Carrying a pocket / folding knife.

[simongt]

At a recent TCV day, we were tasked with planting about 400 tree saplings. All the saplings, support canes etc. came bundled, tied with synthetic string.
What surprised me; probably showing my age again was of the fourteen or so of us aged between twenty something to seventy plus, mostly lads, I was the only one with a pocket knife, so I ended up cutting all the bundles loose.
As I've always carried a pocket knife, as did my dad, my brother and most of the lads I knew, it struck me how few appear to do now.
The law does state that as long as the blade is non locking and doesn't exceed 3" length and isn't used in an aggressive manner, no problem.
Thoughts - ?

 

[annedonnelly]

My brother always carries a Swiss Army penknife. Don't know how much he uses it.

When we were kids I found a discarded small pen knife. I would've kept it but my parents took it off me in case I hurt myself (or anyone else). I've never owned a pen knife since.

 

[Red17]

Always carry a Swiss army knife in my bike saddlebag as it has useful attachments like pliers etc. Don't carry one generally though

 

[oldwheels]

I do carry a knife as it is often needed to cut bits of cord or cable ties.
When I was a kid every schoolboy had a knife which was mostly used for sharpening pencils but had a multitude of uses.
That would have been the 1940's mainly.
When farming it was mostly a sheath knife which was needed if you had to cut the cord on hay or straw bales {always at the knot} with frozen cold fingers to give just one example.

 

[dicko]

I was a draughtsman and so had to sharpen pencils all day long a Penknife was just standard issue. Being an ex Boy Scout I also had string and safety pins and other handy stuff in my pockets too.

 

[Dadam]

Unless I'm going somewhere like an event where bags will be searched etc I carry a swiss army penknife. I use it a lot, opening parcels, bottles or trimming nails.

On a ride it's often the Cybertool which has pliers and several screwdriver bits. For general daily carry it's a Compact as it's nice and slim and has most of what I need and little of what I don't need, like the the unnecessary small blade. I have no need of a corkscrew but the tiny screwdriver stored within it is invaluable for tightening up glasses frames. It's missing a philips driver but the corner of the bottle opener will drive philips screws in a pinch. It's even got a nail file area on the back of the hook.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I carry one of these at work all the time, and it gets used frequently for gutting gable ties, ropes, cardboard and dud handlebar grips to name a few.

 

[Drago]

I don't need to carry a knife. My hands are deadly weapons all on their own.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I have a knife blade on one of the tools in my bike tool kit, but I've never carried one apart from that. And if I had tried to I'd have lost it almost immediately.

Except I worked in a hardware shop as a lad I carried a knife in my overalls pocket for opening boxes. Does that count?

I've got a Yale type key on my keyring that is actually a screwdriver. It commemorates the silver jubilee.

 

[BrumJim]

I used to have one of these before 9/11:
6 in one multi-tool

There was always a risk that you would forget when flying and leave it on your keyring, but a chance that you would get through with it anyway. After 9/11 there was going to be no chance of getting that through, and a potential risk in trying.

 

[MontyVeda]

when i was gifted my first sw'army knife, it lived in my pocket for years. No idea why i no longer always have it with me, as it was frequently useful... mostly for opening beer and wine bottles

Maybe (and I am guessing) the screwtop is why i no longer carry it everywhere?

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Dad was raised on a farm and carried one his whole life. I spent my professional life in engineering in factories of one type or another and have always worked with my hands so I never leave home without some sort of knife.

That and I’ve lived in some pretty rough areas over the years.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I have carried one of these on my key ring around with me for decades.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19287170...55-0&msclkid=cfe42996005818de62054c3c799b66c9

 

[a.twiddler]

Swiss army knife. Victorinox for preference. In normal life, it's always in my pocket. I'm a bit wary of taking it with me if we go out to a pub, for a meal, or anything like that. In the UK it seems you could be in a situation where you're assumed to be guilty of carrying a weapon, whatever the law says about minimum length, non locking, acceptable reason for having it, etc. When flying (which I haven't done for a while) you accept that such things need to be in hold luggage since the events of 9/11. Such is the nature of modern life that even a simple pen knife that any schoolboy might have had in former years, what used to be a "normal" thing, is now an object of suspicion.

Some years ago, while going through the boarding checks for Eurostar to Paris, I absent mindedly had the then current one in my pocket which set off the metal detector alarm. I was made to surrender it and sign a form. I asked if I could put it in my baggage -no, as I would still have access to it. Could I take it back to the car and put it in there? I was not permitted to exit as the boarding process had started. What if I refused to hand it over? I wouldn't be permitted to board the train, and the police would be called. In that instance, I would presumably have a criminal record, for being the knife wielding thug that I apparently am. So I just had to suck it up and hand it over. Quite soured my trip to Paris.

Despite re reading the boarding info until my eyeballs fell out, there was no mention of restrictions on legal pen knives at that time (maybe there are now) so I was mightily peeved. Have there been instances of passengers bursting into the driver's cab wielding the Swiss Army Knife tweezers, crying, "Take me to Crewe, or the eyebrow gets it!"?

 

[glasgowcyclist]

When flying (which I haven't done for a while) you accept that such things need to be in hold luggage since the events of 9/11.

Things have changed. I’ve carried a penknife, with a blade under 6cm, on flights regularly since 2015. Airport security always measure it and give it back to me.

However, it is worth checking that if you’re returning from somewhere outside the EU, such blades are acceptable to that airport’s security.

I flew BA to Amsterdam, then KLM to Accra a few years ago and nobody was bothered by my penknife. On the return from Accra, a big soldier with a gun said I couldn’t take it, despite the airlines themselves allowing it, so I lost it.