Getting sentimental about non-knife people's favorite knives

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UncleBoots

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Two times recently when I choked up a bit about friends' and acquaintances favorite knives, which of course I had offered to sharpen.

One was a super-dull kitchen knife with a wicked recurve near the bolster. The owner swore it was her favorite knife, despite the mediocre steel, and it was seriously dull. I don't know how she cut anything with it, but I managed to sharpen it up, even the recurve, even without my normal tools, by making use of the edge of the only two stones I had with me.

The other, which I have not yet sharpened, is a folding pocketknife, half beveled, half serrated, that was a bonus with a contribution to, let us say, a national advocacy organization. The clip, which is loose, is stamped "China." It's his favorite knife, even though if I drew it across my wrist, I'd be perfectly safe until the serrated part came along, even though that's darned dull too.

It all makes me reflect on how people can treasure knives that are far less than people on a forum like this would ever accept, and continue treasuring them as they become dull. When you sharpen their favorites for them, they are very grateful, but not in a "wow, this is really sharp!" way, but more "it was not sharp, and you sharpened it, so now it's sharp" way. There are two settings, sharp and not sharp.

Nonetheless, I find it a sublime pleasure to do the absolute best I can for these treasured knives. It's sort of like being a marriage therapist, and making a happy, but faltering, marriage even happier. One could get choked up about that sort of thing.
 
UncleBoots said:
Two times recently when I choked up a bit about friends' and acquaintances favorite knives, which of course I had offered to sharpen.

One was a super-dull kitchen knife with a wicked recurve near the bolster. The owner swore it was her favorite knife, despite the mediocre steel, and it was seriously dull. I don't know how she cut anything with it, but I managed to sharpen it up, even the recurve, even without my normal tools, by making use of the edge of the only two stones I had with me.

The other, which I have not yet sharpened, is a folding pocketknife, half beveled, half serrated, that was a bonus with a contribution to, let us say, a national advocacy organization. The clip, which is loose, is stamped "China." It's his favorite knife, even though if I drew it across my wrist, I'd be perfectly safe until the serrated part came along, even though that's darned dull too.

It all makes me reflect on how people can treasure knives that are far less than people on a forum like this would ever accept, and continue treasuring them as they become dull. When you sharpen their favorites for them, they are very grateful, but not in a "wow, this is really sharp!" way, but more "it was not sharp, and you sharpened it, so now it's sharp" way. There are two settings, sharp and not sharp.

Nonetheless, I find it a sublime pleasure to do the absolute best I can for these treasured knives. It's sort of like being a marriage therapist, and making a happy, but faltering, marriage even happier. One could get choked up about that sort of thing.
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Wait till you get someone that treasures their knife to the point that they don’t want it sharpened.

My wife is kinda like that.
 
I’ve sharpened lots of junk for buddies as well as some actually good knives.

I always do the best job I can, and all that’s really important is that they like their knives. Plus, it’s a lot easier to sharpen 100% pure chinesium than supersteels. ;)
 
we can count ourselves lucky that not
all knife users are perfectionist :-)
that would put a lot folks out of business.
its amazing just how many do not even
sharpen their knives.
betcha such owners haven't a clue
and do not own any form if sharpening
device.
i've tried helping out a couple in that area;
and strangely enough some get scared of
how sharp its become ???!
and one even pleading me not to make a razor edge.... so be i!
i have to respect their wants
as i slowly began to realize that
not everyone requires surgical perfection.
 
UncleBoots said:
It is, and it isn't. Some of the crap steel can be astonishingly persistent about hanging onto a burr.
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Strop, strop, strop! It’ll come off.

On a crappy knife I start off with a coarse DMT to put an actual bevel on it (most don’t have one). By the time I get the the extra fine they’re usually screaming sharp.
 
That's why I'm very careful about expressing my opinion of someone elses knife. You never know just how much it means to them, did their father give it to them, did it belong to their dead brother, etc. Or maybe it was simply their first knife, and as a result they have a deep fondness for it.

I would never tell someone their knife is junk or a piece of ****. Whenever someone hands me their very low quality knife for my opinion I always try to find something nice to say, even if it's just "Yeah, that's a cool knife". But at the same time I might express concern about the reliability of the lock ("Hey, be careful with that lock. Sometimes locks can fail"), or any other risk the knife might pose (like the knife not staying closed in ones pocket. seen that).

In some cases, maybe a week or two later, I offer them one of my older, quality knives. I say "Hey, since now I know that you like knives, I've had this one lying around for years. I've got no use for it, it's just taking up space, and I hate to see it go to waste. Do you want it?".

My intent is to not hurt their pride by making it look like I'm trying to replace their "bad" knife with a good one, or create the awkwardness of giving them an expensive "gift". Instead, I make it sound like they would actually be doing me a favor if they took it. Did this with a couple of Benchmade AFCK's (I had bought 5 of them when they were my favorite).

It's great to see the look on someones face when they accept a quality knife, and they instantly recognize the dramatic difference between their new quality knife, and the not-so-quality knife that they had been using/carrying.

And so, the appreciation for quality knives is spread.
 
One of my employees showed me his knife. He has had this Benchmade knife for 13 years. In that time it had only been sharpened twice. The guy who did it the 2nd time messed it up a bit and he was afraid to let anyone sharpen it. He saw the edges I put on my knives and let me take it home to sharpen for him. He was so amazed and so grateful for the end result. He now uses that knife even more knowing I can sharpen it for him if it ever needs it. He then brought me his grandfathers old buck 110 that was passed onto him and his father's old kabar from when he was in service. It's pretty cool when people trust you enough to work on something they cherish.
 
