Any Boy Scouts that earned the privileges of working with sharps and fire in their youth?
Posted by HamboneBanjo@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 120 comments
ReagleRamen@reddit
My kid just got his last month
CottaBird@reddit
Oh yeah, but I had to re-earn my firem’n chit three more times because I lost so many corners. I also built the best fire in the troop.
Serpent151@reddit
Yep. The word around my troop was that if misbehaved with a knife or fire they tore a corner off your card. Once the corners were gone, so was your knife and fire stuff. I don’t think I ever saw a corner get removed on anyone.
mramseyISU@reddit
They did that in my troop. They don’t do anymore apparently because it’s bullying or something.
straitshots@reddit
I was the kid that went through like 3 of each. Fire and sharp things were cool and fun as a 10-12 year old. I was also a better boy scout and more knowledgeable about outdoor stuff than everyone in my troop, most of them were hella lame.
tagehring@reddit
My troop did that; my dad was my scoutmaster and he took corners off of mine for accidents at home, too. His father was his scoutmaster back in the ‘70s. When he was 16, he cut himself pretty badly trying to cut apart some frozen hamburger patties at home. My grandfather ripped his card in half and made him take basic knife safety with a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds.
8Deer-JaguarClaw@reddit
Memory unlocked. I totally forgot about the "thank you" when being handed a knife.
Nadathug@reddit
Oof. That’s gonna cost a corner off your Totin’ Chip.
youfrickinguy@reddit
My brother’s had enough corners clipped off to be a circle, but he still had it.
ManWhoTalksToHisHand@reddit
When I was senior patrol leader, if someone messed up royally with their knife, I'd cut the corner off, and if the screw up was with fire, I'd burn the corner off. Thankfully my troop was pretty good, and I didn't have to do it very often.
bassman314@reddit
That was actually the rules, from BSA.
Our troop went farther. Any safety violation resulted in it being removed. You then had to take the course again to re-earn the ability to use knives or fire.
ezrapoundcakes@reddit
We had several corners removed in our troop. We weren't terribly serious at times ...
OJimmy@reddit
I had it all taken away and earned it all back
Freakin_A@reddit
I used the fuel tank from a Coleman stove (white gas). I used the nozzle to trace a line from the fire up my friends legs and we all laughed as his leg caught fire and he put it out. Those things had some decent range.
Didn’t lose a corner for that one either.
pinkocatgirl@reddit
I lost a corner for playing with matches
DMHavoX@reddit
We had one kid cut himself with his pocket knife and had to get stitches in his finger. One of the adults cut off a corner and stitched it back on.
Theborgiseverywhere@reddit
I sliced my a chunk out of my thumb knuckle whittling at summer camp in WV and they absolutely took a corner
FlipZer0@reddit
My whittlin' only had 2 corners by the end of summer. Lost 1 for throwing my knife at a tree. The second one for throwing it into the ground. I thought the ground was a safer use of my time... I've heard varying reports whether this is true or not, but since my grandfather was head of the regional council at the time, it definitely applied to me!
Brain_Glow@reddit
I lost two corners on mine. Once for cutting down a small, but still alive tree to make a walking stick. I forget what the other one was.
CSWorldChamp@reddit
We were hardcore - we’d remove the corner with a hatchet.
spuldup@reddit
I lost 2 corners, still made Eagle so it all worked out.
hamburgler26@reddit
Wow it was the same for us, I hadn't thought about that in years. I know at least one or two guys got a corner removed, probably for playing with fire.
MlsterFlster@reddit
Only one in our troop to lose a corner was the Scoutmaster's son. Kid was always misbehaving.
Interesting-Rule-175@reddit
I had all four taken and had to earn it again... I got pretty good at throwing knives and axes.
sherahero@reddit
That's what my son was told, he just recently got his pocketknife card
deowolf@reddit
I accidently stabbed a kid and still have all four corners on mine.
