Do you sharpen knives to the point that your afraid to let someone use it?

I only let a select few handle mine.
Not the wife, she has her own.. And I keep that sharp for her.
She used it instead of scissors this year, to wrap gifts.
My best friend, that also shares our love of sharp stuff..
And my 10yr old son. Which handles a blade better then most grown men.(everyday men, not knuts)

Other then that.. I say "yep".. "what needs cut? I'll do it"

Most watch how it cuts and are glad I did it for them.
 
I mostly only worry about my hatchets and machetes when camping. Is difficult to tell someone when camping "No don't bother processing that firewood, I'll get it". But I do warn them to stay clear and watch for it skipping out of the cut. It would be bad enough with a dull tool, a truly sharp one could inflict a deadly injury that far from medical attention.
 
Most of my friends and family know I am more into knives than most, and they also know my knives are all sharper than they are used to.

I don't typically let people use them unless I know the person well - if I don't know you well, you'll get my Victorinox, although I keep that sharper than most people expect as well....

best

mqqn
 
I always ask what they need to do with it. If at all possible I will do the cutting. I have handed my knives to too many people at work who scrape crap off the ground or damage my edge.

I don't mind it getting a little dull from use but chipped edges and gouges are not acceptable.
 
I restrained myself for a long time, in sharpening a couple of my parents' kitchen knives, for fear they'd either misuse, damage them or hurt themselves. They'd been using a Chicago Cutlery set for the last 30+ years, and none of the knives in the set had been sharpened for most of the duration of that span. They'd developed some really bad knife-handling habits in using those dull knives, with no chance or penalty of actually cutting themselves with them. Only until my Dad mentioned he 'wouldn't mind' if I sharpened a paring knife he uses frequently, did I tune that one up. He uses it to halve/quarter apples for his lunch, and he'd been in the habit of doing so on the ceramic countertop. His habit didn't change, and the last 3/8" or so of the paring knife's tip gets immediately flattened (like an anvil) with the first cut every time. Good news is, the remainder of the edge goes essentlally undamaged, so it's a net improvement overall (small victories :o).

I eventually sharpened a larger butcher/slicer from the same set for my own uses (they didn't use that one much anyway), and my mother managed to cut herself with it within the first 24 hours after sharpening. :(

And one of my sisters has been aware I'd sharpened those two knives, and she won't touch them anymore; she's afraid of them. :eek:


David
 
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Sharper knives are safer. And if someone used my knife and did more harm to it then I have I'll be surprised more than anything. I don't mind lending a hammer or a wrench nor do I mind lending a knife just because it's sharp
 
Bobby3326 said:
Umm I can't even comprehend this level of stupidity...
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I've had this happen more than I care to admit. Not necessarily cut to the bone, but the run the thumb along the length of the edge. Almost as if they had never seen or held a sharp knife. And I'm talking people who carry a knife. Blows my mind.

Once, while chatting with my good friend behind the knife counte, I was examining small knives, for my wife. A little knife without a lot of room for my big fingers shipped the entire pad off my fingertip. I was rewarded with the weenie band aids, and a lot of razzing. That sucker bled forever, and the cut must have been right at the level where all the nerve endings were!
 
Bigfattyt said:
I've had this happen more than I care to admit. Not necessarily cut to the bone, but the run the thumb along the length of the edge. Almost as if they had never seen or held a sharp knife. And I'm talking people who carry a knife. Blows my mind.

Once, while chatting with my good friend behind the knife counte, I was examining small knives, for my wife. A little knife without a lot of room for my big fingers shipped the entire pad off my fingertip. I was rewarded with the weenie band aids, and a lot of razzing. That sucker bled forever, and the cut must have been right at the level where all the nerve endings were!
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I've had em go perpendicular but never parallel...closest thing I've experienced was a cocky young kid who was working the knife counter in sportsman warehouse..he kept insisting whatever knife I chose I needed him to sharpen it cause everyone working there said he's the best...Well finally after like the 5th time I just told him im more the capable of sharpening my own knives...

This immediately made him get defensive and told me there's a difference between sharp and what he considered sharp...I laughed and handed him my bk16 and asked what he considered it to be...he takes it and starts to run it across the palm of his hand edge leading and it almost immediately bit in and takes a nice lil slither of his palm with it.

He handed it back and said holy sh!t that's sharp, I just wanted to see if it was sharp enough to catch a lil like my edges do.
 
Sharpened a Sabatier cleaver over 15 years ago to a razor's edge during a sharpening demonstration. I told the owner to clean the blade when he got back home because it was magnetized and some metal filings were clinging to the blade. When he got home, he forgot the advice and started chopping with it. When he realized the blade needed to be cleaned, he wiped it across the back of his thigh... End result: 10 stitches.

To this day, I often repeat the anecdote when new customers ask me to sharpen their blades... :D
 
winnerone23 said:
.....Most watch how it cuts and are glad I did it for them.
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I like this :thumbup:
People in office know how sharp my knives & won't want to use it. A fellow knife enthusiast and another good friend are the only one get to check my knives.

