I do a fair amount of soldering on small circuit boards and I sometimes use an Xacto knife. Well needless to say I am not sure what is scarier, the fact that i forgot it was in my laptop bag while going through security at the airport or passing right through security without them even realizing it was in there.

If the liquid ban was anything other than a Big Joke, TSA would not be haphazardly tossing all liquids into a garbage can. They would be treating it like potentially hazardous and/or explosive material and disposing of it properly.

Thus the folly of it all.

If there are Ordinary Liquids. . .
 

Are you saying that TSA actually has a SSI directive on how to handle hazmats separate from ORDINARY LIQUIDS?

If TSA says "this item is hazmat and must be handled as such" and "this item is not hazmat and can go in the trash to a landfill without violating EPA regulations" then you have just proved three things.

1. TSA can differentiate between hazardous and nonhazardous liquids at a checkpoint.
2. A "ordinary liquid" as you say is a liquid safe enough to go to the landfill, does not pose a danger to the plane, and the entire Liquid Ban is a fraud.
3. Kip Hawley is an Idiot who flunked chemistry and got a political patronage appointment because of who he knows, not what he knows.

no this is what they do...
http://dheera.net/photos/usa/nyc/met7.jpg
(seriously... this is a sculpture on the roof of the Met in new york made with "Objects confiscated from airport security".) makes me wonder how much more actually gets through :-/

Was it at MCO? If so you saw me :) I forgot to remove my dive knife from my dive bag which is a carry-on (normally it's checked), so when my bag was opened and searched, and they found out, I wasn't about to check my dive bag, which contains the things needed to keep me alive underwater. So I asked if I could dissassemble the knife, and she could do what she pleased with the blade. She called for a supervisor, and he ok'd it. I took the knife apart, and I started bending the blade till it gave way and snapped.

Well done! I was hoping someone would take the baton and run with it.

Thank you. ;)

Hazmat is handled under title 49 and it is not SSI. What we are dealing with though is that somethings are inadvertantly discovered as hazmat as in the example of the leak. Some things are known as hazmat as in the case of butane refills for a cordless curling iron. The difference is in the fact that some of the carry on containers have a liquid in them and the container isnt labeled and we cannot open it or test it. TSA is faced with an enigma; find and remove prohibited items from carry on luggage that are in the form of liquids, dispose of the liquids in a manner that is common place and if it is hazmat that is unknown then so be it. You must know though that if it was hazmat and it was known then one of two people would have to deal with it. The airline or the passenger that had it. Of course there are limits on amounts that come into play. So we just deal with it move on.