IMHO some of this comes from the was the modern society has changed in the last 50 years. Used to be just about every boy got a pocket knife when he was just old enough to accept a little responsibility without getting himself killed.

Somewhere between eight and ten years-old the kid got a pocket knife for birthday or Christmas. It was something of a right of passage. Nearly every adult male, and not a few females, had a knife in their pocket. Many had a Boyscout knife or SAK and the business suit guys, worried about the suit hanging right, had a tiny pen knife.

Knives were practical tools and used nearly every day for small jobs. Knives were symbolic of getting things done, and being prepared and, a mark of having the competence to do it without slicing a vein.

This changed. Some of it may have to do with packaging. Back in the 50s most men had their shirts done at a laundry. These would come back wrapped in paper and tied with string. Meat and produce were often package the same way. Lots of every-day items were similarly packaged. You might have to spend several minutes untying these packages but with a small knife you simply cut the string.

Packaging has changed. No longer do most people pick their cuts of meat and watch as the butcher wraps them. Everything has gone to plastic shrunk on with a machine.

There is also the rise in liability and non-acceptance of the small injuries that used to be common with kids. Used to be Cub Scouts had knives. Nobody would dream of it being any other way. I was shocked the first time I heard about Boy Scouts having to get a badge before they could carry a pocket knife.

Oh well, no going back. And it is easy to overlook the fact that the 'good old days' weren't all that good. Most men stopped carrying knives but there are now blacks in Boy scouts and the voting booths, and women aren't relegated to secondary status. Fair enough trade in my book seeing as that I still carry a Leatherman.

It is still funny too see people struggle to get a CD out of it's plastic wrap. Or open many of the tri-laminate wrapped foods. Maybe pen knives could come back. Then again last I went into the courthouse they had stopped storing knives if you had one on you. I would have had had to have walked all the way back to my truck to stow my Leatherman if I hadn't noticed a friend lounging around out front. He was kind enough to hold the knife as I did my business in the courthouse.

"Whipping it out" it depends on the situation. Sometimes a quick grab and flick and then a just as fast disappearing act folding it against the leg and back in it's sheath has the desired effect. One time I saw a young buck giving a woman's purse, hanging from a chair, a long look. The tiny click of the knife locking open before I sliced an article out of the newspaper had an effect. I will never know for sure what that effect was but when he heard that tiny click he looked back and our eyes met. Might have meant nothing. Or it might have registered that he was being observed and that there was a guy who cared with a knife behind him. He straightened up visibly and a few minuted later she left taking her purse with her.

If I'm in a meeting with the sorts of people who might be startled by the sudden appearance of a sharp knife I try to make sure to announce what I'm doing ahead of time. I have sometimes asked something along the lines of: 'The meat is tough today, would anyone mind if I used a sharp knife?'.

Better to give them some warning and eliminate any idea that I'm just randomly fondling a knife under the table.