Albert_Simon@reddit
One time the scout master asked one of us to go get a box cutter off the table. Me and another kid sprinted over there to grab it. We got there at the same time, and unfortunately I got the wrong end. The scout master took a corner off his card but said since I got a corner taken off my finger, that was punishment enough.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
The kid… no so much. He’s now missing some corners
Dustdevil88@reddit
We had one boy use his knife to deface and damage this beautiful wooden bridge over a dry wash. The park rangers got involved. Boy lost his Totin Chip, but spent the next 4 weekends supposedly rebuilding the bridge with his dad
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
I think that was a pretty common thing. In my troop we had these projects we worked on, sometimes on some privately owned land. By completing those projects, we’d complete our requirements. My favorite one was making steps, heading into a ravine, with just branches we cut to size, dirt, and rocks.
We also had an annual survivalist camp out where they’d drop us off late at night in the wilderness and we had to orient ourselves back with map and compass. Throughout the year, every scout had to start a fire independently and cook a meal that they designed and budgeted for everyone. If you didn’t do it right, nobody ate (which wasn’t really true bc we all had snacks and such).
LH99@reddit
Same!
quintk@reddit
At least the scout camp I went to did enforce this as described. I was very upset that I lost a corner for what (even as adult) I think was a petty counselor jumping to conclusions. But the kids who had four strikes and lost their knife privileges… the kids I can remember, this was 100% appropriate. Not every boy can be trusted with sharps, especially not in that tween/early teen age
GangstaRIB@reddit
lol there was always the threat by the scout master though
Thom_Jero1213@reddit
My troop had the same thing. I never saw a corner removed though.
duncan345@reddit
I'm a Cub Scout den leader and we still give these out! The thing about cutting off the corners was always supposed to be an empty threat. Now BSA gives explicit instructions not to cut off any corners.
Also, you haven't known true anxiety until you've tried to teach knife safety to a bunch of excited, armed third graders.
straitshots@reddit
Holy shit, really, about not cutting corners? Damn, how are they actually gonna learn consequences?
Neither-Mycologist77@reddit
I'm going to be the Bear leader this year and I'm terrified lol
duncan345@reddit
Good luck!
Haunting_Banana_8478@reddit
First badge we had to do was camp craft , knife and fire safety.
Mexican_Boogieman@reddit
Still have my totin chip. I bring it out when the ladies come over.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
SemicolonGuitars@reddit
We used to do a Totin’ Chit clinic every summer at camp. The fire one was FAR more rare.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
I had to be able to light a genuine fire with two matches and no lighter fluid or anything like that. Just what we could muster. I which I had learned how to do it without matches.
tythegeek@reddit
Yeah, I had them, lost them, as a scout, and issued and confiscated them as a camp councilor.
mcfetrja@reddit
One of the ASMs in my troop was a stickler about the Totin’ Chip and shovels. Ol dude must have had a coffee can full of corners he’s collect just by waiting to pounce on the young lad who inadvertently left the fire shovel with the sharpened end exposed. Then he’d grab a corner off your Fireman’s Chit for bad fire safety practice. Dude helped me appreciate the little things when it comes to trolling kids.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
That last line got me.
It is an art though.
EconomistSea1444@reddit
Got them both at Camp Tuckahoe in PA
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Sending adolescent and pre-adolescent boys to a place called Tuckahoe? Were they out of their minds?
CaptPotter47@reddit
I got mine and have helped multiple girls in my daughters’ troop earn theirs!
Nothing more terrifying then seeing teen you taught to use an axe walking calming into the ax yard and start splitting logs. The whole time I’m just praying “please keep her from hitting her own leg!”
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
In the end though, it’s absolutely necessary. I do a lot of my own heavy yard work and home repair. I regularly deal with hand and electric tools, and I have a ton of respect for those tools. If it weren’t for the lessons I picked up, odds are I would’ve been injured by now.
This is getting a bit wordy, but I just remembered something. A few months ago, I was hacking at a root of a tree stump with a hatchet. I was getting tired and I lost my grip a bit. The hatchet swung wider than I expected and missed the target. If my leg was there, I would’ve (at the very least) whacked the hell out of my shin. Thing is, before I started hacking away I remember thinking about how you keep your leg out of the swing path - just in case. I learned that in the Boy Scouts for sure.
enek101@reddit
Yep! still have a bunch fof this stuff and more. My parents were something of Boy Scout royalty. My mom was the first ever female woodbage coordinator and my dad Chaired a Nat'l Jamboree. Good times! i grew up in the woods it still my happy place!
