[Giguere]

I thought I'd start up this thread because of somthing that happened recently to me. I think it'd be funny to see others similiar events that have happened over their "Overly Unnessacary" blades.. Or perhaps axes.

Well, the other day my dad, cousin and I were hiking up one of the high peaks here in the adirondacks. We've got the usual gear for an overnight. I've got my wool blanket rolled and tied with paracord. A thick piece of rope through the center. I'm wearing it like a satchel. On my back sits my rucksack. A kelty pack, with a Wetterlings Large Hunting axe strapped to it. A gerber Gator folder sat on my belt along with my Nessmuk Knife. My dad had his rusksack on with a twenty-eight inch double-bit axe strapped to it, a Kukri at his belt and a Mora around his neck and my cousin had a Tracker Look-alike on his belt.

So we're hiking down the trail and a group of "Backpackers" decends the trailhead from the top of the mountain and notices my dads axe. They confront us and tell us that we are terrible people for carrying this sort of equiptment. That our blades are unnessacary. That a knife of that size is useless in the woods. (One of them said he only was carrying a Leatherman Squirt...)

So. After a brief bit of quick and clever venomfilled sarcastic responses from my dad the group leaves, discussing and whispering quite a ways.

The three of us had quite a good laugh over the idiocy of the group, and had quite a good weekend in the hills. Freezing cold to say the least, but fun.

 

[Ferrari]

Haha, thats awesome man! I carry my 7 inch Spec Plus Marine everywhere I go except for school but because of my area no one ever really cares that I got one lol. Except maybe a random hippie but I haven't encountered one yet.

 

[scosmo451]

Two stories, one with a knife, one without.

Cousin and I had gave up fishing for the day and opted to float the canoe down to the next bridge to see what we could see. Well, we got down to the next bridge, but didn't have a vehicle there as we hadn't exactly planned to get there. We stash the canoe and walk up to the road, headed to a KFC a bit down the road to call for a ride back to the truck. On my side is my Blackjack AWAC, 6 inch of blade or so. A state trooper drives past, pulls over and waits for us. Now, my dad was a city cop, so most of the cops knew me. We get up to the cruiser and the trooper realizes who I am. He says "Saw that knife and was wondering if you were headed to rob the chicken place." We tell him that we had floated down from the lake and needed the phone. All he did was ask how far the float was and if there were any good fishing holes along the way and then drove off.


OK, not a knife story, but in a similar vein to your encounter.

Years ago, my cousin and I were fishing, as we were wont to do. The river was a favorite of floaters and kayakers - the only recognized whitewater in Missouri is on this river, but not where we're at. Can't begin to guess how many would-be whitewaters we had to pull out of some situation or other. Anyway, we're sitting there cleaning some cut-bait, couple lines out, waiting for the catfish to start biting. Floating downriver come some Eddie Bauer types in some really fancy canoes and we can hear one idiot start up. "I just can't see how anyone can just sit and fish. If I get near a river, I've got to be doing something active..." Yada, yada, yada. Now, this guy is sitting in a canoe, floating downriver. He doesn't even have a paddle in his hands - actually has what seems to be a wine cooler. This is how flat the stretch of water is they've decided to float. I can't even swim and I'd walked where he's floating just a little bit before.

Now, my cousin and I had been there for about 8 hours. We'd been ranging up and down the river for most of that time, rock-hopping and wading through chest deep water. In order to get to that spot, which had a nasty habit of attracting large cottonmouths, we had each humped 30-40 pounds of gear through the woods. We were going to be there until 3 or 4 am, when we'd go back through the woods with our Coleman lanterns lit so we could get cleaned up before going to work. And we did this often.

As the idiot in the canoe passed in front of us, he saw one of our bobbers and actually asked of us if we needed this floaty thing back. I was reaching for the rifle when my cousin said no...

 

[bmatt]

They confront us and tell us that we are terrible people for carrying this sort of equiptment. That our blades are unnessacary. That a knife of that size is useless in the woods. (One of them said he only was carrying a Leatherman Squirt...)

Fcuktards. There are too many "experts" around these days. I can't believe they had the misinformed balls to tell you what you're carrying is wrong. If they only had 1/4 of a brain....

 

[FinnMan]

Honestly speaking 1 folder, 2 knives, 2 chopping knives and 2 axes and 3 guys for a weekend in woods sounds like quite a plenty :

BUT, I understand that, I want to carry mý own tools aswell..

