Every Man Needs To Own A Pocket Knife

Return of Kings ^ | February 13, 2018 | CR Smith

[vannrox]

Even though a permit is not required to have one, I admit to not carrying a pocket knife until 2015. I had realized that I became part of a generational sea change on this item, which I now view as being much more than just a male accessory choice.

It all started when I was at a Garden Center store looking for a trellis, but when I found one, it was bound to several others by nylon zip-ties. I knew I couldn’t saw it free with my keys, so I started to look for some help. I soon saw an old man walking down the aisle and instinctively thought he would have a knife on him, but he didn’t, nor did another man I asked. I then found a store worker who cut them free and off I went with my trellis, though not feeling good about myself or the state of male civilization.

As a kid in the 1970’s, almost every boy carried a pocket knife. It wasn’t a weapon or for showing off, unless it was new. Sometimes you had to actually cut something and scissors just wouldn’t do.

When you were bored, you’d whittle a stick or a piece of wood with it. I have a simple walking stick carved by my great grandfather, and I recall the mystique of watching and helping as he sharpened his knife. In my keepsake box, I have a pocket knife of my father and grandfather. Interestingly, along with a Confederate $5 bank note, Lincoln had one in his pocket the night he was shot.

But times have changed, and I stopped bearing the humble tool that naturally accompanied my forefathers. I am not alone here, and think this happened for various reasons and with certain outcomes.

1. Fewer Men Work With Their Hands Or At Jobs That Need Them

My farmer and forester ancestors needed knives at any potential moment, but for my generation of desk jockeys and mind workers, scissors and box cutters do just fine. This is a banal, demographic reason, but the next ones cut to the core of a man’s soul.

2. The Expanded Safety Culture

Safety is a great thing for us all. Seat belts and even OSHA have had some benefit. In my job as a scientist, we take precautions scientists never gave thought to a few decades ago. People like me in occupations with built-in physical hazards are happy for that.

But when we live our everyday lives with a requirement of eliminating all hazards, we get ridiculous. This leads to safety Nazis who apply their same calculus to pocket knives as they do to guns: viewed solely as a dangerous object to be feared and avoided, and not as an everyday tool that has hazards to be respected.

There’s a reason the 2006 book The Dangerous Book For Boys included topics on uses of knives. The safety culture agitates against even reasonable male daring, much less carrying a tool that could be used as a weapon. This mindset turned rancid as it became codified absurdity through.

3. Zero Tolerance Policies In Schools

It sounds tough, but it’s a cop-out. Adults who abandoned the need of using discriminating wisdom and good judgment implemented “no sharp objects allowed on campus” rules, as opposed to something like “pocket knives may be three inches or shorter” with strict enforcement (liberty with reasonable limits that is age appropriate).

Intractable un-Solomon-like thinking leads to such silly results as boys being expelled for bringing a kitchen knife to school to cut an onion for a science project and for biting a pop tart into the shape of a gun.

You soon realize that when adults don’t use adult discretion, kids don’t learn the right lessons and are trained to have foolish fears. Humble pocket knives became an easy victim. The do-gooders imagined they were protecting kids from switchblade or machete melees, but they forgot that Grace Kelly used scissors to kill the intruder in Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder.

4. The 9/11 Attacks

The pocket knife culture was already feeble, but 9/11 gave it a grievous blow. Swiss Army Knife sales fell by 35% as a result of the attacks. The hijackers interestingly used not knives, but the culturally un-feared box cutter to do their evil deeds: they used our overblown fears against us. Since then, many a pocket knife has been melted into plowshares by the TSA, I assume, after confiscation at airports, including one of mine. All of these contributors have led to another sad consequence…

5. The Emasculation Of Men

I believe the culmination of these factors have led men to be changed and lessened. The old man from whom I asked for a pocket knife at the garden store looked embarrassed to admit his knifelessness, as he knew from whence he had fallen. I felt no better as I had to get assistance from a female store employee, no less, who got some scissors (what else) to cut lose my quarry (what a daring name for a trellis). To complete my humiliation, she had to do the cutting… corporate safety rules, I guess.

