Monday, September 19, 2011

A Sharp Meme...

Og the Neanderpundit has a good one:

Take the knife out of your pocket and take a picture of it, and post it. Or post a picture of the same knife from a brochure or whatever.

Um, sure:



(Oh for the love of Pete...)

(click to biggify)

Kershaw Blur I picked up a while back at Wallyworld on a whim. Think they had it discounted to like $30. I'm a big fan of the inexpensive (note: not cheap) pocketknife, and I try really hard not to get too attached. I'm always loaning out my knife - big surprise, in this day and age hardly anyone carries a pocketknife any more. It's a sad sign of the times when you here someone ask for a pocketknife and you're the only person in the room who has one. "Be prepared". Sheesh.

So I saw the meme and knew I had to participate. Reached into one pocket, grabbed the Kershaw. Reached in another for the iPhone for a picture. Within the span of three minutes had a post ready to roll - isn't Al Gore's internet amazing?

So there's mine; where's yours?

That is all.

28 comments:

North said...

The cool people actually show a little blade. Are you shy?

daeth said...

Here is mine - SOG Trident Tanto

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsoax/6163599202/in/photostream/

Dave H said...

So there's mine; where's yours?

I have no idea. I reached for mine this morning and it wasn't there. That's what I get for carrying a little bitty Swiss Army knife.

I'm going to switch back to something that makes a satisfying "clunk" when it falls out of my pocket. That Kershaw looks like what I had in mind. But I have to admit that usually when I reach for my knife it's because I need the scissors.

I hear you about the lack of preparedness. Most people these days seem to think that means a cell phone and a credit card.

John said...

It seems to me that fewer and fewer men tend to carry pocket knives anymore. I've been trying to instill in Boy Wonder the need to keep his knife with him all the time, but seeing that he still has to spend much time at the Public Indoctrination Centers (schools), he chooses to follow the rules. Not I... I carry all my sharps out in the open whenever I have to go deal with the drones at his school. Here's mine: http://esthermofet.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-meme.html

Jay G said...

Happy, North?

:)

North said...

Jay: Seeing you hold your tool out straight with a firm grip like that always makes me happy.

Oh, and thanks for the picture.

Phil L. said...

I now carry two:

I've got an itty-bitty Swiss Army knife. Yes, the scissors are just right for some jobs.

I also carry an old-school Leatherman. Yup, the plain, flat-side version before everyone felt the need to make them fancy and complicated. I use the pliers and real Phillips-head driver far more then the blade.

TheMinuteman said...

I'll do mine tonight. I might get home late though.

It drives me nuts when someone asks for a knife. My response usually is along the lines, "Where the hell is yours!?"

Be Prepared, for what? Any Old Thing.

North said...

I think it is funny watching some people pull out the little dull 1" knife in their keychain to open a box, and I snap open a 4" blade and make short order of the box.

Or even worse try to saw a box open with keys...

Mark said...

Heh! Inevitably, the person who sees my knife and says, "Why do you carry a KNIFE everywhere!?" Is the next one to ask to borrow it :-)

I hand it to them with a smile on my face.

Then I chuckle even more when they ask why I'm carrying a weapon, erroniously thinking that my little pocket knife is a weapon.

I spare them the, "No, its a tool that could be pressed into service as a barely-adequate weapon if desperation required it, I carry an ACTUAL weapon to serve my weapon-carrying needs, thankyouverymuch." since they can barely wrap their minds around the fact I carry a knife, I'm not about to tell them I carry a (gasp!) gun.

Here's a link to the an internet pic of mine: http://www.foxqualityknives.com/gerber-6701-e-z-out-clip-point-skeleton-pocket-knife

-Mark

Teke said...

I've actually had to take my knife away from someone I loaned it to at work for fear they were going to seriously injure themselves by cutting off a finger or impaling themselves. They were using it to open a box taped shut with 1 piece of packing tape. What is this world coming to when a grown male CANNOT CUT TAPE WITH A POCKET KNIFE.

For these not elsewhere on the Meme here is my post Whippin' It Out

Roger said...

I carry a Victorinox Swiss Army knife that has about 8 tools, including large & small blade screwdrivers, corkscrew, scissors, can opener & few more. I also carry a Spyderco locking folder.
They both complement the Kimber compact stainless .45.

Keystone said...

I uh...carry a Gerber EAB folding box cutter, a kershaw leek scallion, and a leatherman wave (yeah, yeah, leatherman, whatever, standard issue on my team at the office ;) )

I use them all, for various things. The scary part is, I think the leatherman is technically illegal to carry on me in Boston, as the blade is too long...I can pack heat there, but a multitool? ZOMGWTFBBQAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Eric said...

Well worn Benchmade Sequel.

http://www.benchmade.com/products/707

Old NFO said...

Mine's up :-) And I even cleaned the blood off before I took the pic :-)

Chris said...

Kershaw Ken Onion, black, assisted opening. I always carry it with me, and I'm just a salesman. The service techs in my company mostly carry a pocket knife, but none of the other salespeople do, and some are uncomfortable around it. I keep repeating, "It's a tool!", but some of these guys are weird about it. Sheesh!

ExurbanKevin said...

What's he got in his pocketessss?

A CRKT Pazoda and a Leatherman Micra

ASM826 said...

Exurbankevin and I had the same quote come to mind: What Does It Have in It's Pocketsess?

Ross said...

