I was five/six or so, my sisters may have been younger/older. My dad insists the things are useful multipurpose tools and that one should know how to whittle. I never got into whittling as an art form, but I loved my knives.
Even after the time I hacked myself open nicely and bled all over the stairs. (I was going to the bathroom to bandage myself up before my parents could find out I cut myself. They stood outside the door listening to me talk myself though the first aid process.)
The gifting process included how to care for the knife as well as protect myself from it and what not to do with it. I got more scars from my first job (at 16) than from a childhood of toodling around with a knife.
But you know your kid. If they are a thoughtful and safe little person and you are confident in their ability to retain safety information, by all means, get the kid a pocket knife.
I think 10 is a bit young. My son wanted one at 12 and I was hesitant. I don’t think I gave him one, but he eventually had one (who knows where he got it).
If a kid doesn’t need one, he shouldn’t have one. It just invites trouble.
I can offer a pointer from my own childhood. I got my first knife when I was about six, and I remember that on one occasion I opened the blade to a 90-degree angle and then used it like a pick-axe on the decomposing granite hillside behind the house. I didn’t stop to think how the blade could close on my fingers as I gripped the knife.
Well, it was an old, dull knife, and came out of this without so much as a scratch, but the moral of the story is: make sure you imagine the most outlandish, foolhardy things such a young kid might attempt with a knife, and then teach him to avoid those things.
I got my first one at six - and it was even a belt knife. However, as we were heading out to fish camp for the summer, it qualifies as heavily rural. I also got the knife safety lectures, had it removed from me for a week for disregarding said lectures, and returned when I swore to abide by the rules, and did.
However, I only got to have it on my person when we were out in the bush. At any other time, my parents had custody, and I had to ask for it, and explain why I needed it.
I applied the same general rules for my boys, but they didn’t get their first until they were eight. And the hunting knives they bought themselves REMAIN in parental custody unless they go hunting or turn sixteen, whichever comes first.
I also got the knife safety lectures, had it removed from me for a week for disregarding said lectures, and returned when I swore to abide by the rules, and did.