A sad rant on an unfortunate topic.

[The Tourist]

My neighbor always likes me to show him the interesting knives when UPS makes a delivery. He did not know that "average citizens" could buy stilettos. The usual topic of "switchblades, weapons and the mafia" came up. And it's a sore spot for me, and I answered him honestly.

But the sad fact remains, far too many average Joes equate knives as weapons. And truthfully, some of us don't help the issue.

Several years ago in another forum some chairborne ranger discussed moving through life with "the warrior mindset." My guess is that a person like that lives in his mom's laundry room. I challenged the very idea.

For example, if I had to give a one word description of myself (without the humor we share here) I would say "Christian" or "Husband." The reason is very simple, those are the things in life that are the most dear to me. In the final analysis, knives, guns and bikes are chunks of metal with holes drilled into them--and they can be replaced.

So here's what I told this "urban ninja." I ran around in tough bars during the heyday of the Buck 110. Every biker and blue collar worker owned one. On a Friday night with liquor and testosterone running deep, the bars were packed. That could be a few hundred people in the bigger joints.

If you figured that 20 bikers had Buck 110s and an equal number of working cowboys and plumbers had the same, then there would be fifty drunken young turks with heavy duty knives--in one place. Yikes, what a formula for disaster! Guess how many knife fights I saw?

Not one. Never ever, ever. And I never saw karate used successfully. Nor tasers, nor nunchuks, nor sherikons.

I did see chairs flying and drunken pushing and shoving, but I never saw any kung fu or stilettos, or Jedi mind tricks. And I fear for the naive' youngster who feels he can buy superior fighting tricks from a magazine advertisement or some website hokum.

I buy/sell nice dependable stilettos to guys who have collections. In over 2/3s of the time, the potential buyer wants something with "a pretty handle." In the +15 years I have had a resellers license and a sharpening business not one, ever, ever ever, of my clients used one of my knives in an assault, barroom brawl or "West Side Story" style knife fight.

But get this, all you macho secret government operatives, almost all of my friends cut the same types of things--no matter which company makes the knife. And here's the list:

Envelopes. UPS boxes. Loose threads. Wire insulation. String. Food.

Gee, that's funny. The average guy in my area doesn't fight ninjas or karate kids or communist Spetnaz invaders or even space invaders. And I think it's about time to put that fairytale to sleep once and for all. A cutting instrument is one of mankind's oldest tools. And we use it as such. It's a tool.

By actual survey, the most common knife used in Vietnam was The Swiss Army Knife.

[butch]

I agree with your opinion on this and Im pretty sure its been discussed here but a lot if not all blame for giving automatic knives a bad rep can be credited to hollywood starting back in the 50's right up to this present day,has holywood ever made a movie showing an automatic knife being used in a functional rather than violent manner? doubtful

[The Tourist]

I agree...has holywood ever made a movie showing an automatic knife being used in a functional rather than violent manner? doubtful

They have, but it's been sparse.

I have seen numerous examples of the actors on NCIS using an automatic knife. In that spate, I have only seen one example of it used as a weapon. (Gibbs was poisoned by a bacteria WMD, started to pass out and used an automatic knife as a last-ditch weapon.)

The old TV series "Dallas" has also been commended for showing firearms in a positive manner. One episode showed Ray Krebbs and his wife out for a pleasant afternoon plinking soda pop cans with their son.

I believe a Microtech made an appearance on "24."

[butch]

well yeah,in recent years,what I ment was decades of putting out movies showing them used as weapons ,all those years of putting them in a bad light has had a strong influence to them being refered to as more weapon than utillian.

[eastcoastsniper]

For example, if I had to give a one word description of myself (without the humor we share here) I would say "Christian" or "Husband."

.
I've grow kinda fond of "fruitloop"
,

[The Tourist]

Butch, don't misunderstand me, I agree with you 100%. I hate hype and misinformation. In fact, if you ever wanted to go to a biker movie, I'd advise you to donate the money to a veterans' hospital, instead.

