Walking around, knife or no knife?

I never go anywhere without a knife..........Period.
I only carry a fixed blade while fishing, camping, etc. But, I always have a folder in my pocket.
I even buy knives with specific blade lengths that allow me to stay legal when I travel to places with different knife laws than home.
 
I carry a 3" fixed bladed knife everyday. If people are concerned about a knife I hate to lift my shirt and have them look at my .45 1911. Yes I have a conceal permit to carry it too :)
 
shecky said:
Actually, this is ridiculous, a catchphrase that literally has no limit. There will always be a situation when you don't have enough. While I can sympathize with the sentiment, practicalities have to rule the day. The tortoise carries his home with him. Most people are forced to leave the fortress behind once in a while compromise on what will go along with the travels.

Cliches are cliches cause they are true. It seems as if you have never been in a situation that called for a defensive weapon. Either that or you are such an expert that you can successfully deal with knife or gun with your hands. In any case many people on this forum realize the intelligence of being prepared. There was a time, not that long ago when it was legal to carry any sized edged weapon in NYC and many other places. The only restriction was that it could not be double edged or concealed. Now it must be under four inches and well hidden. Politically correct nonsense. I hope you are never in a situation where some well heeled robber laughs at your one inch paper cutter as he stabs you and takes your money. While it is true that your willingness and ability to use your blade is more important than its size I would ather have a knife with some heft next time I am called upon to protect myself or the ones I love, and be assured; if you live long enough that situation will arise when you least expect it

Good LUck with your idealism
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pholder said:
hey all,
knives of any size are NOT dangerous
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Uhhh, yeah they are. It is not all to difficult to cut yourself or drop a knife on your foot. You may be using a knife correctly, but using a knife correctly does not warrant against accidents.
 
I've got full dentures that I don't even paste in and I can eat an apple just fine. I take apples or pears with me on a walk in the woods. But cutting them up is neater, especially if i'm sitting around nibbling one with a larger meal. Before I got the dentures, I had so many broken teeth, it was a hassle eating anything that wasn't cut up.

But all this is beside the point, compared to a mindset that feels no one should carry a knife regularly, only when they have a specific task to perform with it. I have no idea what I'm going to face each day, although self-defense is last on the list. There are too many useful and fun things to do with sharp steel for me to forget to carry at least one.

mfaster7 said:
if you live long enough that situation will arise when you least expect it
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That's it exactly, whatever the situation. Rarely life or death, but always convenience, and never a big deal to have a small item like a knife.

This topic comes up frequently. Here's a previous thread with some especially interesting posts: Why do I carry a knife . One was translated from Russian. The other is by the late, great James Mattis, as fine a gentleman as Bladeforums has known:

My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off. The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place. I wear a wristwatch whether or not I have an appointment to keep, and I carry a pen and/or pencil because I am a literate person whether or not I have a specific writing task ahead of me, and I carry a knife because I am a human and not an ape.

A knife comes in handy for all sorts of random tasks that involve separating matter. Like cutting a string, or making a sandwich, or opening a package. It can also come in handy in an emergency, which need not involve a human assailant, and emergencies are by their nature unforeseen, so one should carry a knife all the time.

And in a perfect world where nobody needed a weapon, I'd probably carry a slightly larger knife, because it wouldn't scare people.
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Hawkings said:
I truly feel sorry for people with teeth that are so bad, that they can't even bite and thew an apple:eek: :eek: :eek:
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Well, we are out there, whether we like it or not. It's been about 4 years since I could bite into an apple without worrying about costly damage to my mouth. Knives are useful when you're slightly disabled at times as well. I often have broken fingers and sprained wrists, so cutting open packages instead of pulling them apart is fairly valued at times.

Along the same lines as this post, there have been some good discussions in Wilderness & Survival about having a damaged dominant hand and how you'd build shelters using only your weak side to chop and baton.
 
