BladeHQ: 3 Knives that won’t scare your Neighbors

H. Clay Aalders
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I know it is a sales pitch and it is a #short video, but I appreciated the premise and agree with the selections.  What would you add?

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H. Clay Aalders

H. Clay Aalders is a lifelong edged tool user. He spent the past 20 years as a woodworker and fishing guide in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Tennessee. While guiding in Idaho, Clay worked part-time writing for a local newspaper, and upon moving to Tennessee began writing for the blog The Truth About Knives - spending his last 5 years there as Managing Editor. His background is in fixed-blade hunting and bushcraft knives, but has jumped into the world of vintage slipjoint collecting with both feet since coming to work at Knife Magazine. Clay’s primary role is as Digital Editor, curating and creating new content for our website and blog, as well as maintaining the Knife Magazine social media accounts (FB/IG: @theknifemag, Twitter: @knifemagazine). He is also a contributor and Associate Editor of the print magazine.

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12 Responses

  1. I’ve retired a SAK Spartan that I carried for over 20 years replacing it with a Camper model. I agree with CMEATA-it offends nobody. I’ve got neighbors on one side of me from the Chicago area. They got a little nervous at the speed my Leek deployed. Thought it was a switchblade. So I’m pretty sure any flipper will make many non-knife people nervous. But they’re not bothered by the SAK or my Opinels. Heck, my machete didn’t bother them!
    I’d add most medium to small traditional slipjoints ~Peanut, Canoe, Stockman and Barlow are all pretty tame.

    Reply

    1. Mark: You live in Texas, right? What is the proximity of your “Chicago area” neighbors? Were they “watching you” flipping your Leek inside your home? Outside? Recently, I read an article in “Blade” about the atlatl. Takes spear and dart chucking to a whole new dimension. I am making a thrower with the “cup” end. I am going for accuracy, so, I am putting a bit of fletching on my ammo. Nice weather forecast for the weekend. I will put on my loincloth and get in some practice . . . “Standing at the top of his driveway, “Bear Cheeks” aims for the target 200 feet distant . . . “Neighbors, ACTION!!” (Film at 11:00).

      “Running Bear”, Sonny James. Did he really like “Little White Dove”?

      Reply

      1. Yes sir, I’m in Texas. In Collin county-north and adjacent to Dallas county. We were outside, I was in my front side yard, they were strolling over to say hi. I was bundling up some crepe myrtle limbs. I took it out to cut some twine. They were maybe 5-10 feet away.
        He appreciated the usefulness of one handed opening. She was a little nervous. Now he’s a big man. 6 foot 6. He liked the blade shape but the handle was a little small for his liking . She’s hardly the first person who has asked me if a flipper was a switchblade with a nervous tone!

        Reply

  2. “Mini-Bugout” and “Spartan” are in my rotation. The “Dragonfly 2” (aka “df2”) is EDC . . . and it does not scare the customers at the grocery store banana bin. (I am very particular about bananas and the “df2 wharnie” trims them up nicely! I do not pay for what I can not eat.) My “custom shorties”, e.g. Sid Barnhart, Greencastle, PA, usually draw a favorable look in most businesses where the public is present. When I lived in Calvert County, Maryland in the early ’80s, I shopped at the “IGA” in Prince Frederick. I like kale and I was trimming the stems from the “good parts”. Next to me was an older African-American woman who was snipping collards and kale like a whirling dervish! I wondered how she was doing the “cutting” as I did not see a knife . . . so, I asked her and she showed me a hooked blade on her thumb and one on her forefinger. Anyways, when I moved to Baltimore, produce managers would see me “snipping the stems” and tell me, “Don’t do that.” I retorted, “I do not buy what I can not eat.”

    Unfortunately, I have lousy, nosy neighbors. The “ones” who live behind my home installed surveillance cameras aimed at my property. Invasion of privacy? “No”. According to the legal folks, I can expect to have a “reasonable expectation of privacy”; BUT, they mentioned real estate businesses using drones; and, unless I can prove that they are “looking at me through my bathroom window”, . . . duh, how do I do that? In 2022, these sphincter-fascinated cretins filed a peace order against me. Why? They had a photo of me standing in my driveway, smiling at their camera mounted atop an 8-foot 4 x 4 post; with my “digging knife” in my hand by my side and a 5-gal bucket in my other hand. They “felt” threatened . . . the peace order used the phrase, “assault”.

    Scare the neighbors? Get a hori-hori and smear some dirt on your face.

    Reply

    1. what is the best steel for starting a small fire on adjacent property? Asking for a friend ….

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        1. Oh, wait a second . . . magnesium is not “steel”. My error. Maybe, strike a ferrocerium rod on a high-carbon steel blade, e.g. 1095, into a pile of shredded magnesium. Wear tinted safety glasses.

          Reply

    2. haha my wife was pinching peaches once trying to avoid the rock hard carbon dioxide transport stones when she was approached by karen who scolded her for “touching all of them” (pre- plandemic). her reply made me proud, “oh, did you want that one?” perfect.

      Reply

    3. You need a camera mounted on a 4 X 4 post, on an 8-foot post just inches away from their 8-foot 4 X 4 post Hocky! Make sure it is on their property though.

      Maybe not, don’t want to see you on that “Fear Thy Neighbor” show!

      No more respect for people and knives than in Hawaii, I forgot about the folder on my belt arriving at the customs area, velcro sheath, custom gift from my friend Terry Roberts from Fayetteville, AR. Instead of confiscating the knife the guy said to hurry back to the baggage area and ask for my suitcase so it could be stored properly. Amazing!

      Reply

      1. Del, I have the hole dug for my 4″x4″ 8 ft pole. I have several holes dug and ready to go. I am going like “Heston” in “Omega Man” . . . Hi-wattage lighting and strategically placed cameras. My good friend and former crew mate on the USS George Bancroft SSBN643 is advising me on some acoustic technology. He was a Sonar Technician . . . there isn’t a noise ordinance in Washington County. My “noise” is high-frequency and directional. Might add a laser or two.

        Reply

  3. blades around 2″ are more pen/ jack knifey and less alarming; much has to do with initial presentation. environment/ task. solving issues for others dampens that somewhat to the level of, “do you always carry a knife?”
    that sak (that model has always been my favorite) offends no one when utilizing the smaller blade.
    a df2 size is usably concealable, discretion.

    Reply

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