unless we go hiking and camping, then she instantly has her Maxpedition packed to the gills and over her shoulder.
 
Last summer we were back in Michigan visiting my wifes family. They were trying to get a fire going but all the logs were too thich and they didn't have any kindling. I took out my Enzo trapper and began batoning it through the 3" dia logs and everyone looked on in amazement. And all these guys are hunters and I'm not. It blew the kids minds and I was an instant hero to them. I got alot of funny comments from her uncles like "you Canadians and your knives" and "that's how they cook they cook all thier food up there". I thought it was pretty funny.
 
I am a subscriber to Woodcarving Illustrated and recently, they published an article about a gentleman that teaches whittling to kids. There was a great story at the end of that article...

"Rick has a great orientation speech for anxious parents, especially the ones who think learning to carve is too dangerous for their children.
"Kids are doing things all the time that are infinitely more dangerous than messing with a pocketknife. For example, it's not anyway near as dangerous as jumping on a trampoline, which could paralyze you, or riding a bicycle on the road where cars can kill you," he explained.
While Rick was explaining this to one group of anxious parents and their kids, a boy wobbled into the classroom on crutches.
"I asked him what happened and he told us he had fallen off his bike and broken his leg," Rick said. "At that point all of the parents looked at me, looked at each other, and quietly exited the room, leaving their kids behind for the class."

The whole article is here: Whittler on a Mission Love it!

All 3 of my boys (16, 14, 10) have a taste for blades... which has been amplified and focused thanks to Scouts. They all have several... the older 2 can handle them on their own, and #3 gets closely monitored for now... :)
 
I hope that when my wife and I have children to be able to pass on all kinds of information and morales that we find important. I want to be able to teach them about survival, martial arts, street smarts and how to handle all sorts of tools.

When I was two years old I was sitting at a table eating with a knife and fork, I have friends that have three years old who are just out of diapers. :(

I think the biggest issue we have today is that parents don't parent anymore. With work, kids, trying to have a social life, stress, etc, it seems that TV, pop culture and the computer are teaching the children more than anything else.
 
amon said:
I think the biggest issue we have today is that parents don't parent anymore. With work, kids, trying to have a social life, stress, etc, it seems that TV, pop culture and the computer are teaching the children more than anything else.
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That is so very true and very unfortunate and sad ...
 
carspidey said:
nowadays parents are too overly concerned with their kids safety... if a kid has a good parent/mentor, he/she will grow to be a good parent/mentor...
GREAT MESSAGE!!!
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I agree. However "good" does not mean knife knowledgeable. I knew several of these kids and their parents and they are good families. They just don't have any outdoor mentors.
 
amon said:
When I was two years old I was sitting at a table eating with a knife and fork, I have friends that have three years old who are just out of diapers. :(

.
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Most of our public schools around here use plastic forks, plastic spoons, and styrofoam tray/plates. Everything gets thrown away and the kids can't cut anything with the utensils so they use their fingers. It saddens me.
 
shok said:
Great story! Thanks for sharing.

I remember a time when you didn't get expelled or arrested for bringing a pocket knife to school and I'm a young 41.:D

My parents bought me my first jigsaw and power drill when I was 8. I was always out in the woods or on a construction site looking for stuff to cut up.


Seems the kids of today don't know much unless it takes batteries or has a cord hanging out of it.
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I think we were the last age group my friend. I am 37 years old. I carried a pocketknife every day from kindergarten on. It was a swiss army or Old Timer and often teachers would ask me to borrow it. I had a BB gun in 1st grade and a 12 gauge single shot in 4th grade.
 
Horn Dog said:
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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Somehow Vic I think your daughters were both born with machetes in their little hands :thumbup:
 
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