what to do when people freak out about your knife

As I like to say

"It's a knife, a knife never harmed anyone" (then a stupid look)

(sorry if the grammar is poor, it's a free translation)
 
I live in south Louisiana so most people aren't that suprised. I had a teacher once ask a classmate and I if the knife he was showing me (Kershaw Scallion) was a switchblade. Explained it wasn't, no problems. She's a cool teacher and had known both of us for at least 2 years at that point. Same class, a couple semesters before, girl in the class borrowed my old Gerber multitool to open a package, turns out she's into knives too. Got some interesting comments about my balisong at the family Christmas party, mainly just "don't hurt yourself." Actually had one teacher carry what looked like a Buck 110 in a leather sheath on his belt. Every once in a while, you see someone else with a knife clipped in the pocket.
Another time I handed my professor my multitool to help get a slide out that was jamming a projector. Another student pulls out a knife and suggests grabbing it with the blades of the 2 knives. Ended up using my knife and my multitool to fix the projector. No negative comments that I heard.
 
my spelling sucks ,I ment weapon not wepon.Hey I may start making my own knifes and call them WEPON KNIFE AND TOOL
 
If someone asked me why I was carrying a 'weapon', my response would go like this:

Look at the knife in surprise for a moment. Sounding uncertain, mumble "Weapon?"

Then turn to look at them with a worried expression and ask in a concerned tone of voice, "Do you... always think about things so... violently?"

and then if they don't take the hint, go into the whole 'tool' speech, taking care to stress how strange and violent the other person must be to think of it as a weapon.
 
Why are you people acting like it's stupid to be shocked when an otherwise ordainary person pulls out a knife? Knives are scary. They don't have a wholesome image like some other weapons do sometimes. You don't see people pulling out knives to open cereal boxes on tv, you see them being used as murder weapons. Heros in movies don't stab the enemy with a knife, they use a sword, a gun, their fists, or magical powers or something. Knives are a staple of horror movies and people get stabbed to death in real life all the time. You can't push a knife out of your face the way you can with a gun. All your major arterys are less than an inch away from the surface of your skin and it only takes 4 centimeters to peirce your heart. Everybody is familiar with the power of the knife, chances are almost everyone you know has cut themselves accidently at least once with a kitchen knife. As a kid you where probably told never to touch knives and you where forced to use stupid safety sissors. In my elementry school we wern't allowed to use plastic knives during lunch. It was annoying. A pencil could do more damage to a kid than a plastic knife. But I think people should try to understand that someone raised in a parinoid society like this isn't going to have a positive instinctive reaction to seeing a knife outside of the kitchen. Most people probably haven't thought about weather knives are a threat to their life or not, but that doesn't mean you can't reason with them.

Anyway I've never had a problem with anybody, but I try not to take out my pocket knife in public. My friends pretty much think knives are cool.
 
Hi there!
Linzoy - what you say is quite true I'm afraid. On the other hand though, if you did look (or behaved) like someone who would use a knife as a weapon I don't think all these people wolud have the guts to make a comment ;)
I have a similar problem at work (academic) but I try to educate ppl :D

Tally
 
linzoy- You are right, but stupidity still isn't excusable.

No one is saying people that are scarred of or uneducated about knives should die in a fire. We are just making light of their ignorance. And yes, they are ignorant. No, it isn't all their fault, but I guess the same could be said about someone that is raised in a racist family, or grew up watching his father beat his mother.

I believe in accountability. Yes, the media is a major factor in knives having an undeserved bad rap, but it is up to each person to seperate the B.S. from the truth whenever they turn on the boob tube. The blame is shared between the media, and the sheeple that can't think for themself. Some of the blame is also on the people that use knives as weapons when it isn't called for (self defense is called for).

I'm sure some people I love an unenlightened about knives, and no I wouldn't like people to make fun of them. But no one is perfect and a little humor isn't harmful.

However, if someone freaked out over my knife, I would try to explain to them *NICELY* that I carry it as a tool and do not intent on harming anyone, and furthermore that almost any tool can be a weapon. I would not try to make them feel stupid as that is not a good way to teach someone.
 
I think Linzoy's comments are right on.

Case in point: I was at Tower Records the other day exchanging a DVD I'd bought. The cashier explained she had to open the replacement DVD and test it since the first one was defective. She labored for about three minutes to open the shrink wrap with her fingernails, then a pen, then her keys. All the while I'm standing there with my CRKT M16 clipped to my front jeans pocket, considering whether to offer my assistance. In the end I decided against it.

