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STICKY_BLADE

                                             March 18, 2009


  Once upon a time, on a bboard
  far away, a friend argued a
  cute point, speculating that
  there was something peculiar
  about men carrying knives              But then: in the world of
  around with them as opposed            manufacturing, cutting techniques
  to tape or glue or staplers.           (machining down from bulk) are very
                                         useful for small runs, but it's
  Aren't occasions when you              only for larger runs that
  need to stick something together       techniques like forging and casting
  just as common as occasions when       become more cost-effective...
  you need to cut them apart?
                                                    And something like welding
     As it happens, I've                            would come in in-between:
     experimented with                              good for small jobs, but
     carrying joining                               it's not worth keeping the
     technology around                              gear around unless you've
     with me.                                       got a lot of small jobs.

            When I was a teenager,
            in preference to a
            knife, I carried a
            flat box cutter, only
            a little thicker than      This fit inside my
            the one-edged razor        tight 70s blue jeans     Though
            blades it held.            better than a knife      practicality
                                       would, but did have      wasn't the
            I found it somewhat        an unfortunate           whole of it:
            useful to wrap some        tendency to slide        I was imitating
            masking tape around        open and slice gashes    my brother,
            the cutter -- if I         in the back pocket.      who became
            needed a little tape                                enthusiastic
            it was easy enough                                  about these
            to peel off a few                                   cutters after
            inches of it.                                       doing some
                                                                supermarket
                But the tape wasn't                             stock work.
                durable enough to
                carry around in                                    VILLON
                your pocket for
                long: it would get
                too dinged up to use    Duct tape might work
                (shredding when you     better, but you'd
                try to peel it off).    have to live with
                                        the adhesive from
                                        the edges getting
                                        all over the inside
                                        your pocket.

                Similarly, later I
                experimented with carrying
                a tube of superglue around              And if I remember
                in my shoulder bag.                     right, while in
                                                        grade school, I
                   This is only good for                tried carrying
                   one-time use: once the               a small portable
                   tube is open, nothing will           stapler in my
                   keep it from eventually              backpack -- it
                   leaking all over the                 wasn't durable
                   inside of your bag.                  enough: it would
                                                        get squeezed and
                                                        jam up, then the 
                                                        plastic parts       
                                                        started cracking    
                                                        off of it.          
      None of this completely                                     
      shoots down the argument                                    
      that the knife habit is
      the result of a phallic
      obsession:

         The most useful "blade" on
         my Swiss army knife has turned
         out to be the comparatively
         rare scissors, rather than the        And we might speculate
         ubiquitous phallic knife.             that a saner world
                                               would've worked out a
         And on my hip, I carry a Gerber       portable tape/glue/
         leatherman knock-off rather than      stapler solution by now.
         a Leatherman, because the Gerber         
         is like switchblade-pliers: one          (A recent discovery for me, 
         swift move and you've got a pair         as of 2018:  the *original* 
         of not-terribly-phallic pliers in        "Crazy Glue" packaging is   
         your hand.                               really good: a double-sealed
                                                  tube within a tube that's   
                                                  good for many uses.)     





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