Category: knives

As you can imagine, the gun community is *not pleased*.

Oregon City’s PD has already taken down the original post.

Assuming that Benchmade is still planning on having their large booth at NRAAM, things could get interesting.

The owners of my martial arts studio decided that they needed to give my wife and I his and her knives.

I present to you… these beauties.

There is something about truly terrible knives that just puts a smile on my face.

Oh, and in *true* terrible knife fashion, you can see the chip in the… aluminum? grip of the open knife.  It was that way out of the box.  The closed knife?  I’m pretty sure it got painted shut and trying to use the flipper on this assisted knife usually results in a bruise on your finger.

Quick note: I realized that it might be helpful for folks for me to post modified transcripts of my segments on Assorted Calibers Podcast.  Especially, since some of them are serious info dumps.  The fact that this means that I get to reuse stuff in multiple places is completely unrelated… I swear.  This is the latest episode, and I’ll be back filling the earlier episodes soon.

This is from my segment of the Assorted Calibers Podcast Episode #34

Since I’m writing this over Thanksgiving Weekend, I figured I’d talk about something that I’m thankful for. Namely, that I live in a state with sane knife laws. We have state preemption, so local municipalities can’t pass their own laws, and the only restrictions that we have are you can’t carry a knife in certain controlled spaces, like airports and court houses, and using a switchblade in the commission of a crime is extra illegal.

This wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t that long ago that it was illegal to carry a knife with a blade longer than 4 inches, and all automatic knives were illegal. Add to that that we didn’t have a preemption law, and cities could have further restrictions. For example, some cities had ordinances against carrying hawkbills, daggers, and other “scary” blades.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky. Just as gun owners have to deal with gun laws that may or may not make sense, and can be significantly different depending on where you’re standing, so do knife owners.

One thing that seems to be a common issue is restrictions on blade length. As I said, where I live, it used to be illegal to carry a knife with a blade over 4 inches. In practice, this wasn’t really an issue, as there are a ton of knives out there that under this limit, and, frankly, anything larger than that is not particularly convenient to have in your pocket. Of course, being told that I couldn’t carry anything larger always kind of bugged me.

Even then, I was still lucky. There’s a lot of states where the blade limit is 3 inches, and there’s some places, like Chicago, where it’s illegal to carry anything over 2 inches in length! The theory behind these blade restrictions is that knives over these length are somehow evil, and will predominately be used for crime. Of course, this requires you to ignore the knives that most folks have in their kitchen that reach 8, 9, or 10 inches. To add to the confusion, there are a few states that state that it’s illegal to carry a blade of a certain size “with the intent to go armed.” Which… in practice, tends to mean “if the cops like you or not.”

There’s also a few states that have restrictions on the type of knife you can carry. A number of states ban the carrying of fixed blade knives, unless you’re involved in an activity like camping. Others ban things like knives with both edges sharpened, because they’re classified as daggers.

Of course, there’s a lot of places that still ban switchblades and other automatic knives. These laws were in response to hysteria during the 50’s. The media and press pushed the idea that switchblades were evil weapons that were especially deadly and the choice of gangs and other criminals all over the country. Gun owners probably find that statement extremely familiar. I’m sure you won’t be shocked to find that reality had nothing to do with the narrative.

There’s some other laws that knife owners have to deal with that are about as clear as mud. An example is a law in Kentucky that only allows its citizens to conceal carry “ordinary pocket knives or hunting knives.” Now… what constitutes an “ordinary pocket knife” is anyone’s guess.

Oh, and if you spotted that I used the term “conceal carry,” good job. Yes, there are some jurisdictions that actually care how you carry a knife. Some get angsty if you’re carrying it concealed, some care if you carry it openly. Some get so angsty about open carry that there are folks that actually make lanyards that have pocket clips that look like the tops of pens so that you can attach it to your knife and be able to easily access your knife without using the pocket clip that’s on the knife, because having the knife’s pocket clip showing might count as open carry, and therefor possible jail time.

Of course, there’s some states where some of the laws don’t apply to folks with carry licenses.

And then there’s places like New York City. Fuck New York City. Seriously. The state is bad enough. The state bans knives with knuckle guards, knives that are disguised as other things (including sword canes), switchblades, knives that they decide are primarily used as weapons, and gravity knives. Oh, and, if you’re not a citizen of the US? Yeah… you’re not allowed to carry *anything*. New York City has to take it further. NYC says that you have to completely conceal any knife you carry. That means no pocket clips. On top of that, the NYPD has decided that a “gravity” knife means any lock blade knife that the officer can open through the use of inertia. This includes grabbing the knife by the blade and flinging it around. By this definition, almost all lock blades are gravity knives. It’s to the point that, when I visited the Beretta store in NYC a few years back, I asked the nice sales person what knives in their case were legal to carry in the city. She couldn’t give me a clear answer.

The good news is that there is a group fighting all this BS. The folks over at KnifeRights.org are a great group of folks that have been doing good work. They’re the reason my state has the laws that we currently enjoy, and they’ve been fighting in other parts of the country. They’ve even been fighting the good fight in New York, both in the legislature and the courts. If you have some money left over after donating to your chosen pro-gun groups, I highly recommend sending some money their way.