Did you know that there are numerous places that teach "bowie knife fighting"? What troubles me even more is that they get people to sign up and pay money for lessons. It's hard to imagine a group of guys who spend hundreds of dollars for nice Bagwell Bowie and actually believe they will be called upon to "step into the light."

(In my neck of the woods we call these guys "shrapnel magnets.")

And along with every lunatic comes a liberal who's just itchin' to tar us all with the same brush. You know the old saying, "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my entire gun (and/or) knife collection." But somehow my sport has to be stamped out for the good of America. Yikes, you want to stop crime, fix the hole in the Mexican fence!

Everytime some liberal news magazine goes looking for trailor park rednecks who tramp around in the woods in cammie covering their pot-guts I get a chill. These guys have never represented our ranks of peaceful collectors and target shooters. And I'll bet you a double-fudge cookie that these same guys will turn tail and run like the wind if tyranny ever broke out, anyway.

It's hard to "stand together" when your ranks are filled with drooling townies and knife fighting stories. But this is a pet peeve of mine, and if I ever have to "step into the light" I'll bring some mouthwash and first-grade phonics primer. Aganist them, those are deadly wapons...

[The Tourist]

I've grow kinda fond of "fruitloop"

'Sniper, we respect you more than that.

We call you "Mr. Fruitloop." And we've quit laughing...

[jim d,]

If quantity of knives or switchblades present had a positive correlation with violence, there would have been a bloodbath in Atlanta last weekend. I was there and the show was totally peaceful.

Jim

[butch]

Butch, don't misunderstand me, I agree with you 100%. I hate hype and misinformation. In fact, if you ever wanted to go to a biker movie, I'd advise you to donate the money to a veterans' hospital, instead.

Did you know that there are numerous places that teach "bowie knife fighting"? What troubles me even more is that they get people to sign up and pay money for lessons. It's hard to imagine a group of guys who spend hundreds of dollars for nice Bagwell Bowie and actually believe they will be called upon to "step into the light."

(In my neck of the woods we call these guys "shrapnel magnets.")

And along with every lunatic comes a liberal who's just itchin' to tar us all with the same brush. You know the old saying, "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my entire gun (and/or) knife collection." But somehow my sport has to be stamped out for the good of America. Yikes, you want to stop crime, fix the hole in the Mexican fence!

Everytime some liberal news magazine goes looking for trailor park rednecks who tramp around in the woods in cammie covering their pot-guts I get a chill. These guys have never represented our ranks of peaceful collectors and target shooters. And I'll bet you a double-fudge cookie that these same guys will turn tail and run like the wind if tyranny ever broke out, anyway.

It's hard to "stand together" when your ranks are filled with drooling townies and knife fighting stories. But this is a pet peeve of mine, and if I ever have to "step into the light" I'll bring some mouthwash and first-grade phonics primer. Aganist them, those are deadly wapons...

ok,Now I understand your point more clearly.

[The Tourist]

ok,Now I understand your point more clearly.

I'm glad, I secretly felt you did from the first sentence. I doubt you would be here if you didn't.

I take great care in providing the best edges I can for tradesmen and professional cooks. But if I thought some cammie clown was going to tarnish that concept, I'd toss his butt out into traffic.

And of course, along come a rag-tag group of 'urban mercenaries' and 'ninjas' and 'warriors' that make every normal knife collector seem like a survivalist. Of course we love to photograph our collections. It's not a "stockpile," it's the careful work of decades, and we lovingly care for that hobby.

My view of 'warriors' is that they derive from a group of children who were always picked last in softball. They spend 24/7 in dojos and spin a yarn at the drop of a hat.

I've known some really spooky guys, and lots of them scare me. They don't seem to be of that same mind set. They look forward to Friday nights, cold beer and warm women.

And those items are other things the 'mercenaries' know nothing about...

[The Tourist]

I'd like to add a point to the rant, if I can.

I'm also against salesmen who prey on kids by selling them cheap knives encrusted with rubies, or copies of popular movie knives.

Most mature folks know that just by owning a katana as seen in "Squatting Tiger Wretching Dragon" you cannot fly from one shinto temple to the next. However we have a trinkets and trash store here in Madison's East Towne Mall where crap like this is very popular.

