sgian dubh question

[Raphael]

How many of you actually use your sgain dubh on a regular basis?

[Standard]

Still waiting for mine to get here. However, a pocket knife I use on a daily basis so I definately wanted a quality blade and not just a show piece for my sgain dubh. I don't imagine that I'll use it as much in the evening time dining, etc., but day wear wise I can see it being used for utilitarian purposes often.

[Ryan Ross]

Regardless of what knife I'm carrying, I tend to need to use it at least once a day. Now that I have a sgian dubh with a quality blade, I certainly do use it on a daily basis.

[McMurdo]

I use the one Casey just gave me for cutting apples and such, I'm not sure why I cut apples and not bite into them, perhaps it is because my father eats his apples that way.

[JS Sanders]

Like a cherished pocketknife, uses for a sgian are just as endless.

I’ve used mine to trim post-prandial cigars, adjust recalcitrant chanter reeds, and as replacement steak knives at wedding reception dinners.

A sgian should do more than simply look good tucked into a sock.

Slainte yall,
steve

[JRB]

I carry a folding knife fairly often when wearing pants/shorts. However, I haven't worn any of my skian dubhs much lately. Once in a while I'll wear one but more often than not I leave it home. I've found that I almost never use/need it and I am definitely not the type of person to wear something just for jewelery sake.

[Howard Clark]

The knife I really use all the time goes in my sock when I am casually dressed, and I find endless uses for it. But then I work at home, and wear a kilt near full time now. If I am dressed up, then I use a nicer knife in my sock, and it gets used somewhat less, mostly because there is less occasion to do so in situations when I am dressed up. I feel naked without a knife. I would not consider going without one unless is was dictated by law somehow, and even then it would be iffy for me to abide by that. If I am going to be somewhere that a sgian dubh is really gonna be a problem, I will carry a folder somewhere else. But I am NEVER without a knife handy somewhere, of some kind. Sometimes more than one.

[irishrob]

Ever since I saw Stan the Piper from Glasgow with a "sgain" in each sock, I carry a knife in one and a "Sgain Don't" bottle opener in the other. Both have seen quite a bit of practical use.

Rob

[Panache]

It seems like when I most need a blade is when I am dressed casually with scrunched down hose (and therefore no sgian dubh) so I use my little lockback magnum pocket knife or my leatherman knock off depending on which I am carrying. I find that my trusty "sgian don't" bottle cap opener gets a lot of use at BBQs and parties.

...and as replacement steak knives at wedding reception dinners...

I feel better now. I thought I was the only one who had used his sgian dubh on a steak for want of a proper steak knife!

Cheers

Jamie

[James MacMillan]

Granted, I'm a knife person, but I find that at least once every day, I find a need for one of my tools. Today (and most everyday that I can think of) I will have three basic knives with me.

The sgian dubh which is stuck in my hose top and readily available. My sporran knife that lives in my sporran, and the black Victorinox executive knife that also seems to find it's way into the sporran on most days.

I have friends who don't carry pocket knives, but they also seem to know that I do, and when they need to cut something, they borrow mine.

I honestly don't understand a grown man who doesn't carry a pocket knife. How shallow and empty must be their life's activities that they don't need this valuable tool. I actively advocate that every responsible person carry a pocket knife at all times. Someone once asked me “Why? What would I do with it?” to which I quickly gave this brief and very incomplete list of typical uses: (It goes without saying that it would be kept sharp, oiled, and appropriately cleaned before and after each use.)

Frequent Uses

Opening Mail.
Removing staples.
Opening boxes and packages, removing tags.
Peeling fruit and vegetables.
Halving candy bars for children.
Cutting up cardboard boxes for disposal.
Repairing and cleaning fingernails,
Removing splinters and thorns.
Deburring wood, plastic and metal objects.
Chamfering holes and sharp edges.
Marking parts for drilling or cutting.
Repairing handles on hoes, shovels, and axes before getting a splinter from them.
Scraping away rust, paint, dried or wet glue, labels and adhesive.
Cutting and trimming thread, string, fishing line, shoe laces, cord, wire, straps and rope.
Cleaning cracks and recesses.
Extracting objects from slots, cracks and crevices.
Prying things loose.
Trimming plants.
Fashioning Wood and Plastic items by whittling.
Repairing clothing and shoes by trimming fabric, cutting threads, making holes.

Occasional Uses

Opening canned goods,
Preparing food, and as an eating utensil.
Preparing kindling for fire.
Dividing an aspirin for fractional dose.
Sharpening pencils.
Killing centipedes and scorpions.
Making stick horses, marshmallow roasters, and other utensils and toys.
Opening cheap locks.
Making or modifying bandages.
Rapping on jar lid to loosen seal.
Trimming candles and wicks, and fishing line.
Scraping corrosion from electrical terminals.
Trimming insulation from electrical wires.
As a Screwdriver substitute, to repair eyeglasses, watch, car, computer, or other machinery.
Field dressing game animals.
Making all the components of a spear, sling, or slingshot.
Extracting nails from tires.
Tapping on pipe to loosen stuck valve. Digging meat from a pecan.

Potential Uses

To Cut seatbelt to extract trapped driver, cut shoelaces to extract trapped foot.
To Remove clothing from injury in First Aid.
To write by scribing on something.
For Personal defense against man or beast.
Cutting hose for snorkel or breathing tube.
To Dig through a wall to safety.
Remove thorns from prickly pear, so it can be eaten.
For the steel part of fire making by flint and steel (sacrificial; this really tears it up.)
To fashion weapons and snares for catching small animals, or cages to hold them.
To improvise clothing and shelter from available materials.

Since the beginning, no human has survived more than a few days in the natural world without having or making some kind of tool, and the quintessential tool, and tool-making tool, is the knife. Anytime something needs to be made, cut, killed, trimmed, blunted, butchered, altered, fixed, fashioned, assembled, disassembled, divided, pried, probed, scribed, scraped, perforated or dug at; anytime you need to interact with the physical world by fashioning or modifying materials more precisely than you can do with your fingers, or with greater pressure than you can apply with your nails and knuckles, a pocket knife is useful. While it is useful for small tasks at all times, the extended capability represented by a knife for similar tasks in an emergency makes it an especially valuable accoutrement. As a kilt wearer, the kind of knife you are most likely to have with you at a moment’s notice, everywhere you go, day or night, is the sgian dubh.

Closed - Left to right: Today's sgian dubh, made by me; Victorinox executive, blade, file/screwdriver, scissors, toothpick, twizzors; Sporran knife.



Open - same as above.