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
I never got to go to a jamboree. One of my big disappointments
orkash@reddit
Hell yeah. All the way to eagle scout.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Those that don’t know won’t get how major of an accomplishment this is. I too am an Eagle Scout. It’s the first thing I ever earned that took years to achieve.
orkash@reddit
Those last few years of boy scouts where a bitch as we moved and my troop was back in the main city. Was gonna ditch the guys I did it with since Webelos.
Accadius@reddit
Yep I had that but it pales in comparrison to the paul bunion award my older brother got for chopping down an entire tree and chopping it into firewood. He then built a huge bonfire with flemes so high leaves on trees 10 feet up were crinkling.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Those different awards were something else. I had my religious knots, my order of the arrow, and the mile swim. I was addicted to getting those special patches.
tagehring@reddit
I know you meant “Paul Bunyan,” but now I’m picturing a giant callus with an ax. 😂
Accadius@reddit
Yeah bunyan man. I dont remember how it was spelled lol
tagehring@reddit
It’s one of those serendipitous typos that made me laugh. 😂
LongLiveTheRat@reddit
Why does one say Chip and the other Chit?
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
I’ve always wondered that
FreezingRobot@reddit
My troop was on a camping trip once where one of the scouts went running through the campsite with a wheelbarrow that had a saw and an uncovered axe in it, and accidental ran through a small campfire someone had just started with it. Needless to say, the adult leadership skipped the corner-cutting part and just took both cards away from him.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Good times
goat_penis_souffle@reddit
I definitely remember the Totin’ Chip.
Also, holding an axe by its head with the handle perpendicular and turning 360 degrees to ensure that there was adequate safety clearance before chopping.
PhoneJazz@reddit
That’s some good sharps discipline, u/goat_penis_souffle
ErroneousBosch@reddit
Lookit Mr Safety here with all his corners...
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
These aren’t mine. I just found images. All my BSA stuff got ruined in storage.
Cross_22@reddit
Recently at the cub scouts they had a "carving event". Tons of safety instructions and then 10 minutes of "here's a plastic knife and a bar of soap. happy carving!"
izlib@reddit
I'm an Eagle Scout, and now a Cubmaster / Assistant Scout Master. BSA is still an active part of my life, and not only a memory.
I have mine tucked away somewhere, and have signed off on many a Totin' Chip (and the Cub's Whittling Chip).
Neither-Mycologist77@reddit
My son just ranked up to Bear and was all on fire to go home and start working on his Whittling adventure. He's very proud to be allowed to carry his Cub Scout knife now. It's a hand-me-down from a family friend who doesn't have kids of his own and wanted my boy to have it.
izlib@reddit
That's always the big excitement for bears. We always do whittling chip the first few meetings of the year for Bears.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Good on you bro for passing that along. I had some amazing experiences from scouting and am, too, an Eagle Scout.
Brazident@reddit
Eagle scout here,
Yes.
Valahiru@reddit
I had both of these. Never once saw someone check their circle of blood or announce "knife open".
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
To this day, I pass blades carefully (edge away) and always insist on saying “thank you” or “got it” when handing/receiving blades. I think my wife gets a bit annoyed sometimes with it, but neither of us has cut each other in our 25 years together.
Freakin_A@reddit
“Thank you I have the axe”
tagehring@reddit
My husband (not a Boy Scout) picked it up from me and will occasionally call me out if I forget.
Complete_Entry@reddit
Pass rules are written in blood.
MlsterFlster@reddit
That behavior became part of my hard code.
frkoutthrwstuff@reddit
I had both of these and still managed to burn myself bad retrieving an open pocketknife that fell into a fire. No corners lost!
Calabris@reddit
Yep had both.
Stardustchaser@reddit
They still do this and my kids have hem in their books.
a-type-of-pastry@reddit
Yep! And the very next day I fell off a rope spring into a fresh water spring and messed up my ankle when I landed.
Honestly, the shock of the cold water felt worse. Fresh spring water is cold as heck.
dvoecks@reddit
Just handed my MIL a knife last night and thought back to my Totin' Chip.
Independent_Toe5722@reddit
I got the totin’ chit but I don’t think the fireman chit was a thing when I was in Scouts. We learned how to build, manage, and extinguish campfires, but I don’t think we got a card for it. Maybe my memory is just faulty.
