Why you should carry pocket knife in the country

[LMTC]

For years I have watched closeouts on Cabelas and elsewhere, and have picked up some decent Schrade, Buck, and other knives for $4-$10 that originally sold for 4-5 times as much. Makes them close to disposable. Once bought a dozen Gerber Gators (folders, app. 3.5" blade), some regular blade some half-serrated, for about $7 each. Probably have 15 or so folders right now kicking around the vehicle and the house. My lead guy in the shop always buys several when I find a buy (especially when I find them in the 3-3.5" range), and uses them for chisels, scrapers, etc. The man trashes knives, but he apparently gets his use out of them.

If I checked everywhere (all drawers in the house and my desk in the shop, as well as vehicles) I suspect I would find 50-60 knives (not cutlery) including perhaps 15 non-folders. Always been a bit of a knife-aholic and often find one in a pocket I didn't even know was there. Right now I'm looking at a bag of 3" folders I bought from the closeout of the Imperial Schrade/Ulster Knife Co. factory in Ireland...a solid $30-$40 knife that I bought for $5 each last year. Yes dear, I DO need another dozen knives.....

 

[aczlan]

On my belt, I have a older (made in the USA) Schrade "Tough" multitool. I really like that the blades open 90 degrees away from the "grip" part of the handle. I would not buy one of the newer made somewhere else multitools, I send an older style one in for repairs and got back a new style one and it was horrible. Low quality metal which bent every which way when I used it. When I replace it I will probably get a SOG multitool, I don't like using multitools that have the blades open into where my hands press when I use the pliers.

In my pocket I have a Sheffield folding knife that takes a utility blade (looks like this one but it has a checkered grip). I have tried most of the other blade change mechanisms, but I keep coming back to this one with a swinging side as the best.

Aaron Z

 

[LMTC]

The original (pre-2004) Schrade Tough Tool was one of the best multis IMO. Sold for $40+ and was made in their NY facility. I bought a half dozen, in 99 I think (part of my Y2K preps) for something like $15 each on a closeout. Everyone of the people who got one still has them AFAIK, and has commented on it many times. Great tool. Current version is supposedly made in China.

 

[aczlan]

The original (pre-2004) Schrade Tough Tool was one of the best multis IMO.

I agree, the closest I have found to matching it is a SOG, but that is $80+

Everyone of the people who got one still has them AFAIK, and has commented on it many times. Great tool. Current version is supposedly made in China.

Since they were bought out by Taylor Brands and production was moved to China, they have become junk. I have one I have been using for several years (purchased used from Ebay), and it still works well, I have bent it a little, but that was from my abuse.
I have a new one that I used for less than a month and there are chunks missing from the plier jaws, the pivots for the handles are very loose and it is a mess.

Aaron Z

 

[Skyco]

Talk about luck. How many times do your pants fall down taking a leak?

aaahh...you are assuming he was doing #1:laughing:

As for multi-tools- I've carried them for years, current favorite is a Leatherman Surge.
I was denied entry to the SC State Fair a couple of years ago when they spotted it on my belt. Had to walk a long way back to the car to leave it. I attempted to argue with them as SC state law says a knife is not a weapon unless used in a crime. Didn't matter to them, can't get in with it. Maybe they were afraid I'd pinch someone with the pliers

 

[crusty 1]

Or maybe tighten one of there lose screws?

 

[Bird]

I don't know what kind of knives South Carolina prohibits or where they're prohibited, but part of the Texas Penal Code is:

(6) "Illegal knife" means a:
(A) knife with a blade over five and one-half inches;
(B) hand instrument designed to cut or stab another by being thrown;
(C) dagger, including but not limited to a dirk, stiletto, and poniard;
(D) bowie knife;
(E) sword; or
(F) spear.
(7) "Knife" means any bladed hand instrument that is capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by cutting or stabbing a person with the instrument.

 

[crusty 1]

I forget we,re living different times and I think of a pocket knife as a trusted at my side tool I,m never without.I,v opended many of granny,s gifts because she could,nt get a ribbon off.Oh the good old days!

 

[2manyrocks]

Wonder what the airport security folks do with all the knives they confiscate?

I don't carry a pocket knife, but I remember needing to open one of those plastic sealed packages for something away from home, and not being able to get it open.

I probably wouldn't have the presence of mind to cut a rattler off my hand if it were hanging on. I guess their instinct is to hang on when they do bite?

 

[Bird]

Wonder what the airport security folks do with all the knives they confiscate?

Just one of several stories you can find through google answering that question.
The TSA Blog: What happens to your prohibited items?