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who needs a knife ? i say carry a spade, build trails, chop meat up etc etc..hehe
I concur!
...Pirate-esque belt buckle holstered throwing stars on the other hand 😀
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Got one of these in mine
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I have a swiss army knife in my camelbak. Comes in handy for chopping your melted softshell jacket off your hot disc rotor 😳
MSP - Member
...I have never needed or even wanted a knife while riding, walking or backpacking in Europe, its an unnecessary tool carried by survival fantasists...
Ever been outdoors?
I have never needed a knife beyond a swiss army knife / small penknife- and yes I have been outdoors lots - many many unsupported treks thru remote and wild areas for weeks at a time in Europe and beyond.
AS for the average MTBer - really - what on earth do you need a big locking knife for? You are going out to play int eh woods on your bike. You are not crocodile dundee
My multitool has a small blade on it. I doubt I have used that more than twice
I carry a swiss army in my rucsack. They were a right bugger to pack and they do tend to wriggle about, but they're quiet enough so long as you keep them in cheese. I'm sure they'll be invaluable should I ever get involved in a war that doesn't require a navy.
Might as well get one of [url= http://www.leathermans.co.uk/Leatherman-Skeletool.html ]these.[/url]
Wasn't he the enemy of He-Man?
If I am out and about, then my camelbak will hold my normal Gerber Suspension. It is just far too handy to leave behind given that just about anything that can go wrong with a bike can be fixed or bodged with it.
It never goes out in town with me and I never carry anything similar in the car. The exception is when I go shooting rabbits and then I carry a sub-3" fixed blade sheath knife with me for paunching.
"I have never needed or even wanted a knife while riding, walking or backpacking in Europe, its an unnecessary tool carried by survival fantasists, who are not people who should be trusted with a sharp pointy object." ??????
how do you cut up food? what do you use to shave kindling? how do you cut cord to repair your tent or rucksack? what would you use to cut up a bit of inner tube to pad out a slash in your tyre ? how do you open a tin or robust packet? do you really carry a corkscrew, screwdriver, bottle opener, can opener, wire cutter and thing for getting boy scouts out of horses hooves as separate items?
anotherdeadhero - Member
I have a swiss army knife in my camelbak. Comes in handy for chopping your melted softshell jacket off your hot disc rotor
Good day that. So funny as for the smell.. 😆
Mines about 6" and i carry it everywhere.
Have always found it to be a useful tool.
The whole knives thing has fallen foul of the hysteria lobby.A knife is a tool.
Agreed.
I carry a Leatherman sometimes, and it does come on very handy from time to time. I've regretted not having it more than once.
But, yes, tha's got 2 pretty big locking blades and a nasty looking saw. I've used the blades, the saw, the pliers, screwdriver and the bit kit I've also got with it.
The thing is, as well as a knife being a tool, there are some people who are 'tools that have knives' and that's what spoils it for the rest of us that use them legitimately.
I guess a copper would have to have some reason to search me to find it though, and I can't see me being caught in the middle of deepest Tunnel Hill by The Law anytime soon! 🙂
I carry a knife and use it to kill and dismember ramblers and horse riders that offend me.
I have a Leatherman Wave and I have taken it around the world, backpacking, trekking, mtbing etc etc etc. It's by far the most useful thing I have ever owned. Last ride out it helped get myself and another rider home (due to it's pliers).
I got the blade sharpened by a knife-smith (right phrase?)in Chamonix and the blade is now crazy sharp, which makes it safer.
I got my first penknife when I was about 8. I plan to get my sons small knives for whittleing and such when they are a similar age.
Waffle bike on youtube.
Years ago i got stoped by local police on way to work at silly o'clock in morning , looked in back of my van ,sir what are those knives for ?
I work at local slaughter house/meat factory,i take em home at night to stop the scousers nickin em!ok sir ! was his reply.on your way then .
But when i got to work boss said ,did u get hasseled by cops today then ,laughing at same time ,they rang here to verify your ID .
Anyway i allways carry a pocket knife now, so many uses,from eatin me apple to opening a packet to despactin a rabbit .
Yep I'm a carrier 😀 Got a micro leatherman on the car/house keys for every day stuff and it gets used loads.
On the other hand I also carry a knife with me in the leg pocket of my shorts when I'm riding. It's pretty handy actually I've used mine to -
Open food that's really difficult to open...