AntDog said:
Strop, strop, strop! It’ll come off.

On a crappy knife I start off with a coarse DMT to put an actual bevel on it (most don’t have one). By the time I get the the extra fine they’re usually screaming sharp.
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I am slowly coming around to the idea that diamonds are best for crap steel, and for any stainless steel, and JNats are best for carbon steel.

Which would seem to leave no role for my Shapton Glass stones...and yet, I use them all the time. I think it's because they're more fun than diamonds. Diamonds are very effective, but they're almost like using power tools; you don't get the same feel for the work.
 
ktataragasi said:
One of my employees showed me his knife. He has had this Benchmade knife for 13 years. In that time it had only been sharpened twice. The guy who did it the 2nd time messed it up a bit and he was afraid to let anyone sharpen it. He saw the edges I put on my knives and let me take it home to sharpen for him. He was so amazed and so grateful for the end result. He now uses that knife even more knowing I can sharpen it for him if it ever needs it. He then brought me his grandfathers old buck 110 that was passed onto him and his father's old kabar from when he was in service. It's pretty cool when people trust you enough to work on something they cherish.
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Sounds like someone who could really appreciate a good edge. Someday, I will probably sharpen for someone like that, but it hasn't happened yet. Everyone I've sharpened for has been more in the "it's sharp or it's not sharp" category.
 
I sharpened my mom's knives.
I should have warned her.
It was - -bloody...

After that first experience - she was happy when I showed up with a sharpening stone.

My inlaws (may those fabulous people RIP) were extremely happy when they found out I could sharpen knives.
Especially my father in law.
(he wanted to shovel dirt on my face - until he found out I drank my coffee black, smoked unfiltered cigarettes and owned a couple of "magnum handguns". :D The ability to sharpen knives was just icing on the cake ;) )
 
I sharpened some kitchen knives for a neighbor. She threw them in the dish water and cut herself when fishing them out. She brought them back and asked if I could detune them. Different strokes for different folks.
 
You get different reactions from different folks. I've run into husbands/fathers who were jealous because I could sharpen the kitchen knives, or could sharpen them better than they could; women who were overjoyed that their kitchen knives were sharper than new, and some that complained the knives were now too sharp. Strangely, no one, even hunting/fishing buddies who I've sharpened knives for, had any desire to learn how to do it themselves.

Everyone's different. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same!
 
sabre cat said:
Wait till you get someone that treasures their knife to the point that they don’t want it sharpened...
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I'm that way with my 60 or so hammers I've collected. I don't want others to use and abuse them, so they don't need sharpening or refacing.

As for sharp, 40+ years ago in Thailand we had a flood in town. My Thai mom-in-law decided to slaughter her hog for food and profit. Her ex was going to do it, but needed a knife. I reached into my backpack and produced a Hmong hill tribe knife with about a 10" blade, almost like a bowie. He laughed at me. So I rolled up my sleeve and neatly shaved off about 4" of hair on my forearm in one quick stroke. Done deal. I doubt that he'd ever used a large knife that sharp.

I do have a few knives I get sentimental about. Top one was made as a gift by my old (75 years?) blacksmith buddy as a going-away present. The bottom one came
from somewhere in the north of Thailand from a hill-tribe maker via a missionary. Excellent work.
favorites.JPG
 
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I have often found myself facing the following dilemma when a friend or co-worker had a dull knife and didn't know how to sharpen-

On one hand, I want to be a nice guy and sharpen his knife for him, and WOW him with how sharp his knife can be. But on the other hand, I believe a man should be able to sharpen his own knives.

At a certain point in my life I decided that I would take the time to teach a guy how to sharpen, but I wouldn't do it for them. And if they weren't willing to learn, then they would have to live with dull knives.

I don't apply this policy to women or the elderly, but I think any young, capable male who wants a sharp knife should be willing to take the time and learn to sharpen it themselves.

Believe me, there was never anyone in my life willing to sharpen my knives for me. And I'm very glad there wasn't.
 
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killgar said:
At a certain point in my life I decided that I would take the time to teach a guy how to sharpen, but I wouldn't do it for them. And if they weren't willing to learn, then they would have to live with dull knives.
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I sort of get that. Hey, I was a Boy Scout, I get a twinge if I see a flag flying in the rain. But I wouldn't do it that way myself. Sharpening is a mysterious art to a lot of people, and only a very few take the pleasure in it that I, and many people here, do. You can't learn everything. There are tons of things I don't know how to do, and I'm happy to have other people do them for me, even though there's a part of me that thinks I should know now to do it all.
 
killgar said:
I have often found myself facing the following dilemma when a friend or co-worker had a dull knife and didn't know how to sharpen-

On one hand, I want to be a nice guy and sharpen his knife for him, and WOW him with how sharp his knife can be. But on the other hand, I believe a man should be able to sharpen his own knives.

At a certain point in my life I decided that I would take the time to teach a guy how to sharpen, but I wouldn't do it for them. And if they weren't willing to learn, then they would have to live with dull knives.

I don't apply this policy to women or the elderly, but I think any young, capable male who wants a sharp knife should be willing to take the time and learn to sharpen it themselves.

Believe me, there was never anyone in my life willing to sharpen my knives for me. And I'm very glad there wasn't.
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“Give a man a fish...”
 
True, but some guys just aren't handy with that kind of thing. I know a guy who's the CFO of a big business but can't start a lawn mower and is terrified of guns.
 
desmobob said:
True, but some guys just aren't handy with that kind of thing. I know a guy who's the CFO of a big business but can't start a lawn mower and is terrified of guns.
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They have always been around but it seems like there are more like that ever before.

We are turning into a country of wimps!
 
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