"Good reason" to carry a knife

Very simply, because I can, I've been a Tradesman for over thirty years and I can't think of a reason not to carry, I use my knife 20 or more times a day.

Open mail, cut food, scrape gaskets, cut cardboard, maybe even cut some one you know out of a seatbelt if needed, (I've done that twice in my life).
 
mnblade said:
Track hand cited for heroism

He cut the baby loose from the seat with a pocketknife and picked him up. "I grabbed the girl on my hip," Beck said. "The baby was under my shirt. I was carrying him like a football."
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As one who was on a volunteer rescue squad for a few years, this kind of story is still near the top of my list of reasons to carry many different tools, a knife not least among them.
thefifth said:
I'm a curious person (we know what curiosity did to the cat) ...
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With all due respect, curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat. I'm glad you're not stuck in comfortable ignorance, choosing instead to investigate your world.
wolfdog said:
I think for me it goes way back to that old boy scout motto:
Be prepared.
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Yes, but I wonder how many people who ask for a reason will consider that a good answer. I quite agree with your reason, but I don't know if just that much will be enough for a sheeple who sees a pocket knife as a weapon.

I'm glad someone woke up this zombie thread. It was good to read through it and remember we often have to explain behavior and tools we consider as reasonable as breathing to people we consider irrational. If we keep a polite, well-reasoned answer handy we're much more likely to win these little skirmishes.
 
I'm a sailor and on ship at one point I carried a belt knife, pocket knife, lock blade and folding sheepfoot with spike, lanyard and clip. I had numerous people ask why I carried so many, about 2 minutes before someone would come up and ask to borrow a knife for a couple of minutes. I would tell them, if he was using mine, what would I use? Eventually it came down to people asking me how many I had.. "2 that you can see" I only carry one when not on ship though. I use it to peel oranges.. :)
 
A good enough reason is that if I don't, and nobody else does, then the government will make it so nobody can. Very quietly.
 
If I'm asked why I carry a knife, my response will vary a bit, depending on who asks the question, why they're asking and if they seem apprehensive.

I suppose the answer that I most like to give goes something like this: Take a look at this watch. It's not a quartz, it's an automatic. What's that? It's a watch that is powered by the movement of my wrist. There's a very precisely machined and polished weight inside it that spins whenever I move my wrist, and that winds a spring, which powers the watch. It's a high precision time instrument, that is beautiful, in my opinion, it's manly, and it keeps great time, too. It's part of who I am, and symbolizes much about me.

Then I'll pull a really nice pen out of my jacket, and show it to them. Check this out... it's beautiful. And it's a very high quality writing instrument, that feels great in my hand, looks good, and writes smoothly, with beautiful blue ink. This pen says a lot about me, and symbolizes elements of my personality.

After that, out comes (if it isn't already out) my penknife, which in my opinion, is a work of art. I'll show it to them. And say something like, check out the quality of its construction. It is so smooth. It's machined to very high tolerances. It has a ball bearing pivot that's silent. It's so slim I almost don't feel it in my pocket. And it'll help me open those Tyvek envelopes, or cardboard boxes, or cut string, and a thousand other pesky items. It was designed by a top custom knife maker named Ken Onion. He's really an artist. And so I'm carrying a piece of art that is also functional, like the watch and the pen. This little penknife makes life a whole lot easier.

After this explanation, if they're not bored to death, they'll want to check out the knife, and put it to use. Just for cutting paper or ads out of the newspaper or magazines it's great.

Thanks for reading.

Folderguy

P.S. If the question is coming from a guy who's not apprehensive at all, I might just tell him I use it to trim really good cigars. Nuff said.
 
I carry a knife because it's hard as heck to open a box with a 1911. Although it does crush walnuts OK.
 
Going out without a knife on my person is about the same as leaving the house without my shoes on. At any given time I will need to cut,scrape, pry(within reason) or open something. In an emergency I can have a very good chance of making a needed tool,tinder for a fire, and in a worst case scenario...augmenting an effective self defense effort...kingoftow
 
Just finished 2 days jury duty in downtown Oakland, Ca. I
took BART (public transportation) which meant I could not
carry a knife when going through the X-ray/ metal scanner
at the courthouse. VERY uncomfortable for me--felt totally
naked and defenseless in a town that demands much more.
 
