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What kind of pocketknife do you carry and use for Scouting?

 

I carry an official Deluxe utility style knife made by Camillus. I carry it in a hand made leather knife pouch that I made myself.

 

I carry a similar knife but an Old Timer outside of Scouting when wearing jeans.

 

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I have a three Swiss Army knives that we use. At times one of the "We" forgets to put the one that he has used back in the drawer where they are supposed to live.

I also have a very small Swiss Army knife that had a small light in it that I carried on my key ring but with all the check points at the airports I took it off and put it on the key ring with the tractor keys. A safe place but as I only use the tractor to mow the grass I don't use it very much and it is too small to do anything with in the yard.

The area president gave me one of those multi-tools. It was a cheap one that didn't work that well. Come to think of it he gave me one of the Swiss Army knives when we were staffing a Wood Badge course back in 1998. It is a real one, just two blades but the price was right.

I love the can opener on the Swiss Army knife. I use it for so many things as well as opening the odd can.

Eamonn

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My favorite keychain multi-tool is the Leatherman Micra because it has good scisors and stays closed in your pocket. I really like the Columbia River (CRKT) Carson series with the blade flippers. As much fun as a Benchmade auto but legal and you won't cut yourself like with the Ken Onion assisted spring knives. The M16-13 is my favorite but there are some plastic handled ones that I like too, and even a titanium model (the M16-14T Tanto) I only carry on special occasions. A neat knife to fiddle with is the SOG Blink which is an Onion copy in the form of a money clip. I also have a collection of five of the California-legal Pro-Tech Runt autos. They are expensive but really high quality and strong snappers.

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Red Feather I would like to hear about the double-edge for canoeing too. I am not disapproving... just never had anyone around to explain it to me. Here in California any dagger, that is a double-edge sharpened on both sides knife is not legal for carry. They fall under the same regulation (Calif Penal Code section 12020 known as the "dirk and dagger" law) that forbids carry of butterfly knives, cane or umbrella swords, knives disguised as belt buckles or pens, etc. even non-functional decorative daggers like replica movie knives. You can legally own them but not carry, trade or sell them (go figure). But it has always puzzled me how anyone here can buy at the shopping malls (even seen them at REI) "rescue" knives that are sharp on both sides. I think Gerber has a yellow handled one with a sharp tip and a tether, some others are blunt on the end. I don't think it is a blade length issue but they mostly are not much over 2 or 3 inches. So how do you use such a knife in a canoe tipover? Is it for cutting yourself out of tangled lines? Seems like that would be a tricky bit of work with these sharp little daggers. Scuba divers often carry a special hook shaped line cutter for tangled monofilament fishline they may swim into accidently, working even behind the back or overhead for line caught on their tank valve. So why the dagger for canoes?(This message has been edited by KA6BSA)

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The word dagger sounds so menacing and dangerous, the same Hollywood movie image that has made double-edged blades mostly illegal in California and Massachusetts. But it has been explained to me by others that this knife is really a necessary tool for those rare difficult situations where there is about a 50-50 chance that the wrong side of the blade would get used to try to cut a line or harness. With limited reaction time in the water and working by feel you only have a few seconds, and trying to cut with the blunt edge would waste that precious time. No dull edge no time wasted and your best chance at survival, so I am glad you can still get them even here in Calif. Still under normal circumstances most young Scouts will likely cut themselves if given the opportunity to fiddle around with this kind of knife, and being a straight blade it should be restricted to the specific task by troop leaders.(This message has been edited by KA6BSA)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Something simple something small... I carry a Gerber mini Paraframe both at scouts and daily. It's light, easy to clean, stays sharp and has a clip. It fits right in the watch pocket of your jeans and the clip makes it easy to slide on your scout belt or the chest harness on your backpack.

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Also about the double edged knives. Our scout shop sells a double edged rescue/dive knife it has a blunt/squared tip and two extremely sharp edges. Has a nice molded sheath that will strap nicely to your life jacket or even to your ankle which is real handy in the canoe. We don't let our boys carry them as a regluar scout knife though only for canoe or water related activities.

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