Stabby? Seriously?

[bonafide]

This is what I think of when you say stabby

 

[Mistwalker]

This is what I think of when you say stabby

Yeah, I occasionally run into cognitive dissonance issues with my jobs, and have to stop and remind myself that my part of the job is simply to research the tool's use in survival applications by the end user and compile data, and not dwell on their primary applications. But I do not think I could do your job man. I think I would take it too personally if someone came at me with one of those.

 

[magicblade]

The more people see something out of the norm, the more normal it becomes... in theory.

I wouldn't change a thing.

I understand your point of view, but when you think about it, knives are nothing new to mankind, they were some of the first tools and have been around for thousands of years, yet people continue to freak out when you pull out a knife in public, one would think that by this point knives would be viewed as something normal but they are not.
I really wish that wasn't the case but sometimes you have to think about how ones's actions will be perceived given the crazy society we live in.

 

[Joe Duder]

Kind of a dead horse, but I'll beat it anyway....

I agree that one should give a little thought as to how society will perceive his or her actions. You don't want to rock a dagger grind in the wrong county or you'll have to explain your actions in court. But like I said in my earlier post, people are always going to misjudge. If I'm out fishing, camping or hiking and I'm stopping in town to get provisions and I know it's legal to carry a fixed blade in that county, I couldn't care less about what people think about me carrying a fixed blade. I mean, I'm probably already being judged on the fact that I'm driving a Nissan and not a Ford or a Chevy or that I'm wearing a San Francisco Giants hat or that I like to wear hot pink socks. You can't satisfy everybody, so why try? If people freak out, so be it. Duder will be back to keep freaking you out or to make you more excepting of the people that carry blades.

 

[velosa]

or that I like to wear hot pink socks.

We must have pictures!

 

[Bamboo]

But shouldn't a well rounded knife also be capable of stabbing? A knife is little more than a wedge shaped piece of metal. The purpose of a wedge is to separate. Stabbing is merely one way a knife performs this action.

In a survival situation this function could be vital, and for me I don't see a large separation between bushcraft and survival. It could be as mundane as chipping a hole in frozen ice to access water. That is hard to do with the rest of the edge of the knife.

The Bladesmith Society purposefully does not have any stabbing tests in their Cutting Competition (to be politically correct as I understand it - I could be wrong). I think this is an erroneous course of action - stabbing is a vital element to any knife and without testing it you're not likely to have substantial gains in improvement.

As a side note - Mistwalker I completely understand where you are coming from in this thread. I put these thoughts out there for those of us that understand "stabbing" is not the same thing as randomly killing people with a knife.

 

[Joe Duder]

We must have pictures!

Someone was paying attention. Hahahahah

 

[Joe Duder]

But shouldn't a well rounded knife also be capable of stabbing? A knife is little more than a wedge shaped piece of metal. The purpose of a wedge is to separate. Stabbing is merely one way a knife performs this action.

In a survival situation this function could be vital, and for me I don't see a large separation between bushcraft and survival. It could be as mundane as chipping a hole in frozen ice to access water. That is hard to do with the rest of the edge of the knife.

The Bladesmith Society purposefully does not have any stabbing tests in their Cutting Competition (to be politically correct as I understand it - I could be wrong). I think this is an erroneous course of action - stabbing is a vital element to any knife and without testing it you're not likely to have substantial gains in improvement.

As a side note - Mistwalker I completely understand where you are coming from in this thread. I put these thoughts out there for those of us that understand "stabbing" is not the same thing as randomly killing people with a knife.

Imo, a well rounded knife is capable of stabbing. To be honest, I don't know when I would ever need or use the stabby characteristic of a blade (outside of piercing the belly of fish and game), but I still like to have it.

Curious about the bladesmith society not having stabbing tests.

 

[Mistwalker]

I understand your point of view, but when you think about it, knives are nothing new to mankind, they were some of the first tools and have been around for thousands of years, yet people continue to freak out when you pull out a knife in public, one would think that by this point knives would be viewed as something normal but they are not.
I really wish that wasn't the case but sometimes you have to think about how ones's actions will be perceived given the crazy society we live in.

