Who carries a pocket knife?

[red feather]

Welcome back LV, hope things did not get bad during your trip. I always feel better with my knife, on o'nites I use a pocket knife for times with the boys , but use my mil. issued sheath knife around the adults. Very useful.

 

YIS

[sctmom]

I don't carry a knife at work or home. I do make sure I have a small knife or multi-tool around when camping or scouting.

 

I carried a very small "pen" knife as a high schooler, even though I'm female. I worked in a hardware store and a knife was very handy.

 

Grew up in a small town and have to agree with Yaworski. Every year teenagers were killed in cars. Most everyone had knives and guns. Boys went hunting before school, had shotguns and rifles in plain view in their trucks. Every now and then some idiot would threaten to cut someone, but these same kids would nowadays just break the rules and still carry a knife. You can regulate stupidity.

 

School administators over react. I talked to some Scouts from a more rural area of Georgia a few months ago. They said if they realize they have their knife at school, they just go hand it in at the office and pick it up at the end of the day. Some of these boys work on farms and hunt, so a knife is part of life for them. So are guns. They know how dangerous they can be and they know how to respect them. They also know to respect other people.

 

A year or so ago in Atlanta a very young girl was suspended for having a "weapon". It was a large Tweety Bird on a keychain. Her parents found another school for her mainly because of the stupidity of the administrators at that school.

 

[ASM7]

Good thing she didn't have a "puddy cat" on her. She would have been arrested.

 

I like my Leatherman super tool for campouts. The new Leatherman has the knife blade on the outside making it more convenient, but I haven't lost my old one yet. I can't justify getting one until I do. The little Swiss Army pen knife can be a great little tool for every day use. The Scout one makes a great gift for leaders, assuming they have their totin chip.

[Rooster7]

le Voyageur,

 

Based on your self described persona, I'm glad all of our disagreements have been via the Internet. Although, even then, I have found some comments to be rather sharp and pointed.

 

 

[KoreaScouter]

Lessee, right now, a Gerber folding knife with a rubberized tacky grip like those football receivers' gloves (very nice, too, I must say) on my belt here at work. Two feet away from my right calf, firmly attached to my rig, is an M9 Phrobis III bayonet (definitely not for Scouting), a beautiful piece of kit. At home on my Scout belt, a Leatherman Super Tool. At home in the closet, a Gerber boot knife (a gift), and a multi-blade Dutch Army knife (not as well known but every bit as good as the much-touted Swiss Army knife). I'm not freakish about knives, but seem to gather them and don't get rid of them.

 

My son the Scout has four knives. A Gerber Multi-plier in his backpack, a mini-Swiss army knife in his pocket (except to school), a GI-issue knife in his wilderness survival personal emergency kit, and a slick credit-card-size Swiss army card with various blades, tweezers, pen, and whatnot in it. I brought home a knife catalog a couple months ago from work, didn't see the thing on the coffee table, and wasn't a bit surprised to find him and his patrol buddies ogling it during the next troop meeting pre-opening...I consider that wholesome, compared with the alternatives.

 

Four accessories I feel nekkid without: wedding ring, wallet, watch, knife...

 

KS

[ozemu]

An Australian army folding knife (1901 pattern I think - still manufactured the same) in the top right shirt pocket attached with parachute cord to the button.

 

A folding serrated blade on my roping harness, looking for a plastic hook knife for my pfd, a k-bar on my webbing equipment, a parang style machete on my survival belt,...

 

They are just a tool so I seem to have a few but I'm not fascinated by them.

 

It's illegal here to carry any knife at all anywhere unless there is a valid reason for using them. Farmers here have been stopped in town and told that thier leatherman must go back in the car.

 

Scouts are not to carry fixed blades at all - folding blades 4 inches and under are okay after training. A bit like your Totin chip I think.

 

 

 

[yaworski]

"It's illegal here to carry any knife at all anywhere unless there is a valid reason for using them"

 

Who decides if the reason is valid? I never know when I'll be attacked by a box sealed with stickytape or a rogue salami leaps into my path and the only way past is to slice it and eat it.

 

 

[ozemu]

The police decide. Nightclubs and footpaths do not seem to require knives. I think that a valid reason is an occupation that requires a certain tool.

[Rooster7]

I think that a valid reason is an occupation that requires a certain tool.

 

It amazes me how much unconditional faith people place in their governments, and consequently, how many individual freedoms some are willing to give away. News Flash...Imperfect people run governments.

[OldGreyEagle]

True Rooster, but I am not sure Australia is ready to join the "Axis of Evil" anytime soon, nor would I place them on the same watch list of human rights violator that China is/belongs on.

 

Maybe some governments can use common sense, after all, people do get the government they deserve

[ozemu]

I read an article about axies of various kinds. It ran along the lines of countries being unhappy with being discounted by your president. This resulted in a rash of axies and the UN had to decide on the legitimacy of claims. The axis of countries that end with "guay" was discounted becsue its members were made up of Uraguay, Paraguay and Chadguay.

 

Not a good joke I suppose but I had a laugh.

 

By the way I trust our police.

 

And I value my responsibilities more than my freedom's. It seems that most of you are similarly minded.

[mschwartz]

Back to the original question...

 

My husband carries the Swiss Army knife with the tweezers, corkscrew, and toothpick - and has it ever come in handy on any number of occasions! I have a smaller version of the Swiss Army knife that lives in a zippered pocket of my purse, and a faux version (handed out by our campus Environmental Health & Safety people at a training session) in my desk drawer.

 

We both have to remember to leave them behind whenever travelling, but that has gotten fairly ingrained. He's in Toronto right now, and the knife is on the kitchen counter, patiently waiting for his return.

 

Our older son is a Bear Cub Scout who can hardly wait to get his own.

[Rooster7]

I carry a knife occasionally (Smith & Wesson SWAT knife - folding 4" blade). My three sons like knives as well. I don't allow my youngest (13-year-old) to carry one. He is quick to let his emotions dictate his actions. He has a very bad temper. I don't think he would ever pull a knife on anyone. However, until he is mature enough to reasonably control his temper, I refuse to permit him to carry a knife. In all other aspects, knowledge, skill, etc., he is qualified to carry one.

[PETAL_MS_SCOUTER]

I agree it's probably not a good idea for kids to carry one daily at this point.

 

I've been carrying a small Swiss Army BSA pocket knife for about a year. Amazing how often you use one. Kind of like boxer shorts ... once you try it you never go back.

 

[WA_Scoutmaster]

Leatherman mini-tool, unless I'm going to a school or through an airport. Sad commentary on our times. I still have a certificate I received as a young lad (a year or two ago...) for starting a shooting club in my high school. Yep, we actually brought rifles to school, left them in the principal's office during the day, and gathered at the range in the afternoon. We didn't have fights, we didn't shoot each other (unless it was with paper clips and rubber bands!), and didn't try to carve each other up. Oh, our parents also knew, in the vast majority of cases, where their kids were going, what they were doing, and who they were with. Foul language meant an immediate trip to the principal's office. Utopia? Nope, we still had kids with issues. But they weren't threatening the lives of others. Thank goodness scouting still exists to rescue some of the boys that need help, and reinforce the standards of those who are already pretty much on the right path.