Ever show a non-knife person your knife?

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bladeboss

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Mar 6, 2012
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I ran into one of my friends (and his friend) tonight at a local gathering.
I've known him for many years, and we share alot of interests, such as hunting, fishing, and 4-wheelers.
So, I said: "Were's your pocketknife?" in a friendly, almost jokingly way.
"I broke it." was his reply.
So I pointed down to my pocket clip, saying, "Got mine!"
So he asked if he could see it.
My heart dropped, yet I handed it to him. :foot::o
He didn't take too much time looking it over, opened it quickly one-handed, and it seemed like he knew what he was doing.
"Pretty nice." he said as he was reading the tang where it said "Spyderco S35VN". (Obviously not having had heard of it)
Next, I didnt see coming.
"hi-YA!" he yelled as he jabbed it towards my privates, stopped quick, turned the blade horizontally, and scraped it off my pants.
I wasnt too sure what to say, so I didnt say anything and just looked at him.:eek: He handed it back and I let his friend see it too.
He was quieter and a bit more calm than Mr. Stabby.
He also opened it one handed and said "Nice" and handed it back.
They both asked where I got it.
"GPKnives"
"Wheres that?"
"On the internet"
"Oh. I like Gerbers the best"
:barf:
Now, I know they didnt do anything bad TO MY KNIFE (disregarding the stupid privates-stabbing), but when I returned home I checked my knife all over, almost as if it was abused, to make sure nothing was loosened or harmed when the two non-knife folks were fondling it. They didn't flick it open, but opened and closed it fast. Im usually slower and calmer with it.
I wasnt too fond of letting them see my best friend, especially knowing that they didnt know much about knives.
Irrelevant, but it was my Native 5.
Do you ever let anyone see your knives? And if you do, do you check it over after they're done with it?
Any horror stories?
 
When showing people my knives I open if and let them oogle. If someone needs to use one, I grab my beater and show them how to use it
 
NateReed said:
When showing people my knives I open if and let them oogle. If someone needs to use one, I grab my beater and show them how to use it
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I'll remember that. I got lucky that they didn't do anything to it.
See what I get for trusting people. :D
 
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In that situation, I would have calmly taken my knife back, then punched him in the stomach. I have very little tolerance those who mess about with knives, especially after the last two times I lent my knife to someone.

One time, a friend of mine asked to borrow my knife to clean up a piece of pitch wood he found. He's a fairly trustworthy guy, so I gave him my para 2. A minute later I looked over to see him batoning it through the pitch wood and into the ground. The knife survived with some minor chipping. I was very displeased with the person who did it.

The second incident happened about a month ago. I was hanging out with a friend of my ex's when we got to talking about knife making. He was fairly knowledgable about this subject, so I took me knife I had just finished (my first knife,) and handed it to him. He pulled it out if the sheath, examined it, quipped about how it was pretty, and proceeded to throw it into the ground. Alarmed, I told him to give the knife back, and never touch any of my stuff again. He did, somewhat sheepishly, when I saw I had lost about a 1/4" from the tip.

Moral of these stories, if someone asks to borrow a knife, cut whatever they need cut for them.
 
I dont have much trouble when I show a knife to someone. The problem I encounter is when I sharpen a knife for someone. If they are not used to sharp knives they invariably cut through something quicker than they thought and into themselves. One of our assistant pastors asked me to sharpen a kitchen knife for him. I don't remember the brand but it was a great knife with a very thin and hard edge. When he gave it to me, the edge looked like he had been cutting on a ceramic cutting board. I reworked the geometry and got a very fine, very sharp convex edge that was so good, I was envious of the knife vs. my own chef knife at the time. He had given it to me wrapped up in an old mailing envelope. I put it back like I found it and gave it to him before church with the warning, "Be careful, it is very sharp".

After church as everyone was filing out, I heard "Paul! Paul!" and saw my friend waiving wildly at me across the room. He said,"I know you told me that was sharp but I didn't know how sharp! I ran my thumb up the edge (Lengthwise I guessed) and it cut my thumb! (do ya think???) I then dropped it and it fell and cut through my pants and into my leg!" So my poor, ignorant friend had a wonderful chef knife that was very sharp, but it cost him a cut thumb and a new suit....

