As many folks know, I forge tools for a living.  On weekends, I give private lessons.  I get a phone call, there is a Federal Air Marshall on the phone, wanting me to teach him how to forge killing knives, because it is far safer to slice a terrorist than to use a sidearm, risking blowing a hole in the fuselage.  Long story short, he forged a group of nice blades, bought a forge and anvil and is now selling shivs to his coworkers.

That makes sense.

i'd a sent him away.

 

scary world.

 

Man, that wouldn't even crack my top five!

I briefly worked at a pawn shop which was a real insight into some of the folks in my community.  All of the employees had their own little speech to politely conclude dealings with intoxicated, crazy, or otherwise impaired individuals.  I probably deliver my little speech a half-dozen times per shift, mostly without incident.  Spread across maybe five employee's at a time, that's a good 30 or so people who are too loopy to do business with a pawn shop.

I do question this air-marshal's logic as it sounds like action-movie thinking.  Then again, when I was a kid an "operator" was the person who answered when you dialed "0".

I was glad that I could help him

Plenty of guys in various lines of work like this who carry and sometimes use knives.  Seems like the "21-foot rule" might come into play with a sky marshal as well. 

 

Did you get any pics of the knives he finished up with you?