If someone asks me why I carry a knife?..... I just chuckle quietly and roll my eyes a little as if they have something wrong with them or I may give them a weird look and be like "excuse me?". And that's all I will give them-something for them to think about(about themselves) and ponder or ignore(short for ignorance) cause that person just asked me a question as if there is something wrong with me. Theoretically, if I was to speak my mind at that point and if I gave a sh%#, I would encourage that person to stop looking at me, asking," why is he carrying a knife or a gun", and instead look deep within themselves and history and the natural instincts of mankind since the beginning of time. Now this might sound a little blunt but don't judge me either for sounding self righteous-I always try to learn new things about other peoples perspectives and look at myself for opportunites for improvement and evolvement but we're talking about something that I've never had to think about-carrying a blade or any weapon. If it was a police officer, well... I think I would look at that officer in a strange way too because I happened to have a few encounters with police officers where they saw that I had a knife on me or they saw my ccw permit in their computer system and not a single one of them ever asked me why I had these things on my person as if there was something wrong with me. Instead I got more of a "that's normal" feeling from all of them. I can recall a couple of conversations that were struck up when I was in these encounters with officers which led to gun talk or self defense talk. There alot of different police officers out there and they don't all think the same but I think generally they understand the instinct of self preservation more often then the everyday civilian who may have been sheltered from certain things their whole life. All of us people who carry knives have many reasons to carry them along with self defense(which I agree, is not too likely to occur depending on where one lives and the situation that comes along where one has to decide whether it is the right time to pull such a weapon out to use it.)Many reasons are very practical good reasons that one can take the time to explain or not. But if you want to know the truth, the first thing that comes to my mind for a reason to carry my knife is not a very practical reason at all and it goes a little something like this.......................


"I LIKE MY KNIFE".
 
Fingernails suck at either opening cartons or ventilating bad people.

I don't need a "good reason" to carry a knife. Anyone who says I do better have something better than my Declaration of Independence and my Constitution to wave around at me.
 
Just don't move to jolly old England then. A reason to carry a knife is required there by law. If the bobbys don't believe you then off to jail ye go.
I do like your stance on the matter but there is to me anyway a duty
to be diplomatic but that depends on a situation, circumstances, location, etc.
If we can educate we can progress.
 
TheCarbideRat said:
Just don't move to jolly old England then. A reason to carry a knife is required there by law. If the bobbys don't believe you then off to jail ye go.
I do like your stance on the matter but there is to me anyway a duty
to be diplomatic but that depends on a situation, circumstances, location, etc.
If we can educate we can progress.
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Rat, I submit you may be wrong in this - a right which is not taken, exercised and in fact demanded as a right soon becomes a privilege.

I feel for our brethren in the UK, but I am not a subject of the Crown, I am a Citizen of the United States (capital letter emphasis intentional)

A Citizen has RIGHTS and we declared and affirmed those rights in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Anyone who wants to strip me of those are the enemy of my nation and of myself.

So while I do feel for our brethren in the UK and other less enlightened burgs, we killed a lot of Redcoats to affirm our natural rights and frankly I'll be goddamned if I will kowtow to anyone who thinks they know better than we about our reasons for carrying a knife.

Let me put this a different way, and I welcome any response you have - do you feel a need to explain whatever book, magazine or religious material you may be reading and therefore carrying with you?
 
Hi Park, I was speaking to winning over a few mis-understanding knife-reactionaries here and there. I absolutely stand with you on the right to carry, as well as the right to be safe. This safety is also situation dependent as some of the fatcats who make the law have little to no need to ensure their own safety aside from living in security communities or bodyguards. If they lived where I do and worked a regular job they might "amazingly" be prone to make entirely different laws. ;)
Rights are exactly like muscles, USE em *or* LOSE em.
 
TheCarbideRat said:
Hi Park, I was speaking to winning over a few mis-understanding knife-reactionaries here and there. I absolutely stand with you on the right to carry, as well as the right to be safe. This safety is also situation dependent as some of the fatcats who make the law have little to no need to ensure their own safety aside from living in security communities or bodyguards. If they lived where I do and worked a regular job they might "amazingly" be prone to make entirely different laws. ;)
Rights are exactly like muscles, USE em *or* LOSE em.
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It has been said that a New York Conservative is a liberal who has been mugged :D

Our local pols feel much the same way as you describe. I would another couple years of a downbeat economy will change a lot of folks' minds.

As for winning folks over, maybe take your knife and put it on the table in front of them, and ask them to watch it for an hour. Have them immediately alert you when the knife does something threatening. Then go get a Coke and the TV remote, settle in for an hour or so.

The absurdity of the exercise will become immediately apparent and if they are intelligent enough to have an opinion of their own, so will their position.

But do insist that they watch the knife while you take a nap or watch Tom and Jerry for a while.
 
Grandpa always said, "A man has four pockets in his britches. He needs to have a knife in one of them." And, I find that a lady that carries is usually a very independent woman, which is sexy. :)
 
Oh, Yeah! I love Larry the Cable Guy's line, "If guns [or knives] kill people, I can blame misspelled words on my pencil."
 
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