Knife Etiquette - What to Do When Your Friend Has a "Bad" Knife

jasonbroni said:
Ummm - you forgot to mention that you should be as righteous as possible - you know - like spending your valuable time researching their past to expose some dumb stuff they did - then using bible quotes... BIBLE QUOTES!
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You got that right! It was time well spent! I certainly hoisted some guy on his own petard when I did that! Who was that guy, anyway? Walked right into it, he did.

As for the original question I feel a simple "Good day, Sir!" is a courteous way to express my distaste.
 
marcinek said:
you got that right! It was time well spent! I certainly hoisted some guy on his own petard when i did that! Who was that guy, anyway? Walked right into it, he did.

As for the original question i feel a simple "good day, sir!" is a courteous way to express my distaste.
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I said, GOOD DAY!!

Lol
 
marcinek said:
You got that right! It was time well spent! I certainly hoisted some guy on his own petard when I did that! Who was that guy, anyway? Walked right into it, he did.

As for the original question I feel a simple "Good day, Sir!" is a courteous way to express my distaste.
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I think the tried and true "So it has come to this..." is really the best way to express the gravity of a bad knife.

If the bad knife also happens to be a gravity knife and you need to express the gravity of a poor gravity knife, finish with smoke bomb, allowing you to disappear from the scene.

Although to be fair, that's how I try to end every conversation.
 
I don't speak on anyone else's knife if it's presented though I've had a couple people ask if that was a Sebenza or a Benchmade. Those people I may strike up a little conversation with. Certainly don't loan out knives. Have had a couple times where someone asks a room with several people if anyone has a knife and I stay quiet. Never care to tell someone else what they should buy if they present something I feel is inferior, don't feel like it's my business.

I have a friend that knows I like high quality knives and flashlights and such and I've shown them to him occasionally and he likes them. However, he always says he's gonna buy such and such knife or flashlight, but the next day will say he won't spend more than $10 on a knife and that he bought a XXXFire $3 Amazon special flashlight that claims 90000 lumens and could explode any second but literally pours money (thousands) into a Jeep he drives a couple times a month. I have no interest in that either, but politely nod and go along. Priorities I guess.
 
I'm not a flashlight guy myself, but I have this pretty good small one, I think the brand is Dorcy or something like that. I say "pretty good" because I have no idea if it's really "nice" as far as flashlights go. But it seems work well.

I sometimes take pride in my knife knowledge, but my flashlight, multitool, hammer, circular saw, and so many other areas of knowledge are fairly non-existent, and I'm sure a lot of people are connoisseurs of all that stuff.
 
RedLynx said:
I'm not a flashlight guy myself, but I have this pretty good small one, I think the brand is Dorcy or something like that. I say "pretty good" because I have no idea if it's really "nice" as far as flashlights go. But it seems work well.

I sometimes take pride in my knife knowledge, but my flashlight, multitool, hammer, circular saw, and so many other areas of knowledge are fairly non-existent, and I'm sure a lot of people are connoisseurs of all that stuff.
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True, but the point is I don't knock other people's things and wouldn't knock your light or anything else you might have that I have an interest in. I don't even personally know anyone that EDCs a light on their person daily. If I saw someone pull out a light I'd just be impressed that they were actually EDCing, same goes for knives. The more people carrying knives of any sort, the better IMO.

Edit: the custom light crowd would probably make fun of my lights as my most expensive are a couple Surefires under $150 lol.
 
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uofaengr said:
True, but the point is I don't knock other people's things and wouldn't knock your light or anything else you might have that I have an interest in. I don't even personally know anyone that EDCs a light on their person daily. If I saw someone pull out a light I'd just be impressed that they were actually EDCing, same goes for knives. The more people carrying knives of any sort, the better IMO.
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I've thought about EDCing a light, but even though mine is small, it isn't keychain small (I think Charlie Mike, among some other members, has posted pics of the EDC lights) and I am not sure I could feasibly carry it unless I had a pouch made or always wore cargo type trousers.

Just to reiterate for all, this post was sort of half made in jest, though I'm glad it sparked discussion.

I'm not into knocking anyone else's stuff either, the thread I read last night was just fairly humorous in the way it went from "Funny stories of crappy knives" to "maybe don't judge others' choices or lack of knowledge"--a sentiment I certainly respect.
 