If I'd had a small slippie I would have. Another example of why carrying one knife isn't enough! :D

I find that a high degree of circumspection is always appropriate when using knives in public.
 
Just imagine you pull out your M16 to help and she runs off screaming "robbery!!! Police, Police!!!!". :D
 
the people at my work are pretty laid back about knives as well, after all, we're a retail shop and have to open packages to put into inventory, and since i'm the service tech (and technogeek), they *expect* me to have an array of tools on me...

besides, they have more fun teasing me about the three flashlights i carry for EDC (Fenix L1, Inova X5, SureFire 6P)

what i've found works well to defuse the whole "that's a weapon" response is when one of my cow-orkers is struggling to open a box, i walk up to him and offer him my cheap-crap Gerber EZ-Out, i hand it to him closed, so that *he* has to open it and use it (usually two handed), when he tries to close it (not familiar with a lockback), he can't, i point out the safety release and he closes it no problem, he hands it back, usually with the comment of "nice knife"...

handing it to the cow-orker in a closed configuration and having *him* have to open it seems to demystify it, and he sees it as a tool....

i also use a good amount of discresion and don't use my "scary" knives (Spyderco Endura, Kershaw Vapor II) in sight of a customer, if i need to open a box in front of a customer, i use my rather nonthreatening, "cute" Buck Metro keyring knife...

heck, most sheeple have been more intrigued by that little Buck, probably because it doubles as a bottle opener.....
 
Two places where they either don't give you a knife to use, or the one they give you ain't worth a hoot - pizza parlors and sushi restaurants - are where I get the most sideways glances for un-pocketing my Mirage. That happens even more since the wife and kids have grown used to asking for Daddy's knife. Just gotta be careful not to slice through the paper plates!
 
i carry a spyderco police PE and a harpy SE, the later one is pretty small and a great tool for cutting boxes and stuff. if people see it.. omg!!

but if they see it in action, they are always full of praise for it. then tell them that some things work while other dont.. most with an IQ higher than a racoon will understand! :D
 
linzoy said:
Why are you people acting like it's stupid to be shocked when an otherwise ordainary person pulls out a knife? Knives are scary. They don't have a wholesome image like some other weapons do sometimes. You don't see people pulling out knives to open cereal boxes on tv, you see them being used as murder weapons. Heros in movies don't stab the enemy with a knife, they use a sword, a gun, their fists, or magical powers or something.
Click to expand...

What about RAMBO?

:D :D
 
Try living here in the UK... major public panic if you even mention you own a knife.
As for using one in front of other people.... wow, you get some pretty strange comments like, 'isn't it dangerous to carry a knife all the time?'

A couple of years ago, I had to cut someone free who had fallen in a lake and got tangled in some old discarded fishing line ..... I was out hiking and heard him calling for help... he was real tangled up with water weed and struggling and swallowing a lot of water, and when I took my knife ( Swedish Mora) out to cut him free he started struggling and shouting even more!!!! what the heck did he think I was going to do?

he did not even thank me.

I sometimes wonder what has happened to the world.

I now carry smaller knives, like my new Spyderco Byrd or a Victorinox Mauser German army knife which I have had for several years.
 
:confused: It boggles the mind! How can people be scared of a simple tool?:confused:

If you cut me free of a mess like that I would have shook your hand till my arm fell off.
 
Generally, I try to explain to them that a knife is one of the primary tools of man. Everyone should therefore carry a knife and know how to use/maintain it.

However, sometimes I point out that a knife really isn’t a very good weapon. “Do you realize how much of a pain in the but it is to clean up the blood? Blood is like oil; a little bit just gets everywhere. And the stains. ....”

And then I’ll point out how much more physically and mentally satisfying it is to use something like a length of 3/4-inch schedule 80 pipe to beat someone to the ground and beyond. Yes.

The “however” discussion usually succeeds in preventing a further annoying “what do you need that for, why do you have that, eeeee – a knife...” discussions.
 
I work in customer service, so image is apparently everything even though carrying a knife is an everyday thing around here. To combat most people's misconception about sharpened tools I carry a folding box cutter. When I'm not at work I use my SOG Pentagon Elite, or when in polite company I use an old, classic buck knife with a 2 1/2" blade.
 
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