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  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by chasem View Post
    It's hard for us to wrap our minds around that on this side of the pond. I carry a pocket knife any time I wear clothes and have use for it at least 2-3 times/day. It gets used for nearly any purpose - from cutting electrical tape, a loose thread on a shirt, to spreading peanut butter when a proper knife isn't clean.

    As was said, different laws and attitudes make it a totally different situation
    A pocket knife, with folding blade, is very different. Many men, myself included, carry one of those.

    But anything more than a 3 1/2" blade (which is allowed by law) is just not needed in day-to-day life. If I need to have a blade longer than that, I will get the right tool for the job.

  2. #12
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    Calgacus thank you for that wonderful post. As for me I am a Canadian living in Toronto. The other day I had occasion to visit the courts and I happened to be wearing a kilt. I did not wear my sgian dubh as I knew I would have to go through the metal detectors and speak to an officer of the court. The police officer on the other side of the table specifically asked if I was wearing my wee knife. I assured him I was not and showed him my hose tops, he also went through my sporran. This is just about the only time anyone has had a problem with it, though I do remember a festival years ago where I was asked to put my sgian in my sporran as I was told they did not want weapons shown, though I question the logic behind that thinking as they took a weapon and turned it into a concealed weapon.

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  4. #13
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    18th October 09
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    I may be here in the knife-wielding pistol-packin' USA but I almost never wear a sgian.

    As a working piper I never know where I'll be playing and what the rules of the particular location might be.

    For example the entire grounds of any school are "zero tolerance" and one could get arrested for a plastic toy knife, much less a real one.

    Parks and other City grounds are often like that too.

    So much easier to leave the darn thing at home.

    The exception is that I sometimes wear the sgian at Highland Games, where hundreds of others are doing likewise.
    Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte

  5. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chas View Post
    A pocket knife, with folding blade, is very different. Many men, myself included, carry one of those.

    But anything more than a 3 1/2" blade (which is allowed by law) is just not needed in day-to-day life. If I need to have a blade longer than that, I will get the right tool for the job.
    Yes sorry, I caught that. I should have quoted Calgacus' statement that "The OP lives in the UK and the laws and attitudes are very different here with regards to knives or weapons of any sort." as I was just addressing the laws and attitudes part. That carries over to most knives here. When camping here I've carried a 5" blade and seen all sizes up to 16" or so machetes carried without a thought. Granted that's not "out on the street", but in public I've seen 3" boot knives, butterfly knives, and larger blades worn on the hip, but it gets no second thought here. I was just marveling at the difference
    Last edited by chasem; 6th June 14 at 07:17 AM.

  6. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norbo View Post
    It seems by readying the links you can in fact be arrested for having 1 in your sock unless you are at a function were it is appropriate to the dress coad as its on a cultural outfit and as such you have a reason for having it but if out and about you can get in to trouble if questioned on it .
    Like all things there is the Spirit of the law and the Letter of the law. Whereas a situation might not conform to the Letter of the law, right minded people will ask "What is reasonable in this situation?" If a man is transporting dangerous goods from one private place to another and travels by the most direct and quickest route, it is arguable that he is putting the public at the least risk. If he decides to go sight-seeing and have a picnic on the way, that is another matter ...

    As we used to say "What would the man on the Clapham Omnibus think?"

  7. #16
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    19th July 13
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    Quote Originally Posted by chasem View Post
    *Snip* I was just marveling at the diff
    We also marvel at the difference!

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  9. #17
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    craigclan is offline Oops, it seems this member needs to update their email address
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    When i get dressed in the morning when my belt goes on so does my knife and if i'm not wearing a belt a knife goes in my pocket . I feel naked without one .
    live for god and you shall have life

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  11. #18
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    Wow, I had no idea. I just took it for granted. You learn something every day. I didn't realize that the word "knife" would almost automatically mean "an offensive weapon" to Europeans.

    Out of curiosity, I just measured my knife and it is indeed just a tad under 3 1/2" and the knives I'm speaking of men always having handy in my earlier post are folding pocket knives, I should have mentioned that.

    "...so why carry a knife?"
    After retiring from the military, where I used it for all sorts of stuff daily, I now work in the property management field doing inspections and light maintenance. In the last couple of days, I've cut open boxes and packaging, trimmed off a few small stray branches on a shrub at a gate, popped open a garage door opener remote control to check the battery, and many other little things simply because my knife was handy.

    Note to self: If I ever travel to Europe, leave the knife at home.
    Last edited by 416 Rigby; 6th June 14 at 09:00 AM.

  12. #19
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    I can only imagine that kind of fear of a small knife , I live in Texas, the knife is the least of our worries , most people here carry their knife next to their pistol.. Lol

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  14. #20
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    25th November 11
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    Quote Originally Posted by 416 Rigby View Post
    I'm a bit dumbfounded by the whole "carrying a knife" thing. I mean, doesn't every guy carry a knife? Literally every man I know (and many women) carries a pocket knife. My grandfather gave me my first knife when I was 12 years old I've carried one daily ever since. My current knife is a 4" Benchmade and I use it several times a day for all sorts of tasks. It's a tool. Geeze, it's not like you're walking around town with an RPG on your shoulder. it's a little knife. People actually make an issue of it?
    That's basically how I feel. I always have some type of small utility tool on me--multi-tool, Swiss Army knife, pocket knife, etc. But as others have pointed out, location, context and definition are all part of the issue--when is a knife a tool, when is it a weapon? "It depends." A baseball (or cricket) bat is not a weapon, unless or until it gets used as one. I almost always carry a sgian dubh while kilted, even at the Opera, restaurants, even at the office, which is where I am right now, but of course I do not wear it while traveling by commercial aircraft and there are other places, like a school, for example, where I would not wear it either. The USA, being the wonderfully wild and wacky place it is, can be a simultaneously and unpredictably tolerant and intolerant place when it comes to such issues, and while it has occurred to me that at some point someone might notice and question it, for whatever reason(s) it hasn't happened. Yet.
    Best Regards,
    DyerStraits

    "I Wish Not To Intimidate, And Know Not How To Fear"

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