I was in Scouts in central Florida and earned Eagle in ‘97.
Delicious_Sir_1167@reddit
No corner taking off of our cards that I was aware of. Maybe my troop leaders didn't do that because my troop was like a bunch of tazmanian devils.
Burner62391@reddit
Whoa. Core memory unlocked.
WileyPap@reddit
Seriously. And adding "and shit" to everything we said while trying to convince the scoutmaster the word he heard was "n chit" not "and shit".
Did anyone else learn to speed tie bowline knots around their waist from a scoutmaster trying to convince you that if you fell of a cliff he'd throw you rope but you'd only have a split second to tie the knot around your waist before falling to the inevitable death that awaits all who can't tie a bowline fast enough?
help_me_obi_jon@reddit
In my troop I think it was called a Whittling Chip to carry a knife
Daddy_Tablecloth@reddit
I had them both, I may even still have one of them somewhere but I'd have to go looking for it.
dos_passenger58@reddit
My fire card had all four corners cut by the end of summer camp
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Hilarious. You were the Bart Simpson of the group.
dos_passenger58@reddit
Don't do what Donnie don't does
PhilosopherDismal191@reddit
This brings back memories...
BookMan78@reddit
Ah yes! My first concealed carry card. Loved my old troop
RichardCleveland@reddit
Ya, I even got an ax throwing badge, scouting back then was off the rails... and AMAZING. I guess we did go during the lawn dart era.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
No joke. Overnight horseback trips to sleep under the stars, archery, rifle marksmanship, cooking over open flames, and whatever nonsense we got into during our free times. Those were some interesting times.
plated_lead@reddit
I got two corners cut off for a) bringing a fixed blade and b) throwing said blade into a picnic table
LegallyReactionary@reddit
I remember getting fire certified and all of us immediately making flamethrowers out of bug spray.
rcbjr@reddit
And I still say thank you and pass a knife correctly, it's amazing how that's ingrained into you.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Same
Lululemonparty_@reddit
I had that one. I didn't get farther than tenderfoot though.
DouglasBubletrousers@reddit
Ha. Yup. Kept them both in a ziplock in my pack for campout.
HamboneBanjo@reddit (OP)
Same
SquatchoCamacho@reddit
My kid's summer camp does a similar thing, he's currently working with flint and steel which he thinks it's awesome bc Minecraft of course lol. They have to level up on most of the stuff, like for fishing he had to start with some safety rod before he worked his way up to a regular rod and hook.
I was never in girl scouts, my parents stuck me in some church version called Pathfinders. It was lame as fuck lol
Hooversham@reddit
I still make my wife say “got it” when passing her a knife. 😂
Express-Cow190@reddit
I don’t know if we just didn’t do the cards in Canada or just my troop but I’ve never seen the card (I can’t remember what was used to indicate we could use/carry one). I still have my first Boy Scout knife in my desk. Once my son is old enough, I’m giving it to him.
zipty842@reddit
I removed a chunk of my knuckle right after getting it
-kindness-@reddit
Yes, I probably got them both at one of our meetings in the portable behind St. Raphael Church. We mostly played basketball when we met.
Zulers_Sausage_Gravy@reddit
Yep. Sharp things and fire was my desire
mclardy13@reddit
Canadian 42f my Dad and grandfather taught me.
singleguy79@reddit
I never made it out of cub scouts, so no.
Shirkaday@reddit
I had that eventually, but before that one, it was the "Whittling Chip" card.
Also at one point we were also part of one of those fake scout programs at a church called the Royal Rangers, and we had the "Cut & Chop" card as well, which actually sounded more cool to me.
GangstaRIB@reddit
Looks like you got all 4 corners cut on yours lol. Or maybe that was the widdlin chip?
BrattyTwilis@reddit
Yeah. They had a station at Scout Camp where you could get signed off for it
Thom_Jero1213@reddit
I thought every Boy Scout got this. I had an unofficial fireman’s chit too. I earned it, but never got the actual card.
snkiz@reddit
It wasn't optional to Canadian scouts
OkieRising@reddit
Hell yeah
StopIllustrious5781@reddit
👋