Keep the good ones in your pockets. v. Lesson learned

There are three things I never loan:

My boat

My camera

a nice firearm

If someone asks if I have a knife, I simply say, "it depends on what you want to do with it." I am not shy about saying, "My knife is not going to be used for that," like the time a lady in our church wanted to pry open a door lock with my Mnandi.
 
It's precisely the kind of thing Dog of War did - I've done it too, dinged a new pickup door, scratched a firearm, etc. Felt horrible.

Last time we borrowed something, we cleaned it up - a pop-up travel trailer. The linens were laundered, floor mopped, utensils washed, bowls replaced, exterior washed, frame touched up with rust conversion primer, you name it, it went back better than it came.

The owners popped it up, of course, and were pleasantly surprised. Said it was the best they had ever seen come back.

I also realize I am in a minority - so I don't loan much, so I seldom get disappointed by casual users.
 
I loaned my Kershaw Leek, the one my 7 year old at the time gave me after taking his very own birthday money and using it to buy it for me, to my wife for no more than 30 seconds. I don't know what in the heck she was doing. I just thought she was cutting something. Next thing you know the edge is all chipped, and I have to reprofile one of my most treasured if not most treasured knife. Last time I'll give her a good one.
 
The problem is, most people can't fathom a knife costing more than a few bucks. They think nothing of messing up a borrowed knife, because they're readily available at the flea market for $3.
 
I've always had the worst luck loaning anything. I could loan a cannon ball and it would come back busted and missing parts.

I had to stop loaning anything at all.

Knives..... No WAY, Ever!

Hunert years ago in Boy Scout camp, loaned a buddy my Boy Scout knife.

Yep! he folded it up on his finger and had to go to the first aid tent for a repair job.:o
 
Some people just have no sense of how to handle something. They just sort of bang things around like the proverbial bull in the china shop. It is rude to handle something that is not yours in such a careless way. Sorry that happened.

My short story... years ago I let a young man handle my new Benchmade AFO. He immediately proceeded to drop it point down on a concrete garage floor. Just a few months ago that knife went back to Benchmade for a much needed "refit". It came back with the bent tip ground straight again. Lesson learned by me.
 
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