As is human nature, some rebel against our anti-knife culture and dive headlong into getting more, bigger and longer blades, but most of us just rolled over, and we were figuratively castrated.

But I’ve decided to not roll over anymore. I didn’t need an impressive knife like my son’s, which doubles as a gun bayonet, but I did ask him to get me a traditional pocket knife for Christmas, and now I carry one with me always.

The two knives I have now are quite different and illustrate the types that are suitable for many guys. My small one is barely 2-1/2 inches long when closed and is a sleek 3/8 inches wide, with two thumbnail opening blades. It serves for minor and general use at work and doesn’t fill my pocket. It looks and works better than a stupid freebee keychain Victorinox-wannabe with bad scissors.

My other knife is almost four inches closed with a full-bellied blade and can be opened with one hand by a thumb stud. It is more useful for chores around the house or in the woods.

A thick, multi-tool Swiss Army knife is useful, but can be too bulky for a pocket, which is why if you have one, it’s likely in your dresser drawer. Just start with your needs and avoid the urge to go full-bore Crocodile Dundee. You may rarely need it, but when you do, you’ll feel better for having your own pocket knife.

Read More: How To Keep Your Knives Blazing Sharp

[DNME]

I carry a Leatherman on my belt but my go-to knife is some crappy old 3-blader that belonged to one of the grandfathers somewhere. Part of the plastic has fallen off the sides but I wouldn’t replace it for love nor money.

Humans don’t have claws or fangs so a pocket knife is crucial when the need for sharpness arrives. I use mine a couple times a day to open boxes, trim a piece of string or to convince a plastic package to open properly. It’s my “metal thumbnail” and is always handy. Always.

[Rannug]

I always carry an assisted opening Benchmade clipped inside my left pocket. So available.

[cyclotic]

When I travel for work, I either ship my pocketknife with other gear, or stop at Walmart and buy a cheap one. They have a total junk knife for $1.98. (The problem is that you need a razor knife to open it.)

I dispose of it at TSA on my way home.

I virtually always carry a knife. If someone asks if I have one, my answer is “of course”

My kids all carry knives. My sons collection’s are at about 60-70 knives each. They are never without one. It’s what a man does.

[cyclotic]

If you want to see the absolute best store in the world, go to Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Seiverville, Tennessee. If it’s a knife, chances are they sell it there.

[dennisw]

I always have a Swiss army knife / camper model/ because all my keys are attached to it. Got it on ebay for $6 shipped. Used but all sharp blades and immaculate.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember when all the boys carried pocket knives to school. If you didn’t have one you were “out”. No one was ever stabbed or cut.

Back in those days of the early 1960s, when kids brought guns and knives to school, you knew they were in SHOP leathercraft class.

I remember a kid bringing an old percussion military pistol to school for “show and tell”.

But, that was back when the Fainthearts began to take over the schools in 1968.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Same here. I flew on commercial aircraft in 2000. they measured the blade and said it was OK.

Flew to NYC in 2012, but had to leave the knife at home.

[heterosupremacist]

I had several Kershaws (Leeks) but my favorites are the S&W and an old Camillus with a carbon steel blade

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I have carried a pocket knife since I was old enough to do so. The only time it is cut human flesh was when I was using it for something when I was a kid and it slipped and cut my hand. I still have a slight scar some 50 years later. I use my Swiss Army knife pretty much every day. I have had people audibly gasp when I pull it out to do something, such as sharpen a pencil. I explain to them that it’s a tool.

[deport]

Even though a permit is not required to have one, I admit to
not carrying a pocket knife until 2015.

**************

Keep in mind that not all places allow knives. Especially if you are
traveling you may get caught having to make some type arrangement
so as not to have your knife taken, example airports. Also a lot of
businesses, gov’t agencies, etc ban them from their premises.

