"Why do you always carry a knife?"

L

Lavan

Joined
Nov 8, 2000
Messages
2,301
...is the question I got from a lady in my senior single seniors meetup group. We were at one of our events and no one had anything to open a package of hot dogs with other than their teeth.
So she asks me if I have my knife and I take it out and use it and then she......asks..... WHY... I always carry one.

When I looked at her like I did, she got it.

wow.
 
For how useful the tool is and how little space it takes up. Also, I enjoy knives and enjoy showing them off to people. I find them very interesting and have always liked to collect them, even when I was younger.
 
Did a little light bulb show up over her head?
Just kidding.
Also for protection, Cutting a seatbelt if I or
someone else is trapped in a car etc...
At least she got it.
 
It's a tool and it's often at the moment when non-knife people ask me to open/cut/ something for them they realise how useful they are!
 
It saves time and frustration when something needs to be cut. It's also a safety issue. It's not safe to NOT have a knife.
 
It was a great thing watching some of the survival shows with my wife (yeah I know they are not 100% realistic and often do dumb crap on purpose for entertainment) I told her, "see how much they always need to use a knife, it's mankind's most basic and useful tool and will help you stay alive if the world ever goes to hell, so it's best if we (really I :D ) get some good ones at least a couple times a year"

Sometimes whipping out a knife and opening stuff for people in a couple seconds is strangely not enough reason.
 
Someone once wrote the perfect reason to carry a knife, I don't remember where:

"Because evolution removed my claws."
 
Good story :thumbup:

How about "Because apparently nobody else does" or "Because I always need one"
 
It's what my father taught me when I was a kid, and it as a habit, has stuck with me. It was part of growing up and responsibly using tools for the precise use for which they were intended. It also gives me fond memories of my father. (man, could he ever sharpen a knife or a razor by hand. He was a barber since his early teens and in then in the navy RIP.)
 
Preparedness.

BTW, I was taught this in the boy scouts.

I still can't understand people's ignorance as to oppose carrying a knife; they've obviously never had any form of training to realize literally "anything" can be a weapon.

I've educated many people myself of the usefulness of being prepared; I've even converted some into carrying simple SAKs...its a start! :thumbup:

I'm hoping its like a disease and will spread :)
 
Last edited:
sjhong said:
Someone once wrote the perfect reason to carry a knife, I don't remember where:

"Because evolution removed my claws."
Click to expand...

James K. Mattis, z"l
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/128979-Good-reason-to-carry-a-knife

06-18-2000 02:06 AM #1 James Mattis
Registered User
Join Date
Oct 1998
Location
Glendale, CA, USA
Posts
3,264

"Good reason" to carry a knife

There are jurisdictions out there, i.e. the UK, and individual authority figures who may ask you for what reason you carry a knife. ("For protection" is the wrong answer!) As if you needed a reason ...

"Good reason?"

My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off. The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place. I wear a wristwatch whether or not I have an appointment to keep, and I carry a pen and/or pencil because I am a literate person whether or not I have a specific writing task ahead of me, and I carry a knife because I am a human and not an ape.

A knife comes in handy for all sorts of random tasks that involve separating matter. Like cutting a string, or making a sandwich, or opening a package. It can also come in handy in an emergency, which need not involve a human assailant, and emergencies are by their nature unforseen, so one should carry a knife all the time.

And in a perfect world where nobody needed a weapon, I'd probaby carry a slightly larger knife, because it wouldn't scare people.

(For some longer thoughts in this direction, visit Daithi's essay at www.knives.com )

------------------
- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

[This message has been edited by James Mattis (edited 06-18-2000).]
 
As a teenager I thought for protection, but how many people REALLY know how to use a knife for that? As I've gotten older I realize how useful a tool a sharp knife is.

Mine and my wifes grandfathers ALWAYS had a knife in their pocket. That generation got it, I think it's been lost on subsequent generations.
 
I carry a knife because I REALLY hate not having a knife when I REALLY need it....

and because I enjoy it..:D
 
It's funny, we're just a generation or so removed where pretty much every male over the age of 9 in the US carried a knife everywhere they went. Now so many people think it's strange.
 
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