Knife phobia

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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!;)
The pocket comb came with being allowed to have hair long enough to comb! Prior to that, Dad had standing orders for a burr haircut for me and my brother at the barber shop we went to.
 
As the years passed we've seen similar with restricting the ability to carry such tools. I've been asked, "why do you have to carry a knife?" What goes through my mind is: Because opening a box, cutting nylon strapping and/or prying out staples with my teeth is dirty and potentially painful. My dentist would discourage the practice of doing that if I want to preserve my natural teeth. Do you have a pry bar or flat head screwdriver?

Multiple times a day I'll use a knife to cut something. It is simply a daily use tool that without I would have to try and use the house or car keys. Car keys with transponder chips and electronics inside are $$ over production level knives.
 
As the years passed we've seen similar with restricting the ability to carry such tools. I've been asked, "why do you have to carry a knife?" What goes through my mind is: Because opening a box, cutting nylon strapping and/or prying out staples with my teeth is dirty and potentially painful. My dentist would discourage the practice of doing that if I want to preserve my natural teeth. Do you have a pry bar or flat head screwdriver?

Multiple times a day I'll use a knife to cut something. It is simply a daily use tool that without I would have to try and use the house or car keys. Car keys with transponder chips and electronics inside are $$ over production level knives.
A sak or multitool is a must for me. Usually a sak and pliers.
 
A multi-tool would be good and it covers the basics. I have this little Serber multi and it is a "cute" one but mostly non-usable due to the size. serber-multi-tool-5133-20200306.jpg
 
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:
Last time I had to go to SS office the guy inside immediately said he had to inspect my pouch, (small cell phone carrier that also has some first aid stuff in it), and I just smiled, waved, turned around and walked out. He would have had a conniption of the Benchmade Auto Stryker and Leatherman multitool I always have in it.
 
Reminds me of one trip to the courthouse to shuffle some paperwork. I walked through the detector and it went off. I handed the security guy my knife and went on to the appropriate window. Returning we had a nice discussion about various knives. He and the two others that came up during the course of the discussion were not aware of the custom knife industry. Amusing to see how enthusiastic they were towards knives. I doubt that would happen at the airport with TSA. LOL.
 
So, give them a pocket knife of their own!

Doesn't have to be expensive, or fancy. In fact, it ought to be just a plain old utilitarian pocket knife.

I have a few I keep in my car and give out occasionally.
 
I ALWAYS carry a pocketknife.
I even carry one when in our ski boat, In and out of the water skiing and tubing.
I don't carry one when I'm in the boat actually on me, but there is always at least one in the glove box. I've had to cut a lot of fishing line, rope and weeds away from props and jetboat intakes over the years....

Always a good idea to have a knife handy. All of my vehicles have them in the consoles as well. :thumbup:

Stay safe.
 
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.
This Christmas walk in sporting a Gurkha Kukri...:rofl:

Stay safe.
 
I grew up on a farm, everyone had a pocket knife. I usually carry one.
 
An office dweller at my shop asked why I carry an out-the-front auto at work. "Opening boxes, cutting straps, picking splinters, eating lunch, that kinda thing. Why?"

"Isn't that, like, a fighting knife?"

"No, it's just a pocket knife that deploys and retracts with one hand. It's a tool. If I need a weapon in this shop, that would indicate a toxic work environment, for one. For two, if I need a weapon, I'll probably grab a hammer. Far more effective."

Then I got called to HR to explain why I scared the poor guy. We may well be doomed...
 
Don't be lending your carry knife out to those who don't have one.
I went to an Action Auto store a few years ago to get some replacement windshield hose where the kid in charge directed me back behind the counter some ways to the hose display where I found what I wanted and asked for about 18" of same.
Store guy had no way to cut this hose and offered to find someone in the store that might have a way to cut this rubber hose; I offered my opened Swayback Case knife.
Oh, BAD Move! The counter guy took the knife and proceeded to put his thumb on the cutting edge of the knife and begin sawing through the rubber hose on the sst counter that totally resisted to his efforts.
I finished the cut and other counter help had to complete the sale.
Don't be lending your carry knife out to those who don't have one. There is a reason they don't carry a knife.
 
I guess I can consider myself "old" now. I used to carry my father's Buck 101 style knife in my back pocket in school. Got some stern looks from some teachers (not the shop teachers) but it was never confiscated or made an issue of. Trucks belonging to the seniors still had gun racks with firearms in them during hunting season. It was not uncommon for a student to come to class in camo, leave class at the end of the day on a Friday and hunt all weekend to be back Monday morning. My father was and still isn't interested in carrying any sort of knife on him outside of a box cutter sometimes. I still have the first knife he bought me so I would stop swiping the Buck 101 from his sock drawer.
 
The only knife phobia I have is being caught without one! I grew up in a time when carrying a knife to school was acceptable and I have been carrying one daily since I was 8 years old. I refuse to go places that make me leave my knife in the car. I live in Arizona so that is rare and I haven't flown commercially in over 10 years. BTW I also take my business elsewhere when I see a "no guns" sign.
 
