Knife phobia

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joneb

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I recently was finishing up a job(new home construction) and one of the home owners asked me if she could borrow something to cut something. So I gave her my pocket knife, she replied "thanks, do all of you guys carry knives?" Well sometimes it's better to say nothing, I gathered she had asked the same from some of the other subs on the job. The new home owners were just moving in and had not unpacked their kitchen knives yet I guess :confused:
I guess I grew up different, knives and guns were common. I came across this youtube from Nick and it made me smile.
 
Some folks just don’t grow up with pocket knives, the outdoors, guns, and many have never done a home improvement project in their lives. The notion of carrying a knife for many of them for everyday tasks is a foreign concept.

And there’s some folks who see a tool and turn it into a weapon in their mind.

Lots of these people don’t have any frame of reference.
 
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I am continually amazed when someone - usually a gal - comments on me always having a knife.

I comment that I can't imagine NOT - given the choice. Pry-bar, scraper, cutter and light hammer in some cases. One time, a *skid-plate* in a motorcycle crash along with a Sig 230Sl.

Like the Ol' Man always said: "Don't get caught without a knife or a tape measure.... Don't want 'em to catch ya rippin' or guessin'!"

Todd.
IMG_1393.JPG
 
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Some folks just don’t grow up with pocket knives, the outdoors, guns, and many have never done a home improvement project in their lives. The notion of carrying a knife for many of them for everyday tasks is a foreign concept.
I whole-heartedly agree with that, but I can kind of understand another reason for a phobia because I've seen it in my wife for 49 years. My wife stepped on a needle when she was 8 or 9 years old. Actually, she was walking barefoot across a carpet, the needle was lying flat, and the forward motion of my wife's foot drove the needle deep into her heel.:eek: It took the doctor almost an hour to get it out - or so I've been told.
At any rate, to this day my wife is deathly afraid of needles. The dentist gases her just to give her a Novocain shot, but she cries through it even though she's asleep, she has to be sitting down for a vaccination of any kind (or she'll fall down just like she did in doctors office when she watched the doctor give one of our daughters a vaccination), and when we're around someone we know who's diabetic, my wife jumps up and leaves the room the second they drag out their insulin kit.o_O
 
I whole-heartedly agree with that, but I can kind of understand another reason for a phobia because I've seen it in my wife for 49 years. My wife stepped on a needle when she was 8 or 9 years old. Actually, she was walking barefoot across a carpet, the needle was lying flat, and the forward motion of my wife's foot drove the needle deep into her heel.:eek: It took the doctor almost an hour to get it out - or so I've been told.
At any rate, to this day my wife is deathly afraid of needles. The dentist gases her just to give her a Novocain shot, but she cries through it even though she's asleep, she has to be sitting down for a vaccination of any kind (or she'll fall down just like she did in doctors office when she watched the doctor give one of our daughters a vaccination), and when we're around someone we know who's diabetic, my wife jumps up and leaves the room the second they drag out their insulin kit.o_O
Oh sure, a bad experience can cause it also. I know a woman who as a child was walking to the bus stop. Her older brother saw a dead bird on the road, picked it up, and threw it at her as a joke. Unfortunately the feet and claws got tangled in her hair, and of course as any child would she started flailing around to get it out. In the process it whipped up and back and hit her in the face repeatedly.

She's in her late 50's now, and is still terrified of all birds. In fact if she is on her screen porch and a bird is in the yard, she'll sit there and stare at it until she finally gets up and closes the door. Trauma can really affect people down the road.

I was in a bad boating accident when I was 6. I still hate being under water to this day, and don't like to swim. Apparently my sister in law had a nearby gunshot scare the crap out of her when she was younger. She's still scared of all firearms today.
 
Went to a interview with Amazon. They asked everyone there if they where carrying a gun or knife. I spoke up and said I was carrying a knife. And that lady blew up. Asking why do you carry a knife blah blah blah. Was told to leave it home. So I asked what I am supposed to cut my seatbelt with if I got into a nasty wreck? She had nothing to say. Except leave it at home. This was in VA.
 
Family birthday arty10 years ago.
One of the presents had plastic strapping. I come forward with my keyring SAk. Snow flake nephew 14 goes nuts, "why are you carrying a knife"
At that point I produce a Spyderco Endura from my back pocket and say, cause a spear will not fit in a pocket.
He is a still a jerk.
 
The women in my family have no problem with knives. While they are sloppy about carrying them, they will ask me if I have mine for this or that. On a part time crappy night job many years ago, a pocket knife of mine fell on the floor. The supervising woman was having a fit and tooling up to fire me but her supervisor said so what. Good thing the J frame didn't fall out.

