Why am I the only one I know who carries a knife?

I am an electrician and I would say that 75% of the 50 or so electricians I work with carry a knife everyday. I dont see how a grown man can leave his house in the morning without a knife in his pocket. Women should carry a purse and men should carry a knife! That is how the world is supposed to work! I personally have a hard time trusting a grown man that doesn't carry a knife.
 
I have a few friends that carry knives, but most don't. I think most of them figure they can always borrow mine when they are with me. The problem I have run into is that I go to a lot of concerts and forget that I have my knife on me. Then I get checked by security and it causes a ruckus. My grandpa has also had to give away several knives because he forgot to leave them when flying. He has given away 4-5 knives that I know of to shoe shine boys at the airport. He could have shipped them, but they weren't very expensive knives.
 
Hello! New guy here.
No one here in Japan carries a knife, no one. It became illegal to carry any kind of knife without a significant purpose. I've had a knife in my pocket since I was 12. So everyday I have to lock up my EDC in the Med Kit (significant purpose) to transport it to work and then put it in my pocket at work. Not having a knife in my pocket is like not wearing underwear!
 
I don't know many knife people. I know far more people who carry guns than knives. What I don't get is how many gun people I know who won't carry knives because they think blades are terrible self-defense tools. Regardless of any truth to their assertions, they always end up borrowing my knife when they need to open a package or slice food.

One gun guy I know claimed it's because knives are "a slippery slope." Once you start buying them, he claims, you get sucked in and may never come back out. That's another assertion I'm not going to argue with. But hey, everyone needs to cut things, so it's my opinion that people should at least carry some cheap, sturdy folder or have a Mora in their packs for whatever might come up. And clearly I'm preaching to the choir here.
 
Is there some definition in Japan about what a "knife" is? Is it anything that can cut something? Most knife laws I know about can be worked around (can't be opened with one hand, can't be over 3" long, etc) but it all starts with what a government defines a "knife" as.
 
Hey jackman2, maybe you should come up to my neck of the woods. I live near Albany, NY and I have about 30 good friends who all carry knives. You just gotta find the right crowd, personally I'm pretty outdoorsy and I hang out with people who love the outdoors. My general rule is that if you love the outdoors you almost always fear mother nature enough to carry a knife at all times (She can be very unpredictable).

Tony
 
I grew up in a pretty rural area of Illinois so it was mostly the farm kids that would carry knives. I lived in town so I'd never really have one on me unless I was outside working or camping or something. I started to carry one near the end of high school, just some cheap folder. Then as an undergrad I went to a college in again a pretty rural part of Illinois so most of the time I had a leatherman and folder. A good number of my friends there all carried knives. But now for grad school I'm a city, and for the most part people don't understand carrying a knife. During the day a lot of the time I only have a spyderco bug on my keychain and I even get strange looks at that sometimes when I use it. Really no one I know here has a knife.
 
It's a bit confusing. It's legal to carry any one-sided blade under 5cm (about 2 inches) and folding knives under 8cm, I think. This is the arms and weapon law. But then there is another law that layers this one by stating that anything that can be used as a weapon may not be carried (including in the car) unless there is a specific purpose.

Specific purposes would be situations such as fishing, camping, on the way home from the knife shop, chefs going to work with their knives etc. Self defense, and handy use are NOT accepted purposes.

Keychain knives - the 1 inch blade Vic, 2D 3 D Maglites are all considered items that could be used as a weapon. If you are walking down the street with one and are seen by a LEO, you will be stopped and taken in.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090728hn.html
 
I have several theories, but I think it's prolly that most people can't appreciate the utility of a knife until they've been carrying one... And today it's easy to get something else (like from the next room to open a box) than to just take 5 seconds and take a knife out, use it, pocket it. They never get that 'Wow, that was quick, easy, and useful' feeling that we know and love.

I see a lot of people on here that have had great success in getting people just a cheap knife and going 'take it, you'll thank me later' All my friends now carry some sort of knife, and at least 2 have converted some of their friends. (Kershaw Scamp is coming for Christmas for some.)

