what to do when people freak out about your knife

I once used a perfectly legal knife to cut away the nylon reinforced strapping tape that had wrapped itself around one of the front dolly wheels on a colleague's wheelchair, immobilizing him, and he freaked out over my carrying a weapon in a federal office. I simply asked him if he had rather that I not have my tool with me so that I could free him. He could only thank me for freeing him and he never said another word about any knife that I carry, although he did ask to borrow one on occasion and I said that I would be glad to do whatever cutting he needed done.:)

On the whole, I am unsympathetic to the people in my office over this even though I am more sympathetic to the members of my Quaker Meeting as they are of a different sort. Curiously enough, many of the Quakers are country-raised and carry their own knives, usually one or another form of SAK.
 
Seems this thread and others like it are always cropping up .... and as usual I find myself chuckling and shaking my head.

IMO a lot of the negative reaction is just due to the situation or environment where you're brandishing a knife, and what you generally project as your personality and demeanor.

If you have an office job, whipping out a knife, especially some trick-looking tactical or one-hand opener, to open the mail or cut open your granola snack bar is probably going to look out-of-place to some of your co-workers.

Plus most corporate settings require employees to play the game of fitting in, projecting the corporate, team player image of being cooperative and getting along .... in others words, kind of wimpy (whether you actually are or not.) Others feel they can give you a ration of shit if they think you're a wimp - one of them, another sheeple. If they perceived you to be a hard-ass, they wouldn't.

So, hey, it's your job. You do it because you need the paycheck, maybe even like the work. Better to be able to afford to be a knife nut on your own time, even if you have to keep it under wraps at work.
 
Thankfully I dont think I have worked a job where I could not carry a knife of some sort.
Even at Sears I carried a small Gerber , just didnt adverstise it there.
My present job I can carry what I want, unless it's something like a machete :p

Many people are just plain idiots , people that are scared of a folding knife in my pocket are a little short of half a brain. I usually dismiss people that freak out a little , that or turn it around on them so they now look like the wierdo for not having any tools on thier person.
 
I had a guy, who carries a knife, freak out on me because I had my ares clipped to my pocket because essentialy "the sheeple could see it and freak out"
 
start drooling profusely and chase them with it.


no really, ive never had that happen, usually i preface whatever im taking it out for with "let me get my knife out" or if its somone unknown to me ill wait till there gone. seems to solve the problem of frightening sheeple with a microtech for example. lol.
 
While I was working at Walmart, I had a 4" Jaguar tanto, a real POS, and was using it to cut open a box. I should've been using my box cutter, if only to not put so much wear and tear on my pos Jag, but my boss freaked out and started to run away. She started crying when the guy working in the other row pulled out his Schrade Cave Bear, and just left the store when she went to the manager to complain about the knives, and he pulled out some old Gerber. Most of the night crew had knives, they just didn't use them for breaking down boxes etc, they used their boxcutters. This was after 911.


Fullerh, I'm surprised the security agency at your office didn't take you out in the street and execute you. I really need to get a copy of that Federal law you said you carry with you, I think I would get shot on sight if I came in with a small SAK.
 
Last winter I took a job at a ski hill just to get a free snowboard pass and half price food. Hey, my 3 roommates at the time worked there too, it only made sense.

My first day, I was sent (with one other guy) to help some higher-up (higher than my "real" boss there) set up an outdoor skating rink. We needed to cut thick straps to open a box, then cut the thick plasctic sheet inside to fit the shape of the rink.

The boss said he needed to get a knife. I said I had one, and handed over the folder in my pocket...a Strider SMF (tiger striped and everything). Best thing I could think of saying was: "Here, this will cut anything". He looked at it and with wide eyes said: "Yeah, it looks like it will".

It was essential many times in accomplishing our job, but I'm sure the guy was asking himself a few questions about me that day.
 
Whatever happened to the classic quote from the late, lamented James Mattis: (paraphrasing here- not doing the quote justice) "I carry a pen because I am a literate person, I carry a watch, though I may not have an appointment to keep , and I cary a knife because I am not an ape" (something like that...)

