Non-permissive Carry

 

I read a posting the other day about carrying a defensive weapon in a non-permissive environment (NPE).  I think the writer was going to a concert or a Con of some flavor.  They settled on the CIA letter opener and fabricated a cardboard sheath. I wish I could backtrack to provide a link as there was some discussion about ramifications of getting caught.  I often travel to the District of Clowns and so must leave behind my EDC gear of choice. I typically carry Kershaw Tanto point knife.  Sometimes however, I go to sporting events or trade show where bags are searched and metal detectors come into play.  So I also had decided a non-metallic knife.  I settled on the Cold Steel FGXSkean Dhu. These are modeled after the Scottish Sgian Dubhs. The advantage of this over the CIA Letter Opener is while it’s dagger shaped, it is single edged like a sgian dubh.  That’s one less charge if caught in a location that prohibits double-edged blades like NYC. Most of the “novelty” poly knives don’t come with sheaths.  They’re marketed as letter openers and are basically just a fancy shank. But they should work just well enough to dissuade someone looking for an easy target on the walk back to the car.

When the CFO broke her wrist, I went to PT and watched the specialist put on her plastic cast.  We had a great discussion about molding plastic and forming Kydex. He gave me a couple small pieces of this plastic to play around with.  It has some great properties. It can be formed at a relatively low temperature using hot water.  It has a memory and will return to a flat sheet when it’s re-warmed.  It sticks to itself when warm. Get it a little hotter and you can melt it to smooth the sharp edges.

Here's what I came up with.