Walking around, knife or no knife?

Fortunately for those of us who live in America (which sadlly no longer really includes all of the USA), we aren't obligated to justify our choices to carry an object or not to anyone else. I like it that way.

If I want to carry a ginormous knife, that simple desire is adequate "justification." The same goes for other tools like firearms.

Now I think I'll start carrying my extra large Voyager again . . . because I want to and because I can! ;)
 
shecky said:
Folks on this forum refuse to accept this. But it is ridiculous to expect the world to completely accomodate what is basically a knife fetish most of us have. Anybody who pulls out a ridiculous knife can expect to be marked as paranoid, a geek, or both. Hey, just get over it and stop whining. Just about anybody motivated enough to blab about knives on the internet probably is at the very least a big geek.
Actually most people here do not care if they are "marked as a geek." I've carried a 9" knife on a trail hike because I felt like it. We passed a guy who actually complemented it and started talking about his kabar. But yeah, most people here are secure enough with themselves and do not care what others think about their knife.
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This is like saying, "Does anyone need to wear a nice watch. Every computer has the time on it and there are clocks everywhere."

It isn't about need. Free men have the right to live freely, and others are free to regard you as a geek. But if your life is constrained by the opionions of other people, you have a bigger problem.

This is simply my opinion, I'm not trying to slam anyone.
 
I don't wear a watch and my shoes have Velcro. You could hang someone with those shoestrings. I say abolish them!
 
lorise said:
Is it justifiable to carry on your person a large knife? And large would be blade lenght maybe 3" or bigger.

It´s just us knife nuts who think it´s necessary and have made it necessary for us by the way we do things, because we like carrying knives around alot more than we need it and it justifies buying more knives.
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If people who like knives start to reason like this than we are in trouble...
 
I live in Aus where we have some nasty knife laws , I carry my knife because I want to .

I just measured it , my Okapi has a 4 inch blade , wow , Im a geek ....

I do use it a fair bit , I do carry it in a pouch on my belt more for the legality aspect than because I prefer that for of carry ( carrying in a pocket is grounds for being booked with carrying a concealed weapon )

But these are not the reasons I carry my knife , I carry it because I want to , I like to , and because Ive carried knves since I was old enough to pass money over the counter to buy one , I feel downright naked without one .

Next week , Im buying in 4 damascus folders and a range of other folders , if they are OK , Ill carry a damascus folder as my EDC , because I get it direct from the maker , they are actualy cheap enough to have a a knock around knife . I like the workmanship that goes into these tools , I make concession enough allready to people who are knife shy , by not carrying the fixed blades I would like to .

But this is just me
 
Attitudes like that are why we have to bail Europe out several times a century.

I usually have 2 knives on me--both rather large---and a lot of times a pistol---also rather large.;)
 
lorise said:
Is it justifiable to carry on your person a large/SIZE] knife? And large would be blade lenght maybe 3" or bigger.
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You must be kidding. Folders with 3" (and under) blades generally are extremly SMALL :eek:

BM Opportunist has IIRC 2.99" blade:
opportunist.jpg


See HOW SMALL it is?

Spyderco Military is about ideal size for pocket folder.
military.jpg



BTW have you tried any of such "large knives" in the kitchen? There you realize how tiny they are. (E.g. aforementioned Military has shorter blade than my shortest kitchen knife)
 
I always have my knife, and use it several times during the day for various things, at work and at home. If you want to believe that we shouldn't carry anything with more than a 3 inch blade, I guess you would probably have a heart attack at the sight of me flipping my bali.:eek::eek:
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Ridiculous.

Better to have and not need than to need and not have. As a free man, I justify my own behavior by doing as I please as long as I don't harm any other innocent person. If someone else is offended by my knife, the problem is in their mind. I refuse to be bound by their ignorance.

I resent laws that criminalize possession rather than misuse. I believe all personal weapons, including both knives and guns, should be available to reliable adult citizens. These citizens would then be strictly accountable for their use of them.

To suggest that a 3" blade should ever be out of place is a deplorably servile attitude.
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AMEN brother!!!!!!
 
We are not allowed box cutters in my factory due to the risk of getting slivers of metal into the chocolate, so if you want a box open, it's either a fixed blade, a folder or your nails. The knife that they provide at work is a 5" hawkbill fixed blade. Alot of ppl gets the millwrights to make other designs for them. I don't think my manix is out of place.
 
This is a pretty good demo of how presenting your thoughts really leads the audience. First, the title of the thread doesn't completely match the content of the post. It isn't just a question of whether or not to carry a knife, but whether or not to carry a knife >3". Next, in that question, larger knives and those who carry them are insulted. There's a very reasoned point that knives aren't used all that often for most people, in most locations, at most jobs, on most days, and a concession that a small knife (LST) is carried by lorise on a regular basis.

