I used to carry an extra "loaner". After multiple screwed up knives and a few that just grew legs, I quit "loaning" any knife to anyone. 1 exception - life-threatening situation. That's it.
I ask "What do you need cut?" and cut it myself, if I have deemed them worthy of being the recipient of the advantage of me carrying a knife.
Kinda callous, right? Nope. They are wanting to borrow something from me. They want to take advantage of me being prepared. If someone wanted to borrow your car, your motorcycle, chain saw, you rifle or your handgun or any other item that has the POTENTIAL to cause injury or death if misused, you'd either say NO or ask a bunch of questions before letting them use the item. A knife falls into the same category.
Who will I cut something for?? My recent examples are a little old lady in the post office having trouble with the packing tape, the mother trying to corral 3 kids and a string gets entangled in her stroller wheel, the WW2 vet who asks if I have a knife to cut something for him, because all cowboys have knives ( I was wearing one of my hats and bolo ties like I generally do) and he no longer carries a knife because his arthritic fingers can't safely use one any more.
Who won't I cut something for? Healthy, able bodied, unencumbered folks who don't even own one. After I find out what they need to cut, I ask them "Where's your knife?" Their answer usually makes it real clear as to their attitude towards carrying knives.
Now why have I developed this attitude? A couple of reasons. First reason is, in this day and age, if I loan a knife to someone and they screw up somehow - either screw some thing up, injure themselves or someone else, I could be found liable. Is this right? No. They did the deed, whatever it was. But with the laws and lawyer attitudes, I "enabled the deed to occur". I choose not to put myself at risk of having my physical and/or financial freedom hosed by some idiot and then having to be at the mercy or 6-12 "peers", many of whom don't even know how to spell "Knife" much less responsibly own one.
People have lost the attitude of proper, responsible behavior and have developed the sense that it is all about them. Lawyers chasing the big bucks and encouraging people to "sue, to get what someone else owes you." or some DA looking for an easy kill. The bleeding hearts who think that everything should be equal and safe for everyone, even if they have to dumb things down and ban anything that evens smells of being dangerous if used improperly by some deranged individual.
The second reason is that I have decided that (my opinion, no one else's) - If they are too damn stupid/fearful/idiotic/out of touch with reality to understand that a knife is a tool to be carried and used and don't own one themselves but will try to borrow someone else's, then I'm not gonna help them out of their non-life threatening situation that they put themselves into by listening to the BS about a knife being a weapon.
Enough soap box.
