And About Time, Too

Guy Stuff

Knife rights seem to be headed into Texas state law. I always wondered why carrying a knife would be streng verboten in Texas (can anyone say “Jim Bowie”, children?), while carrying a Glock with a 15-round magazine is somehow no problem for our lawmakers.

If you have the one, you gotta have the other — and lest we forget, long before guns were invented, a knife was a weapon, or as they called it in the olden days, an arm; and therefore a knife, any knife, falls neatly into the Second Amendment’s “right to bear arms” aegis.

I’m not sure how often I myself will actually carry a knife around if this bill becomes law — but it sure as hell would be nice to know that if I did, the cops wouldn’t have prima facie cause to toss my wrinkled old ass into jail. Besides, I have quite a few “Governor’s Barbecue” knives, as we call them in Texas, and I’d love to show them off on special occasions. Here are some of my favorites:

From the top: Puma White Hunter II; a Kershaw Skinner (currently on permanent loan to a friend for his African safaris); an Anza Skinner* made of file steel and my #1 favorite knife of all time, and a Kershaw Commando boot knife.

*Don’t bother looking for the Anza on their website; they stopped making this model in 1999.

10 comments

  1. In point of fact, much of early anti-Second Amendment legislation in the US was the banning of Bowie Knives and Arkansas Toothpicks, which after the Alamo proliferated throughout the southern US and were subject to the same sort of hysterical headlines that guns are today.

  2. Another SA expat, Peter Grant over at http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2017/01/useful-information-for-knife-novices.html has an interesting perspective on how the US and SA folks differ on their knife stuff. It was a thought provoking article for me, as while I like some rather expensive slivers of sharp steel, I typically carry and use relatively cheap (but good quality) ones. Mora kniv being a favoured one, despite their weak tangs.

    Anyway, love that Puma shape, then I looked up the price, and I think I’ll stick with something else 🙂

    p.s. Commiserations on such a loss. But welcome back.

  3. Oh, I do have an applegate-fairburn, which I picked up for a song. I have no real use for a double edged blade, but it is so purty I couldn’t pass on it at the time.

    1. The A-F knife is without doubt one of the most beautiful knives ever made, and I envy you yours.

  4. The opening paragraph reminds me of one of my favorite stories from the Republic era. I don’t have my sourcebooks in front of me, but as I recall the story, a Judge was sent to North Texas to try a murderer. He set his court up in the local saloon (as was the custom.) All of the accused fellow’s friends showed up to “show solidarity” to the accused.

    The judge opened the court under the authority granted to him under the Great Republic of Texas, and was approached by one of the spectators, who slammed his bowie knife into the plank the judge was using for a bench and said, “that’s the authority around here!”

    The judge pulled his Peacemaker from under his robes, cocked the hammer and said, “and this is the appeals court that overrules your authority. Sit down.” The judge the conducted the trial (knife in bench) and hanged the murderer the next morning.

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