What do we get? A defensive backlash. A question for a justifiable reason is met with "Cuz I can :p". If this thread had been presented as simply praise for the versatility and convenience of small knives, to be there on the not so frequent occasion that some people who aren't butchers or warehousers need them, we would have 30+ posts of not "I need it just in case, shove it sideways" to comments on Spyderco's excellent "little big knives" or how SAKs get the job done for thousands of people without 'longish' blades, locks, etc. How paring knives, scalpels, disposable utility blades, etc are used by professionals daily. Maybe how if you wanted to save someone trapped by a seatbelt, you could just use a tiny rescue hook.

I can use smaller knives because I also carry a multitool (whose blades are only 3" long) So, I multiple carry, which many may also find weird. If I wanted to get a rise out of people I needed to pull the 806 or Skirmish. I dunno, I can just think of reasons to carry a pair of folding pliers that are better than just, "Well, it isn't illegal where I live."

Saying that carrying a knife is ridiculous, on a knife forum, is itself a ridiculous act. But the defensiveness isn't helping, either.
 
First off in my opinion a 3" blade is not considered large its medium Large is 6" and above. Second I worked a job where I could not carry a knife and I can't tell you how many times I wished I had one. Was it a matter of life and death no but it was very inconvenient. I have had a knife in my pocket almost everyday since I quit that job and use it everyday. It might be just to open an envelope,a box or cut a thread but I use it. Could I find another way to carry out these tasks sure but it would be a lot more inconvenient .Also how do people who do not carry knives open those blister packs that are so common now? I know I would never get one open without a sharp knife.
The OP seems to think that because he does not need a larger blade that nobody should need one.Now my EDC is under 3" but I work in a office where I don't need anything larger but if I worked say on a farm or construction I would want and carry a larger blade.
 
One more thing....A large knife is capable of doing whatever a small blade can do; however, a small blade is not capable of doing whatever a large blade can do.
 
One size fits all statements sometimes become laws. These one size things don't work for me or for alot of us. A 3 inch blade may be large in one person's opinion, and it may be tiny for somebody else.

In my opinion I will make up my own mind what is large or small. When it comes to knives I need both. There are jobs for a small knife like my Spyderco Police, then there are jobs for a large knife, like a 6 inch fixed blade.

I often carry both every day, and use them for various tasks, opening packages, personal grooming, cutting or chopping wood or brush, or simply preparing a piece of fruit for my dessert after lunch.

Knives are a personal tool, and it is up to the user to determine the needs and requirements for large small or anything in between because we are all different in our needs and opinions.
 
While I was in Doncaster UK a year or so ago, in the office they were
looking about for a pair of scissors to cut the plastic strapping on a box
that just arrived, failing to find any, I pulled out my David Boye small
folder, 3" blade, about as harmless a looking knife as you're likely to see
and cut the straps in a flash. Everyone was taken back, saying things
like the only reason I'd carry such a knife was to kill some one!! Whoa!
They really couldn't see the need, and yet there was the box cut open for
them, of course, they would have eventually found some scissors but man
what a thought process, here is the land of Sheffield and knights and such
and a knife is a bad thing, amazing!
Myself, I now have the Mini-Cyclone but have thoughts, bad thoughs ;) of
getting a full size BM Deja Voo, really like the sleek looks of that and some days
you just need a blade a bit longer, for slicing up those sandwiches and things :)

G2
 
I agree with the original poster, up to a point. I've read the following observation on a number of outdoors forums: the experienced backwoodsman is the one with the 4-5 ins. blade on his belt, the newbie has the 7 ins. and larger 'sword' on his.

I use a small-ish blade as an EDC - Opinel No. 8, which comes in just shy of 4 ins. For my own light use, in an office, I have no need for anything more. A sheeple-friendly knife like this suits me, and, anyway, I don't have anything to prove.

There is a cultural thing here, too. Most of Northern Europe considers a knife for slicing and an axe for chopping, and would not expect to have a need for a huge knife that does everything (poorly).
 
Grebo Guru said:
I agree with the original poster, up to a point. I've read the following observation on a number of outdoors forums: the experienced backwoodsman is the one with the 4-5 ins. blade on his belt, the newbie has the 7 ins. and larger 'sword' on his.
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You say you agree, but I think you're forgetting his specific definition.

Is it justifiable to carry on your person a large knife? And large would be blade lenght maybe 3" or bigger.

Opening mail, cutting cardboard boxes once in awhile does not warranty carrying around a large knife! One can easily get by in everyday office and at home life with out a knife!
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He is defining a 3" bladed folder as "large". He then goes on to say we don't need to carry any knife regularly. This has nothing to do with the effective size of a knife for a particular job.
 
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