Post Punk Kitchen Forum

You know, I think that this thread is really about Mythbusters.

I hate trying to cut tape with my keys. It makes them sticky and it's ineffective. And loose screws also make me nuts.

oh reeeeeallly? <trots off to send some birthday presents to certain relatives.>



I always travel with my chef knife and an army knife but have never had problems in the airports... i only got hauled off to the back room once, way before 9/11, when the ruth westheimer lookalike running the x-ray machine was SO SURE that my pinking shears were a gun that she called security and I got frogmarched through a crowd of Japanese teenagers waiting to check into JFK. At which point they dumped my luggage and found my entire suitcase was lingerie, tea bags, rootbeer, and sewing supplies. Fun times.

Knives aren't weapons any more? Damn, I need to call the local PD and have them change some laws. In 2008, almost 1900 people were cut or stabbed to death in the USA. It would seem that it is not always inconsequential.

One of the extras on my Dexter DVD was about some guy that got killed by scissors.

Guns have 1 use - for killing

Knives have multiple uses.

I didn't think it was that unusual to have a knife. When I went to Belize, our guide had a machete and was cutting fruit in his hand with it. I figure my 2 inch knife is nothing compared to that.

Yep, that's the point-- knives are useful tools.

How do UK knife laws work, anyway? Does it criminalize driving home from the kitchen store with a new chef knife? Must you bludgeon your onions into bits rather than slice them? Or is it just carrying knives in public?

the only time i was pulled aside for my bag to be searched was when i was going through a rinky-dink airport (in albuquerque, i think.) shortly after we were married. (the mr. didn't think about my license not matching, and the name inspector was SOOOO non-understanding. there was no line, the inspector was sitting on a chair the whole time. they really had nothing better to do. might as well possibly make these people miss their plane.) i apparently had no problem leaving philly, but ABQ get their jollies from bothering clueless newlyweds.

(oh, except for when i had a mostly eaten jar of PB&CO chocolate peanut butter in tampa, and a long-forgotten drill bit in philly, but those were quickly tossed and i was on my way. it was a great drill bit though. *sigh*)

My husband carries a BYRD "Robin" serrated and uses it almost daily.


He works for an outdoorsy place and is going to buy me one like that, for emergencies and cutting into boxes. And also so I have something to reach for incase I get sexually assaulted again.

I carry a knife. I also work at a farm. I would never use it as a weapon (I guess--unless I was assaulted), but I use it tonnes at work, camping, etc... I also throw weighted knives as a hobby (at non-creature targets, of course!) and I love it.

Oh, this is more or less the same as my AK-47 bayonet:



I keep it in a box with my other Soviet-era Cold War artifacts. With that little tab on the end of the sheath, it can be used as a wirecutter! Fun!

I was given a pocketknife when I was 8 or so. My father taught me how to take care of it and sharpen it and use it safely and how to tell if it's sharp and all that kind of stuff. There was a lot of Cub Scouts stuff about pocketknives too. I'm going to teach my boys the same things. People getting all weird about pocketknives seems very strange to me. I'm only a generation away from growing up on a farm, though...

I like Knives too, she's pretty cool looking.

Well, carrying your wee chopping knife or cleaver or whathaveyou home from M&S on a Saturday afternoon is hardly going to be an issue. And no, I don't live in fear of the law busting down my door for those few times I choose to chop an onion rather than Hulk-smash it into smithereens.

However. Speaking from the knife-crime/murder capital-city of Europe, and a particular part of that city that is excessively affected... Knives are bad, mmm'kay? Don't get it twisted, I have never, ever, ever been in fear of my life/a stabbing particularly just generally stotting about my neighbourhood. But I have grown up under the shadow of gigantic billboards of scarred victims of knife-crime, gang-land murders and Sectarian stabbing shiitake. Oh. and your regular 'knife amnesties' where everyone is encouraged to anonymously chuck their knives into a box at the local polis station.) I don't know from English law ('UK law' ain't really a thing), but Scots Law is zero tolerance on these things, and what most of you guys are carrying would have y'all infront of the Sheriff pronto with up to a 4 year jail sentence. Just for having it about your person.

I know it's less bad than guns. And I know people have these things for work or such. And I know yous all wouldn't be using them for bad. But still. Freaks me out proper.

I know it is all about perspective but I don't really see knives as a weapon because other things can be used for a weapon. I once had a bf tell me that a cop asked him about a flashlight he carried in his car because it was pretty heavy duty and could be used to bludgeon someone.

Anyway, from my perspective, where I grew up and drive by shootings and shootings in general occurred over the years and going to a high school that had to put up a wall to help stop bullets from entering the school since the surrounding neighboorhood had so many shootings, guns were the concern. And although I've seen knife fights, the real fear here is someone pulling out a gun.

I guess people will be violent whether they can have guns or not although I think it'd be nicer to live in an area without people having guns readily. It doesn't take much effort to kill someone with a gun.

Oh and although I've carried a knife with me for years, I've never considered using it defensively for some reason. Although I have carried my keys in a defensive position such that I will poke someone in the eye if they try to attack me.

Yeah, that seems completely strange to me. How do people open boxes? Y'all should have more guns around, so people can stop being worried about knives.

(I jest. Still.)

US knife laws are typically something like: You can't carry anything with longer than a 2" or 2.5" blade (which is about pocket-knife-sized) or that you can open one-handed (like a switchblade or flick knife). I practiced a bunch until I could open and close my CRKT with one hand, mostly because I kept finding myself holding something in place with my left hand and needing to open my knife to cut whatever I was holding, and it was good to know how to do that. So technically mine wasn't legal, although I had to be very careful not to cut myself opening it...

You can't knives that open with the push of a button? All the knives I had (bought my last knife at REI) had a button which opened it automatically.

I went and checked the 3 that my husband has on his dresser though and all of those are 2 handed operations. He has a few others somewhere that I'll have to look at.

I carry the least dangerous looking knife imaginable.

my knife has something called an assisted-opening mechanism, which means the button i push is connected to a lever that pushes the blade halfway open, and after that the blade moves sort of on its own. somehow this prevents it from being a switchblade according to the federal definition, but i'm so used to working with it now that i doubt it's very different in practice.

Concealed, though, right? Which is why some knives have a pocket clip; if the clip is showing, it isn't concealed.

It's OK to have a Swiss Army knife in your pocket, but any bigger than that, some of it should be showing.

Pretty sure that's illegal in New York...don't let the pigs see it!

*shrug* no-pants honey badger don't care.

That of course being more or less the type of knife used to hijack some airplanes a decade or so ago.

And when I was in high school and worked a part time job at a crappy toy store, we were required to have one of these on us at all times. (Bang is never going to visit the US is she?)

I'm on board with knives being useful tools, but it sort of freaks me out when people say they're going to use them for self defense. Without some actual knowledge and training, it seems it would be just as likely your knife would be used against you, no?

This thread is now about honey badgers.

I've never seen a honey badger.

I was also thinking that I've seen a lot of people have decorative knives in their houses, I'm guessing those long japanese swords and what not would also be a no-no in other countries? Or is it just a problem with carrying around a sword?