always carry a sharp knife

[jape]

I come from a generation and time when most men of all classes and backgrounds carried a pocket-knife of some sort ... and used them for this and that daily. Despite the politically correct nonsense of such tools now being illegal in some definitions or at least frowned upon, I still carry one and always will.

Today on the freeway I rode over a plastic bag concealing a paperback book and a bread roll of all things that someone had dropped, it got jammed between chain, wheel rim and frame and nearly brought me off as I skidded onto the verge. It had all burnt from the 100 kph friction in parts and the plastic and dough and glues in the binding had congealed with the oil from frame into the paper and cardboard and made what was like a resin encrusted mass that hardened as it cooled around the frame and chain!

I tried pushing with a long branch from the roadside, levering in all directions with tyre lever with all my weight and strength to no avail. Looked like I would have to remove back wheel and bugger, that spanner was still at home on the bench. Stuck.

Until I chopped through the grapefruit sized lump bit by bit, taking ten minutes, with my trusty sharp spiderco knife. Took me nearly twenty minutes in all to remove it, it was so hard jammed into the bike! Always carry a sharp knife folks.

[CrazyCarl]

I'll second that. I've got a Camillus Blaze 2.82 (now out of production) which is a great piece of steel and is used just about daily for all kinds of stuff. One reason why I don't like airplane travel is because I have to leave it at home and I always kinds feel like something is missing. Once you get used to having a simple tool readily handy, you suddenly miss it's utility when it's not around.

Tools, are a REAL investment!

CC

[slabo]

sometimes i just wish I was born 80 years ago, i don't like this age we're living in. I went camping the two days ago near some small lake. Fish were jumping, and maybe there were rabbits around. But i had no idea how to get any, and what to do with it if i could some how catch it. I know chicken doesn't just come from the supermarket, but seems the coming generation will think so. If Mc'D and KFC and Walmart shut down, kids would starve to death before they can figure out how do anything. Maybe that includes me too.
I had my trusty 40 rmb walmart knife , but i'm not sure what to use it for. Shame shame.

Tools, are a REAL investment!

That, i'm glad im much better at. Mechanical, electrical stuff i can find my way around, somehow. But a chicken? Stir fried please, lots of chilli.

[jape]

It isn't just a generational thing slabo, I know a few youngsters today and have trained a few over the years, who can live off the land. And the reverse applies, most folk of my generation ( I am 59) can only handle an electric tin-opener and a microwave. You don't have to be SAS trained or Rambo to snare a rabbit with a bit of twine, wire or fishing line! Commonsense such as realise your smell will frighten them off rather than the trap, develop an eye for patterns of movement through natural landscape and soon you will have a bunny for the campfire! Any sharp knife will gut them (again commonsense says don't break bladder or guts or gall bladder on the meat). Etc. etc.
I have a strong belief that the nanny state and the slave world we live in in the west is badly off track and that the right to carry a small knife at least should be enshrined in law! It always was a tool as much as a weapon.
Oh well, when the shit hits the fan and oil runs out it will be the peasants and the cunning who survive. If you have a true interest join an archery club, preferably traditional and you will meet many folk who still know how to walk quietly, talk softly and survive.

[moilami]

I used to carry always a knife as a kid. Then one day I read from newspaper that it will be illegal to carry a knife and I thought it is outrageous. Of course I made tons of arguments why it is stupid law. Then some time passed, I stopped carrying a knife with me, and now after many years I did not even remember I have carried one. Never needed it.

But yes, if I go to motorcycle trip I will for sure carry a knife with me. No questions of that.

[jape]

I understand about terrorism and violence on the streets but i do not accept that any arguments and action against such dark forces means that all mature and responsible citizens should be so constrained. I live in the bush and I use a knife regularly. For this week alone, from opening parcels at the Post Office to sharpening pencils, to cutting baler twine, shortening some hose, splicing a rope, harvesting vegetables and fruit, cutting a trapped magpie free from some twine, I have used my pocket-knife. I was a builder, art and archery are hobbies, both need a knife at times. I feel no guilt at carrying a knife and to fight against any encroachment on that right I have been a registered collector and sometimes maker for many years. Thus I extended my hobbies and now have a couple of swords and hunting blades in a locked cabinet. Those are not tools except for purpose and I wouldn't dream of carrying them in public except for reasonable transport and usage so I accept some control - but no-one is going to ever stop me having a small blade always at hand. I would have been stuck miles from home without that sharp piece of steel in my pocket when the bike got jammed. A once in a life-time event but the one that prompted this post and these thoughts. I do have membership of a motoring organisation but mobile phones are not always useable out here and why use those resources when half an hours work kept me independent and able to travel?

ps, I always thought 'Finlanders' and other Scandinavians were very independent too Moilami! Your generation is the one that needs to understand these issues or when old farts like me die you will all end up as slaves!!! Many of my archery acquaintances use finnish blades from preference and some of them make beautiful examples :
http://stevenjawerth.weebly.com/scandi-gallery.html
http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s...ent=Puuko2.jpg