Self confidence maybe ???

I also use that method when testing household circuits for voltage with a multimeter. Black in the neutral and red in the hot. Pull hot, then neutral. I'm always mindful with metal and messing with practically any electricity, so I've never had any reason to doubt what I was told. I've also never bridged terminals on a battery or touched the ratchet to a chassis part, simply seems like common sense to avoid those things. I'll keep what you say in mind.

I don't know why. You can keep your multimeter probe on hot, and swing the other one over your head or stick it in your nose if you want, and nothing will happen.

Probably because I picture the knife in the outlet outcome sticking that + probe in the hot slot and grounding out 120V at 60 Hz through myself, not the tool. Haha. I know that won't happen with a properly rated and made tool, but I still see it as "safer". My old lady doesn't like me testing them this way. We live in an old house with half grounded and half ungrounded outlets and I'm figuring out which of the old two prong style outlets we can ground to the box and which need completely redone. Half are able to be grounded, they have the old wiring with the metal sheathing that can be used to ground. The other half are wired with ordinary rubber coated wire, and they need totally redone. They built the house rather oddly.

Same here. I'm in a 75 yr old house. Of course they didn't ground everything back then, and the wiring was never fully modernized, so strange things do happen. If I connect an LED between two socket grounds it lights up LOL.

I've been tickled quite a few times in my life. I apparently liked sticking objects into sockets when I was a just a sprout. I remember another time trimming wires that were still plugged in. Oh yeah, and then there was that time I stood in a puddle with frayed extension cord in it. After a few times, its not that bad! Hahaha. Maybe if we had 220V, I would have learned my lesson! {black}:nerd:

Guess you young'uns never had the pleasure of working inside a tube-type TV set that had 10,000 volts or more feeding into the CRT. Fortunately at very low current except for the earliest sets, but still enough to knock you on your keister. The really old TV sets that used transformer-generated high voltage from the mains rather than tapping it from the high-frequency horizontal flyback would just kill you outright.

Back in high school in electronics shop we fooled around with tube-type radios and amplifiers where plate voltages could be hundreds of volts. There was a guy in my class who used to check for voltage in those circuits by moistening his fingertip and poking it inside the chassis. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to him.

I've not been zapped in 30 years, not yet at least, haha. Our house is around 70 years old. All of it was built at the same time except for our breezeway and the nuclear bomb shelter underneath it. The people who built it put in a circuit breaker panel and updated half of the wiring. I need to update some of it so my PC doesn't fry in a power surge.

As for car batteries, based on what you said, you will only arc or create an open short situation if something conductive touches the positive terminal and the body of the car, correct? I don't believe a + cable fully disconnected from the battery and touching the car will do anything. If it's disconnected from the + post and is touching a negatively charged surface (the frame), that's making it negative everywhere. I've always pushed the cable down below the top of the battery or pulled it well away from the terminal, where it will not arc, thus my feeling that it is "safe" to do it this way, as current can't flow of you don't have a + to - connection.

In my described situation of pulling the positive off and pushing it out of the way, away from the + terminal, while the other one is still connected to the -. Basically I'm pulling the battery, I've disconnected the + and am moving to the -. The frame of the car is still negatively charged. Touching the positive cable, completely detached from the battery to the frame doesn't do anything. Nothing dangerous can happen, providing something metallic on the car doesn't come into contact with that positive terminal.

well there you run the risk of touching the tool you're wrenching on the pos terminal with, to something that is grounded. That's why you should remove negative first. All of my literature says this. Hanes manual. GM service manual , etc..
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I take off negative, tie a rag on it or something, and tuck it out of the way. You don't even need to touch positive

when I was much younger/stupider, I was troubleshooting a dual battery setup, and I drove around with a loose battery terminal under the hood. I tied a cloth bag around the end. I also had some jumpers to a battery in the cabin clipped to a stud.
well I guess while I was driving around the loose cable either flopped over, or vibrated enough, and it cut through the woven material and shorted to some sharp metal (hood latch I think). Well the engine cut out going down a hill, and I could smell something funny. I looked down and the stud was glowing red, the jumpers were getting pretty hot, and the carpet was starting to burn. 😯 Exciting times.

@mmj I see what you're getting at, I've never touched the tool to the frame before. Haha. Perhaps I've always realized there's a danger subconsciously even though I was never directly advised of it. I was always aware of the unpleasant effect of bridging the terminals by accident with a metal tool and have always been alert for that. I'm pretty sure in every instance I've disconnected a battery I've pulled the positive cable off.

well there you go. next time, try disconnecting neg first.
Then you unclench your butthole, and bang away with your wrench, relaxed, knowing it's fine. You can even try bridging to reassure yourself.

I cannot even imagine a time when you were stupid or young.

Unfortunately for your architect friend, the International Residential Code and the National Electric Code stipulates that switches are connected on the line (load) conductor (black), not the grounding conductor (white) or the grounded conductor (green.)

I’ve zapped myself often when ‘testing’ burned out Christmas tree lightbulbs.. Those were the days!