One of my favorite responses: "To me, it's a tool, to you, it's a weapon- perhaps we should all be worried about YOU..."
 
silenthunterstudios said:
While I was working at Walmart, I had a 4" Jaguar tanto, a real POS, and was using it to cut open a box. I should've been using my box cutter, if only to not put so much wear and tear on my pos Jag, but my boss freaked out and started to run away. She started crying when the guy working in the other row pulled out his Schrade Cave Bear, and just left the store when she went to the manager to complain about the knives, and he pulled out some old Gerber. Most of the night crew had knives, they just didn't use them for breaking down boxes etc, they used their boxcutters. This was after 911.


Fullerh, I'm surprised the security agency at your office didn't take you out in the street and execute you. I really need to get a copy of that Federal law you said you carry with you, I think I would get shot on sight if I came in with a small SAK.
Click to expand...
Here you go: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+18USC930
 
"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."
 
I EDC a Spyderco Kiwi at work because of that federal regulation above. The 2 3/8 inch blade brings it in under the 2 1/2 inch limit. Most people aren't afraid of it, especially when I have to slide it out of its suede pouch to deploy it, and I have even gotten the dreaded "Awww, it's cute" from women - referring to the KNIFE, you wiseguys, the KNIFE!
 
Esav Benyamin said:
"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."
Click to expand...

Hey! Humans ARE great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans - at least from a taxonomical perspective we are.
 
Rugger said:
One of my favorite responses: "To me, it's a tool, to you, it's a weapon- perhaps we should all be worried about YOU..."
Click to expand...


Oh me likey alot. I'm gonna remember that one and try it sometime. Thanks.
 
mycroftt said:
Hey! Humans ARE great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans - at least from a taxonomical perspective we are.
Click to expand...
Then birds are really dinosaurs, since they are descended from them, and whales are quadrupeds, having four-footed ancestors. We are what we are, not what our remote ancestors were.

Taxonomy is more flexible than that, and there are those of us who prefer an updated listing. Carolus Linnaeus did write this about his original placement of our race:

It is not pleasing that I placed humans among the primates, but man knows himself. Let us get the words out of the way. It will be equal to me by whatever name they are treated. But I ask you and the whole world a generic difference between men and simians in accordance with the principles of Natural History. I certainly know none. If only someone would tell me one! If I called man an ape or vice versa I would bring together all the theologians against me. Perhaps I ought to scientifically,
Click to expand...

The subject has always been subject to unscientific stresses.
 
an older lady in my class saw my spyderco and said "oh, you can really hurt someone with that." I smiled pulled out my sharp pencil and said, "I can really hurt someone with this too." LOL
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Then birds are really dinosaurs, since they are descended from them, and whales are quadrupeds, having four-footed ancestors. We are what we are, not what our remote ancestors were.

Taxonomy is more flexible than that, and there are those of us who prefer an updated listing. Carolus Linnaeus did write this about his original placement of our race:



The subject has always been subject to unscientific stresses.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that man is descended from the great apes - I am saying that the modern taxonomy places man among the great apes.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
While I was working at Walmart, I had a 4" Jaguar tanto, a real POS, and was using it to cut open a box. I should've been using my box cutter, if only to not put so much wear and tear on my pos Jag, but my boss freaked out and started to run away. She started crying when the guy working in the other row pulled out his Schrade Cave Bear, and just left the store when she went to the manager to complain about the knives, and he pulled out some old Gerber. Most of the night crew had knives, they just didn't use them for breaking down boxes etc, they used their boxcutters. This was after 911.


Fullerh, I'm surprised the security agency at your office didn't take you out in the street and execute you. I really need to get a copy of that Federal law you said you carry with you, I think I would get shot on sight if I came in with a small SAK.
Click to expand...


I just started working at wal-mart. If that happens to me sometime, I will be very sad, and most likely jobless. Today at lunch I used my ti-lite to cut my sandwich in half, one of the guys that works there saw me do it and his eyes got fairly big and he told me not to let anyone see me use the knife as it is against the rules to have them (or so he says) I need to look that up. Yes as far as people freaking out that stories pretty tame but I just wanted to quote shs's story, that is just really sad.
 
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