Why the stigma with knives ?

TN did it the easy way as a result of Knife Rights legislative activities. Everything is legal to carry in TN now including daggers, switch blades and bali's. It is all "intent" now in terms of carrying a weapon and subject to law enforcement interpretation based on the situation. The old legal limit was 3.5" statewide. In the woods, people carried whatever they want to, but in urban areas, it was good to pay attention to the law.

We have had this discussion before here on BF. Some say what I am doing is within the law, so I will do what I want to . Others feel the law doesn't matter as much as what John Q. Public thinks when you get out your knife to use. I lean toward minimizing John Q's reactions and staying within the law. With AO knives, I would open them discreetly around other people if I chose to carry one.
 
I served before and after 9/11......... I remember 2 words that we even put on our fighters/bombers...... "Let's Roll"

You think a box cutter would have stopped me as a passenger..... ?

This is a pic of the same stencil that each squadron around the air-force got to put on one aircraft...... Never Forget.

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yes, autobots movies stole this saying afterwards... Optimus' saying was, "Let's roll out" in the cartoons.
 
Im a boat mechanic , and i like to fish on top of that . So a knife at the dock is very common place . Maybe the guy got stabbed once or something and it was like ptsd ?
 
ptsd from a knife? Holy spec ops... owe wait those guys are crazy anyways.. but in a good way. PTSD from a knife... LMFAO! :D
 
I carried my newly made, first homemade knife today. It's a 5" blade length fixed blade. It's large. A coworker asked who I was going to kill (jokingly). I somewhat understand a reaction to fixed blades, especially the size of the one I'm carrying today, but I don't understand people that freak about folders. I only know one guy that doesn't carry a knife daily. And most of the women I know and work with carry small pocket knives. Maybe it's just Alabama, but no one bats an eye at a folder here. Even this monster fixed blade didn't make too much of a fuss. Everyone wanted to see it because they heard I made it, but no one acted weird.
 
22-rimfire said:
.... Some say what I am doing is within the law, so I will do what I want to . Others feel the law doesn't matter as much as what John Q. Public thinks when you get out your knife to use. I lean toward minimizing John Q's reactions and staying within the law. With AO knives, I would open them discreetly around other people if I chose to carry one.
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This is pretty much my attitude also. I don't need any drama because somebody else overreacts. That seems to be what happens around my neck of the woods. People think they know the law when they don't really know anything. I have found that even some of the local law enforcement are not up to snuff on the current knife laws here in California.
 
hhmoore said:
By somebody else?
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Obviously not. But there's an ingrained response to the sight of one's own blood, and some intellectual memory of the pain. For years movies and television have shown being shot as a fairly bloodless experience, where characters are often injured but still functional, and suffer no long-term effects beyond a scar and a war story. With the urbanization and de-emphasis on capability, most people haven't seen an animal being gutted or anything else.
 
For 5000 years, knives and swords were the tools for warfare...We have taken that to our racial memory.
Knives are a tool for cutting- and they don't care what they cut.

All this is most succinctly put in the lyrics of I Am The Sword by Motorhead:

Murder I am, you know it was me
I was the one, that you didn't see
I was the cut, down to you bone
I put you there under that stone

I, I am the blade, I am the dream of the brave
I, I am the knife, I bring grief to your wife
I, I am the sword, I am the word of the Lord

Do what you will, I bring you the edge
I am the one to sever your head
I cut so deep, I can cut straight
All depends on the moves you make

I, I am the blade, I am the promise unmade
I, I am the knife, I bring death to your life
I, I am the ax, to stop you dead in your tracks
I, I am the sword, I bring the fear of the Lord

Centuries pass, dust in the wind
I shall remain, shining in sin
The metal I am, the iron you feel
The song of the dead, the chorus of steel

I, I am the blade, I break the oath that you made
I, I am the mace, I am the blow in the face
I, I am the ax, to cut down heroes like rats
I, I am the sword, I do the work of the Lord