Cut off my camelbak when I got stuck in a bush and the pack wouldn't let me go...
Turn a shredded innertube into a new strap for a Camelbak that someone had inconveniently cut up...
Eat apples - not sure why I like this but eating it from a knife makes me feel outdoorsy...
Cutting small twigs of a stick used to jam my front mech in place when gear cable snapped...
I have one of these for rabbits,
http://www.heinnie.com/Knives/Sentou-Knives/Sentou-Shi-do/p-92-183-1591/
always have a Wenger swiss army knife in my backpack when travelling both at home and abroad, it goes through airport customs in my hold luggage tucked inside my washkit, as soon as i get out the airport it
goes in my backpack again, wouldn't go anywhere without it :-),
i take a leatherman wave most places
Since I was about 10 i've carried a knife with me most days most places, strangely enough I seem to be in a minority where I haven't felt compelled to use it to stab anyone with
I had a discussion recently about this with a work collegue and stated that even if someone "jumped out on me" I wouldnt even consider use of the knife for my protection - its not a weapon - its a tool
I live in a fairly rural location and work in horticulture so use it several times a day, but carry it every where
The only bits I've used on my swiss army knife in 15 years are the tweezers, toothpick, scissors and corkscrew.
knives don't kill people - people kill people 😯
I always carry my Blackie Collins buddy "Safety knife"
[url= http://www.knifepros.com/html/meyerco/buddysystem.htm ]<KNIFE>[/url]
I have my ~3" locking pocket knife on me nearly all the time. Needed daily for farm work but tend to keep it on me wherever I go. Always been curious as to how that would go down if i ever got stopped/searched.
Small blade on a 20 year old leatherman goes out most of the time. About twice in the season I clear the nettles and brambles from a stretch of singletrack bridleway on one of my regular runs and go out early on a Sunday carrying a 20 inch billhook in my pack. I must admit I have given some thought as to how I might explain this if I meet the local police dog handler giving K9 its morning run out in the same bit of woods. Currently tending towards chopping off a handy length of branch, throwing it down the path and shouting fetch.
http://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/products/prod147606
I carry this4 inch razor for work is it legal or not?
TJ doesn't need a knife, he's that 'ard he just bites through the toughest item, he can bite through a zip tie. The rest of us mere mortals have to resort to mundane tools like knives to cut through zip ties.
I carry one of those Rolson box cutters that stoner showed. £7 from Maplin, and one of the most useful bits of kit I've owned for the money. Use it at work continually for cutting up boxes, cutting zip ties, out riding I use it for hacking back brambles and briars on cycle paths if I haven't got my secateurs with me. If a blade breaks just stick a new one in. Take the blade out and it makes a small but handy scraper for getting stickers off. I've even used the back edge as an impromtu screwdriver. Carefully, I might add. I'm ashamed to have to resort to such a tool, but then I'm just an imperfect mortal.
Swiss army knife and Crank Bros 19 bike tool. Both of these have been life savers. I reckon if you do stuff, tools make that easier. I'd prefer that the main blade locked as then I wouldn't have needed so many plasters.
P.S.
If you have no requirement for tools at all in how you live your life, I can only assume you have a support team constantly following or you live like a cork, bobbing along the river.
I have hardly ever killed or maimed anyone. honest...
Cut off my camelbak when I got stuck in a bush and the pack wouldn't let me go...
Maaaaaaaaaaaannn - that must have been some gnarly bush, dude!
Either that or you are weaker than a kitten.
CountZero - MemberTJ doesn't need a knife,
Did you actually bother to read what I wrote?
TandemJeremy - MemberI have never needed a knife beyond a swiss army knife / small penknife
My multitool has a small blade on it. I doubt I have used that more than twice
🙄
For a mtber no one needs a big locking knife. I do have a couple but I don't carry them around
In my backpack when I'm trail finding is a big folding saw, a large machette and a big rambo knife. When I'm guiding I only have the rambo knife. People often say wtf but it's got me out of bother a few times where I don't think a wee penknife would. The last time was when someone crashed and their saddle rail popped out of the plastic, it wouldn't go back in so we whittled the plastic with my knife until it did. Used it lots of times, and it doubles up for cutting up the chorizo at lunchtime 🙂
I don't know what would happen if I got stopped. I guess I'd have to do some explaining but would hope for common sense to prevail!