One of my friends had a terrible knife.
I said "Oh my God, that's a terrible knife!"
He said "I know."

Later on, his knife fell apart during use, so I gave him a better knife. :)

If someone cannot handle being told their knife is terrible, they better not try being my friend...because I will say far more offensive things than that along the way. :D
 
Reminded me of the other day when one of my work friends showed me a knife they picked up, a mini gerber para frame... Yeah. To their defense, they did say "nothing special" when describing it but they still wouldn't know a good knife from a bad one. I was tempted for a second to start a discussion but it was 0600 hours and I really didn't freakin feel like it. I just said "that's cool". Plus I didn't have anything nice on me anyways at the time, just my Byrd robin2 ss. Hell, that Byrd is 10x better then that para frame but I just didn't even want to get into it.
 
It depends on the person, really. If the friend can take a joke, it's okay to refer to their knife as "made from a top secret alloy of tinfoil and cardboard". :D
And yes, I've given out knives to friends before, usually Opinels or low-end Kershaws.
 
RedLynx said:
...with smoke bomb, allowing you to disappear from the scene.

Although to be fair, that's how I try to end every conversation.
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That's how I try and start one. :D


I don't bad mouth other peoples knives simply because I do not care at all about other peoples knives. Unless it's on the forum. Then I feel compelled to help you guys out by saying you're all doing it wrong. You're welcome. :p
 
I wouldn't say anything about somebody else's knife. They could have some value to it that I'm not going to insult.
I do let my friends check out my knives and answer any questions they have :)
 
stabman said:
If someone cannot handle being told their knife is terrible, they better not try being my friend...because I will say far more offensive things than that along the way. :D
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You can always tell who my real friends are. They're the ones I'm having the most disrespectful banter with... If I'm all proper and polite, then they're obviously not my friend.
 
Some people can't help it. My boss comes in the other day with a rainbow, assisted stiletto style tac-force he bought at a gunshow. He was happy with it and asked me what i thought. We have a relationship based on the truth, so i told him it was a POS. This is a firearms expert and he knows quality knives. He has a Cold Steel San Mai Bowie and carries a Kershaw Blackout. He knows better. But at 62 years old he went mallninja at a gunshow. Go figure. On topic, If they are interested I'll talk knives and quality. If not I just say nice knife.
 
Sonnydaze said:
I gave a buddy a RAT 2 camo/satin a couple of months ago. He has a whole bucket full of junk knives that he bought on tv for next to nothing...about one buck per knife. He carries the RAT 2 constantly and loves it. I really think that he likes the camo scales MORE than anything else, but that's fine. I like my camo/satin PM2 also.
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This is very similar to a situation I had a few months ago.
I have a buddy who is a serious hiker ( PCT, Appalachian, etc) and has decent hiking gear, but his knife sucked ass. It looked like a $5 gas station knife. It had a trout on it....>_>
I told him to use my recently purchased RAT I combo edge, and at the end of the trip, I said he could keep it.

There's not much else that can be purchased for around $30 that he's going to get more use out of and appreciate as much out on the trails as that RAT I (at least, that's what I tell myself to justify losing a perfectly good knife )
 
A co-worker showed me his knife, and it was a United Cutlery assisted folder (used a torsion bar / backspacer combo thingy) and it said (I **** you not) "One Shot. One Kill - Special Forces Snipers" on the blade.....

He asked me to sharpen it for him, so I did. That 440 isn't gonna stay sharp for long, but the goal here is to make him appreciate having a sharp knife and maybe soon he'll be asking me for recommendations for better knives...
 
Offer to sharpen it for them if it needs it, teach them how to strop on cardboard and how to keep their knife sharp after you have sharpened it for them. I pretty regularly put on demonstrations for coworkers on maintaining their blades, I also have several of them who regularly pay me to sharpen their knives. I love learning, I love teaching, so once I sharpen a knife, my goal is to teach that person how to maintain it, so they never have to pay me to do it for them again (I'm bad at capitalism).

When it comes time to buy a new knife, who are they going to ask for advice? You.
 
If your friend is a non knife friend, then its your mission in life to convert him.
 
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