Lending out a knife.... Any good stories?

[Ron Athay]

I was asked by my best friend to loan his son (40 year old) a hunting knife for a hunting trip. I had found a Schrade Deerslayer on a mountain road. It was not in good shape (much "patina"). I had no need for it so I lent it to him. When I got the knife back it was polished clear (by hand) and sharpened to a very sharp edge. Not quite new, but close.
A very positive experience.

 

[Mobile-eyez]

Really only my closest friends handle my knives, and if anyone else does, I'm right there with them. Many times I'll hand them the Kershaw Skyline that I carry with me as a backup knife/loaner knife. No one uses my SMF or any of the other main blades in my rotation.

 

[riz_aaroni]

I had a "friend" borrow a cold steel true flight thrower to use on a camping trip as a main knife . I figured he couldn't bust it. I got it back and he had obviously used it to prod a fire..... He also lost the pots that I gave him on that trip. A year later he asked to borrow some more camping gear and I promptly told him where he could place that request.

Lol, good work on that one. Some people can't be trust with anything.

My sister almost used the blade on my SAK as philips head screw, good thing i was there to show her the philips screw driver a little to the left of the knife...

She knew enough to pick up the SAK, but not enough to see what tools it may have had. The details people overlook sometimes...though we all do it.

 

[Thomas Linton]

Hell No! :grumpy:




("I did too return your knife. I put it on the bumper of your car." )

 

[Don Rearic]

Lol, lucky man! I guess you never got the dagger back, though you have one hell of a story to tell people.

She brought it back. Funny thing is, the knife was originally a gift from my first wife "Plaintiff." Or, as my Wife likes to refer to her, "The Training Wife."

 

[Myal]

About the only story close to loaning I got was when I was a kid

I bought a $2 knife with a sweedish steel blade that was awesomely sharp and held an edge like nothing else , took it fishng and a freind used it to cut some bait .. and dropped it off the wharf .....

I am known here tho for making knives , and for sharpening them . the girls at the cafe asked me to " see what I could do " with their knives , I gave them all back shaving sharp , for the next few weeks , the girls all had pretty bright colored bandaids on their fingers

I sold a machete , shipped it to the USA , the girl who bought it opened an ebay dispute against me in a couple days cos it didnt show up fast enough , then she got all upset because it did show up but she opened the tube and was shaking the knife out , when it did slide out , and when the knife hit her bare foot , the point cut thu the heaps of bubble rap and cut her foot .... kinda badly she reckons , enough she went to the hospital and got stiches put in .

sadest tho is a knife I made , my dearly beloved watch me shove it thru car panels , tin cans , baton it thru lumps of firewod , make curlies on sheet steel and then paper ....

dearly beloved was soo impressed she used it to cut the lawn edges and kinda seriously wrecked the edge she seriously had thought it was just the tool for the job .... took me some effort to fix .

the nicest story tho , I found a set of buggy springs off an ancient horsedrawn buggy , and had some rosewood fence posts Id salvaged off a fence I knew was at least 100 yr old . I forged a big bowie style knife out of one of the springs , handled it with recycled fence post , and gave it to a mate of mine for a wedding present , sort of a twist on something old , something new .. , I figured it was something old , made into something new . it lives over his mantle piece . Before he got that , his wife was kinda anti knife ... now its played a part in swaying her thinking some , she has her own psk and belt knife even

 

[riz_aaroni]

She brought it back. Funny thing is, the knife was originally a gift from my first wife "Plaintiff." Or, as my Wife likes to refer to her, "The Training Wife."

Lol, at the least she has a sense of humor about it. Seems like you got a great wife.

 

[Battlesword]

Well at a recent Medieval Fayre I loaned 2 swords(blunt steel for tourney use and not cheap ) to a friend.They both came back broken without an apology which is the bit that really hurt.

 

[riz_aaroni]

Well at a recent Medieval Fayre I loaned 2 swords(blunt steel for tourney use and not cheap ) to a friend.They both came back broken without an apology which is the bit that really hurt.

What could they have done with them to do that? People just don't care about others, especially their belongings. Hopefully they gave you some money. I know if somebody broke one of my knives, they'd be buying me a new one asap.

 

[Smash05]

For sure I have some stories, but generally I have made sure over the years that all my good friends have gotten decent knives from me as gifts. I have given out plenty of SAK's, Leatherman Multi's and a few folders/fixed blades. People tend to carry them because they respect the gift, and realize the usefullness of the tool once they have them. Strangers - almost never lend out a knife - usually offer to cut whatever needs cutting.

 

[AeroNautiCal]

Lending out a knife.... Any good stories?

In the words of Frank White, "There are some things I don't do!"

 

[absolutindian]

I know this isn't exactly a story about a knife being loaned out... but one where I voluntarily gave up possession to someone else for a period of time, albeit for a service being performed...