Yes and no...as in yes they have, but then again no they haven't. After the industrial revolution and factories came along, less people were in the field hunting, fishing and gathering to feed their families. Then later the computers and cubicles came along, and then there were even fewer still. Hard to do much hunting in large cities, rats and alley cats really aren't all that appetizing. Plus why spend the time and money to go hunting, when it's cheaper in most people's lives to go to the grocery store and most people are working too much to have the time. Those that aren't are being handed ebt cards. Cooking utensils were the only knives many people grew up seeing, and people didn't carry those in public. Then with the boom in fast food, fewer people were even bothering to cook their own food. So some grew up only seeing the plastic knives and sporks at eateries. There was a time period before the bushcraft craze came along that knife enthusiasts were a serious minority. Hence the advent of cheap stainless knives and coated carbon steel blades carried over from the tactical side of things, because so few knew how to properly maintain a good high carbon steel blade. In the meantime, with movies like psycho, Halloween, Friday The 13th, and others, Hollyweird has villain-ized the knife to a great extent, and at the same time has many scared to death of being in the woods after dark. Then there is also the perception of survivalists and preppers being a bunch of lunatics...I guess because so many who find their way into the lime light are. So now you have a clash of cultures between the bushcraft and self reliance communities and a community of people who wouldn't know where to begin in using a knife to turn tuna, pickles, and onions into tuna salad, much less do anything with them in the woods. Most people my daughter's age (21) never got to see a cutlery shop in their local mall the way I did. Their only encounter with any decent personal cutlery for field use is at a local military surplus store or a local outfitters. If they were never taught to hunt, and not into it, or not into the military/survival scene. Their primary exposure to knives has been through television and video games, and until the time of all the non-reality shows, knives were seldom painted in a positive light. Knives were once an everyday sort of thing for the majority, and then not so much. But with the growing enthusiasm in self reliance and bushcraft, more and more people are using them again, so more are being seen in public again. I think it will take time, but I think perceptions that were changed once, can be changed again, if the effort is put into doing it.

Kind of a dead horse, but I'll beat it anyway....

I agree that one should give a little thought as to how society will perceive his or her actions. You don't want to rock a dagger grind in the wrong county or you'll have to explain your actions in court. But like I said in my earlier post, people are always going to misjudge. If I'm out fishing, camping or hiking and I'm stopping in town to get provisions and I know it's legal to carry a fixed blade in that county, I couldn't care less about what people think about me carrying a fixed blade. I mean, I'm probably already being judged on the fact that I'm driving a Nissan and not a Ford or a Chevy or that I'm wearing a San Francisco Giants hat or that I like to wear hot pink socks. You can't satisfy everybody, so why try? If people freak out, so be it. Duder will be back to keep freaking you out or to make you more excepting of the people that carry blades.

Just keep at it, eventually some will become desensitized And not every man can pull off hot pink and masculinity at the same time. Respect bro!

We must have pictures!

I agree!!

But shouldn't a well rounded knife also be capable of stabbing? A knife is little more than a wedge shaped piece of metal. The purpose of a wedge is to separate. Stabbing is merely one way a knife performs this action.

In a survival situation this function could be vital, and for me I don't see a large separation between bushcraft and survival. It could be as mundane as chipping a hole in frozen ice to access water. That is hard to do with the rest of the edge of the knife.

The Bladesmith Society purposefully does not have any stabbing tests in their Cutting Competition (to be politically correct as I understand it - I could be wrong). I think this is an erroneous course of action - stabbing is a vital element to any knife and without testing it you're not likely to have substantial gains in improvement.

As a side note - Mistwalker I completely understand where you are coming from in this thread. I put these thoughts out there for those of us that understand "stabbing" is not the same thing as randomly killing people with a knife.

I do actually agree that "stabbing" should be an attribute of a good field knife. I use the technique a lot, in different ways. I just got really annoyed that the first thought when seeing the KEB was "stabby". I think most of the youth these days stabbing anything with that model would only end up with lacerated fingers...

 

[magicblade]

Yes and no...as in yes they have, but then again no they haven't. After the industrial revolution and factories came along, less people were in the field hunting, fishing and gathering to feed their families. Then later the computers and cubicles came along, and then there were even fewer still. Hard to do much hunting in large cities, rats and alley cats really aren't all that appetizing. Plus why spend the time and money to go hunting, when it's cheaper in most people's lives to go to the grocery store and most people are working too much to have the time. Those that aren't are being handed ebt cards. Cooking utensils were the only knives many people grew up seeing, and people didn't carry those in public. Then with the boom in fast food, fewer people were even bothering to cook their own food. So some grew up only seeing the plastic knives and sporks at eateries. There was a time period before the bushcraft craze came along that knife enthusiasts were a serious minority. Hence the advent of cheap stainless knives and coated carbon steel blades carried over from the tactical side of things, because so few knew how to properly maintain a good high carbon steel blade. In the meantime, with movies like psycho, Halloween, Friday The 13th, and others, Hollyweird has villain-ized the knife to a great extent, and at the same time has many scared to death of being in the woods after dark. Then there is also the perception of survivalists and preppers being a bunch of lunatics...I guess because so many who find their way into the lime light are. So now you have a clash of cultures between the bushcraft and self reliance communities and a community of people who wouldn't know where to begin in using a knife to turn tuna, pickles, and onions into tuna salad, much less do anything with them in the woods. Most people my daughter's age (21) never got to see a cutlery shop in their local mall the way I did. Their only encounter with any decent personal cutlery for field use is at a local military surplus store or a local outfitters. If they were never taught to hunt, and not into it, or not into the military/survival scene. Their primary exposure to knives has been through television and video games, and until the time of all the non-reality shows, knives were seldom painted in a positive light. Knives were once an everyday sort of thing for the majority, and then not so much. But with the growing enthusiasm in self reliance and bushcraft, more and more people are using them again, so more are being seen in public again. I think it will take time, but I think perceptions that were changed once, can be changed again, if the effort is put into doing it.