So be careful with the uninformed. They just don't know any better.
 
You don't always know if a person is "non-knife", or "anti-knife" before you show them your knives.

Recently I was showing my hand made knives to 3 of my friends as we were all sitting around a table. One of them was turning a knife over in her hands, looking it over, and she turned to another person and said, "Now what if I was to take this weapon...?" I don't remember the rest of her sentence. All I remember was feeling hurt and angry at her suggestion that I was making "weapons." The knife she was looking at was 6 1/8" overall, with a cutting edge of 2 1/8". Never mind that knives are essential to our existence as a species, or that she probably has several knives in her kitchen that are more dangerous. She thinks of this tiny cutting tool as a "weapon."

The other day at the office, I was showing this one-off nessmuck to a co-worker.

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Her only comment was, "It looks dangerous." Not useful. Not versatile. Not intelligently designed. Not elegant. Not carefully crafted. Just "dangerous." I could have stepped into the office kitchen, about thirty feet away, and found a much more "dangerous" knife. The scissors she was holding in her hand at that moment were more dangerous, as a potential weapon.

I have a friend who knows that I make and sell knives. I was showing him a hunting knife, and he was holding it, and admiring it, and he just ran his finger up the edge, and sliced his finger right there in front of me. He bled a lot, but luckily did not require stitches.

There is a lot of good advice here on this thread. I'm going to be more careful about lending my knives to people in the future.

Growing up, I was taught knife safety and repeatedly reminded about it through Scouting. I also had 8th grade wood shop, which reinforced my habits of properly operating and handling cutting tools. I guess most people didn't have that experience.
 
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It blows my mind all the stories I hear of people running their finger down a knife edge. They're KNIVES. That's just idiocy. You don't have to be a knife nut to know that knives cut. I am aghast at the blatant ignorance people show.
 
I generally never show, or let someone know I have one (or two ;)) mostly because:

1) I dislike when people constantly ask me for my knife to cut something, esp. at work. I find it a little annoying.

2) It's a surprise factor in last ditch self-defense, especially if you conceal - or carry IWB (which I prefer).

But if I'm hunting, and not around the sheepish general public, I'll loan a blade out when skinning or whatever.
 
I had a friend of mine see my Delica 4 FFG when I still had it, he acted surprised as first but calmed down and when I told him directions on how to do things with it he seemed like he already knew, like how to open it one handed and how to close it(Though with two hands). He also seemed to marvel at the sharpness demonstration of it slicing through paper.
My entire family are not knife people, and at first they all thought there was a severe mental issue, but after calm and slow introduction they came to see it as a hobby or art rather than a problem. They even got over their fear of the sound of knives flicking out, I'm even usually opening and closing knives as I walk around the house and talking to them.
I guess I'm very lucky, even my dad's friends definitely know the nature of knives as tools and even complimented him for his son knowing how to sharpen and carry knives without him introducing them to me.
 
I handed a knife to someone who was up on a ladder to cut a rope. Rather using a slicing motion, he holds the knife with the blade facing himself, and pulls straight toward himself to cut it. I was sure the knife was going to go into his face when the rope gave, but somehow he escaped injury. He had spent the afternoon teaching me how to tie knots and do splices and such, so I assumed he knew what he was doing. It was a Rat 1 that I wasn't worried about anyone damaging, but I do keep it sharp, and I just didn't think anyone was going to try to cut their own head off with it.
 
I tend to not show my knives around to folks. First of all, not eqveryone is or could be as interested in that stuff as I am. Second, it can draw negative attention in some areas, especially at work (office environments). Some people just really like to create problems for other folks, especially where none exist.
 
