"Thats illegal!!!"

basmca said:
why would i want to stab people???!
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Why would you NOT want to stab people??
Maybe it's the type of people you encounter..
but I can't deny that I occasionally want to stab a *****r. I also can't say that I've ever had sufficient justification to do so...but that just deflects from the initial statement about want.
 
I live in New York [long Island- Nassau county] and have to say I'm not familiar with the knife laws.
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I'm from Nassau too, and I find our knife laws very confusing. Several retailers, both knife specific and more general outdoors retailers, will not ship any knives to Nassau County for some reason, but I can't find any laws that specifically prohibit them from doing so. I can go to the knife store down the street from me and buy anything from a butterfly knife to a sword, and folding knives of any size, as long as they are not autos.
When I was in Boy Scouts, my troop used the "no bigger than the palm of your hand" rule for knife size. I got in trouble for asking exactly whose palm we were measuring on, pointing out that one of the leaders was rather overweight and had very large hands as a result.
 
I get some strange comments - strange to me, I guess I'm strange to the people making the comments. Most often, something like "Oh, that looks dangerous!" or "That looks scary!"

To which I usually ask "Why is that?" Never had a really good reply. Typically either no answer or something non-committal like "I don't know, it just does." If they persist with talk of "dangerous looking" or "illegal", I give them a brief recap of our state laws, and explain why my knife is not illegal.

I don't think the knives I carry are particularly scary looking. You can check my signature below - let me know if you see something that you think would be frightening to people?

I am not yet 60, and I can remember in high school, a lot of us boys use to carry pocket knives to school - public school - and it was not an issue! They were not considered "contraband" or "weapons", and it wasn't against the rules. I remember teachers telling us to put them away or they would take them away from us - not because they thought we were accidentally going to cut ourselves or someone else - and certainly not because they suspected anyone was going to get violent! But because they considered them - rightfully - a distraction, when we had them out for unofficial "show and tell".

Change is often for the better, but that certainly isn't always the case!

UPDATE: The high school I attended was not in a rural area. It was in a densely populated suburb, right outside a large city. In fact, the city limit sign was visible from our driveway, the high school two miles further outside it.
 
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basmca said:
i've said many times that i disagree with people who carry knives as weapons or for 'self defence'.
exactly for the reason you just mentioned.
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Why exactly do you care what someone chooses to carry for self defense? Thats weird....
 
I had a Buck 119 special on my hip from mid December to the first of February and never even got a look.

I haven't encountered any such situations, so I don't know how idI handle it if I did.
 
I am probably a victim of culture shock. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived and worked where everyday carry was an 18 inch machete. Even young children would carry these to cut grass around the house.
But there was no tradition of carrying pocket knives or sheathed belt knives and there were social constraints against walking around with a knife in your hand. When travelling on a bus, knives were wrapped in a newspaper or piece of cloth (never any sheaths). Knives were necessary tools.
I am afraid that our modern society has confused everyday tools with weapons.
 
I did get asked one time from a co-worker "Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Down here in the great state of Louisiana, carrying a knife has not been an issue for as long as I remember. I've had fixed blades on my belt and have went into stores and no one has fainted or yelled "knife knife" yet. Hell, I've seen people in stores with guns and have never gotten worried looks from other people.
Even at work, no one makes a fuss about someone having a pocket knife on them and there's a no personal knife policy in place because there's been two recordable injury's involving someone's personal knife use.
 
sharp_edge said:
Sounds more like a made-up story. What is the chance that nowadays a break-room of four guys who happen to all know about knives, knife laws, and knife terminology?
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None of them knew any of the laws. That was the point of the story......
 
We have a break room in our machine shop and talk about all kinds of stuff. Mostly we're a vulgar group :D so I don't see any reason to question the validity of the OPs story.
 
I've had many funny things said to me over the years. Though most people that know me at all, know I love knives, and always have a couple, at least, on me at any time....As well as forty five. But that's for another thread.

Anyway, my boy also started collecting when quite young. Obviously a little because of dad, but started really from interest of super cheap imports at tourist trap shops. The knife he took on his first boy scout overnighter was a Kershaw Scallion. Certainly not a bushcraft knife, but it was a hit at the campfire. But his scout knife soon became a ZT0566. And on from there.

So one year he wanted to give his best friend a knife for Christmas. His friend was infatuated with a certain Kershaw assisted opener that he had. So D saved some money and bought one for his friend. The day after trading gifts, his friend brought it back. He was obviously sad, but just said that his father insisted that it was an illegal switchblade, and he could be in trouble for even holding it. My son just laughed and said, "Uh ok, but maybe your dad should go back to law school". That had me laughing all day.