I've got a leatherman in my bike tool / repair kit that comes on the commute, or when out with dog / family though the woods or up on Ashdown Forest etc an old-school whittling penknife with two blades, one larger than the other. Great for whittling whistles for my daughters, trimming up adhoc walking-sticks and other such things you do to keep them entertained and interested in the outdoors (much as my Dad used to do with me and my siblings). When fishing or gardening I've got a handmade sheath-knife I was given as a present - I wouldn't carry it out and about though.
The OP's is a bit too 'tactical' for my tastes to be honest but each to his own.
I really can not ever see the need to be carrying a knife while your out mountain bking, certainly in 20 odd years of riding a bike I have never needed one, but then again I have carried a bike multi tool, perhaps thats where folk are going wrong ??!?
Anyhow it is an offence to carry even a swiss army knife as it is an offensive weapon, and in court I think you would struggle to link how it is necessary whilst riding a bike.
There is another law which covers blades and sharp pointed objects under 3 inches and makes it illegal to carry them without good reason. I was told by a solicitor that under that law technically you could be prosecuted for carrying a biro as it has a sharp pointed end!
I worked in a shop a while ago which sold swiss army knifes and I had a guy come in for a replacement knife. He had gone camping abroad (before the heightened air security) and while going through customs/security had his backpack searched and they found with all his camping gear a swiss army knife with a blade under 3 inches. They prosecuted him for it. Fair enough I can see them taking it off him and giving him a warning but prosecuting a 60+ year old guy in those circumstances is imo wrong but it does show how tight they can be.
Have a Gerber multitool in my camel back, i've used the pliers more than the knife. I also often carry a knife at work, anyone here ever got bail twine wrapped around a chainsaw sprocket will know its a right b'stard to get off. Also useful for cutting rope and weed/crap that gets tangled around boat props.
The legal situation as I understand it is that you can carry a knife under 3" that is folding then its for the prosecution to show that you did not have good reason to carry it or that you wer carrying it for illegal use, if it is over 3" then you have to show you do have good reason for it.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Typesofcrime/DG_181675
http://www.bkcg.co.uk/guide/law.html
MY mother used to carry a 4" lock knife - she is a biologist and used it as a tool to collect samples and the like. Twice she has been caught going thru customs with it in her handbag! Never prosecuted tho
Reading through this thread it would be quite easy to think you can carry a blade under 3 inches and be fine but that is wrong. I've had a friend warned for carrying a stanley knife while buying his lunch in a chip shop during the week while in work clothes (carpet fitter). The police are very tight on this and if you get the wrong policeman on the wrong day you will get prosecuted for it.
I can understand you needing a knife in a wilderness riding situation but as most people on STW ride trail centres or within 20 miles of home I can't see the need other than to fill your camelbak with yet another unnecessary item you have to lug around to look "cool"
Buris - very little chance of a prosecution succeeding tho. did your mate have it clipped to his belt? Remeber cops cannot possibly know the nuance of every law.
# knives with folding blades, like Swiss Army knives, are not illegal as long as the blade is three inches long (7.62 cms) or less
# if any knife is used in a threatening way (even a legal knife, such as a Swiss Army knife), it is regarded as an 'offensive weapon' by the law
From the direct Gov. site linked to above
around 3:20 and 5:40 in
Burls, a Stanley knife with it's ratchet mechanism counts as a locking blade. The exception in the law is for small folding pocket knives. You're generally safe with Swiss army.
TJ - Cases like this would be delt with by the Magistrate court, and if the CPS present a case like this you would be very lucky to get away with it. It is well known that in grey areas such as this Magistrates side with the police/CPS as they have to be seen to uphold the law. As you said the police can't know every part of the law the same applies to Magistrates. The test cases would have been held at Crown court which is a completely different story.
It's pointless arguing about it because we are both wrong but both right. You just have to look at the case of your mum and the case of the gentleman who came into the shop where I worked. Both the same circumstances but different outcomes, this law is not clear and a lot of it is luck of the draw.
If, say, I was in the park with my two young daughters and someones dog decided to attack, the dog would get it I'm afraid
Quick-draw McGraw inhabits STW 😆 I think the dog might have had you before you get you keys out!
In the US quite a lot of people apparently take guns out biking.
Which handgun for XXXC?