Legality of knife-wielding

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

What? A well made knife made for heavy use could do all that. Obviously one would use the butt to do any hammerin'... using the blade would be silly. And blunting.

You could use a knife for all of that. But you shouldn't. I can understand using a knife in any way necessary in a survival situation. Sadly, some folks use a knife as something else just because they are too lazy to plan ahead or go retrieve the correct tool.

There's a myth that knives can withstand almost anything you can think of. Buck perpetuated it with their old marketing campaigns. Ginsu made it worse. And then there are the stupid ideas about katanas (and other swords) that can accomplish insipid feats like slicing into a concrete pillar.

Using a knife as a screw driver will tear up the blade. As a crow-bar, well a very high quality knife should be able to be bent 90 degrees without cracking, but I'm not sure I'd trust most production knives more than a few degrees. You're liable to get a fast moving hunk of sharp steel embedded somewhere uncomfortable.

To be perfectly honest, I would use the production knives I've got for most of what you mention without worrying. They're pretty much junk anyway.

Anyway, so that my comments aren't entirely thread jacking...

I'm not sure why our knife laws are the way they are. I know that the UK has tightened up their knife laws a lot in response to a large number of stabbings. My feeling is that this is probably the reason for most of the knife laws in the US, too. What I've read (on the internet) seems to back this up.

I also know a lot of knife makers who will not ship to NY because of their crazy knife laws. Pretty much any folding knife can be classified as "gravity-opening" because officers will go so far as flipping them open holding the blade.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by Perry Winkle

You could use a knife for all of that. But you shouldn't. I can understand using a knife in any way necessary in a survival situation. Sadly, some folks use a knife as something else just because they are too lazy to plan ahead or go retrieve the correct tool.

There's a myth that knives can withstand almost anything you can think of. Buck perpetuated it with their old marketing campaigns. Ginsu made it worse. And then there are the stupid ideas about katanas (and other swords) that can accomplish insipid feats like slicing into a concrete pillar.

Using a knife as a screw driver will tear up the blade. As a crow-bar, well a very high quality knife should be able to be bent 90 degrees without cracking, but I'm not sure I'd trust most production knives more than a few degrees. You're liable to get a fast moving hunk of sharp steel embedded somewhere uncomfortable.

Perhaps I could have been more clear, but I don't use a knife in place of tools that are more suited (or even made for) the job if I have the tool available or don't need it right away. If I'm at home, yeah I have a flat-head screwdriver that I will use on screws and paint cans, etc. I'm fully aware that a knife can't do any and everything, but I also recognize that they can fill in if suddenly something is really needed.

That's the point I was trying to make, that if you suddenly needed a tool, a knife is far more versatile than a gun. Using a knife as a sub for some tools is inadvisable, but not impossible. And besides... who carries full-size screwdrivers around as a matter of course (who aren't handymen by trade)?

Regarding the crow-bar bit, that's why I specified 'light use'. If you're ever in need of prying something that might push a blade to be bent to 90 degrees, then go get a crowbar. I meant use such as widening a thin space, or getting movement started, like on a sticky window, which I have done with my San Mai.