Ok, so maybe he was a terrible lawyer, but certainly knew better than that. Don't go lying to your kid because you don't want him to have something. Lame. I asked my boy if he was ok, and he said... "I'm great. With gift cards I got, and returning this knife, I've got enough for another knife I want." What a great kid.
 
bladeboss said:
None of them knew any of the laws. That was the point of the story......
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I won't say none of them know any of the laws. They may have some misunderstanding although the way I see it is that they were dancing in the grey area of knife laws. People who have not read or know about knife laws won't use terms like "gravity" "flick open" "category" in this context of discussion. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
 
basmca said:
i get this a lot '' that's illegal'' comments.

for some reason there's a myth around here that a pocketknife can not be bigger than the palm of your hand.
so very often when people ask about my knife and i hand it too them they lay it on their hand and say ''oh yea that's illegal''

i honestly don't know where this myth came from, maybe another Dutch guy here may know it.





oh and for some reason stupid people seem to think i carry knives purely to stab people... which is just.. idek what to say to that...
why would i want to stab people???!
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For some reason cops all over the world use the “if the blade is longer than your palm is wide then it means I get to keep your knife.” “Don’t worry I’ll let you off with a warning this time” thus there is no paper work and they get themselves a nice new knife.
 
My "knife education" of people lately has come full circle. I've given a few 20-somethings at work some OHO's I don't use much anymore to show them that a $15 knife can be better than what they might find at the big box stores. I've had to edumicate them on the "a knife is a tool" thing 'cause they want to go all mall ninja and/or use the tip as a screwdriver, etc.

Teaching them to sharpen too. They are coming along.
 
The worst reaction I ever got was when i was using my Steel Will Apostate (4.1" blade) in the lab, and a professor did a really bad Crocodile Dundee impression before asking to borrow it to open some boxes. He was pretty embarrassed that he had left his knife in his office and had to borrow someone else's.
 
I couldn't own a nice knife capable of dropping open when I press the lock, e.g., a compression lock and have to dum it down with friction. F that.
I'll carry what I want.
BUT
I will be very discreet who I open and close it in front of. I may just use one of my little slip joints or I may open it slow and quiet. It is stunning how quiet my 710 opens even when I give it some oomph.

I have a Cold Steel Ti Lite VI that I razelized and use at work for mechanicin' . . . I bet people that are in the next room wonder what "THAT SOUND WAS" when I whip that sucker open . . . you know how they sound but if someone is in the same room I just open it quiet like.
 
sharp_edge said:
I won't say none of them know any of the laws. They may have some misunderstanding although the way I see it is that they were dancing in the grey area of knife laws. People who have not read or know about knife laws won't use terms like "gravity" "flick open" "category" in this context of discussion. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
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They absolutely will if they live anywhere near New York City.
 
edgecentricity said:
I recently used a Spyderco Spy-DK (two-handed opening slip joint) to cut an apple or something. My friend said, "You're not going to murder me with that, are you?" Argh. Had to give 'em the old "It's a tool, not a weapon" explanation....
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My usual reply to that kind of question is "No. Of course not. But I suppose I could........."
 
I worked as a sheriffs deputy assigned to the large main courthouse in my county for 6 years. Much of that time I was dressed in the regular patrol uniform, gunbelt, baton, sidearm, tazer, etc...the full meal deal. One day, a newly hired court clerk asked me about all the stuff on my belt. I explained it all to her and when I ended the show and tell with my spyderco delica(not even opening it !)she reacted negatively and wondered why I “needed a knife” and told me she thought it was weird that I had a knife with me. She didn’t seem to mind the Glock, taser, OC, etc.....but the knife kinda freaked her out. Nice young lady, so I reached over her desk and picked up her own scissors and handed them to her. I told her that they were just two knives on a pivot and we just as dangerous as my knife. She kinda got it.....people are weird.
 
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Clearing the deer trails on our PRIVATE LAND and I got near the road and was clearing where the power line people knocked down and cut "Line Obstructions" so the deer could get on their old established trails so I could murder them later on during the season. One nature freak had to stop come out trespassing letting his rat dog run loose and complain how "us power people" destroyed the natural ascetics of the "natural" foliage around the power lines. I told that person I was cleaning up after the mess they left, get his dog leashed as it was the law, and to get off the property. Yes it was posted, well till "lost hunters" ripped down the signs again. Then the idiot didn't see the axe I had or the pickeroon or saw but just my SP-53 and began yelling my "BIG KNIFE!" was illegal to have, according to them that is. I just wanted the twit gone and said "Oh its a heavy machete I use for venting on vegetation to deal with anger issues idiots like you give me." Seems the trespasser got only the first part and not the intended insult and said "Oh a machete that's ok then." Then saw my Gerber Strongarm on my belt in a "TACTICAL SHEATH!" "THAT IS ILLEGAL!" I told the twit to leave the property but seems some one was going to "Stick by their argument!". Before I could tell them it was not and just a belt knife and the sheath was legal thank god a coyote came and grabbed and ran away with that rat dog changing the subject. That was another exchange there.
 
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