Why Do People Fear Folding Knives?

C

Confederate

Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
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Does anyone have a grandfather who didn't have a folding knife? Mine did, and frankly I was shocked when I pulled a small knife out of my pocket to cut open a box for a secretary, only to have my boss call me in to her office and tell me I had alarmed the woman. Even though it was perfectly legal size, my boss (a woman) told me my job didn't require that I have a knife.

Naturally I ignored her, and I made a point to let the damn secretary open her own boxes from now on, but I can't understand the fear. Okay, if you look like this, I can understand:

KnifeGuySm.jpg


But me, I'm just a guy with a pocket knife. The situation becomes more absurd when one considers that the secretary has access to a pair of scissors that swamps the size of my knife, and it's got two blades, not one. Here's what I mean, and my scissors here are much smaller than the secretary's. Her's had seven-inch blades.

SpydercoNative_2.jpg


Still, had I picked up a pair of scissors and opened the box, the woman wouldn't have even blinked, but because it was a pocket knife, she went bonkers. So what is it, some primordial, genetic memory from the stone age or what? And has anyone else gotten in trouble at work for having a small knife?
 
A few years ago I accompanied my daughter's class to Six Flags. I had two knives with me, a Spyderco Police, and a Cold Steel Mini Tanto. When open, the Police was longer than the Cold Steel.

Guess which one the security had heartburn with?

Not the Police.

Go figure......

Andy
 
Actually, this probably belongs in "wine and cheese" or the discussion area.

But, quite simply, we as a society have allowed a bunch of "pansies" to dictate what children are indoctrinated in.

We now have a generation of people who have been repeatedly told that knives, guns, etc. are weapons only and only used to inflict harm to humans. Add in the almost total lack of cutting situations in many peoples lives, you end up with the current "OMG, a knife" reactions.

I rarely offer to cut anything for anybody anymore. Maybe they'll learn when they see me quickly open a blistpack or such, but I doubt it.

Early indoctrination to a way of thinking is hard to break. As a professor told me, learning something wrong usually leads to a lifetime of wrong thinking, since unlearning something is hard to do. He was nuclear physicist teaching basic physics.
 
orthogonal1 said:
But, quite simply, we as a society have allowed a bunch of "pansies" to dictate what children are indoctrinated in.

We now have a generation of people who have been repeatedly told that knives, guns, etc. are weapons only and only used to inflict harm to humans. Add in the almost total lack of cutting situations in many peoples lives, you end up with the current "OMG, a knife" reactions.
Click to expand...

While I agree that this is very true, I think there is also more need to watch out these days. There are a LOT of crazy people out there, many more than before, I would imagine. Even I, a knifeknut, would be edgy if I knew someone had a knife around me. Of course I wouldn't go screaming and jump out a window to safety, but I'd watch that guy because I don't know what he's going to do.

We love knives here, but I think it's agreeable that there are enough crazy people out there to warrant a little bit of concern when someone pulls out a knife.
 
Well, there are movies out there where people get stuck with scissors. For some reason, it looks more horrific if only one of the two blades is embedded in someone's back. I think the obvious reason in my case was the ditsy woman used her scissors and didn't think about it, just as I use my knife without thinking. The real mystery is why the boss sided with the ditsy secretary.

And these people vote....

BTW, I've never been around a crazy person to be fearful. Most of the guys I see with knives are computer guys and others who would use them as tools. If I were going to freak out, I'd have to watch the people with scissors, too.
 
Confederate said:
I was shocked when I pulled a small knife out of my pocket to cut open a box for a secretary, only to have my boss call me in to her office and tell me I had alarmed the woman. Even though it was perfectly legal size, my boss (a woman) told me my job didn't require that I have a knife.

[...] And has anyone else gotten in trouble at work for having a small knife?
Click to expand...

That's the good part of being the boss. Anyone complaining about my knives had to complain to me. :)

I think this thread belongs right here. This is an aspect of our knife ownership that most of us face, or will. The world has become more urban and less self-reliant. Many people now see knives as a convenience at best, a danger at worst. They don't grow up with the real-world need for working with their hands.

Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

This was written by Thomas Gray, who also noted

Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come, nor care beyond to-day.
 
THG said:
While I agree that this is very true, I think there is also more need to watch out these days. There are a LOT of crazy people out there, many more than before, I would imagine.
Click to expand...

Not even close. :thumbdn:

I see no reason to think there are any more dangerous people out there than previously, only more information about the disasters they cause. The media stress the stresses, not the blessings of civilization.

I would worry more about people who identify knives as weapons. What is wrong with them, not to recognize a useful tool, even when it's being used in a helpful way?
 
