Children and digging knives

kamogawa said:

If you are out detecting where there are young kids around who become very curious about your detector and what you are digging for, I strictly follow a personal rule that I will dig absolutely nothing when kids are in close proximity.
I had an instance where a kid thought he was being helpful. He was standing a ways away from me pointing to where he thought the coin might be. He was standing a distance away, but as I started digging, Jimmy Jack Rabbit quick as lightning he rushed up and reached into the hole in the way of the digging knife as he anxiously tried to and find what was there. That was a freakin close call.

Keep your sharp digging tools secured away from the young ones you encounter!

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Good point, you can explain to them to keep a safe distance and tell them once you get to the find you will then show it to them, but you can't guarantee they won't forget and make a "Jack Rabbit" move like you said.

No problems with that, I hunt when no kids are around. When they come I leave. Good advice though . The kid could deny his actions and you could get in a real jam .

Soil Surgeon said:

No problems with that, I hunt when no kids are around. When they come I leave. Good advice though . The kid could deny his actions and you could get in a real jam .

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I have a hard time remembering if any kids ever got really close to where I was detecting so if it ever happened it was very rare , I remember seeing them riding a bike or walking in the distance while I was detecting and they might not bother coming close simply because they might assume that I'm a worker since I wear a reflective safety vest.

kamogawa said:

If you are out detecting where there are young kids around who become very curious about your detector and what you are digging for, I strictly follow a personal rule that I will dig absolutely nothing when kids are in close proximity.
I had an instance where a kid thought he was being helpful. He was standing a ways away from me pointing to where he thought the coin might be. He was standing a distance away, but as I started digging, Jimmy Jack Rabbit quick as lightning he rushed up and reached into the hole in the way of the digging knife as he anxiously tried to find out what was there. That was a freakin close call.

Keep your sharp digging tools secured away from the young ones you encounter!

Click to expand...

Between this, and the fact kids are a general pain, and.... you are dealer with strangers kids, who's parents you don't know. The parent could be crazy, and accuse you of molesting the kid. No thanks.. I have no use for kids. It would be different if we did not have child labor laws and could put them to work.. but we can't do that anymore

kamogawa said:

…I strictly follow a personal rule that I will dig absolutely nothing when kids are in close proximity….

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Pretty good personal rule, kamogawa. I use a Hori Hori knife as a digger when working yards or parks - it packs a mean serrated edge that would make quick work of little fingers if a kid reached into a hole at the wrong time. For me, how “suddenly silent” my detector becomes always depends on the kid. As a father of two young ladies, I’ve been around my fair share of kids, and you can generally size them up very quickly. For the obnoxious ones, I become a grouchy old man and the detector gets strangely quiet with nothing to find…they disappear fast. The rare earnest and respectful ones I’ll let hang around all they want and answer their questions. Come to think of it…the same technique generally works for adults

Suddenly silent

AirmetTango said:

Pretty good personal rule, kamogawa. I use a Hori Hori knife as a digger when working yards or parks - it packs a mean serrated edge that would make quick work of little fingers if a kid reached into a hole at the wrong time. For me, how “suddenly silent” my detector becomes always depends on the kid. As a father of two young ladies, I’ve been around my fair share of kids, and you can generally size them up very quickly. For the obnoxious ones, I become a grouchy old man and the detector gets strangely quiet with nothing to find…they disappear fast. The rare earnest and respectful ones I’ll let hang around all they want and answer their questions. Come to think of it…the same technique generally works for adults

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That is an excellent point. It is a balancing act of our judgment how to handle the type of people who come up to us and are curious about what we are doing. In September of 1973 I walked up to an elderly gentleman of about 70 who was metal detecting a playground during one of my brothers football games. I was 9 years old. He had a boxy blue detecter which was probably a White's Coinmaster. I didn't know what it was. Had the gentleman told me to get lost, my curiosity about metal detecting would probably have ended right there. Instead, he said he was searching for coins and when he moved the white disc over a coin it would make a sound. At the time, my only frame of reference was of something that might work like a vacuum cleaner. Then he showed me the coins that he found and put into a metal blueberry picking pail. I get emotional thinking about that moment and how it changed my life. September of next year will be 50 years since I saw that man. That would make him about 120 today. In my mind he will be forever young at 70.

But you are exactly right that there are times when we need to go "suddenly silent" if an unruly type of person approaches us, but hopefully we can teach those who show genuine interest about how amazing metal detecting can be.

ManInTheWaLL said:

Between this, and the fact kids are a general pain, and.... you are dealer with strangers kids, who's parents you don't know. The parent could be crazy, and accuse you of molesting the kid. No thanks.. I have no use for kids. It would be different if we did not have child labor laws and could put them to work.. but we can't do that anymore

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That is a good point. I was detecting a on a large school yard and there were some well-behaved kids who asked intelligent questions and kept their distance, but would approach when I mentioned what I found. The field had dozens of quarters. The kids asked if they could have a quarter. I was finding so many that I was just rotating until each one had about the same amount of quarters. But can you imagine today if a child went running over to their parent saying "See that old man on his knees in the field. He just gave me all these quarters". As a rule, no digging with kids around is a personal rule.

kamogawa said:

That is an excellent point. It is a balancing act of our judgment how to handle the type of people who come up to us and are curious about what we are doing. In September of 1973 I walked up to an elderly gentleman of about 70 who was metal detecting a playground during one of my brothers football games. I was 9 years old. He had a boxy blue detecter which was probably a White's Coinmaster. I didn't know what it was. Had the gentleman told me to get lost, my curiosity about metal detecting would probably have ended right there. Instead, he said he was searching for coins and when he moved the white disc over a coin it would make a sound. At the time, my only frame of reference was of something that might work like a vacuum cleaner. Then he showed me the coins that he found and put into a metal blueberry picking pail. I get emotional thinking about that moment and how it changed my life. September of next year will be 50 years since I saw that man. That would make him about 120 today. In my mind he will be forever young at 70.

But you are exactly right that there are times when we need to go "suddenly silent" if an unruly type of person approaches us, but hopefully we can teach those who show genuine interest about how amazing metal detecting can be.

Click to expand...

Fantastic story, kamogawa…and perfectly summarizes why I’m happy to entertain the questions or curiosity from folks while detecting (especially kids), as long as they are genuine, polite, and well-mannered. With kids, you never know the positive impact you might have - just like your case, fondly remembering one gentleman’s patience and kindness half a century later as you look back on a lengthy detecting “career”. You never know when you might inspire an entire lifetime of enjoyment!

As a rule I like kids but not when I am detecting. I have had them come out of nowhere and grab my find out of a hole before I have even had a chance to look at it. I had one small boy stomp on my coil. They stand right where you are trying to detect. They always want to try your detector. Never give them anything or you will never get rid of them. I broke this rule once when a small boy, alone stood quietly to the side and didn't interfere with my detecting. I ended up giving him a small car that I had found. Generally when they show up I leave and don't detect when they are present.