The only hard part is getting those people who look at you funny to realize 'useful' is not weapon. This thinking doesn't work for anything else really. Think about it: the guy walking to home plate with a bat is not going to commit a hate crime against the man wearing the catcher's mask, and I'm not going to stab the cashier with the tool I've been opening boxes with all day. I find words work well. Then again, I sharpen my silver tongue as much as my knives, so...
 
Don't feel bad , I have a Strider I show off here even in Louisiana and people don't care , you have to be of a certain group to have an appreciation for a particular knife . It's one thing to like a knife and use it every day but a lot of those people would think you were nuts for even considering paying 400 plus on a knife . I only know one other person and this includes a hell of a lot of military and members of law enforcement who has even heard of Chris Reeves or Strider . We are a small little group out here it seems .
 
do what I did:
be a priest, start converting people & show them the path :D
but seriously... I got my buddy hooked.
 
Just about everybody I know carries a knife, but most of them are gun nuts, too. It's always good for a laugh to go to dinner after a match, and randomly, while sitting around the table, ask "Anybody got a knife?"

The blades come slinging out of everywhere!!!

Andy
 
I've carried a pocket knife for most of my life; it was just one of those everyday things that went along with the watch, wallet, keys, etc. I guess as one gets older, one begins to upgrade their swag: an expensive luxury wallet, a better watch, and so forth. It wasn’t until just last year that I decided it was time for me to finally get a ‘nice’ pocket knife. That was about twenty-five knives ago now (and growing!) and I still haven’t found the one knife that I’d set out for… :o

I think a lot of folks carry some kind of knife on them, but it may not occur to them to strike up a conversation about it. Most won’t know or even care about the details of their blades—to such a person, talking about pocket knives is as interesting as discussing shoelaces. Then there are sheeple, who fear knives and regard any knife found outside of the kitchen as a weapon. So there it is. Most common knife-talk is either boring or met with contempt. This is why I very much appreciate having a place like Blade Forums where I can talk about knives with fellow enthusiasts. :thumbup: I've learned a lot. For example, I now know that a Sebenza is not an Italian scooter... :D

One last comment: I find it peculiar that some people don’t see the need to carry a pocket knife in a day and age when product packaging is such a pain in the arse to open! I’ve gifted a few knives to folks I thought could use ‘em, hoping they’d see the light, but mostly I’ve learned that more expensive knives are wasted on those who have only a passing interest. “You can lead a horse to water…”
 
Where I used to work (recently retired) everyone in the plant carried a knife. It is a manufacturing plant and knives are needed for cutting paper, tape, corrugated, strapping, etc. I worked in the office but purchased packaging so was out in the plant every day and uses mine frequently. Our storeroom carried cheap fixed blades with a sheath for any employee that wanted one.
 
I know many that carry a knife daily, but i dont personally know anyone who carries 2 like i do daily.
 
Tony Nguyen said:
Hey jackman2, maybe you should come up to my neck of the woods. I live near Albany, NY and I have about 30 good friends who all carry knives. You just gotta find the right crowd, personally I'm pretty outdoorsy and I hang out with people who love the outdoors. My general rule is that if you love the outdoors you almost always fear mother nature enough to carry a knife at all times (She can be very unpredictable).

Tony
Click to expand...

Where near Albany? I grew up in Brunswick, outside of Troy.
 
I hope this won't sound like a hijack, but I asked my scouts one time (getting ready for a survival camp) "show me everything you have in your pockets right now" This was at church and I didn't get much. I then told them they could take everything they had in the pile, plus 1 thing additional each on the camp. They could also get together and plan as each of them got 1 additional item. Some stipulations like fishing line was 1 item, hook was another item fishing pole was a 3rd item etc. They did have a $2 cheap knife in the original mix, 1 out of 10 boys possible in a semi rural community. That was 25 years ago and it has gotten much worse as the big city grew up around us. I almost always carry 2, a work knife and a keeper that stays very sharp just in case. Joe
 
Welcome to the forums Okiedork!

Your statement "Not having a knife in my pocket is like not wearing underwear! " was very well thought out. I'll have to remember that when some one asks me why I carry a pocket knife.

I was sharpening pencil with my mini DejaVoo and someone asked me why I carry such a large knife. I told him that I don't carry a pencil sharpener in my pocket, but this works just as well for me and it can do other things too!

Ric
 
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