Swiss Army ... tool

[Chris Schoenthal]

I leave my small Swiss army knife at home and carry a Milwaukee folding knife with a utility blade. I take the blade out when going through TSA and they have no problem. Once I get to the destination, I can get a blade to replace it. Solves my problem at least.

[Lee DeRaud]

I get this image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G_1_T0ec_E

"Hi, I'm Nick Dundee. I was the mumblety-peg champion at Alice Springs Middle School.
My friends call me 'Gimpy'."

[Earl McLain]

If it goes past the TSA, I’m in. It could be my travel knife. Of course there will be plenty of pointy things that could be a weapon. For that matter, it wouldn’t be hard to come up with some sort of shiv that would pass through security.

Maybe it should be a requirement for the Exit row--so the passenger could torque the door bolts before take-off.

[Alan Rutherford]

News item from England a few years ago.
StopKnives01.jpg

[Alan Rutherford]

I'm getting an image of a couple of middle-school kids playing mumblety-peg: the whole school goes on lock-down and SWAT gets called out.

We played a version called "Chicken" where 2 guys start with legs spread apart. You throw the knife between the other guy's feet and he moves a foot up to where the knife stuck. If he moves before the knife sticks he loses. If you actually hit his foot, you lose.

I also remember putting my hand on a desk with fingers spread and stabbing the desk between each finger. After a few iterations your fingers start to look inanimate and the knife is really flying. This was in Baltimore a long time ago. The knives were often switchblades. I don't remember anyone getting hurt - at least not enough to remember. I don't advocate allowing this in schools. We weren't allowed to do it if we got caught but I think we were smarter for the experience. And much better off than if we had been expelled for having pocket knives.

None of that today.

[Rich Engelhardt]

We played a version called "Chicken" where 2 guys start with legs spread apart. You throw the knife between the other guy's feet and he moves a foot up to where the knife stuck. If he moves before the knife sticks he loses. If you actually hit his foot, you lose.

I also remember putting my hand on a desk with fingers spread and stabbing the desk between each finger. After a few iterations your fingers start to look inanimate and the knife is really flying. This was in Baltimore a long time ago. The knives were often switchblades. I don't remember anyone getting hurt - at least not enough to remember. I don't advocate allowing this in schools. We weren't allowed to do it if we got caught but I think we were smarter for the experience. And much better off than if we had been expelled for having pocket knives.

None of that today.

We played a version of that game called "Stretch" - where two faced off and a knife was flipped into the ground at the opponents feet. You had to move your foot to the spot where the knife stuck in the ground. You continued back and forth until one or the other had to stretch so far they fell down.

Unlike your school though, the game was played in the open at recess with the school knowing all about it.
It became a fad, and at recess there would be three hundred kids, ranging from 1st to 5th grade, tossing knives at each other.

It was fun.
It was also the 1950s.

I'm so glad I grew up in this country (and world) when it was still sane. I really don't like the world as it has become. I'm glad I'm old and going to die soon. Things like a knife with no blade don't make sense to me.

[Jack Frederick]

I’ve carried the smallest SAK for probably 50 yrs now. I use it many times a day. Probably the scissors more than anything.I don’t recall the model name, but the one shown with the small Phillips head/bottle opener is IMO the best of them. It is perfect for the small screws on the ever present battery compartments on the grandkids toys and most of my test instruments. It makes a nice gift for new Dads and Grands.

[David Storer]

My old dad (GRHS) always used to say you should never give a knife ... "it cuts friendship". When he gave me a knife, he'd always make me pay a penny for it, sometimes sixpence. Mean old b****r ;-).

[David Storer]

In primary school (up to age eleven) in England, we were encouraged to bring a small sharp penknife to school as a more reliable and economical way of sharpening pencils than the hand-turned machine on the teacher's desk, which used to eat them by the inch.

It was good to learn young how to use a knife safely and effectively, and to learn respect for a sharp blade.

Times have changed.

[Alan Rutherford]

...Unlike your school though, the game was played in the open at recess with the school knowing all about it.....It was also the 1950s......

Same at my school. What was not allowed was switchblades or sticking knives in desks.

...Things like a knife with no blade don't make sense to me.

Ne neither.

[Edward Weber]

News item from England a few years ago.
StopKnives01.jpg

As of a couple of weeks ago, The Royal Mail now has a total ban on all bladed objects.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

So what do you call a Swiss Army knife without a knife. A whatchacallit?

[Malcolm McLeod]

So what do you call a Swiss Army knife without a knife. A whatchacallit?

Widget: n. - A complex mechanical device that does nothing. YMMV.

Now a French Army knife - that's different. A corkscrew and a small white flag.

[Warren Lake]

Up until a few years ago carried my keys this way with the Swiss knife I got in 84 in Venice. The red sides were broken off. Knife in my back pocket keys hanging out. Worked fine. I wanted to work out a way to attach the cable to the sides and never did and now carry two sets of keys. One in case I lock myself out of something. Holding the keys in your hand the knife closed became a Nun chuck. That knife adjusted lots of kitchen hinges. Typical to go with a friend and meet one of her friends and sitting in the kitchen seeing all the doors that had moved since installed cause of european hinges.

P1820735.jpg

[Larry Edgerton]

I switched to the better brands of multi-tools years ago because I like the useful pliers but I use the knives often, have one in the door pocket of every vehicle. I get that they are trying to sell in the areas that don't allow blades, its the silly law I question in the first place.