A couple months ago I was at the airport in Cincinnati and I noticed that in the main concourse area there were several restaurants, including a steakhouse. I was wondering how this is not a major security hole–people only go through security once, then they’re in the concourse where they have access to steak knives. They can go straight from the restaurant onto the plane with no additional security check. How are they keeping people from sneaking steak knives onto planes? Even if they try to keep a tight inventory on the knives, it seems like it would be at least a short while before they would notice a missing knife. Even if they’re vigilant someone could grab a knife, run off, get lost in the crowd, hand the knife to a buddy, etc. How can it be safe to have a steakhouse after the security checkpoint at an airport? Am I missing something?
I know that after 9/11 they removed all knives of any description from within the secured area. That meant basically you had plastic forks and spoons. I think that the plastic knives have now reappeared, but I don’t think you would find any metal knives if you went into that steakhouse (except maybe in the kitchen).
I haven’t seen a real knife in an airport steak house in quite awhile either. Does make me wonder what they use in the kitchen. Of course, I would just take along my 8" long native american flint knife with the bone handle if I wanted to eat with a “real” knife. They would have to pat me down to find it and that hasn’t happen in the last twenty times I’ve flown this last year.
So I was in the San Francisco airport last year and I stopped for dinner.
I unrolled the cutlery (wrapped in a napkin) and saw what I believed to be a metal knife. When I went to use it to cut my bagel, it bent as if it were made from rubber!
Upon close examination it was a very cheap plastic knife what had a great crome plate job. :eek:
I took it home and did a gotcha on both my wife, and son. 
From what I have observed the cook’s knifes are secured to the equipment via a heavy cable to prevent them from being removed from the food prep area.
They make you eat steak with a plastic knife, but they have no problem allowing you to buy a glass bottle of orange juice which could easily be broken and wielded as a weapon. I have to wonder who is making these decisions. I get through okay with a sheet metal clipboard, but safety scissors are confiscated.