Unusual Office Carry

I don't work in an office and most all my coworkers carry a knife. We get more use out of these tools though.
 
When I did work in an office, I always had a pocketknife with me. Usually a Gerber Harsey Air Ranger II, but sometimes an SAK or a Buck 112. My boss once asked me if I always had a weapon at work when she saw the Gerber. I just said no, I never have a weapon. Then I commenced to opening my mail with it in front of her. I never did fit in at that office, though. Earlier, as a grad student and instructor in a big state university history dept., I was one of a crowd of students who collected knives, fountain pens, pipes, watches, and so forth. We always shared our acquisitions with each other in public. No one was alarmed.

Now, I try to get each of my students to carry a knife. They're lazy and forget them or just don't care. Or they don't own one! Oh, I'm a horse trainer and riding instructor, so you can see how this matters. One of these days they're gonna want to open a bale of hay and not have a knife and look to me. "Your horse can starve, then!" Well, I'll let em sweat for a bit. 😉

Zieg
 
I used to run the local branch of an NGO that focused on scientific research. Our office was very close to my gun club, so I'd bring in my range bag to work quite often, sometimes a shotgun or two (I had a large safe).

At that time I was co-owner of an outdoors equipment store and frequently had boxes of knives delivered to my office at the NGO.

I EDCed anything I felt like, but always kept a nice slipjoint or SAK handy to use in public, especially when folks who didn't know me were around.

I also bought Victorinox Classics with different images on the handles and gave them out to my staff (all my employees and interns at the time were women). Since I could order from a wholesaler, I got them for pennies. Everybody liked them and commented on how handy they were.

Now I'm back to freelancing, so I can pretty much carry a flamethrower around my office. The gym where I teach grappling has a very gun/knife friendly policy.
 
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I've been a supply chain/buyer type in computers and aerospace for the past 8 or 9 years. Before that, customer service for a few years. With the exception of two years in the middle of that time period, where the place had an outgoing metal detector (for theft), and a security guard with strict orders about sharps, I've carried everything from just a SAK Classic, to approximately four inch bladed folders (Military, Pac salt, Avispa, etc). These days, I carry on the small side most of the time, with my repeat offenders being a small Antonini Patada, Case zytel lockback, and the omnipresent SAK Classic. The only negative reaction I've had to a knife was opening a box in front of a couple coworkers with a Dragonfly, circa 2009.
 
NotSoSharpBob said:
I'm in middle management at the fortune 10 company. Typical cube farm office environment. I don't carry anything with an exposed clip but do EDC a small folder every day. It's a no weapons policy work place but my argument would always be it's a tool not a weapon. I didn't say I would win the argument
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I work in a cube farm also and never carry anything with an exposed clip. We have a no weapons policy, but it says no knives with blades over 3". I still don't "advertise" that I carry....too many sheeple in the office. We also have a policy that says no guns even in your car.
 
I work in printing in an office environment and while the print shop folks don't really give a rip and know that I'm the one to ask for a knife, the office folks can sometimes get flaky. One time at a company pot luck I watched someone try to cut a frozen cream pie and a 7 layer cake with a plastic knife. I offered up my Manix that was on me at the time and I think she thought I was going to kill someone.
I'm always amazed when people without the right tools are afraid if the folks with them.
 
ErikD... here's your new office carry.

[video=youtube;UtRELHfXMpo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtRELHfXMpo[/video]

 
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Not really something I "carried" so to speak, but something else I did in my "cube farm" cubicals.... the company also had a "no guns anywhere - buildings or parking lots" policy. After there were a few office shootings nation-wide by disgruntled/fired employees (and we had a bunch of those folks leave us) I decided that just because I was paranoid didn't mean that something couldn't happen. Thankfully, nothing ever happened where I worked.

However, to allay my concerns about an inability to defend myself and others in the event something did happen to happen....

I throw Bowie knives and tomahawks for fun and competition. The Bowies I throw are usually 14" to 16" and weigh 18 to 21 ounces and I can hit a "man's chest" sized target 20 out of 20 times out to 40 feet and a head sized target out to 30. They may not stick pointy end first at that distance, but I can hit them.

I cut out a dozen generic, no-clip-point, Mountain Man style blanks out of 3/16" A36 mild steel. They ended up being about 20 ounces, with no real points or even handles, just slabs of metal. The only grinding I did on them was to smooth out and round off the edges. Sanded them down to 200 grit, powder coated them various colors and painted "Paper weight #1", "Paper Weight #2",etc.