Dr. Mudd.
I am glad to hear Dr. Guðni Þorsteinsson treated you well. One should always do his country proud. It is a shame that you can't travel, if you appreciate beautiful nature Iceland has some very nice places. You would be most welcome.
 
I never carry ... A ... knife I always carry ... two ... generally a tactical of choice and (mostly) a leatherman S2. If I went around naked I would carry my knives ... (boy, there's a whole nuther' thread!!) ...
 
I usually carry 2 knives on me. A ritter Mini in the front right for daily things and a Delica4 wave IWB by the back pocket. That way, I do have a knife for my left hand if my right can not get to one.
 
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.

This kind of ridicule doesn't only come from non knife people. I'd roll my eyes too if I saw some guy pull out a Vaquero Grande to clean his nails or a Dark Ops to open his juice box.
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Freud said, "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Choose your associates better if you're having a problem.

Regardless, in general there is no need to for anyone to accommodate anything, because the world cannot divine the contents of your pockets (or pants) unless you make a show of yourself.
 
Gary W. Graley said:
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
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England is fast becoming a demented dystopia with no guns, no pointy knives, video surveillance everywhere, and citizens completely disarmed against the growing problems with violent non-integrating immigrants as well as home-grown troublemakers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm

Oh yes, no glass pints either. Plastic sippy cups for the wrethed sods!

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=29937
 
NO GLASS PINTS !!! Wow ... just wow ... Does the English Govt. consider a glass pint a "knife making kit" ??? Throw it on the floor ... grab a large piece ... and throw yourself into the fray ... just wow ... I hope no one kills someone with a plastic sippy cup ... whatcha' gonna drink from then ???
 
Well, "large" is very relative and I agree with most here that 3" is not very large in most cases (I wouldn't call the Lil'T exactly small, despite its 3" blade). In my kitchen were my knives serve a very tractable and practical use the smallest knife has a blade of 4", which pretty much a standart size for a small paring knife. If in the kitchen the *smallest* sensible bladelength (with some possible exceptions) is 4", why would you expect a smaller blade superior as a pocket knife? In the end the tasks that a paring knife might get used for and those for an EDC are (at least in my case) surprisingly similar. Hence, I prefer something in the 3-4" range as EDC and would consider it perfectly "normal" size.
 
I always carry a "large" knife if not 2 or 3,

on my person at almost all times atm until my new goodies come in the mail are an Opinel number 8 which hits about 3 1/4 and my Al Mar shrike topping out at maybe 3 1/4 i have also carried (when i was a knife noob) a CRKT Ryan Model 7 which i imagine had to be 4+ since i no longer have it(thank god).

That being said i carried smaller knives (kershaw scallion) and i found time and again the smaller blade length didnt allow me to handle the cutting chores i put to it and i work a fairly mundane retail job(selling knives of course:cool: ) time and again i would have to borrow knives from customers(ugh...) its just rediculous here I am the knife salesman and i couldnt even do what i needed to do.
 
What is and more importantly what is not "right" to carry is a very debated topic. If I carry a seal pup (4.75") people will react a lot worse than a folder of the same size, including those in uniforms.

To reiterate a much voiced idea: to carry a knife is not dangerous and/or wrong but rather a knife is only as dangerous as it's owner. In the hands of 99% of people a knife can be of great benefit to both the owner and in rare circumstances, others in society.
 
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.
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Very nicely said, Esav - almost exactly my thoughts.

The only problem I see is the "should be available to reliable adult citizens" part. How do you make sure only reliable citizens get access to knives/guns when there is no access limitation at all? The USA is a country that shows pretty well what happens when too many unreliable citizens can buy guns.

Don't get me wrong folks, I'm not saying guns/knives should be banned - I love knives and I will be able to get my first firearm this year, but something is obviously wrong with the way this matter is handled in some countries.

Perhaps having some restrictions would be the way to go? At least until we can invent a way to make everyone a responsible citizen.

-Connor
 
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