I used to work the dirty side of heavy logistics, primarily moving ATMs, MRIs, safes...so i was working in a tall government building continuously one summer during post 9-11 renovations. The guards didn't want to let me in with a knife in my pocket. I started pulling tools out of my toolbox and explaining that my tools were way more dangerous...hammers, spikes, crowbars, etc. The guards weren't gonna budge on policy, though. They had a sweet gig that they didn't want to lose. I had to just start leaving my knife in the truck yet carry the dangerous stuff in everyday. Used that big spike to bust an evidence safe out of a secured & armored room for the DEA, as contracted. The room had been built around the safe and the wall had an internal layer of steel that had to be pierced to get the safe out. It was a fun job.
 
Not exactly a “knife phobia” story, but it was pretty darned funny how my wife managed to “smuggle” a rather large folding knife into the county courthouse when she worked there. She was an Administrative Assistant (PC for “secretary”) to several different politicians during her 23 year tenure with the county government. Once while she was working as Assistant to the County Clerk, she decided to order some magazine subscriptions for the patrons to read while they were waiting to conduct whatever business they had there. What she didn’t notice was that one of the outdoors magazines was offering a large, folding hunting knife as a bonus for a 3 year subscription.

Well, you guessed it - one morning a couple of weeks later a new magazine and a big knife in a box showed up on my wife’s desk. She really got a kick out of it because just a few minutes before she (just like everyone else going to the courthouse) had had to pass through the metal detector and place all of the metal objects from her purse in the “tray” so the armed guard behind the two-way mirror could examine them.

So after my wife got through chuckling, she just laid the knife on the corner of her desk and went to work. After a while, the head of security for the courthouse, Herman came in to my wife’s office while making his morning “rounds.” My wife said Herman didn’t even notice the big knife on the corner of her desk until she pointed it out to him. Once she pointed it out however….!!!

My wife said Herman’s eyes got real big and he asked, “HOW IN THE _____ DID YOU GET THAT IN HERE?” So my wife told him, “Easy, I just ordered it through the mail.” Then she told him the whole story. She said Herman just grabbed the knife up, turned, and quickly walked out of her office - probably headed for the mail room.;)

My wife never seen the knife again. But until she retired, she never quit kidding Herman about knowing how to get around the metal detector and the guard at the courthouse door.:D
 
On our 20th anniversary, my wife and I took a cruise to the Bahamas.

Knives not allowed, very plainly spelled out.

My wife, however, ain't playing that game, so she brings her pocket knife. I rolled my eyes and said "You realize you're going through a metal detector and your luggage through an X-ray machine, right?"

"I don't care, I'm not leaving my pocket knife behind!" (A Swiss Army knife)

This on the way into the terminal.

"Well...at least stand your knife up on end in the suitcase so there isn't an obvious knife profile. I'll wait if you get nabbed and have to take it back to the car!"

She makes it through.

Later on the cruise, we're going through a gift shop and find these really frickin' sharp souvenir butter knives...the short, curved bladed ones. We laughed...and bought a half dozen!

Fast forward, we're in Nassau having a grand old time. On the way back to port, we're headed to the line with our passports to get back on the ship and my wife says "hold on" and starts unzipping my backpack.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"I'm putting my pocket knife in your backpack because we've got to go through metal detectors coming back aboard. "

"And our backpacks and packages go through the X-ray machine, too! Are you TRYING to get me arrested?"

I doffed my backpack and buried her knife in my small camera case with the extra batteries.

As our stuff went through the X-ray machine and came out, one of the attendants looking at the monitor asked me if I had a knife in the bag. I played stupid and said "no, but let's look through" and started opening up the backpack and pulling things out.

This involving a slight bit of misdirection in the process, but eagerly performed with a "helpful attitude". (Not supposed to do this, of course.)

"I'm sorry sir, but we've got to run your backpack through again."

I said "OK" and packed everything back in.

Everything, that is, EXCEPT my small camera bag, which I had passed off to my wife while "helpfully" unloading my backpack for inspection.

We got through and headed towards our cabin. As soon as the door closed behind us, my wife collapsed on the bed, a nervous wreck, saying she was SURE security was following us to our cabin!

"Just leave your pocket knife in your suitcase until we get back, OK?"

o_Oo_Oo_O
 
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We did a similar trip for our 10'th anniversary. I had my travel folder which is a $15 Gerber liner lock type with aluminum body. I'd checked it for the flight and once out of the airport it went into my pocket as usual EDC stuff. Walked through the metal detectors at Royal Caribbean Cruise and it didn't beep at any port the ship docked at, can't explain it.

In Japan I was carrying hex keys and small sockets in the carry on. The hex key set was 1.5-8mm and the sockets were 6-12mm. The gate security had to do a hand search and were iffy about my boarding the plane with those tools. The supervisor came over and they were talking about the Gaijin American. They eventually agreed I was not going to be able to disassemble the airplane in flight with those tools. :rofl:
 
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