Jay,

I've carried a pocket knife of some sort or another for around 40+ years, every day. The day that I got my Cub Scout Knife & Axe merit badge, my dad took me down to Goodman's Hardware and bought me a pocket knife. I've carried one every day I can ever since. Except when disarmed by cruise companies, airlines, court officers (jury duty) and similar pansies, of course.

These days it's a Buck Vantage, along with a Case Masonic Hobo Trapper in the back pocket and a Super Leatherman on my belt. Keychain has a Victorinox Mini (Swiss Army Knife) on it for the scissors.

And I've noticed the same thing that Dave H and Mark have - very few people carry one these days and most people seem freaked that I carry such a "large" one. (why do I hear Paul Hogan in my mind right now?). Yet I USE the darned things most every day. Why not carry one of man's earliest and most useful tools?

Just one more symptom of the pussification of America, I fear.

Knotthead said...

The primary carry in my pocket for more than ten years has been an A.G. Russell Featherlight One Hand Knife with an AUS-8 clip blade. I've never found a knife of such quality, utility, and value, which rides so unobtrusively in my pocket.

http://www.agrussell.com/ag-russell-one-hand-knife-general-purpose-blade-vg10-blade/p/Khhh93C10/

Occasionally, though, I will substitute a Victorinox Climber model or Kershaw Blur, which Amazon is currently selling as low as $32.78. Good opportunity.

Dannytheman said...

Mine is up also!! Like you, it took a total of 3 minutes to post!

David said...

I was at a high school volleyball game a few years ago. One player walked off the court and stopped near where I was standing next to my video camera and started tugging on the athletic tape that was around her knee. She glanced my direction and asked if I had a pair of scissors with me? I usually have tape scissors in my bag, but my bag was on the other side of the gym. So I pulled out my little Buck 3 blade pocket knife, told her to move her finger, and I cut the tape so she could pull it off her knee. Then I glanced over at the table near the door where the school principal and a couple teachers were trying to induce in me some sort of spontaneous combustion with their fiery glares. They were not amused that I was carrying tools in my pocket in their gym.

David said...

On the other hand - the principal at my kid's small parochial school walked up to me during an assembly one day and asked - "Do you have a pocketknife?" I reached into my pocket, handed her my knife. She smiled and said "I knew I could count on you." Then she walked across the hall and used my knife to trim some cords hanging off a banner on the stage. Then she closed the knife and handed it to a nearby student and directed her to return it to me.

The student, one of my volleyball players, carried the knife over to me, holding it with two fingers out in front of her like she thought it was going to bite her.

Two weeks later we were at an away game and that same student pointed out to me that there was some gum stuck on the floor near her on the court. I told her to pick it up and throw it away. She recoiled and said "I'm not going to touch it." I replied "Gee, it's too bad that one of us doesn't have some kind of handy tool that we could use to scrape that gum off the floor. Oh, wait..."

As I was scrapping the gum off the floor the referee came over and started lecturing me about having a knife in the school, and being brazen enough to use it around the students. I asked him to hold out his hand, when he did, I flicked the gum off the blade of my knife into his outstretched hand. He was not amused, we didn't get many close calls to go our way that day. But won anyway.

On the way home the little girl involved told me "OK, that thing with the gum, that was funny." Which was an opening for me to have a friendly chat with her about irrational fear of tools when she should be learning when, where and how to properly use and care for them.

Nylarthotep said...

I don't usually carry my Blur, frankly because I still haven't figured out if I can legally do so. I just can't figure out the rules in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. I carry it at home in NH since you can pretty much carry whatever you want, but I don't like taking many risks in MA. I take it that since JayG carries it it must be legal, or am I making a bad assumption?

Jay G said...

My understanding, and remember, I am NOT a lawyer, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, is that *carrying* an assisted opener is not illegal, but using one in the commission of a crime would add extra penalties.

If it were a "switchblade" or double-edged knife, simply carrying it would be a crime.

If anyone knows differently, I'm all ears. Here is the relevant part of MA general laws.

Nylarthotep said...

Thanks for that. I always get nervous with the LEO's ability to distinguish between a switchblade and an assisted opener.

Paragraph (b) still gives me the twitches.

Windy Wilson said...

Lessee, Teke, the problem with that male human is that he is a full grown male, not a man. Men know how to use a knife.
I've carried a knife almost daily ever since I joined the Boy Scouts 43 years ago this month (exept when disarmed by having to go to the place where you exercise your First Amendment right to petition government (the courts) and the odd Yanni concert -- missed an opportunity to ask if the Yanni audience was really that rough, in which case I probably needed my Swiss Army Spartan, or to sit with the security detail).
I had a girl friend who, it turns out was mildly freaked by me carrying that knife, even though the only occasion she saw it I used it to separate a pelican from a tangle of fishing line (she was a big believer in the Dru Sjodeen school of after-hours security btw, even after I gave her a pepper spray to carry).
In the People's Republic of California the gendarmarie go to great acrobatics to try to flip open your assisted opener knife with one hand so as to have it fall into the self opener category. It would be hilarious if you weren't standing there while they whip your knife around wildly, holding it by the little opener stud.

Robert said...

Swiss Army Tinker or a cute little Gerber when in town so as to not mar the fashionable line of my short pants; a fixed-blade sheath Grohmann in the boonies for barehandedly killing ornery bears and spreading peanut butter on crackers. Why would a man ever NOT have a knife handy? Other than when in court or entering our county buildings where it will soon be ok to open carry but not have a blade.
WV trabled "I am trabled by the idiocy of our rules."