I have an Enzo Trapper that I took to a local knife shop to have sharpened (I know, scandi grind, I should have just sharpened it myself... lesson learned). I assumed the staff of the KNIFE SHOP knew what I was giving them, so I didn't elaborate on HOW I wanted the stupid thing sharpened. I figured that it would take a complete idiot to look at that scandi edge ad not know how to sharpen it correctly. Came back a few days later and some "complete idiot" had used a slack belt sander on it, effectively convexing the edge. I more or less flipped my lid, exploded into a tirade about edge geometry, different grinds and their uses, and proper sharpening techniques. I even drew them a friggin diagram explaining the difference between a scandi grind and a convex. They assured me they would re-profile the edge back to the way it was with no charge at all. I was dumb enough to take their word for it... I came back three days later and they told me they had to ship the knife to NY because their local guy didn't know how to handle the situation. I should have just old them to send it back to me immediately. I didnt. I came back another three days later, and... well, my knife was sharp, I'll give them that, but it now had a micro-beveled edge.

So now I have an Enzo Trapper that has gone from a scandi grind to a convex grind with micro bevel.

Someone please make sense of this, because I sure cant!!??!?!?!

 

[ieraseu]

I let some movers borrow a Mora #1 to break down some boxes and they ended up losing the sheath.

However, I consider the low price to be one of main selling points of the Mora. Use them, abuse them, loan them out to total strangers without regard. If somehow it get's ruined or lost in the process, no one is going to shed any tears over a $10 knife.

 

[bushman14]

I have always felt it would be crappy for me to not lend a knife or other tool when it is asked. I would hope for the same if I needed one.
I have been bitten in the past, and learned my lesson. The knives I carry daily are good knives, but ones I don't mind getting abused occasionally. I even lend if I suspect there might be some abuse, but usually with a remark that they'll buy me a new one if they break it.

 

[Liam Ryan]

On a recent camping trip I lent out a few blades to some guys who had none at all, (one guy had a sak spartan, good choice) So I hauled out the big shoe box of blades and they all chose one. A buck 110, mora clipper, sak OHT and a Grohmann boat knife came along.
The dude with the OHT gave it back early on, stating it was too sharp and he was worried he would cut himself. Fair enough I thought, he's being honest, and it is rather sharp.
The boat knife however was left out on the ground overnight, through rain mind you, it was no big loss as it was from a kit and I messed up the handle a bit, but all the same. the sheath was wet and had to be saved, and I was the one who found it the next morning, he never said a word about it, like "Hey, I can't find your knife". I didn't really like the guy either. Live and learn, I guess, I did offer and didn't really know some of them.

 

[YayILikePie]

To start the story, let me just say that I had modified the small pen blade on a Victorinox Tinker to a wharncliffe, since I tend to open lots of boxes. Working in apparel, lots of shipment comes in cardboard, and there's nothing quite like a wharncliffe blade to whiz through tape like it's not even there. It stays sharp with a touch-up on a ceramic stone every night.

My friend was turning 24, and decided to hold a get-together of old friends. We all got dressed up and had a nice meal of Indian food. While at the restaurant, she decided that it would be kind of fun to open up her presents at the dinner table, but discovered that some of the presents were tied up in ribbons, strings, stickers, and other things that can be a pain to get through without a sharp object.

Not thinking much of it, I pulled out my Tinker, opened the small blade, and passed it over for her to use. Now, after having been cut many times with a slipjoint, I should have warned her that these things don't have locking mechanisms, and that pressing up against the spine of the blade can cause it to close. However, the thought didn't cross my mind and so I sent it her way.

Perhaps she has never seen or used a wharncliffe blade before, but she started using the spine of the blade to try and slice through some ribbon, and luckily, her finger was not in the way of the blade. Gave her quite a scare though, and could've made for a bad birthday. At that point, I took back the Tinker and handed her something with a locking mechanism instead.

 

[riz_aaroni]

To start the story, let me just say that I had modified the small pen blade on a Victorinox Tinker to a wharncliffe, since I tend to open lots of boxes. Working in apparel, lots of shipment comes in cardboard, and there's nothing quite like a wharncliffe blade to whiz through tape like it's not even there. It stays sharp with a touch-up on a ceramic stone every night.

My friend was turning 24, and decided to hold a get-together of old friends. We all got dressed up and had a nice meal of Indian food. While at the restaurant, she decided that it would be kind of fun to open up her presents at the dinner table, but discovered that some of the presents were tied up in ribbons, strings, stickers, and other things that can be a pain to get through without a sharp object.

Not thinking much of it, I pulled out my Tinker, opened the small blade, and passed it over for her to use. Now, after having been cut many times with a slipjoint, I should have warned her that these things don't have locking mechanisms, and that pressing up against the spine of the blade can cause it to close. However, the thought didn't cross my mind and so I sent it her way.

Perhaps she has never seen or used a wharncliffe blade before, but she started using the spine of the blade to try and slice through some ribbon, and luckily, her finger was not in the way of the blade. Gave her quite a scare though, and could've made for a bad birthday. At that point, I took back the Tinker and handed her something with a locking mechanism instead.

That was a close call! Glad things worked out though. Need to keep it as safe and simple as possible when loaning things out to people who have no knife experience.