Age for pocket knife

[Mom-ninja.]

At what age would/did you give your dc a pocket knife?

[Sputterduck]

My son is 5 and has one only under supervision. He wouldn't hurt himself with it, but I almost guarantee he'd carve something up he is not supposed to.:glare:

[Karen in CO]

My dd had a swiss army knife at 8 and a pocket knife for whittling at 9. She has been using kitchen knives with supervision for years and still has all of her fingers.

[st_claire]

Depends on the kid.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Dh gave the 10yo one for christmas. I just made sure to tell him to whittle away from his body and to not take it away from home for now.

[GWOB]

I made the mistake of leaving my dh and ds6 alone in a hardware store. Ds came out with a pocket knife:glare:. Dh did file down the knife to make it safer for ds. Honestly, it was not the disaster I expected.

[angela in ohio]

7 or 8, to be kept up and only used with an adult

9 or 10 to have it on his own

 

My 7 yo got one last year for Christmas, but only because he needed it for whittling. He only uses it with dh's supervision.

[elegantlion]

I think ds was about 7. DH did file down the point. Dh is also a carpenter and ds has been using tools since he could pick up a hammer, so that helped. Ds now has several pocket knifes, he just got a new one for Christmas

[Mom-ninja.]

Thanks. I'm going to get one for ds. He turns 9 this weekend.

[lionfamily1999]

For Scouts, they can get their whittling chip in 3rd grade (so 8/9). We gave ds his first pocket knife at 7, it was dh's grampa's. Then we bought him his own after his 8th birthday, a real Swiss Army knife, complete with toothpick.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I think the answer is two-fold: when she's old enough to handle a knife responsibly and when she's responsible enough to keep up with it.

 

My girl is at the former but not the latter.:glare:

[SonshineLearner]

My husband, an engineer of tools, make a wooden one with my 6 year old son. It's fully functioning, and my husband said that when he learned to care for this one... and be careful....he'd make a "real" one with him.

Edited January 14, 2010 by NayfiesMama

[Parrothead]

When kids start survival training they should have their own.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My dad was 6yo when he got his first pocket knife..

DS, now 12, still doesn't have one, although we're talking about it.

DS is all thumbs, not responsible, and has no occasion to use a pocket knife. This wasn't the case for my dad.

[KidsHappen]

Maybe when he is 30. :tongue_smilie:

[GoVanGogh]

DS got his in October, shortly before he turned 8.

He is very responsible, so I wasn't worried about him hurting himself or losing it. What I didn't anticipate is that he would want to take it with him everywhere and show everyone he knows! We had to frisk him before we went to the State Fair, to ensure that he would not set off their metal detectors! I told DH I was so glad he wasn't in ps or else we would be getting that dreaded phone call, "Um. Your son has been suspended for bringing a knife onto school property." :tongue_smilie:

[InHisGrip]

Ds, 12, got a Swiss Army pocketknife for Christmas. On the first box that he used his knife on to open, he is looking down at the box and says "What are those drops?"....closer inspection revealed that it was blood and somehow, on his first attempt at using the knife, he had cut himself. It wasn't a bad cut or anything, but my dh and I were second-guessing that choice as a gift!:tongue_smilie: So, he got an early lesson in why it's important to be very, very careful with them.

[HSMom2One]

My husband, an engineer of tools, make a wooden one with my 6 year old son. It's fully functioning, and my husband said that when he learned to care for this one... and be careful....he'd make a "real" one with him.

 

I think your dh should patent that idea and sell them! What a brilliant way to teach young kids to be responsible.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[myfunnybunch]

We got one for my oldest ds at age 8, for his birthday.

 

We do have pocket knife rules: He must ask before using it, and an adult must be in the room. This is a child-specific rule, not age-related. He is an out-of-the-box thinker (Hey! I bet I could use my pocket knife for this!) and sometimes doesn't quite think of safety first.

 

Cat

[mama2cntrykids]

My oldest ds got a very small one last summer when he was 8. Now that I see that he handles it so nicely, I would let him get a bigger/better quality one. I guess I hesitated last summer about it because I was thinking of my 6 yr old ds. I can't say I can trust him with sharp objects...seriously :P

[SandKsmama]

Our requirement for ds was that he get his whittling chip badge first in Cub Scouts, then for his birthday (soon after that), he got a real Swiss Army Knife. :-)