 

[Lamb]

A lot of my best stories start the same way..."My cousin Johnny..."
Seriously, I have never figured out how my cousin made it to adulthood

Anyway, my cousin Johnny went hunting, had a good day, even though he never got a clear shot on a deer. So, as the sun began to set, he hiked back to his truck, tossed his gear in and jumped in.
Sat on his hunting knife that had slipped out of it's sheath when he carelessly tossed it in the cab of the truck.
His knife was razor sharp. Zipped through his jeans like cutting through butter. Also sliced his @ss cheek pretty good.
Well, he drives himself to the emergency room, drips blood all the way across the parking lot through the lobby up to the nurses desk and explains his little accident.
A dozen stitches and a tetanus shot later, he is ready to go.
He goes back out to his truck, jumps in the cab...and...
You guessed it...
Landed AGAIN on his hunting knife, other @ss cheek!
The doctor refused to stitch him up until he handed over his knife! Said he would call Johnny's dad to come pick it up (my cousin was 26 when he did this, lol!) Doc walked out to the truck with Johnny, got the knife and then saw Johnny's rifle and said "Oh, dear God! They let you have a GUN!?"
LMAO...
Johnny has a couple of nice scars...both sides match!

 

[loki]

You are terrible people for carrying uneseccary blades? Wow. What happened to personal responsibility. For the literal conservative tell them what ever happened to the notion that I carry what I want and you carry what you want. If you choose to carry a tree mulcher on your back, hey you are the only one that has to carry it. So if you don't mind the weight, I don't mind you carrying it. For the liberal relativist tell them well what is unessecary for you might not be uneseccary for me.

 

[Sharpdogs]

I was hiking up in New Hampshire. Our group planned to stay the night at an Applichain Mountain Club cabin. One of our group was an AMC member. After a long hike and getting cleaned up we sat down at large communal table to eat dinner. Someone made a pizza and needed a knife to cut it up into slices. I pulled out my Mora and offered to help. You would I thought I was wearing a hockey mask and carrying a chainsaw. Bunch of sheeple.

 

[Yorkshire Boy]

I'm sorry that I don't have a similar story to share but count yourself lucky that you're not British having told that story. You would be subject to replies saying that your country is going down the tubes, you have no rights, the people are sheep etc etc...

 

[FXjohn]

I'm sorry that I don't have a similar story to share but count yourself lucky that you're not British having told that story. You would be subject to replies saying that your country is going down the tubes, you have no rights, the people are sheep etc etc...

the funny part is those people who criticize have never been outside of their own country and are bereft of intellectual curiosity.

 

[FinnMan]

I respect very much that you father goes to woods with you. My father have never been in the woods and cannot even think about him coming with me... You are lucky!

Better carry too much than not enough :thumb:

 

[Yorkshire Boy]

The area that you live in is pretty wild, if the weather was to close in on you then having an axe to build a shelter and feed a fire would be a necessity IMO. The time taken to do that with a Leatherman Squirt would probably end up killing you.

Personally I think you went out prepared.

 

[Giguere]

The area that you live in is pretty wild, if the weather was to close in on you then having an axe to build a shelter and feed a fire would be a necessity IMO. The time taken to do that with a Leatherman Squirt would probably end up killing you.

Personally I think you went out prepared.

Heh. My axe has saved me MANY times in the mountains. Wether it be rain or a snowstorm an axe will never leave my side in the wilds.

 

[Giguere]

I respect very much that you father goes to woods with you. My father have never been in the woods and cannot even think about him coming with me... You are lucky!

Better carry too much than not enough :thumb:

Yeah, hes the whole reason of my outdoor knowledge. He hiked with me, taught me to build fires... and shelters and whatnot when I was younger than once I started to get interested in it and trying stuff out on my own he was VERY pleased. My dads always liked the outdoors and stopped really traveling about in it when he got married (Yep.... ) than when I finally got real interest in it he started up again hiking and whatnot. We're more like best friends than offspring and parent. <.<

 

[sardog]

The story began, "here, hold my beer and watch this......" :

 

[red5]

The area that you live in is pretty wild, if the weather was to close in on you then having an axe to build a shelter and feed a fire would be a necessity IMO. The time taken to do that with a Leatherman Squirt would probably end up killing you.

Personally I think you went out prepared.

its called natural selection

 

[KaBar67]

Here's one: 15 years ago....
I was on an escalator coming up to street level from train. There was a commotion at the top. A middle aged woman had fallen and her rubber galosh (galoosh? boot?) was stuck in the right top corner of the escalator. The toe was streched out and people were pulling at the rubber boot to try to free her. (Galoosh?) Others were waiving people to the left side of the escalator so she would not get trampled. I pulled out my Gerber LST (I think I got it free from Cabelas, still my carry knife) and in a single swipe sliced the tip off of the streched galoosh freeing the woman. Cut like butter. I kept walking feeling cool pretty cool for a few minutes. They did look at me a bit strange. The Gerber LST has about a 3 inch blace, is NYC legal and super sharp. It still is sharp and still resides in my left front pocket, a bit worn from use from everything to cutting pizza into "tiny bites" to removing staples.