RevDevil said:
I tend to not show my knives around to folks. First of all, not eqveryone is or could be as interested in that stuff as I am. Second, it can draw negative attention in some areas, especially at work (office environments). Some people just really like to create problems for other folks, especially where none exist.
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Exactly ;)
 
Sometimes, some people are just curious.

but many say 'thats very nice' when I hand them the small wood inlay sebenza.
 
i can totally commiserate,

i was making a few little whittling knives for myself out of some old sawzall blades, saw a good little tutorial video on youtube and had to try it out, they work pretty damn good,

anyway I had just finished heat treating my blades and had them laid out on the table in front of me, three of them, remember that number, and was working slotting out some wood for the handles. I had already sharpened the blades to within an inch of their lives because I was just to curious to see how the steel worked. An (ex) friend of mine, a joker who I should've known better than to even be in the same room as while working, comes over and goes "cool!", makes a fist, and with his other hand starts placing the blades, tang first into the gaps between his fingers, with the blades protruding from between his knuckles, and starts to laugh and say "look im wolverine", I almost smacked the guys teeth through his cheeks but limited myself to "what the @(*#$&@ are you doing?!" and slowly, gingerly took them out of his fingers, placed them back on the table, took one and shaved a bit of hair off my forearm with it to show him how close hed come to really cutting himself up badly,

"damn man, thats like, sociopathic or something, knives are scary".....

and i stare, flabbergasted,

case and point is that there are some true meatheads out there who dont even know not to play with sharp implements let alone have any respect or interest at all in knives, and suffice to say i hang with a different crowd of friends now
 
I just don't. People who don't possess knives of their own are unlikely to appreciate others'. So I regard people who want to "see" my knife as I would people who have never driven who want to drive my car. They can look... but they can't touch.
 
I dont let others (apart form a select few) handle my knives any more.
Last time I did, a guy bled all over the knife. Was just a nick so no biggie, but I just cant be bothered any more.
I keep quiet about carrying a small pocket knife, but if asked directly I'll instead ask them, what they need cut and do it for them.

You simply cant predict, what non-knife sheeple will do when handed a knife.
The inane Rambo and killing implement comments apart, this thread gives plenty of examples of the unpredictable behaviour, which leaves me puzzled and which are amongst the reasons why I dont let non-knife people handle any of my knives.
The jabbing with a knife towards the owner, the throwing the knife into the ground and breaking off a tip and - as happened to me once - an idiot cutting up a can with a super fine edge without asking etc etc etc.
 
most ppl im around generally know how to use knives but every now and then there is the one who has no Idea... when I was home on leave I decided to stop by my old job and talk to some old friends and one of them asked if they could use my knife to open and break down some boxes and I gave her my gerber 06 auto that was given to my by a close friend and I told my old co-worker to be careful it has a kick but they didn't listen and when they opened it, it jumped out of there hand and almost through there foot it was close after that I just don't let ppl use my knife
 
I once showed my then new ZT 301 to a bunch of friends. There was this one barely twenty year old guy who I saw there for the first time. When it was his turn to handle the knife, he just put it in his pocket and woulnd't give it back despite the exhortations of the group. I wound up also showing him my glock(barrel end towards him) for him to give it back.
 
Oh, geeze. Yeah, just because guys are military or former military doesn't mean they know jack about knives. It's not uncommon to walk past the smoke pit and see a bunch f guys, contractor and Marines, "whippen' it out".
Young Marine - "Hey man, I just bought this from the hadji shop for only $5. It was such a great deal, look how big it is. What do you carry? Protech? Never heard of it. Can I see it?"
Me- "Uh, sure. Just be careful, it pops out there with some authority."
(Marine pushes button and promptly drops it on the wood deck)
Young Marine - "Oh, (explicative deleted) man sorry."

After inspecting it there wasn't any damage besides a ding in the scale. Because of the thin point on the TR-4 I was more worried about the tip snapping off. Same knife, there was a gentleman who owned a Microtech auto who asked to see my knife. Because he himself owned a pretty pricy blade I figured he was good to go. Nope, he pushed the button and promptly sliced his left hand open. After that, I don't let anyone see my Protech. I'll let them take a look at my ZTs but there have been 2 too many oopses with my auto.

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