Now there is something called Blood Injury Phobia where the sight of blood, a puncture, cut or or threat of such will cause an emergency exaggerated drop in blood pressure (thought to prevent a bleed out) and over you go. It is thought perhaps to have a genetic predispostion. I knew behaviorally trained dentists who were working with patients to reduce such. It might be the cause of 'psychological' stops where a minor wound, miss or sound of a shot passing knocks someone out. That is different from a psych stop where the person cognitively gives up.
 
About 12 years ago when my wife and I started dating I went to her family's house for Christmas. You can see where this is going...
Someone needed to open a package and I didn't think twice , I handed over the 940 osborne from my pocket and heard my now sister in law gasp in horror. She told me that she thought only gang bangers carried knives I assured her, that wasn't the case. She was about 33 at the time, a big time lefty.
My father in law who carries a SAK laughed and asked me why I carry around my steak knife, at least he understood and didn't think anything was abnormal except for the size of the blade. So I keep it going, every year at Christmas I'll bring a knife that's totally inappropriate for the situation in case someone needs to open packaging , SIL has learned to ignore me for the most part. A couple years ago I brought a lan cay m9 eod hung from my belt , down into my front pocket covered by a sweater so ugly that it would make bill cosby jealous . no reaction when I was asked for a knife except from my nephew who thought it was awesome.
 
I know a woman who as a child was walking to the bus stop. Her older brother saw a dead bird on the road, picked it up, and threw it at her as a joke. Unfortunately the feet and claws got tangled in her hair
Had Bob Dylan heard this story one of my favorite songs may have been named "Tangled Up in Birds"
 
Went to a interview with Amazon. They asked everyone there if they where carrying a gun or knife. I spoke up and said I was carrying a knife. And that lady blew up. Asking why do you carry a knife blah blah blah. Was told to leave it home. So I asked what I am supposed to cut my seatbelt with if I got into a nasty wreck? She had nothing to say. Except leave it at home. This was in VA.
Just wait until you're older and no longer have to go to job interviews, but you do have to go to the Social Security Office. The employees there (who supposedly work for you by the way) sit behind bullet proof glass. But even that doesn't seem to make them feel safe enough because there are at least two great big armed guards in the outer office that make sure you're not carrying even a little pocket knife like you've carried everyday for the last 60+ years.:mad:
 
The women in my family have no problem with knives. While they are sloppy about carrying them, they will ask me if I have mine for this or that.
I’m that guy in my family too but even the guys in my family don’t carry knives. They’ve gotten so used to me always having one though that if I ever forget to drop one in my pocket and they ask to use one, they give me a hard time.
 
A pocket knife, a pocket comb, and a house key were everyday carry items for me in addition to school lunch money from the age of 13 onward until I got my learner's permit at age 15, where a wallet was added to the mix. It was no big deal on a public school campus back then in 1970's in South Texas.

The pocket knife was removed from the picture in 2006 when I was commuting by common carrier air travel every week between rural SE Louisiana where we lived and Houston in 2006. I had to toss a pocket knife along with my modern razor blade in my luggage traveling home from a conference in Houston on Sep 14, 2011. I did so-so with infrequent business travel between then and 2006 making a point to leave the pocket knife at home, or at least in my truck in the airport parking lot. But when it was air travel all the time, it stayed out of my pocket at home and I still haven't resumed keeping one in my pocket on a daily basis again yet.

Vasovagal syncope is the medical term for what's being discussed as an involuntary physical response to certain triggers. Ask me why I went to engineering school instead of medical school.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vasovagal-syncope/symptoms-causes/syc-20350527

It doesn't automatically mean a person will lose consciousness or motor control. And it never caused me to not carry a pocketknife or work around, or with, sharp objects.
 
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A pocket knife, a pocket comb
Ha! Ha! Ha!

Funny you mentioned carrying a pocket comb. In addition to a pocket knife, I too have carried a pocket comb since I was 10 or 12 years old (I’m 72 now), and I’ve always worn my hair fairly short.

The thing was, where I grew up in SW Idaho sandburs were rampant. My pant legs would get covered with the darned things when I was out in the fields, especially in the fall while out pheasant hunting. And sandburs are so sharp they would sometimes make my fingers bleed if I tried to pick them off by hand. But I learned that a cheap plastic pocket comb would easily “flick” the little buggers off 3 or 4 at a time.

Where we live now, in SE Idaho we don’t have sandburs. We have cockleburs, which aren’t quite as nasty and sharp as sandburs. They’re still kind of irritating though, and a cheap plastic pocket comb works well for them too. So after 60 years, I’m still carrying a pocket comb and a pocket knife even though at 72 years old, my short hair is becoming kind of thin – unlike the darned burrs out there!;)
 
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