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I have to say living in a village in England, having a garden full of vegetables, doing lots of DIY work, building a wendy house and (as I said before) going for hikes I've actually never actually had use for a knife. When are they required for you folk who carry them daily? And I don't just mean a cutlery knife :D. Even as a tool I've never had to use one outside of a kitchen.

Secateurs, shears, scissors and other pointy things that funnily enough all begin with S but never a knife.

I use mine mostly for cutting seals off trailers when delivering to customers, this happens almost daily. I also use it occasionally to cut/repair air lines on trailers.

When I worked concerts I used it to cut zip ties and e-tape or gaff tape during the load out.

When I worked in a warehouse I used it to open packages.

As a kid I used knives, and other large cutting tools, as I wandered the woods behind my parents cabin. I was swinging a machete by about age 10-11.
 
raggedjimmi -
Letter opening, cutting string, box opening, sharpening pencils, marking wood before sawing, cutting exhaust rubber to free broken exhaust, cutting garden hose, digging skelf out of finger, opening jammed door with missing handle, trimming old curtain pole to fit coal shovel, cutting plastic trim from under car bumper to fit tow-bar.
Thats about all I can remember from mostly the past couple of weeks. For some of the tasks there are probably more suitable tools in my toolbox, but my toolbox won't fit my back pocket.
Also I have lost count of how many flat-packed furniture items I have put together with only a Leatherman or SAK.
 
Thread like this keep reminding me that I need to go out and replace my broke leatherman. Before it broke I used to carry it on me most day and quite often I would need something out of it. That being either the knife of the plyers.

As for carring a pocket knife I think they are very useful to carry. I had a friend who would always carry one on him and I could not count the number of times either he would pull it out and use it. It was an very useful tool to carry.

In a pinch we used it to get screws out. But normally use it to for a little cutting to open boxes. Keys are only so useful. A knife makes it so much easier.
 
Tell that to my friend who was stabbed 2 years ago by some s**t carrying a knife just like the ones being posted on this thread. Only you can't tell him unfortunately. He's dead.

There is a growing problem of youths carrying knifes and the whole gang culture thing in the UK and elsewhere around the world i just dont think this is a suitable thread for a Mac forum. No one needs to carry a knife much less one that looks as "professional" and offensive as that. These knives were designed for one purpose and i'm sorry but it ain't to cut bits of string you might come across on your daily rounds.

I have carried a knife on me since I was probably 10 years old and started in scouts. The current knife is a three bladed version that came to me when my grandfather died. It is a keepsake of my grandfathers and is more then a knife to me.

What he said (but not as dramatic) ^

Are you all really that Paranoid that you feel the need to carry a blade?
If you're not looking for trouble, you're not going to attract it.
I think the only place you should carry a knife is in your toolbox, to be used at times when you need it as a tool.

There is no paranoia involved for me. The knife is just a useful tool for me that I use quite a bit no matter where I am.

When you're in a car accident and your fists can cut through seatbelt that your crushed wife might be stuck behind I will surely be impressed.

There is a long story I will keep short but I actually had to use my knife to do just that. Not my wife but I saw an accident happen and the car flipped upside down. For whatever reason the person in the car, who was moving around just fine could not get the seat belt undone. I ended up having to cut the seat belt so he could get out of the car.

I have to say living in a village in England, having a garden full of vegetables, doing lots of DIY work, building a wendy house and (as I said before) going for hikes I've actually never actually had use for a knife. When are they required for you folk who carry them daily? And I don't just mean a cutlery knife :D. Even as a tool I've never had to use one outside of a kitchen.

Secateurs, shears, scissors and other pointy things that funnily enough all begin with S but never a knife.

I do IT work and I use mine a couple times a day to open boxes, cut zip ties, and a few other things (hell I even use it to cut up apples when I eat lunch).
 
Thread like this keep reminding me that I need to go out and replace my broke leatherman. Before it broke I used to carry it on me most day and quite often I would need something out of it. That being either the knife of the plyers.
and use it. It was an very useful tool to carry.

if you still have the broken leatherman, send it back. Leatherman will replace it free.
 
we have 2 clear cases here.

I have absolutely no problem with people who carry a knife as a tool for their work.

I do take issue with people who just carry knives because they can and because "it might be useful" on their day to day business.
 
if you still have the broken leatherman, send it back. Leatherman will replace it free.

Leatherman's lifetime warranty really means lifetime warranty, even in some cases of users clearly not using the tool in ways in which it wasn't attended.

A couple years ago, I was working in yet another conflict area in Africa. One of my teammates was a surgeon who was always pissed off about the state of the surgical equipment at the hospital. Lights were always out, clamps were always a little loose, pump blew the wrong way half the time, EVERY cutting implement is dull, etc.

Just to give you an idea, I attached a a pic of the operating theatre. (And yeah, that's a kid strapped to the back of the nurse.)

One day, he was amputating someone's leg and got so incredibly angry that there wasn't a single blade strong enough and sharp enough to properly scrape and file the bone that he gets someone to grab his Leatherman, which he uses to finish. So when he gets done, he notices all sorts of stuff gunking up the mechanism. He then decides that he'll have to disinfect his tool himself, grabs a pan, puts his tool in, pours in alcohol and lights in on fire. All that accomplishes is that all the organic material burns in and he ends up with a useless multi-tool.

Anyway, we started calling him Doctor Leatherman after that.

So when he gets back to Germany, he sends his tool in to Leatherman and Leatherman writes back saying, they don't know what happened, but clearly, this tool has been set on fire and they won't cover it. Dr. Leatherman writes back and explains the circumstances of why he had to set it on fire in first place and Leatherman sent back a brand new multi-tool.

True story.
 

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When are they required for you folk who carry them daily?

Opening a box/package/envelope/toy.

Cutting a straw down to fit a kid-sized drink. Or cutting my son's chicken nuggets in half so they'll cool - fast food restaurants are notoriously stingy with the plasticware, especially knives. The plastic ones tear s**t up more than they cut it, anyway.

Prying something loose when it gets stuck. Yes, I know I could drive home, get a screwdriver, and use that - but the knife is already in my pocket.

Do I do these things on a daily basis? Not necessarily; but if the knife is in my pocket, it's available for when I do need it.

we have 2 clear cases here.

I have absolutely no problem with people who carry a knife as a tool for their work.

I do take issue with people who just carry knives because they can and because "it might be useful" on their day to day business.

Take all the issue you like, my friend. You don't get to decide for someone else whether a knife is useful.

If having a knife in my pocket were never useful, I'd quit carrying it - at that point, it becomes like a cell phone with no battery. Why carry something you'll never use?

I think several others in this thread will agree when I say that we carry them because we do have uses for them, and we do find them useful.

As for acts of violence - I'm sorry about your friend, but neither I nor anybody I've spoken with has any concerns about being attacked with a knife they carry in their own pocket; it just doesn't happen. We also don't carry knives for protection; we have guns for that (another thread entirely).
 
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