Thread: How young is too young for a pocket knife?

I say as long as he has a reason to use it, then he should have one to learn with. Functional, too. It is a tool after all. I assume you will show him how to use it and eventually he will use it often enough to have a reason to carry it around, if you need a reason. Or if you let him carry it around he will find reasons to use it. If he is anything like I was at 4 or 5, it won't stay sharp for long and you can spend time with him honing it and checking up on his knife wielding abilities.

You know your kid better than anyone and probably have an idea of whether or not he will be able to learn how to use any tool properly. Some of his buddies might not be able to handle it, so I would advise more consideration when other people's kids are involved.

I think I was 9 when I got my first knife. My Gramma (who gave me my first pellet rifle a few years earlier) was looking after my brother and I on a PA day. She took us both to a hardware store and bought us folding lock knives. They were pretty small with blades of around two inches or so, but it was the best feeling to get that thing as a little kid. "I have...a knife!!" I kept thinking. I couldn't believe it. I want to pass the thrill of first time knife ownership on to my kid(s) when they come around.

A little story: My Gramma let us do all kinds of fun stuff. Rip around on her riding lawn mower with little supervision... let us play with this old set of lawn darts she had (my mom later hid those)... I got to drive her Cadillac... she had a dart board in her basement which I thought was just awesome when I was little. My brother and cousins used to throw them everywhere, though. Into the ceiling...the carpet...the walls....at the hearth stone because they'd make cool sparks when they struck in such a way. It took a couple of Christmases and three totally non-dangerous dart board gifts (a suction cup one; another where the darts went into a comb-like bunch of plastic bristles; another with thousands of tiny holes in the plastic that the darts would have to go into, but would miss and bounce off). Eventually I took the initiative and drew up a "Wanted!" ad myself and had a nice REAL dartboard within a week. Wooden cabinet with chalkboards and everything! I didn't use it much, but I got it. Looking back, I probably should've just asked my Gramma to get me one. Would've been faster.

My family did a lot of camping and my brother and I were heavily involved in Scouts Canada when we were growing up. I had my first knife before I was a Beaver Scout (~5 yrs old) though. It was a very small RCMP key chain pen knife that my grand parents bought my brother and I when we were 5 and 6 years old. These knifes were never monitored by my parents. And, although we did get into some mischief with other knifes it was only when we were older and knew better.

I remember another time when I was older, I had just got a new pocket knife, you know the kind with the spoon and fork fold outs. Well the day I got it I was caught by my little sister cutting an earth worm in half on the cement sidewalk in front of our house during a rain storm. I can still remeber the knife grinding against the cement (cringe ). I had the knife taken away after my sister ratted me out to our mom, for two weeks.

Other than that, I collected knives as a child and youth and still collect edged blades. A monitored four year old carrying an unopenable pocket knife is, in my estimation, is only happy to be just like dad. The sense of pride a father can get from such bonding will be long remembered and will probably never be forgotten. Just like most of us remember getting our first knife.

Wow, this thread made me nastalgic, I remember when I got my first knife I was about 5 years old, it was a cheap little knife with a locking blade, and some reflective plastic on the side that made it look like a toy. I really had no use for it, but I liked having it, I think the only thing I used it for was stripping bark off of saplings for about a month then I broke it.

I never hurt myself with it, so my vote is for you to get the kid a real knife(prefferably better than the one I had :P although an expensive knife may be unwise).

But I did manage to almost take my thumb off with a machete when I was 9(I was walking on the ice around a ponde about 3 miles from my house...I was using the machete as a walking stick...)...maybe a machete's a bit much.

It's a sad state of affairs regarding teaching our children the skills we used to learn at a young age now. I have a lot of support for the view expressed in the video posted.

However, in the UK now, there is no way we could let a child have a pocket knife (even a Swiss Army one) to carry around. There is serious hysteria over knife culture here, and although there is a problem, in typical fashion we have over-legislated.

If I let my 7yo carry a pocket knife, I would be called in by the school, he would most likely be suspended or excluded, the law would be called, and all manner of investigations undertaken as to my parenting etc.

That is how it is here. So... I cannot let my boy carry a pocket knife under any circumstance.

Originally Posted by ZethLent

A monitored four year old carrying an unopenable pocket knife is, in my estimation, is only happy to be just like dad. The sense of pride a father can get from such bonding will be long remembered and will probably never be forgotten. Just like most of us remember getting our first knife.

I agree if the knife is truly unopenable (because it is welded shut for example).
If it is just stuck, then it's an accident witing to happen because it is assumed to be totally safe. I'd rather give them a working pocket knife than an unopenable one.

My mother was very superstitious. Whenever a knife was given as a gift, a token payment had to be made to avoid 'cutting the friendship'. In our house it was a penny. Any similar customs elsewhere?