Thomas Jefferson Just Keeps on Innovating
Thomas Jefferson Just Keeps on Innovating
A Knife Reflection from a Spring Break Trip to Monticello
Want to feel like you’ve done nothing with your life? Visit Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello in Virginia, that’ll do the trick.
Our third president was a Renaissance man with interests and skills that spanned the gamut of human knowledge from science to music, from Paris to Virginia.
In the front hall at Monticello, where guests would wait sometimes hours for an audience with Jefferson, there hangs a panoply of Native American weapons and shields, and over his bed hangs two pistols and a large shamshir. My kind of guy.
But one thing sticks out from our experience at Monticello that was an innovation of the staff who work there today, an innovation whose time has come.
Right before you enter the security line, complete with walk-through metal detectors, they offer a small locker in a see-through plexiglass bank of 12 in which you can lock up your pocket knives. Brilliant!
Take the key, enjoy the house and grounds, then collect your knife (or knives) on the way out. Like the “check your guns” in the Old West.
I’ll say it again, brilliant. Our locker contained the Kizer Mad Tanto, my wife’s Kershaw Leak and Off-Grid Knives Baby Rhino, and I could just barely fit the NoVA-1 after removing it from the sheath.
No more running back to the car, no more angry looks from the family for holding things up.
I think once Knife Rights fries all the other bigger fish, they should work on getting pocket knife lockers at all locations that prohibit carrying knives. Seems worthy of their valuable time.
Just a thought!
Bob “The Knife Junkie” DeMarco
Macho Blades - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 409)
Edie "Macho" Diaz of Macho Blades joined me on Episode 409 of The Knife Junkie Podcast.
Macho is a USAF Veteran but started his path to knifemaking in an unlikely place — World of Warcraft (WoW), where he was a Night Elf Warrior and Master Weaponsmith. After a while Macho felt he'd wasted time and money becoming someone in WoW and decided to become a warrior/weaponsmith in the real world.