 

[dutchdiablo]

: this is a nice thread!!

I'll recount one story:
I was about 20 years old and already into knives, guns and so on, at that time I always had a spyder endura semi-serrated on me . I went to a rather fancy restaurant with my parents ( decent people with an annoying thing for ettiquette). As we were served the main course , a thick steak, I went and tried to cut the well prepared piece of beef with the knife that was on the table only to find out they must have used it to slice dirt because it just wouldnt properly cut the beef , it rather tore through it destroying the texture of the meat . That latter chore is usually reserved for my teeth , silly me , but thats how I like it. As one could guess I took out the endura , flicked it open politely and started to cut nice bite-sized ribbons out of my beloved beef. Seconds later the ( slightly nervous) manager approached me and over-politely asked me to please , if not to much trouble, be kind enough to use only the provided cutlery. I demonstrated to him the extremely poor cutting power of the provided knife , and pointed out that no one else in the room even noticed me using my own knife. He insisted I use provided cutlery as ettiquette did not provide in one using his own ( slightly menacing looking ) knife in a restaurant. A tad irritated at that point I conceded and with a few fierce slashes I reduced the rest of my steak to bit sized portions knocking a potatoe or two through the room accidently . The manager turned a little paler and my parents were looking anywhere but at me or the manager and I finished the meal . I was amused just for the fact that the manager looked like he thought I was going to kill everyone with my knife after my meal and annoyed by the ignorance of it at the same time

My parents urged me to leave my knife at home eversince , when they invited me to a restaurant , guess what... :upsidedown: "lets dont and then say I did"

 

[Semper Paratus]

Awesome thread...ok here we go.

So, lets just say I work at a "premier" camp on the South East coast where they hire woods savy people such as myself to educate and attempt to keep safe their clientel who pay $800 per person for a Friday night to Sunday afternoon stay. Most of them drive BMW's, Cadillacs, or massive Dodge Rams with every possible upgrade. Often, the farthest most of these people have ever adventured into the wilderness was watching the discovery channel.

So, one day I am working at my activity. I carry a cheap Gerber Profile (I love the rubber handles and over 1/2 the time I use the thing for chores a knife should never be used for and it handles it well) a decent knife, and I carry it razor sharp. Well, one day I happened to be passing across the canoeing station (we like to have bets to see whether or not the Computer junkie or the nuclear technician will need a tow in first...Im horrible I know: anyway, I digress) and a parent remarks to me, "Hey you, ya, you, isnt that knife far to large for any plausible task?" (In case you cant tell many customers are VERY condecending and VERY cynical) I then responded to the man that I like to have my knife for any necessary precaution and that for the tasks I needed (along with any other of the staff for my specialty). He glared at me and walked off. Not 5 minutes later do I hear a massive splash, I look over and a little girl and this man have flipped their canoe...not unordinary...but...the 9 year old girl has the straps of her life jacket (which the father had rigged himself when he got out of the view of the instructors as he didnt feel that they did a satisfactory job) caught in the cross beams of the canoe...and she is submerged and about to drown. So, I go hauling ass baywatch style into the water, support the girls body with one arm, and cut away the strap with the other arm, resheath my knife, and swim back to shore. THEN WHAT HAPPENED SHOCKED ME

This ******* had the balls to complain to my supervisor that I used a knife in the vicinity of his child!!! (Out of pure spite and embarassement I guess he had to look tough to his buddies.) My supervisor asked what happened, heard the stories from various witnesses, and for the first and only incident to date, cursed out the parent with such phrases as, "Do you really mean to tell me that you have a problem with my employee saving your daughters life? Do you realize that if he didnt have that knife, your daughter would be in a body bag vs in line for a snack?!?! WHAT THE **** KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU TO COMPLAIN ABOUT HIM HAVING AND USING A KNIFE?!? SIR, IF YOU TRULY GAVE A FLYING **** ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTERS SECURITY, YOU WOULD BE LICKING MY EMPLOYEES ****ING BOOTS THANKING HIM FOR SAVING YOUR CHILD!" The dad, once again stripped of his pride and dignity walked back to his cabin amidst the laughter and boos of other customers who found his rant as proposterous as I did.

I later found out that my supervisor lost his only child in a rafting accident when she became entangled in a missplaced line that got rapped around her foot. Knives were not allowed for the "safety of customers."

 

[Semper Paratus]

Well, now that I look back on the title of this thread...my story isnt funny at all...oh well tis already posted.