This is not a new idea. Right after "First Blood" numerous companies sold copies of the knife Sylvester Stallone used in the movie. Usually they were a cheap Chinese rip-off using a blade riveted to a hollow handle. Although I wonder how many kids thought they were invincible Green Berets just because they bought 24 bucks worth of pot-metal from recycled Beijing washing machine parts.

In many municipalities they can arrest the drug dealer if some teenager dies from an overdose. And that's as it should be. Many of these same places have "dram laws" where bartenders can be prosecuted for serving numerous drinks to people already inebriated and then kill someone in an auto wreck.

Frankly, I heap 'merenaries' and junk dealers in the same category. You foist ourself off as a sensei or sell a kid a magic ninja sword--which results in a serious injury--then you ought to sit right next to the drug dealer in the slammer.

Granted, most folks think the USA is too "lawyer happy." And in the case of filing a lawsuit over spilled hot coffee, I agree.

Deliberately selling items or fighting disciplines which result in death or injury to kids is another story. So much so that there are martial arts forums that hunt down frauds.

[Phil Elmore]

Knives are weapons. There is nothing illegitimate about owning a weapon. If we permit hoplophobes to define us, and if we continue to act as if we have something to hide, we only assist in our own marginalization.

A "nice dependable stiletto" is a weapon before it is anything else, even if it is used for utility. It is a not a utility knife. Its blade shape is completely unsuitable for use as a utility knife (though of course any sharp edge can be used to cut any medium, within reason). It is designed for use as a weapon before any and all other purposes. A stiletto may be an expensive "art" knife; it may be intended for collecting; it may spend its working life opening cardboard boxes; it will, nonetheless, never be anything but inspired by a blade used first and foremost as a weapon. No amount of pretending or hiding will appease those who fear weapons and tools; no amount of winking and nudging will persuade them not to fear, irrationally so, what they already hold in terror.

I dislike the tendency of some people who operate within the hobby of knife collecting to sneer at and dismiss those whose interest runs to self-defense or "tactical" blades, deriding those individuals as some manner of "mall ninja" or "carport commando" or some other catchy, derogatory term. This simply does the hoplophobes' work for them, furthering the process of marginalization of self-defense as a legitimate field of endeavor. The unreasonable people who are invoked ad nauseam as examples of unstable, unrealistic weapons nuts are -- surprise -- never anywhere to be found when we start looking about ourselves in earnest. Oh, sure, they're out there -- but it's very easy to sneer at them when they're absent, and not so easy to recognize the very real Second Amendment rights many of us don't think about as often as we might.

Knives are tools. Some tools are designed to be weapons before they are anything else. There's nothing wrong with this, or with recognizing this, or with promoting the cause of self-defense.

[The Tourist]

www.bullshido.com

[Vagrant]

ANYONE who really thinks a knife is a weapon is very likely to eventually, have an encounter with "Mr Cane" and require serious "surgical reconstrution" [of everything that has been deconstructed]
And that is only if he is VERY lucky, the odds are that "Mr .45" will make his terminal thoughts a reassesment of what is a "weapon"
Take a "reality pill" and reconsider this "weapon" concept
A kinfe is only a weapon when used in a "sneak attack", against the unprepared, or unarmed [WE are not the kind to engage in such behavior]
If that initial assault FAILS, you WILL be in "deep $hit" if you "victim" has a REAL weapon

[The Tourist]

Vagrant, not only do I agree, but I think a knife is a lousy weapon. Most traditional Italian stilettos have weak pivot pins. A Strider built for hard use has a pivot you could use as a steering knuckle in a Prius.

If I had to use a contact weapon (and that assumes that I was flat out of ammunition and I couldn't get my F-150 started to run the felon over) I would clearly pick my riding boots and a ASP/cue over a knife everytime.

I'd even prefer one of those cut-glass ashtrays they used to use in bars in the 1970s.

But, Vagrant, there's a dirty little secret here. My guess is that my facial profile probably looks like yours...

"Step into the light!"