Spyderco Native on Airplanes

Will,

I'll be carrying my P/S Native with me tomorrow when I go through O'Hare again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Brian_T
brianthornburg@home.com
 
Brian_T,
Yes.
Please do post what happens when you go through O'Hare.
The only time I think about the knife I happen to be carrying is when we go to Europe. I always travel there with a Victorinox "Execuitive" in my pocket (with a Photon Micro-light on the ring) and a larger knife or two in my checked baggage. In Switzerland you need a larger knife for eating.
smile.gif

There are little food shops with wonderful bread, sausage, and other things you need to cut to eat.

Will

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Mendacity is the
system we live in.
 
Since airport security and their employees all seem to play by different standards you just never know if they will confiscate or not.

I tend to take 1 of 2 approaches: 1) if carrying on my person, carry a small one, use as a money clip and carry a blade that if confiscated I can purchase another if necessary. No custom knives or neat discontinued models here. 2) If leaving the knife in my carry-on put in my shaving kit and wrap with dirty underwear. Nine times out of ten they have not taken it from me in this carry mode. And if they do, you have the enjoyment that they had to dig through your dirty underwear to retrieve.

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AKTI Member # A000835
 
Ceg:
Lol!! I never thought of that...although you'd have to be extra careful to wash it good before cutting any edibles!
smile.gif


I carry an SAK when flying. I don't have the guts to carry a Spyderco...sometimes I thing security guards will confiscate whatever knife they might want for free. So far SAKs don't seem to warrant their attention.
Jim
 
Will,

Just an F.Y.I. The Spyderco Native walked through the security gates just fine once again. I put it in the basket with a William Henry Kestrel and the guard didn't even bat an eye.

Of course, my flight was oversold so I didn't actually get to San Diego. Instead, I'll get another chance tomorrow to go through the gate.

I think the guards might stutter a little if they had reason to open the knife as it is partly serrated but it has never come up.

Now, if I could just find someone with the new model...
smile.gif



Brian_T
brianthornburg@home.com
 
Brian_T,
Thanks for the "FYI".
Give me another update when you try again today. Confiscation is a sore spot with me. I'm a target shooter and CCW holder (so is my wife!), I get a little hot when someone starts talking like they have some "right" to start taking my things.

Will

------------------
Mendacity is the
system we live in.
 
A few notes on my experience:

1. What kind of knife you can carry onto an airplane is a decision of the airline, not of the FAA. United Airlines, for instance, says "no serrations, period." Others are less strict. Security makes their decision based on the rules of the airline whose gate they are guarding.

2. Generally, if you are carrying a knife, and it is confiscated, they don't just "take it away." They will instruct you to go the airlines desk, and have it checked in as special baggage. This means that it will fly in the airplane's hold in an envelope with your name on it, and that you can pick it up after you arrive at the "special baggage claim" desk -- the same place you would pick up, for instance, a pair of keys. If they do try to take your knife away, just ask if you can check it in with your airline, and then go do it. (Sometimes, they will walk you over to the desk and stay with you until they are sure you have done it.)

3. A knife is far less likely to be confiscated if it is in your carry-on baggage than if it is in your pocket. This is particularly true of serrated blades. The X-ray machine does not make it clear that a knife is serrated, so if the knife looks small enough, it will generally pass through, serrated or not. However, if you take a knife out of your pocket when passing through security, they will surely open it, and get scared by any serrations.

4. You can also always try to go through a different security checkpoint. Once I was stopped at the checkpoint, and told I couldn't carry my knife through. Even though I was boarding a plane, I told security that I was just picking up my friend from an incoming flight, and that I would wait just wait for my party on this side of security, instead of going to the gate. They were satisfied. I then wandered over to another security checkpoint, and this time, my knife made it through.




[This message has been edited by baja311 (edited 03-15-2000).]
 
A glance at the pool of applicants we're talking about here... http://www.newsday.com/ap/washington/ap671.htm

snips:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Airline baggage screeners, who provide a crucial line of defense in the nation's airline safety program, often quit their jobs to make more money flipping hamburgers…
''While it is difficult to verify a correlation between better pay and better performance, we can all agree that properly trained and qualified people who are on the job longer tend to perform better,'' Flynn said.
…Highly complex and expensive bomb detection machines are often operated by people making $5.75 to $6.75 an hour, said subcommittee chairman Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn.
…'They can go to fast-food operations for better job opportunities,'' Duncan said. ''It leads to an extremely high turnover rate.''
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, added ''You get what you pay for.''


 
the bummer is that a person sharp enough to earn $20 an hour is going to be bored stiff scanning lugage and will probably quit soon anyway, even for equil pay. so where can the airline find good, attentive, half way smart scanner operators who wont quit?

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'Till next time,
Rich the kite guy
 
Well, my Native and I made it without any troubles. In fact, it went through exactly 6 different security points without a second glance. However, it was in my carry-on the whole time. Funny, but I had a laptop, power supply, slide carousel, laser pointer, and numerous other dense objects and not once was my bag stopped. I guess the scanners have improved or the security has slacked off.
 
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