My wife now refuses to use dull knives;). My biggest victory:D
 
When I started my knife sharpening business many years ago I was doing most of the restaurants in a college town I lived in and found very quickly that a lot of them employed college kids that apparently had never seen an actual sharp knife in their lives. Lots of bandaged fingers and dirty looks from those kids after I did their knives. They know what a sharp knife can do now. I actually started giving a small box of band aids with the knives when I brought them back after sharpening them. The manager thought it was hilarious. It was absolutely astounding what some of those kids did to the restaurant's knives. To most of them the main difference between a screwdriver and a knife was - you could slice your finger open with the knife (and it made a lousy screwdriver). One of the more upscale eateries was owned by a very nice lady who showed me some of her personal knives and asked if I could "fix them". They were very expensive Japanese knives that had no edge left. I worked on them for a long time and brought them back and left them in her office. The next time I went in she saw me and ran over with this HUGE smile on her face - she was ecstatic and after that every time I went there she would sit me down and give me incredible food and dessert items. "Here, try this..." I really miss those days.
 
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drail said:
When I started my knife sharpening business many years ago I was doing most of the restaurants in a college town I lived in and found very quickly that a lot of them employed college kids that apparently had never seen an actual sharp knife in their lives. Lots of bandaged fingers and dirty looks from those kids after I did their knives. They know what a sharp knife can do now. I actually started giving a small box of band aids with the knives when I brought them back after sharpening them. The manager thought it was hilarious. It was absolutely astounding what some of those kids did to the restaurant's knives. To most of them the main difference between a screwdriver and a knife was - you could slice your finger open with the knife (and it made a lousy screwdriver). One of the more upscale eateries was owned by a very nice lady who showed me some of her personal knives and asked if I could "fix them". They were very expensive Japanese knives that had no edge left. I worked on them for a long time and brought them back and left them in her office. The next time I went in she saw me and ran over with this HUGE smile on her face - she was ecstatic and after that every time I went there she would sit me down and give me incredible food and dessert items. "Here, try this..." I really miss those days.
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That's awesome.

Nobody at work ask me to use my knife anymore. They all know how much my knives cost and how sharp they are and they don't want to mess them up (bunch of country boys who appreciate knives, just not as much as me)

They have seen what it can do and just laugh.
 
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What really freaked me out was the number of restaurants I would approach about sharpening and they would look at me like I was crazy and tell me they never have their knives sharpened - when they got too dull to use they would just toss them and buy new ones. They thought it was a total waste of money to sharpen an old worn out knife. Seriously? I heard that a lot. Like I said - college town........
 
drail said:
What really freaked me out was the number of restaurants I would approach about sharpening and they would look at me like I was crazy and tell me they never have their knives sharpened - when they got too dull to use they would just toss them and buy new ones. They thought it was a total waste of money to sharpen an old worn out knife. Seriously? I heard that a lot. Like I said - college town........
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Sounds like a great opportunity. Become a dealer for the brand of knives they use, collect their old "throw aways" when they buy the new blades. Then sharpen and resell the used blades as "nearly new, only sharpened once" to other restaurants with new employees. [emoji56][emoji41]. No reason not to capitalize on the wasteful habits of others, especially if that's the business you are in. It's called Value Added Services. Most customers will actually thank you for making it easier to take their money. [emoji12]

Sounds like I need a new job. Being an accounting desk jockey doesn't allow me to interact with very many knife knuts like myself....except for time spent here. I'll bet that half of our office internet bandwidth roots back to bladeforums (with a little 1911forum scattered in the mix). [emoji85][emoji87][emoji86][emoji23][emoji56] [emoji380][emoji379][emoji380][emoji380][emoji380][emoji379][emoji380][emoji380]. (Old guy discovering story through Emoji).
 
I do the cutting since most of the time they try to use it for some prying task using the tip. I don't mind a bit of prying but I'll do it.
Also after a good sharpening I'm eager to use it since that's why I sharpen in the first place
 
I was talking to a friend the other day about Buck 110s. He stepped into his room and grabbed his
to show me. Naturally I took out my knife to show him. He immediately opened mine and started to feel the edge
with his thumb. This startled me and I blurted out "be careful it's sharp".
No blood was drawn thank goodness but I should have said something before he opened it.
 
grybsh7 said:
I was talking to a friend the other day about Buck 110s. He stepped into his room and grabbed his
to show me. Naturally I took out my knife to show him. He immediately opened mine and started to feel the edge
with his thumb. This startled me and I blurted out "be careful it's sharp".
No blood was drawn thank goodness but I should have said something before he opened it.
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Same thing happened to me but Wynand now has a nice deep cut on his thumb. So i'm the only one that uses my knives, and if you want to see i'll show you! I mite be a snob with my knives but there is a good reason for that
 
bflying, while your idea has merit the places I saw where they were tossing and replacing knives were buying them from the local Walmart (or worse). I don't think I would be able to undercut them. I believe that practice will eventually take over in time except at the finer restaurants where the head chefs own and use their own knives and let no one else touch them. Unfortunately I am no longer in the sharpening business having been forced into retirement for medical reasons. But it is a great way to make extra money in the right environment for a guy with the skills and doesn't require a huge investment in tools and equipment. You'll wear out some shoe leather though. I think if I were going to do it over I would consider some kind of insurance or at least consult an attorney - I often wondered about what kind of trouble I could get into if some dumb kid did serious damage to themselves with a knife that I had just honed.
 
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kelbro said:
Had a buddy's brother ask me to see how sharp my EDC was. I told him it was scalpel sharp. He laughed and mashed his thumb on the blade and slid it. I saw the bone before the blood started gushing. Stupid is as stupid does.
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Whew...just imagining that is all sorts of wrong

Natural selection at its finest?
 
Do you sharpen knives to the point that your afraid to let someone use it?
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No, but I sharpen other peoples knives to the point that I'd be afraid of using them
 
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