RIP Lemmy- you will be missed :(
 
Just the fact that most people don't carry a knife in public makes it something different and draws attention. That it can be used as a weapon, whether that's the intention or not, makes it more attention grabbing. And I think most people that do carry will carry a folding knife tucked in a pants pocket, so a knife in a holster is more similar to a gun in a holster. To carry a knife at work really depends on your exposure to the general public whether you'll get stares or not. I'm in a print shop with little public exposure and mostly guys I work with, so no one cares. They've known me for 7 years and know I'd never do anything dangerous with it. That said, there ARE those I work with that, if they carried a knife, they WOULD get second looks because they aren't quite all there and who knows, right? So if you're John Q. Public and someone helping you get an item off the top shelf has a knife strapped to their side, how do you know if they're me (harmless) or Crazy-Eyed Joe (who knows)?
So get indignant all you want, but a quick look from the other side of the fence and, yeah, I get it. I wouldn't carry a sword in public, though I own them. It's not a thing you do anymore, and back when people DID, whether you're talking feudal Japan or Renaissance Italy, there was a reason for it and people died because of it. I use my blade at work almost every day for boxes, tape, paper, etc., so I carry it. Maybe the best response if a customer your business depends on jumps back because you have a blade is - get a smaller one, maybe a folder or explain, "I need this for work" because, be honest here, do you NEED a 5" fillet knife to cut up a box, or do you just want to have one and you're feeling kind of guilty about it?
 
I rarely have a negative public reaction to my knives. I take it out, use it as I would any other tool and return it to my pocket. The usual reaction is "hey, what kind of knife is that?" I show it to them and they compliment how nice it is. If I do get a negative reaction I explain how useful a tool it is on an everyday basis. You would not believe how many women I have convinced to carry a knife in their purse. The men don't need much convincing, they usually ask where they can get one after I hand them mine. I enjoy educating non knife people on the knife as a tool.
 
I guess it pretty much depends in what part of the country you live in.
Down here in the Deep South, these types of reactions have never been an issue.

I've never heard anyone say " My, what a big tool you have to cut with"
 
Been carrying a knife since I was 15 or so. If someone in my State gets offended, oh well :)
 
Ajack60 said:
I guess it pretty much depends in what part of the country you live in.
Down here in the Deep South, these types of reactions have never been an issue.

I've never heard anyone say " My, what a big tool you have to cut with"
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Well, both the OP and I are in TN. Which technically isn't the "Deep South" but right next door. :) Though there are pockets of genteel society in the larger metropolitan enclaves that might be taken aback by the sight of a pointy object.

If he's a boat mechanic his clientele may be some of the more well-heeled members of Nashville society and not used to us ruffians and our ways. Though if he works on commercial boats instead of pleasure craft, in which case I have no idea. I would think that most people would expect a MECHANIC to have any and all manner of tools at his disposal and a sheathed knife wouldn't warrant a second glance.

So I dunno what to tell you, Dix, other than to use the opportunity to educate someone (if the venue is appropriate) such as "Oh yeah, this is a Mora knife. Swedish. Great quality but very affordable. It's based on an old traditional Scandinavian pattern. Want to look at it? It comes in really handy while working on boats." Or alternatively, go the ominous route and tell them "Yeah, very deadly... If I want it to be."

:)
 
hhmoore said:
By somebody else?
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I have only been stabbed the one time. I guess as a result I should have a visceral reaction to screwdrivers, but somehow I do not.

My brother was stabbed once, in the back. Still, steak knives do not make him uneasy. But he won't soon turn his back again on the guy who did it.
 
I pulled a small knife out of a guys back one time. It was about halfway in. Nobody else would do it. That was kinda weird.
 
This is our US World Guys! Dumb Yes.... What would have happened if you lifted the same box and "they" saw a 40 cal. Automatic?
 
It's been mentioned, but urbanization and (mass) media are two huge factors on social norms. A knife is more integral to the daily life of a person living off the land than to a city dweller (sushi chefs etc excepted), and now the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population live in urban areas. Also, the only real exposure many or most people now have to knives is through the media -- and they are almost invariably depicted or shown as weapons. When was the last time you heard a positive news story involving a knife?
 
marcinek said:
You got that right. When I need to threaten people, I go right for a gun. People should be afraid of a weapon like it.
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Indeed, Marci. I carry a loaded AR-10 slung across my back to the supermarket. Nobody even notices the khukuri on my belt. :D
 
sabre cat said:
This is pretty much my attitude also. I don't need any drama because somebody else overreacts. That seems to be what happens around my neck of the woods. People think they know the law when they don't really know anything. I have found that even some of the local law enforcement are not up to snuff on the current knife laws here in California.
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I have found the same thing with cali leo, but usually they are chill about it.
 
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