I stacked them in a corner of my cube desk, and would leave a 1 or 2 out holding down stacks of "stuff". I figured that if something started happening, I could grab a stack and at least throw some 1.25# chunks of steel. If someone gets hit in the head, neck or chest by a hard-thrown chunk of steel, they're going to take some damage. I never mentioned why they were on my desk, and even though several people knew I threw knives and hawks, apparently no one ever put 2 and 2 together.
 
zzyzzogeton said:
Back when I worked as a programmer at a major computer manufacturer in Austin, the PTB frowned on carrying anything that could be a weapon. I also happened to be on the corporate first response team (EMS for the company).

I used the same duty belt for responding with my VFD and for the CRT. On the belt, I carried a pair of fixed blade Kabar shorties, a pair of trauma shears, a 4 lb radio, glucometer kit, and pocket mask (for CPR). My personal BP cuff, stethoscope, pulse oximetry unit were in a small back pack and I had a company provided specially constructed gear bag with a D cylinder of O2 and administration equipment, a defibrillator, and assorted bandages/etc. I would wear the belt and carry the back pack in from my vehicle every day and where ever I went during the work day (meetings, computer test labs, factory assembly lines), I packed along both the back pack and the O2/Defib/Trauma bag. I responded to 9 separate buildings in the complex.

I would set off every metal detector I went through. :D I caught a little grief at the beginning because of the FBs but I just told them

"You want a full-up EMT on the team? Then I carry the equipment I want to use. I'm not having a separate set-up for on/off work. Take it or leave it."

They then said

"Can't you just leave it at your desk and go get it if you need it?"

I said "You mean my desk in 5, when I go to a meeting in C, and have to run 200 yards back to 5, past E and then come back to E in the event someone has a heart attack? Are you some kind of stupid?"

Fortunately, the top dog in my area was a retired Marine Colonel and he was the one whose decision mattered and he saw it my way. They chose to take it and let me do it my way. Still got a bitching about my gear from all kinds of people. Until the day one of the admin assistants for one of the senior management people dropped in the lobby with a heart attack. I happened to be at a meeting in the building and was on scene in less than 2 minutes. She was one of my 5 "saves" (where we get a heart beat back AND the patient walks out of the hospital).

Never heard another single complaint about "Why do you drag all that equipment around?" or "Do you REALLY need all that stuff?"
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Love this story. Hats off to you sir!
 
I carry a knife everywhere and I could really care less what people think. That is why I don't buy after market deep carry pocket clips. The stock ones everyone can see are fine for me :)
 
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I only have to go into the office twice a month, and for the 4 hrs I'm there I don't have anything. At my college, I had brought hard cheese, crusty bread and smoked meat as a snack, or lunch, and one guy said my Delica was for stabbing people. So now I just don't let him see any knife from me, and he gets no food.
 
I work in a political/professional environment and dress business casual/professional, depending on what's happening that day. I almost always have a Case Peanut in my pocket. I also have a small SAK on my keychain, but I leave my keys on my desk in my office most of the day.

I keep another knife in one of my desk drawers and use it most of the time, unless I am away from the desk. Then I use the Peanut.

Sometimes I rotate in other small traditionals and non-pocket clip folders. It's hard to justify tearing up nice dress pants and wool slacks with a pocket clip, so I don't bother.

In past lives I carried all sorts of things, mostly a Swiss Tool in a leather sheath on my belt. Unfortunately that doesn't work anymore.

One of my favorites in rotation is a Fallkniven folder I got in trade. It's a laminate steel blade and seems to hold an edge forever. It's nice and thin too.
 
[video=youtube;VKdHXsuyF3o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKdHXsuyF3o[/video]

 
On topic response, I'm in management in an office environment and carry multiple knives every day. I always have. I carry a large folder in my right front pocket, and my SAK Farmer on its handmade brass dangler clip in my left. The office in general knows that I am "the guy who's into knives", and that means I'm usually asked by the younger folks for advice on which knife to buy, or I'm asked to sharpen folders owned by other folks who don't do it very well themselves. I don't mind, it's good to be able to share what I know with others so as to lessen the stigma of the knife as a weapon when I can.

Today, I'm carrying my Jungle Commander, and the aforementioned Pioneer.
 
My company never had a problem with the type of knives I carried in the office.

But once we moved to NYC , I had to take it down a few notches.
 
I usually carried a Mora #00 buttoned to my waistcoat. (Happily retired 2years now... Yay, I dress how I want to !! )
Admittedly, that & pocketwatch a bit oldschool standard of Gentlemans attire. Nobody mentioned the knife, the pocketwatch was the conversation opener !

Sometimes asked to borrow my knife, reply "where is yours, or did you lose yours ?"
There were plenty of other folks with a 'bro-clip of some kind, the knifeless chump would go on to beg from them.
 
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