[cyclotic]

Last week, I actually set a specific alarm on my phone to remind me to remove my knife.

I shipped it home with some other stuff which is due to arrive Tuesday.

It’s a relatively cheap Gerber but I’ve had it for almost 20 years...kind of. The spring assist broke and it was warranty replaced 10 years ago.

I’ve donated a handful to TSA. Mostly box cutters.

But on the flip side, a buddy was stationed at an air base in the middle east. Soldiers returning from Afghanistan to fly commercial home were warned several times to check knives. They would offer the confiscated ones to soldiers going in. He asked if he could paw through the box to bring some home to the scout troop he and I led.

He gave me a bag of high end pocketknives. My son’s valued the bag at over $2,000 retail. Each boy in our troop got a knife that day. Mine was a $200 Gerber Automatic (switchblade) Tanto blade. Incredible piece.

[cyclotic]

I probably have the same Marble’s Hunter. I bought it at a garage sale for $1,50 when I was 18. I’m now 55.

It’s sad to see the trash that Marble’s makes now.

[SamAdams76]

I had the same experience. From time I was a boy, I never went anywhere without my swiss army knife. Then too I started working for a large corporation with a lot of airline travel and of course the airlines freak out when you try to carry one on board. Even before 9/11 this was a problem. I have 2-3 of them still in my bedroom closet in a small bucket full of other things that have gone out of fashion like old tie clips, cuff links, collar stays, etc.

[cyclotic]

One of my son’s has a knife my uncle gave him. It belonged to his grandfather who carried it during the Spanish American War. We had to put a Stag handle on it.

He also has a WWII era Nepalese Ghurka Kukri. Talk about razor sharp. I’ve cut myself looking at it on the shelf.

[crosdaddy]

I always carry a knife, I have a very large and expensive collection. A very large percentage of my collection will never be carried, for different reasons. My favorite carries, of the last couple of years, has been my various Shirogorovs, incredible knives, but very expensive. I currently have 9 Shiros in my collection, 3 of which I carry and use.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I just bought Mr. GG2 a S&W 3.5 inch for Christmas. He had a Ken Onion that broke and he keeps forgetting to send it in for repair.

My BIL carries a 6 inch hunting knife in his pocket everyday. In 20 years I have never seen him without it. But he’s from E Tennessee. :-)

[CincyRichieRich]

Or 20.

And a switchblade, too.

[ExpatGator]

We do have one Marble’s Hunter at the house. The other four are Woodsmen. We all prefer the Woodsman for all around skinning/hunting knife.
Most of them we’ve had for a couple of decades. Got them after we used our old Mainer friend’s Marble’s while skinning a moose. Nothing like it!
Yeah, the new ones suck ferociously.
I found a pristine Woodsman and original case at an antique store here in SWest MO a couple of years ago. I instantly bought it and gave it to that deer hunting wife of mine. She cherishes it. She’s the one who used our friend’s knife on the moose and demanded a Marble’s of her own after doing so. I got to upgrade her when I found that one.

[Charles Martel]

The alox Soldier is an excellent knife. I used to carry one until the model was discontinued for a supposedly improved model that has a one-hand open blade - nothing wrong with that - but the alox scales were scrapped for the typical Victorinox plastic scales, which I don't like because they are just not durable.

Yeah, I didn't care for the 2008 Swiss "soldier" knife update, either - not for a daily carry tool, anyway. It ended up in the center console of my truck.

I found someone selling the alox Victorinox Soldier knives (Dutch army surplus) on eBay a few years ago, and bought two that look unissued. One to carry, plus a spare - doubt if I'll wear both of them out.

[glock rocks]

I’ve invested in Benchmade and Kershaw for forty years. Utah permit isn’t concealed handgun, it’s concealed weapon. I stuff an 18” (extended) Asp snapstick in my back pocket when I take the dogs out. An 8” buck under the jacket is comfy as well.

I also carry a Sig P229 in 40. I taught the arts for 40 years, but I’m getting old and ornery. We don’t play knockout game here.