There's a lot of good, reasonable advice here. I'll just add a couple points of reference and some resources you might peruse.
The Cub Scouts have a hard prohibition against pocket knives through 2nd grade. After that, kids can earn a Whittling Chip <http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/award/whittling_chip-434.asp> allowing him/her to carry a pocket knife at Scout events. The Boy Scouts, which is 6th graders and up, have a woodworking badge called the Totin' Chip <https://www.google.com/search?q=teaching+totin+chip+troop> addressing knives again, as well as larger tools like hatchets and saws. They can also lose the privileges if they're irresponsible or unsafe, and have to re-earn the chips. The skill checklist and lesson plans floating around are good references. It's common sense stuff, but I usually find something useful, like a way of explaining that resonates with kids (e.g. stick out your arm, turn in a circle, if you cannot touch anybody it's safe to open your knife). -Randy On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 6:36:45 PM UTC-8, Steven Seelig wrote: > > I'm inspired by the new shipment Riv has of the Gransfors Bruk Hatchet, > but not for me. My son is turning 10, and at some time in the past, > probably when he was 5, I told him he could get one when he turned 10. > Little did I know he would remember. He's a handy and inquisitive fellow, > and my parenting view has always been to let him do stuff on his own. He > has ridden his bike by himself to the local market here in the wilds of the > city of DC since he was about 7 and seems to be semi-responsible when on > his own. > > We do bike camping together, so there could be a need for a hatchet to > chop wood for fires, but as a Grateful Dead head I'm aware that Jerry > Garcia's brother axed off his middle finger when Jerry was 6. It worked > out for him. > > My wife seems okay with letting me decide, which in most circumstances is > a green light. I think a hatchet would be better than something with a > longer handle. And I am willing to get him something good he can own his > entire life. > > Any perspectives? > > Steve > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