I also need to put the usual “I am not a lawyer” stamp on this. As you can see, knife laws are all over the place, so please do your own research. I highly recommend KnifeUp’s page on knife laws as a starting point, and will include a link in the show notes. Oh, don’t be terribly surprised if a cop tells you that the law is something that isn’t true. I’ve heard countless stories of “a police officer told me…” and the law just didn’t exist.

Well, after talking about this stupidity, I think I’m going to go back to enjoying good company and maybe a few drinks.

I think we’ve all seen or heard people advise folks that you should always carry a defensive knife that’s razor sharp and never use it as your EDC knife for opening boxes, etc.  I just don’t buy it.

First off, there’s a simple issue of carrying one more thing.  I already carry my gun, keys, phone, and multi-tool on my belt.  Add to that all the crap I carry in my pockets, and I really don’t have much space for another knife.  Of course, this is personal preference, and I’m currently carrying 5 knives between the lock blades, multi-tools, etc that I normally carry.

The major argument for a dedicated defensive knife is that you need to keep it as sharp as possible.  First off, this suggests that it’s ok to let your EDC knife become dull.  It’s easy enough to keep your EDC knife sharp.  Most of the time, all it really needs is an occasional session with a leather strop to stay damn sharp.

There’s also the fact a knife just doesn’t need to be that sharp to cut you.  Sure, a razor sharp knife is easier to cut flesh, but humans have been chopping each other up for millennia.  It was fairly common for soldiers to use whatever rock they found to vaguely sharpen their weapons back in the sword and shield days.  And that was with iron and steel, much less bronze or chipped stone.

Heck, I’ve seen folks argue that it’s actually better to use a duller knife as a weapon.  If you’ve ever been cut with a really sharp knife, you may remember never feeling the cut.  The idea is that a duller knife with tear at the skin more and make your attacker really feel it.  I know some folks that advocate the use of a serrated knife for this reason over a straight edge.

My last big thing is that you should know your knife.  One thing that’s hammered into your head in any martial art is that your weapon should be an extension of you.  It would make sense that the knife that you use every day for common tasks would become that way.  This isn’t necessarily true with a dedicated defensive knife.  Especially if the blade profile is significantly different for that EDC.  Something like a karambit requires serious training to become proficient in for that reason.

Am I saying that you shouldn’t carry a dedicated defensive blade and you’re stupid if you do?  No.  What I am saying is that, if you do, you might want to re-evaluate why you’re carrying it.  Maybe you’ll decide that you really don’t need to.  If you do decide to continue to do so, find someplace to get training.

I was helping a friend pull an engine from the local junk yard for his truck this weekend.  This typically means that you’re going to have to cut a couple hoses and a belt or two.  It was also useful to push the valve to check to see if the A/C system was still pressurized.  Of the 4 of us there (which included an actually trained mechanic and a guy best described as a “maker”), I was the only one there with a knife at hand.  I believe my buddy mentioned something about having some cutters somewhere in his tool bag, but I had the cutting job done before he could reach for it.

It always amazes me at the number of folks that don’t carry a pocket knife with them.  Whether it be a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, or something more sturdy and single purpose, like my Spyderco Endura.

I’m a big believer that, unless you’re in a location where carrying such things are barred by law, you should always have a good EDC knife on you.  I know some people love carrying specialized fighting knives like the Kabar TDI (I believe that’s what Erin likes to carry), which is great, but I tend to think of EDC knives as more multipurpose than that.

My Endura has been used for everything from the example above, to opening boxes, to cutting up fruit, to cutting and serving a cake.  While I haven’t been required to use it in self-defense, it is a favorite of the martial artists I know and I’m confident that it will stand up to that task.

If you don’t already have and carry one, it’s one of the most useful things that you could possibly carry in your pocket.  While you can spend big bucks on a Benchmade, high end Cold Steel, or Spyderco blades (hey, $70 is a lot to some folks.  I know I resisted dropping that money on a knife), you can also get perfectly good blades for less (I’d recommend CRKT or Kershaw).  I’d also highly recommend a locking blade, and, if you’re going to carry it in your pocket, you probably don’t want a blade over 4 inches.

So… I think I found the knife I’m going to get when July 1st rolls around and switchblades are legal in this state.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_jPlq6oZVQ&w=560&h=315]

I mentioned that I’m childish about some things, right?

Looks like the bill that legalizes buying/owning/possessing switchblades and carrying knives over 4″ has been signed and is now law.  Well, not immediately.  The law will take effect July 1st.

Looks like I’ve got a few months to figure out what auto knife I’m going to be buying.

That bill to repeal the ban on buying/owning/selling switchblades and carrying blades larger than 4″ here in TN?  It’s passed the State House!

So… now it’s off to the Governor’s desk to sign, and it passed with more than enough votes in both houses of the state legislature that they could override a veto if Haslam decides to veto it for some reason.

Now to start shopping for switchblades…

Look like the bill to remove the ban on switchblades and carrying knives over 4″ is heading to the house floor.  Hopefully, they won’t have the issue that they did last year where a sheriff with PSH convinced the House that these knives were too evil and scary for the general public.

I’ve already informed Naienko that I’ll be buying at least one more knife if this passes, because, well, I want a switchblade, damnit.