21st Century Sgian dhu?

[auld argonian]

It's as my dad (85 years old) says: Used to be that if there was trouble, there'd be a fist fight, one guy would decide he'd had enough and the fight was over and they'd both go home...now somebody pulls a gun and somebody ends up dead...

Who needs that?

Best

AA

[The Supreme Canuck]

True. Rule one of self-defence: never bring a knife to a gunfight.

[Cinnabar]

I guess my take on carrying a Sgian Dhu around is an old quote about 4 wheel drive trucks:

They allow you to get in an even worse situation than you would have been in without one.


But to each their own.

[Iolaus]

You know, some of us are just knife guys. It's not about offense or defense; it's about having a useful tool with you at all times. Knives aren't "just for hurting people" tools; I use a knife just about every day, for one thing or another, and I've never pulled it as a weapon.

[Cinnabar]

Very good point! I guess since the advent of the leatherman etc., I don't really think of a knife as tool as much anymore. Guess I'm being shortsighted. Maybe I'll have to look into having a Sgian Dhu leatherman made. Interesting topic none the less.

[GlassMan]

Being a pacifist I can't imagine every using a knife of any kind as a weapon against another human being. But I find knives very useful as tools. It's been great not having to search for a box cutter to open up packages that arrive from the glass distributors!

[Moosehead]

Not that I've been in the bush kilted, but in the Maritimes, its actually against the law to go more than 100 metres (could be 200) into the woods without a knife and compass.

[David Thornton]

Iolaus is right, it's a tool.
Although most of the commercially available ones are decorative. That's why I have sppent the last two months looking at idea's for having one built by a good knife maker. It will be functional, made for me (the builder's first questions were how tall, what do you weigh & right or left handed), and will be somthing I will be proud to own.
The process was a lot like deciding on the first tank, which tartan, who makes the best kilt, where to source the material etc. And I suspect that the jones will be just as bad when we exchange funds and I say start.
David

[auld argonian]

However some of my comments may make it sound, I agree completely with Iolaus about carrying a knife solely as a tool. When I first became a daddy and had to haul babies and toddlers around, I refered to my Swiss Army Knife as the Swiss Daddy Knife...I can't begin to list all of the things that it got used for. I'd love to find a sghian that was a contemporary interp of the classic and that had some of the tool functions built in...a simple corkscrew and a flat screwdriver just don't make it...sorry...and it would have to be made of materials that were made for use and not prettiness. But that doesn't seem like it's going to happen, so I'll keep looking for an acceptible one for the sock and strap a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman tool to the back of my belt...the Sghian has evolved into a decorative item, anyway, let's face it.

I DO resent some of the hassles that I have had with "authority figures" who find a Leatherman Micra tool in your stuff and then start acting like you're going to use it to overthrow the government. Get real. I'm sure that many of us have had to modify our knife carrying habits to comply with security measures here and there but sometimes it gets carried to ridiculous extremes.

Maybe we should take a tip from Spencer Tracey in that old movie and get Sghian Dhubs made out of black licorice and when anyone questions it we could just bite it in half.

Best

AA

[Nick]

I'd love to find a sghian that was a contemporary interp of the classic and that had some of the tool functions built in...a simple corkscrew and a flat screwdriver just don't make it...sorry...and it would have to be made of materials that were made for use and not prettiness. But that doesn't seem like it's going to happen, so I'll keep looking for an acceptible one for the sock and strap a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman tool to the back of my belt...the Sghian has evolved into a decorative item, anyway, let's face it.

Oh, I dunno. I've been thinking about it the last couple days. I don't do blades very often, but I'm always filing designs away for future projects, and they're fun to think about anyway.

What kinds of things would people want in such a Scot Regiment knife? This opens up a wide range of design possibilities.