Handing people knives

R

RedWolf4

Joined
Oct 20, 2019
Messages
181
Very often when I hand a random person, friend or family one of my knives, they often seem to struggle with closing it. Let me explain. Specifically, I find this problem is most prevalent with backlocks, axis locks and button locks. Said person engages the locking mechanism trying to close the knife, but not all the way, so there is still a little bit of the lock contacting the blade tang. But just a bit. Confused why it's not closing, they try to force the blade closed with their other hand while still half disengaging the lock. I worry that a) They will pretty severely cut themselves if the blade does close from force and b) if the blade manages to close by force, it will wear the end of the tang that meets the beginning of the lock very fast, as it almost would have to "shear" or at the very least rub aggresively on the metal from the tang to be forced closed.

Not too much of a problem with people I know as after the first time I tell them to make sure to disengage the lock fully, and no one has been successful in "forcing" the half disengaged knife closed, but with new people I hand the knife to in the future - how do you all handle this situation?
 
Yeah, I have experienced that too and many cringeworthy sheath re-inserting moments as well. A lot of people seem to be "impaired" with mechanical things and three dimensional imagination.. no offense intended. I usually just take the knife and close/resheath it myself to save the heartache or injuries.
 
Most people just hand me whatever they want cut. I don't hand out what I'm carrying very often simply because it may cost more than the phone in their pocket but they will use it like a gas station boxcutter.

Generally I hand non-knife folks a slip joint and that's about it. Even the most inexperienced has usually handled a SAK. I don't like watching people struggle with wiggling a Tri Ad to release or trying to figure out an Axis. Forget "cursed" knives like my Adamas Auto that both kicks like a mule when it opens and really requires care to get it to newt closed lest it pop open or something like the old school finger guillotine like the Cold Steel Pocket Bushman 😉
 
My lender is a 91mm SAK. Ugly old white scales, sharpness sufficient for non knife people, + it does not require any skills to close it.
 
I would not hand anybody a slip joint because the ones I have require a lot of force to close and could cause serious injury. Besides, I have not seen any slip joints for sale locally under $20 in years.

I have some cheap back locks for lending to people because people can usually understand how a back lock works. But not Cold Steel or Spyderco because they require too much force to release the lock. I have a $10 Frost that is easy to close. And several $8 Paraforces, but they are almost too good to lend.
 
hhmoore said:
With few exceptions, I avoid handing people my knives. Saves me a lot of cringing.
Click to expand...
This is the most logical response to the problem. Nobody handles my carry knife. If I was using a chef knife while cooking, etc. then then they can use the knife and help to slice up the potatoes, etc.
 
I usually open it for them and hand it handle first to them. Either for them to use or just to look it over.
But I tell them that I will close it and just quote an old knife superstition that says the person who opens a knife should also be the one to close it. I do get looks but I also don’t hand my knives over very often.
Superstions
😇
G2
 
I only let my partner and a good mate handle my knives - both love knives and know how to treat them.

I learnt with my tools never to lend or let people handle them (knives and tools) unless they are cheap and or have little true value to you.
 
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