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Thread: Pocket knife vs TSA

  1. #16
    Last flight we WERE to take (wife got sick while waiting for plane,) I had a bag of Southern Biscuit mix and some country ham in my bag, which we were taking to her brother's house. Both bag of country ham, and biscuit mix caused a problem. Country ham because on X-ray, it looked like explosives, and baking powder in biscuit mix set off explosive's alarm. After searching bag, it was cleared, but they took my shoes to check them for explosives. After about 30 minutes, they decided I was free to go. Only one problem, they had lost my shoes. Finally they found them and returned them to me. As we were waiting at the gate wife became SICK. Gate agent said to rebook later, as they didn't want her on plane throwing up. Ah such fun. FYI, two of our kids work for different airlines, so we fly nonrev status.

  2. #17
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    A short time after 9-11 I was flying back home from Alabama with a couple of coworkers. When we had to empty our pockets one of my coworkers had hand nail clippers. This was the kind that had the little swing out file that was about an inch long. One of the TSA guys took it and bent the file back and forth until it broke off. He then handed it back and said "you're good to go now".

    About a year later when I was flying out of Detroit Metro Airport I parked, as usual, in a multi-tiered parking structure across from the terminal. I was running later than I wanted to be and was closer to the terminal than my vehicle even though I was still in the parking structure when I remembered that I still had my trusty Swiss Army knife in my pocket. Not seeing anybody around I tipped up one of the large trash cans and put my knife underneath it. This was the kind of can that to empty it they take the lid off and lift out the plastic bag so I was hopeful that my knife would be safe. A few days later I was happy to retrieve it.

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Force View Post
    Remember "The Godfather" a simple pair of glasses can be deadly in the right hands!!
    In high school we used to joke, "never hit a person with glasses, they make a lousy weapon."

    Leave it to the Godfather to mock us and prove us wrong.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #19
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    I was in Haiti and the guy ahead of me was trying to bring a knife on board, and the security guard kept saying no. Ultimately, money changed hands, and the man was allowed to bring the knife on the plane.

    I once was in a hurry and threw my huge “how to speak Spanish” book into my carry-on and piled my chargers on top of it. It got pulled, and they shut down the entire security area. They brought in dogs. Finally the supervisor came to talk to me and I told him what was in the bag. He said, “let me just show you how it looks on the screen,” and if I were filming a movie and needed to come up with what a bomb would look like on a scanner, that would have been the image. Finally, they opened the bag, saw the book and the charging cables, and let me go. The flights were delayed because I shut down security for 20 min. Everyone kept looking at me suspiciously.

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    The old rules: At one time I made numerous trips to a DOE facility in DC. I was software engineering but invariably got asked to pretty please take a look at some hardware problem or another so I always carried a small toolbox with pliers, wire cutters, etc and some common PC parts.

    No airline agent ever batted an eye until one trip home when a guard said I couldn’t take the tools on the plane. “What if you take some things apart and damage the plane?" When I promised I wouldn’t he said “OK then, go ahead.”
    Before I retired, I had a service call (computer) at one of the local courts. They refused to allow my tool kit, despite my asking how they expected me to fix anything without tools.
    They even refused to allow the clerk of courts to transport the tool kit.

    I had to make do with the very basic set of screwdrivers the clerk kept in his office.
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  6. #21
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    After 9-11 I traveled from Kansas City to St. Louis on business. There is a machinist supply near where I stayed and I bought a small granite surface plate that I carried on the flight back. I had a heck of a time trying to explain that it was a just a slab of granite, that there was nothing in it because it was just a solid slab of granite. I held up the security checkpoint for about 5 minutes while I had a maddeningly circular conversation with the officer.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Feeley View Post
    After 9-11 I traveled from Kansas City to St. Louis on business. There is a machinist supply near where I stayed and I bought a small granite surface plate that I carried on the flight back. I had a heck of a time trying to explain that it was a just a slab of granite, that there was nothing in it because it was just a solid slab of granite. I held up the security checkpoint for about 5 minutes while I had a maddeningly circular conversation with the officer.
    Maybe he thought you were going to heave it through the window and decompress the entire cabin.
    Last edited by Patty Hann; 03-18-2023 at 9:41 AM.
    "What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
    It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

  8. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    We hadn't flown in a few years and forgot some things. My wife carried a tiny multifunction knife in her purse. It had a 1" blade. TSA took it. In my shaving kit I had a pair of scissors. They measured and said "Ok the blades are not over 4" These were both in carry on baggage. In checked luggage the rules are much different. Camping gear (tent stakes, cookware, stoves without fuel) all ok, as are golf clubs and fishing gear. Most kinds of electronics are fine in the cabin and in the hold. I feel much safer with odd rules in place.

    When I retired 9 years ago, I finally cleaned out my briefcase/computer bag; its a rather large one.

    Got everything out and vacuumed it. Then turned it upside down and out fell a small Buck knife with 2 blades. I had assumed it lost about 10 years prior. It had apparently gotten under the fabric seam at the bottm and laid there all those years.

    I flew an average of 90 flights per year and up to 115 per year during that time and it was never noticed, despite being X-rayed hundreds of times, and searched numerous times.

  9. #24
    I'm a slow learner, l've lost 2 pocket knifes at airports, 1 at an air show in So. Cal, and one at the hoover dam, never did check eBay for them.

  10. #25
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    I have carried the same model Gerver pocketknife for decades! I love it! It sharpens easily, it's reasonably priced, it's a lock-back and it's not too bulky thus you can carry it in a pair of men's dress slacks without it being noticeable. We have a daughter who has retired from one airline and is now working for a competitor so we can fly cheaply. We travel a lot, a lot more than I care to admit but I want to keep family members and my wife happy. I have contributed more pocketknives to be sold for the TSA Christmas parties than I care to disclose. I have learned to think about it as I approach an airport with my bag and place it in a zippered pocket on the bag. I am an old country boy and feel naked without my pocketknife.
    Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 03-18-2023 at 1:45 PM.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maurice Mcmurry View Post
    Any discussion of TSA always leads me to play the song Airline Agent by James McMurtry.
    This is on my travel playlist..
    https://davidmbailey.com/track/21923...-the-butt-song
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  12. #27
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    Sometimes, it's not that they think it's something dangerous, they just cant see through it on the x-ray, so it could be concealing something that is bad. Thats what they told me when I went through the screening in Milwaukee airport with a wheel of cheese that I bought in the airport gift shop. They knew what it was from experience, but had to check anyway.

    Same thing with a container of foot powder. They cant tell if it's liquid or not on the x-ray.
    < insert spurious quote here >

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Page View Post
    Some how David Bailey slipped passed my radar. I will enjoy checking his work out.
    His story is sad and amazing.
    Best Regards, Maurice

  14. #29
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    His Rusty Brick Road album is mellow and laid back.

    Yes, he was taken from us too soon. One day, we will beat cancer.
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



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