I have said it before and will say it until I die! Knife is one of mans greatest inventions. It was invented as a tool! I tool for cutting and hunting, and self protection if needed. Ok, now this woman freaked out for the wrong reason. It should be pretty obvious if a woman asks a man to open a box, 9 times out of ten he is gonna use a knife. This is totally obsurd. Now when I go out in public, like walking the street, or walking through walmart, my knives stay in my pocket, where they belong in public, unless you absolutely need too. Now would I freak out about someone with a knife at work? No, because I am used to it, but the only kind of people i would be afraid to have knives are the ones who have them out and open in public just for show. I mean I see walmart employees all the time with pocket knives and utility knives, which is normal for work, but I am gonna be a little leary if I see some guy walking through a store or down the street with a knife opened up ready to use for no reason. For instance about 5 years ago walking through walmart, and I saw a kid, probably about 14 or 15 walking down the isle flipping open and closing his balisong knife. I was a reserve deputy at the time, and I stopped and informed the kid that not only was a balisong illegal to carry in tennessee, but flipping it open in public trying to seem like a bad ass wasn't a good idea. I was off duty, so really nothing I could do. The kid told me to F.O. and mind my own business. I told him it was for his own good to put it away and not carry it anymore. I walked out of the store half an hour later to find the police talking to the kid, and they had confiscated his knife. It is this type of thing that gets people worried. Alot of times if someone wants something open, and ask if I have a knife, I will let them borrow mine. I only do this so they can't say I pulled a knife on them. Its sad that society has adopted this way of life where everything that was used to build this country and make it free is now bad and dangerous.

Bottom line: Guns and knives are tools, and yes they CAN be dangerous, but only in dangerous hands. You never hear the good side about responsible people who try and teach kids the right way and wrong way to handle knives. My grandfather also always used to tell me, "Never trust a man who doesn't carry a pocket knife, for he is not prepared for what the world may throw at him."
 
Less rowdy, uneducated, drunken frontiersmen, too. :)

Why would you think an "illegal alien" is more likely to be a knife-wielding danger?
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Not even close. :thumbdn:

I see no reason to think there are any more dangerous people out there than previously, only more information about the disasters they cause. The media stress the stresses, not the blessings of civilization.

I would worry more about people who identify knives as weapons. What is wrong with them, not to recognize a useful tool, even when it's being used in a helpful way?
Click to expand...

like I said in my post. They are a tool, but they are only dangerous in dangerous hands. Knives can be used as weapons, but my grandfather cringed at even saying the words pocket knife and weapon in the same sentence. Now he said if it came down to life and death that is different, but someone out there with a pocket knife out walkin down the street tryin to be a badass, they are the ones who give true knife owners a bad name.
 
It is sad...especially when cars, ladders and alcohol kill way more people than knives or guns!!! I carry multiple knives at work (Army) and lucky for me I'm the second in command under my boss who also carries knives (and I just talked him into buying a new pistol for his B-day...didn't take much convincing;))...even in a combat zone, you run across some moron that freaks when they see a large folder or fixed blade, yet they they have an M9 or M4 and loaded magazines:confused: I have a hard time working for (or with) idiots...a knife is a tool, just like the pen, the computer and the cell phone...you go without your "tools" for a week and I'll go without mine:rolleyes:

ROCK6
 
Very well put, Esav. With a little Photoshop magic, this emphasizes my...er...point.


KnifeandScissor.jpg



I've found that the few "crazies" I've seen have not been people who suddenly become violent. For example, if I'm opening a box and a guy comes up, digs into his pocket and brings out a small knife and says, "Here, let me help you with that," I don't get a red flag. There was a crazy a number of years ago in Washington, D.C., and he was running down the street screaming and stabbing people. The screaming and the display of a knife would be a red flag, big time, but that was years ago and I didn't have the pleasure of meeting the guy.

Most crazies want to be left alone, and violence occurs when confronting them. Many homeless people have knives, which they occasionally use on each other, but they very, very rarely use them against people walking down the street. Many, in fact, won't go to homeless shelters because they're disarmed, and they'd rather be armed and on their own. In a way, I can understand that. There's just something distasteful about being disarmed, and I hope Americans are able to retain that distaste.

But the case with the scissors and the knife represents crass hypocrisy. It's the mindless nature of modern thought that is appalling. In the U.K., knife makers are now rounding the points of knives to make them more socially acceptable. It's funny, but the Brits, who can't own handguns, are known to pay big bucks for handguns that have been deactivated, and some of these deactivated handguns are as expensive as their working counterparts here. God forbid that we should ever get to that stage, that we're putting deactivated handguns in the safe. I'd rather be dead.
 
they "disarm" because they know as long as you have a knife or a gun, you have some sort of power that could be equal to or greater than them, and lord forbid that happen. They expect you to roll over on their command. They can say "with a view to prevent crime" Yeah right! Its to prevent your knife being bigger than mine, because as long as mine is bigger, I am in charge! This is what the lies really hide, its not for your protection. The bad thing too is, it is usually the law abiding citizens who have to pay for the idiocricy of the bad things criminals do with knives and guns. Always remember this! If guns and knives are outlawed, than only outlaws will have guns and knives!
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Less rowdy, uneducated, drunken frontiersmen, too. :)

Why would you think an "illegal alien" is more likely to be a knife-wielding danger?
Click to expand...

Because they have already demonstrated their disregard for the law by entering the country illegally. Just an observation by someone who lives in a county that is 67% Hispanic and estimated to be 20% illegals. YMMV
 
At the risk of side tracking this a bit, one wonders that if gun control works, why haven't the U.S. troops in Iraq tried to disarm the populace? Many of them have fully automatic weapons and no one has even so much as suggested that the occupying force confiscate weapons. First, it would leave the innocent helpless and second, it would probably outrage people in this country.

