I wrote a story for a knife magazine when I gave my son his first knife at about age 7, a Camillus Scout knife with a Delrin handle that looked like good fake stag. He's been careful since, and has some nice knives. I gave him a Fallkniven S-1 with optional black blade before he went to Iraq once, but he thought it was too nice to risk there, so took a Camillus-made "K-Bar" instead. I keep trying to convince him to carry a Swiss Army knife, but he relies on a multi-tool instead and a Benchmade lockblade with tanto blade in a belt pouch. You may have seen my post here when he had to use the Benchmade on a big coydog that attacked him.
I gave his sister a little Victorinox Classic with green scales that she likes. She uses mostly the scissors on it.
I agree that most today aren't trained to use a knife safely. And that most housewives use dull blades that can slip. In fact, they mostly use cheap kitchen knives. Victorinox and others make such good kitchen knives at low prices that a little shopping would get them better knives. You don't need Wusthof Trident knives in the kitchen, although I prefer them in the larger sizes that I use, or Henckels equivalents, and I pay the price to get the better knives.
I have a brother who won't carry a knife. He thinks it's something for rednecks, I think, and he likes to think of himself as above that. He works mainly with liberal ivory tower computer people who lack a background in carrying knives. Thinks it's too dramatic, and he's afraid that he'll forget a knife in his pocket when he catches a plane. I should add that neither of my grown children or I remotely resemble rednecks, and we carry knives. My daughter is a teacher and pretty sophisticated and well read. The son is a literal genius; used to belong to Mensa. His favorite music is Pachelbel's Canon in D Minor. He is also a veteran of three combat tours in Iraq, with a Purple Heart and two Oak Leaf clusters to show for it. But he is very at home with that wicked Benchmade folder on his belt, and he knows how to use it... for about any anticipated need.
His wife carries a Camillus Barracuda, as I recall. Sometimes clips it to her jeans. She is also hardly a redneck, being a geneticist who has written a scientific paper so profound that it will probably become an archtype for study in her field. But she can clean her own deer kills with greater skill than probably 90% of male hunters. Comes from doing lab work on animals. BTW, she also plays violin in a city orchestra.
I'm VERY concerned that our schools are indoctrinating kids to abhor and avoid all knives outside the kitchen. I think it's a deliberate effort on the part of those who want a nation of sheep. They've largely succeeded in the UK. I hope and pray that it won't happen here, but it's underway.
We badly need a group like the NRA to support knife ownership and carry. I'm very grateful that Texas Gov. Rick Perry clarified and liberalized our right to carry lockblade folding knives when he signed into law a provision to preclude one-handed openers from being classed as gravity knives.
