Does anyone carry a knife while out on the trails and if so, what have you used it for?

Not normally, but I (and the kids) have Mora field knives for when we need em (camping, lekking about doing forest schooly stuff etc).

I always carry my gerber multitool in my bag. Blade never gets used really but pliers often come in handy.

I take a swiss army knife when bikepacking. I use it to chop up chorizo, any other use of a knife for outdoor pursuits in the UK is just based on some Ray Mears/Rambo fantasy.

And not just the trails. I tend to always have my opinel No3 on my person.

Just last night i spontaneously took it out in a rural pub and commenced cleaning out my finger nails.

One of the locals was rather surprised…

I don’t but a mate of mine does. Came in handy to shave a stick down to ram into the broken carbon bars. Was pretty bendy, but got me home.

Knives.

Always got me CRKT PECK,

I carry one. Tend to shank a few 26er riders on my turf. In all seriousness I’m surprised how many little jobs the small knife on my pliers has been used for. Mainly cutting bread or malt loaf…

I opt for a bow and arrow.

Oh yeah – Knives – who knew. (not me obviously)

Call that a knive?…

I carry a svord peasant and a hook knife incase I fancy carving something. If I am going specifically to be crafty or wild camping I carry a mora field knife as its much more pleasant to cook with than a swiss army knife.

I always have my opinel #8 on me yea yea yea it’s a lock knife with a 3.5″ blade etc

But “that’s not a knife” I also own for some silly reason an Opinel #13 😯 (try a google search)

No knife, but I usually have a Gerber retractable saw in my pack. Especially handy after storms.

Leatherman Charge tti goes on my bike with me or in the front of my truck

I cant understand why some of you feel the need to carry a knife on you at all times, it could so easily be used against you.

Although if you are carrying it for work & you can justify it that’s fine, but carrying a knife just because?

Why?

I cant understand why some of you feel the need to carry a knife on you at all times, it could so easily be used against you.

I always carry a knife with me.

Should I be worried that someone is going to use it against me? Perhaps in a rabid bottle opening attack? Some fevered tweezering? Etc.

🙂

FWIW, the tweezers have been used on rides, to pull a thorn out of a mate’s lip, for example. Bottle opener? Obviously! Scissors and knife? Used to cut down old tubes to boot a tyre, and more.

mrlebowski-
For cutting sponges and shark attacks (although my camel back hose has been severed by accident on more than one occasion).

Its a tool not a weapon. Carving with fingernails is only a temporary solution.

Its a tool not a weapon

You reckon?

A knife on the trails is handy & useful, one in your pocket down the pub….why? What are you going to do there, some emergency whittling?

Wouldn’t take one to the pub, unless part of a walk/ride

Bike, hike, work – no need for it anywhere else

I would say that says more about you than me or possibly the pubs you go to. If I am going out to the pub I wouldn’t take one as I would lose it at the inevitable club pat down. But I wouldn’t not go into a pub because I had one in the bottom of my bag. I did take a knife out in a pub once to cut a girl free from her bracelet caught in her hair.

I am not a mad survivalist or anything, they are genuinely useful tools I dont hang one from my belt and I don’t shout about it. I have also never ever been even close to an argument let alone a fight in a pub or anywhere else for that matter and I am more confident in my ability to run than my skill in artistic facial whittling.

Double post.

I’ve a Swiss Army knife in my pocket most days when I go out. It’s handy to have and is used regularly. Anyone that considers such a tool a weapon and is in fear of it being used against you needs to seriously get a grip.

In the unlikely event of returning to your childhood years and indulging in a spot of kerbside fisticuffs and being on the receiving end of a good tweezering would deserve the eye brow plucking of a life time for being foolish enough to stop the fight, draw the knife and open it.
🙄

Can’t understand the need to take a knife anywhere where there’s likely to be one anyway – The pub for example. If there’s a sudden desperate need for a knife in the pub, they’ll be one behind the bar or in the kitchen.

I can understand taking a small pocket knife/multi tool out on the trails though.

As for cleaning out your fingernails, you should try some basic grooming. Keeping them short and trimmed like a man should, will mean they don’t harbour dirt and grime.

Swiss Champ for me. Pliers can be very handy, and it rescued a mates ride last weekend – one of the four screwdrivers managed to get the tiny torx bolts out of his broken mech hanger so he could replace it mid-ride.

Essential for foraging trail side mushrooms too 😉

n the unlikely event of returning to your childhood years and indulging in a spot of kerbside fisticuffs and being on the receiving end of a good tweezering would deserve the eye brow plucking of a life time for being foolish enough to stop the fight, draw the knife and open it.