Many in the U.K. are outraged by Americans who don't want to give up their guns and now I suppose their knives. Of course now that restrictive knife laws have been enacted in the U.K., knife crime has skyrocketed just as gun crime skyrocketed (and has never come down) after they banned guns.

The Anglo Saxon tradition in which our Constitution is based was heavily into the right to weapons and self defense. It's a bad sign when people react to normal Americans with knives. No one is producing a 7-inch combat tanto. We're talking about a small folding knife. (I was doing some car shopping years ago in Kentucky and one guy in civilian garb bent over to look at something and exposed a revolver in a holster. I thought nothing of it because of how the guy looked. Now people would flip out.)
 
orthogonal1 said:
Actually, this probably belongs in "wine and cheese" or the discussion area.

But, quite simply, we as a society have allowed a bunch of "pansies" to dictate what children are indoctrinated in.

We now have a generation of people who have been repeatedly told that knives, guns, etc. are weapons only and only used to inflict harm to humans. Add in the almost total lack of cutting situations in many peoples lives, you end up with the current "OMG, a knife" reactions.
I rarely offer to cut anything for anybody anymore. Maybe they'll learn when they see me quickly open a blistpack or such, but I doubt it.

Early indoctrination to a way of thinking is hard to break. As a professor told me, learning something wrong usually leads to a lifetime of wrong thinking, since unlearning something is hard to do. He was nuclear physicist teaching basic physics.
Click to expand...



+1:thumbup:

Like many have said,a knife is man's oldest tool.Right next to the axe & the hammer.
It drives me nuts that nearly all of my friends,family & associates view all knives firstly as weapons...then as a tool if they need one.:rolleyes:

I disagree with one post that stated a gun as a tool.Sure it's a tool for killing,be it animal for harvesting,or man for SD,HD or other.Just like a bow,or even a spear.You're sending a missile at high velocity towards a target to kill it,not too fix it ,with these weapons.
I am anything but anti-gun,but comparing a gun with a knife is simply preposterous.One is a tool & one is a weapon.

Most tools can be used as weapons...hammer,knife,axe,shovel,screwdriver,wrench,tire iron...etc,but few weapons can be used as tools.
 
Folks are not being raised right for one.

Back in the day, we had a society of free thinkers, that used tools such as knives and firearms.
These folks were responsible for themselves, and were self reliant, as there was no 911, much less cell phones.

Naturally, these folks parented kids, and mentors mentored others in being self reliant, in being responsible for themselves, and in the safe responsible ownership and use of tools, such as knives and firearms.

Pocket Knives were tools. Very few persons had a locking knife, and one was raised in proper tool use, like not having body parts in front of a knife edge.

Just like one did not rely on the safety on a firearm.

Society was full of free thinkers, tool users, common sense folks and those responsible for themselves.

Then the Great Dumbing Down of Society hit.

Meddling in the affairs of citizens became more prevalent, and due to the Indoctrination of Society, Parents parented less, and mentors mentored less as the Great Society said they could raise kids and mentor others, better than a individual could.

This led to more - "What are you going to do about it? "
So the Dumb Down Society Folks passed more meddlin' restrictions.


Sorry dude, that dawg won't hunt.
Never has , never will.

Back when I was coming up, a kid did not learn on a crutch, for if one loses a crutch, they will fall down.

Pocket knives is what a kid was raised with.
Responsible ownership , for proper safe tool use, and maintaining of that pocket knife.

One was not dressed without a pocket knife, be they a boy or girl or adult lady or gent.
Kids were asked to see their knives, and in doing so, were being parented/ mentored is aspects such as how they produced it, opened it if asked, when handed to an adult to inspect to see if sharp, and pivots oiled.

Kids took knives to school, as the lessons continued at school with pocket knives.
Principals, School Nurses, Teachers and even the Janitor, mentored kids with knives at school in all aspects of responsible knife ownership, use and keeping it up.

"Somebody has to do something!" Dumb Society says...

Dumbing Down has never worked, never will.

I am nice guy, and was raised not to meddle.
I don't care if a lady breaks her nails or messes up her teeth trying to open a box, or in getting a package of crackers open.
Just like I was raised to open a door for a lady, being a southern boy and all.
If she gets huffy and lets the door hit her - sorry, sounds like a personal problem to me.
I opened the door because I wanted to, and was raised such, and I have a right to use my Southern Gent Manners.
She has a right to be a hussy.

Now if someone is sincere and asks "What can I do about these stupid restrictions!!".

My responsibility is to pass forward as passed to me.
So while we discuss COTUS, BoR, and organizations that fight for knife, gun and other rights...

I can pass forward to them responsible knife ownership, being self reliant, knife use ( with a pocket knife/ slip joint, as I do not assist others with a crutch) , how to sharpen, use and the whole bit, while I open a box, or that package of crackers.


Fear is often disguised as mob mentality in order to be matriculated into a community of idiots.
 
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