Completely agree with your post, media in general has given knives a bad rep, it is sad but that's the society we live in. As Joe Duder said, one should not be influenced by what people think, if Im at a place where a knife is expected to be used, camping, fishing, etc, I really wouldn't care if people freak out about me using a knife since it is the place to use it. I guess my point is that it shouldn't surprise you when someone makes a remark when you pull out a knife to clean your fingernails. I work for the police department and personally, if I see you pulling out a good size knife in public for something other than cutting you are gonna get my attention.
Btw, I got a pretty good collection of socks myself including some pink ones

 

[Mistwalker]

Looking at the current environment I feel very fortunate to have grown up the way I did. My father was a Marine who grew up in south Florida during the depression, and fought in Korea. My grandfather was in the Army and fought in WWII, and two guys who were like uncles to me served in Vietnam in the Special Forces. Yet all of my early lessons on knife use were as a tool. At the age of 6 my father taught me how to shoot and hunt in the Tennessee hills over the next 3 years, then from the age of 9 to 12 he taught me how to live off the land and seas in southern Florida. The best years of my young life. From 12 to 14 my uncles were taking me camping to get me out of the house and teaching me other wilderness skills in west central Texas. They gave me my first pilot's survival knife. From late 14 to late 16 I was back in Tennessee with my older brother, where we fished and trapped commercially. A knife was as much a part of my daily routine as my pants by this point. It was an everyday thing for me to pull out my belt knife and clean my finger nails before going into a store. I was taught better than to go in public with dirty fingernails, but I didn't care much for the folding knives available at the time in the late 70s, early 80s. I detested slip joints for hard use, and didn't like the awkwardness of operating lock backs one-handed with bloody or greasy hands. I preferred a small fixed blade any day, along with being more durable and safer to use, they are much more hygienic. With the region we were in, it wasn't anything out of place, at least not yet. Maybe it's my size, being 6-3 bare footed, and weighing right at 300 pounds, the KE Bushie is not a knife I would personally consider good sized. It isn't as big as my favorite paring knife, and I routinely see people with larger folders...meaner looking ones, and no-one thinks twice about them. Well other than the county officers at the metal detector stations at the local court house anyway. The only reason I drive forty extra minutes to the county annex on the other side of the city, where I can go in and pay my property taxes and renew my tags, handing over my hard earned money, without having to endure the scrutiny first. I totally get how a group or gang of guys wielding knives might make an individual nervous. That makes perfect sense to me. Been there myself several times on the streets of Dallas in the mid 80s, and it has made me a bit uneasy. But to have a solitary man cleaning his nails with a small knife whilst sitting on the tail gate of his pickup at the edge of a gas station parking lot, make a group of essentially grown men nervous as they pass 10 meters away? That's something I find noteworthy. I think it speaks volumes about how much life in this country has changed for the worse. I'm glad for his sake my grandfather did not live to see these days. His attitude was much like most WWII vets and he had zero tolerance for sissies. Had he been alive the day this country was attacked by an airplane taken over by a few people wielding box cutters, the caliber of men this country is producing would have enraged him.

 

[gsx-rboy750]

Every generation has its terms. When I hear it I think pointier or more piercing tip. I also use my knife to stab into a tree a pry chaga or in other processes.

 

[Mistwalker]

Every generation has its terms. When I hear it I think pointier or more piercing tip. I also use my knife to stab into a tree a pry chaga or in other processes.

Yeah, I know, and approached with common sense I get it. Maybe mine was somewhat of an overreaction to it on a bad day. It's just that seeing it in the context it is often presented by youtube "knife experts", it just seems to be that much more added to the plethora of erroneous knife information out there, and one step closer the the government trying to legislate my chef's knife away for fear of me stabbing someone with it.....

 

[gsx-rboy750]

Yeah, I know, and approached with common sense I get it. Maybe mine was somewhat of an overreaction to it on a bad day. It's just that seeing it in the context it is often presented by youtube "knife experts", it just seems to be that much more added to the plethora of erroneous knife information out there, and one step closer the the government trying to legislate my chef's knife away for fear of me stabbing someone with it.....

Choppy doesn't mean you go all Joseph Kony with your big knife. I was also a little shocked when I heard it being referred in knife videos. After more though and starting to make my own knives I feel for the use of the term.
Stabby, choppy, slickly, piercing are knife adjectives that can be taken many ways.
For young people maybe not the best terminology.