I know a good story about that involving one of those dodgy washed up northern gangsters that periodically relocate to Devon for a year or two 😆

Anyone that considers such a tool a weapon and is in fear of it being used against you needs to seriously get a grip.

Pretty much anything can be turned into an offensive weapon if you want it to be – to think otherwise is pure naivety… a knife of any size just makes it that much easier.

I can turn my keys into a pretty effective knuckle duster, my phone has a hard metal edge which could be used to hit someone with. My belt can be taken off & used as a whip. Its a long list but I think you get the picture.

So, again why a knife if youre not using it for work or out on the trail?

As for cleaning out your fingernails, you should try some basic grooming. Keeping them short and trimmed like a man should, will mean they don’t harbour dirt and grime.

+1

Leatherman micra goes everywhere with me, and has done for around the last 15 years or so, gets used a suprising amount. Don’t recall the last time I went to a club requiring a pat down (must be getting old), probably my student days in Leeds. No issues with it going through airport checks pre 9/11, now has to travel in hold luggage.

Leatherman charge ti often carried too, if I’ve been doing something where it might be called for. If I have it on me when going in to a pub (due to previous activity) or anywhere it’s no issue as only I know it’s there in my pocket/bag. Have no qualms about doing this, but would think twice about packing a stiletto, that would be harder to justify than a tool that happens to have a plade on it.

Mrlebowski do you leave your house ever? Seems pretty sketchy round your bit.

Just to clarify, you are concerned someone might jump me, wrestle me to the ground and search my pockets and bag for a weapon with which to do me harm, presumably if he/she doesn’t find one they move on to the next victim and I get to leave unharmed with only my dignity in tatters and possibly some mild bruising?

Or am i supposed to go home every time I change activity during the day?

Why carry a phone if you don’t intend to contact anyone? Especially if you can use it as an offensive weapon!

Always have my eka knife with me when camping or caravanning but not on the trails instead carry my trusty leatherman purely for the pliers. Anyone carrying a knife as a weapon seriously needs looking at (as stated in post above) 😀

Mrlebowski do you leave your house ever? Seems pretty sketchy round your bit.

Just to clarify, you are concerned someone might jump me, wrestle me to the ground and search my pockets and bag for a weapon with which to do me harm, presumably if he/she doesn’t find one they move on to the next victim and I get to leave unharmed with only my dignity in tatters and possibly some mild bruising?

Or am i supposed to go home every time I change activity during the day?

Why carry a phone if you don’t intend to contact anyone? Especially if you can use it as an offensive weapon!

Your brevity is mildly amusing but I think you underestimate just how dangerous even a pocket knife can be. Imagine the damage a small 2 inch blade could do if dragged across someones face.

My concern comes from those who carry a knife & may in a moment of idiocy decide to pull it in a conflict & either use it to hurt someone else or have it used against them. You say you wont but can you be 100% sure it’ll never happen? Why not just remove the temptation, solve the problem before it becomes a problem & leave it at home.

Why carry a knife & make it easier for you or someone else to make a very stupid mistake?

any other use of a knife for outdoor pursuits in the UK is just based on some Ray Mears/Rambo fantasy.

This. Absolutely.

The ‘knifes’ thing is really upsetting my OCD. Can a mod fix it please?

Seriously?

I am well aware what a two inch blade can do, I also don’t run with scissors, check to make sure that a car isn’t about to run me over even though its a green man, wear a helmet, switch off chargers and remove them from the socket. Life is full of possible dangers what you are describing is so far down the list that I hadn’t even thought about it.

Having thought about it… I think you maybe shouldn’t carry a knife.

Or be allowed near anything sharp

Or blunt especially if its metal.

I almost always have a penknife in my pocket – almost always have done. My stepdad always has one and I suppose he passed the habit on to me, although he never gave me a knife or encouraged me.

When the law changed, banning lock knives, I found a non-locking, sub 3″ two bladed, gentlemans’ knife. Gets used almost every day. Usually, there are other tools around which would do the job, but it’s just handy, because it’s in your pocket.

Lots of needless hysteria surrounding people carrying knives. There’s a world of difference between a young lad trying to get into a club with a bread knife, and a middle aged engineer out walking his dog.

Some areas of the country/society have a genuine problem with knife carrying engrained into the culture. There’s no way to stop that other than zero tolerance. It might inconvenience people when a knife could have been handy, but that’s the price we pay. Self-policing your own responsibility to carry a knife isn’t really an option.

FWIW I take a penknife camping and into the hills and that’s it. In either situation I’ve very rarely needed to use the blade.