Letting other people use your knives...

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KennyB

Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
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I was wondering how you guys react when someone asks to borrow your knife and then starts using it for a task that is going to damage it.

I was camping with some people and a few mutual friends of ours, hanging around the campfire trying to get to know everyone, I got a stick out and sharpened up a marshmallow roaster. A couple of minutes later one of the people I don't know says, "Hey, I saw you have a pocket knife, can I use it?" and hesitantly I say yes--I didn't want to seem like I thought he was too stupid to use it properly or patronize him by saying "be careful"; plus he just seemed like the type to know how to use knives. However, before I know what's happening, he's got it in the bowl of a dirty glass marijuana pipe (I don't partake, but I don't care if anyone else does) scraping all the black crap off the side of the glass with my Kulgera sharpened at 30 degrees. He hands my knife back to me, with a nice helping of the gunk resting on a HUGE burr he raised up. :grumpy: I didn't know if I was more upset about the fact that he damaged my knife, or that he did so for the sake of smoking that crap--the jerk didn't even ask if I was okay with him using it for that.

That really infuriated me, but I didn't say anything, just sat there looking at my edge, rubbing it on some rocks to get the dent out and the gunk off, trying to get the point across that, "Hey, you screwed up my knife," when he asks if he can look at it. So I think, "Well, it's not like he'll throw it on the ground and stomp on it," and let him see it. Karma was definitely on my side, because after he tried to mimic the way I flipped it open and closed, he caught his pinky in between and got a nasty cut. It's as if the knife was biting him for damaging it and subjecting it to cleaning his paraphernalia. lol

Anyway, that's my story, and since then I really haven't let anyone but close friends use my knife--that way I can shout at them for using it the wrong way. Luckily most of them realize I care about the thing and will go get a kitchen knife for their paint-can-opening, rock-digging, knife-abusing tasks. As for strangers, I decided it's more worth it to me to offend them than to sharpen out huge dents and try to clean obnoxious stuff off the blade.

How do you guys handle it? Anyone have a really polite way of saying, "I don't trust you to not damage it"?
 
I just shake my head and smile when someone asks to borrow my knife, especially someone I don't know. I might offer to cut what they need cut. I used to carry a POS folder for loaning to friends who needed a knife but I realized that the space used for the POS can be better used by carrying one of my knives for me.
 
I have a Kabar stockman that I use as a utility knife/ loaner. Why? I got it used, and have used it pretty roughly, so I know it can take some minor abuse. I am not letting someone borrow my Griptilian or my ZT0350 that has not handled the stockman before. How they handle the smaller knife shows me how they would handle the bigger ones. (Bear in mind that these rules are for friends and acquaintances only- I never hand a stranger a knife.):)

Oh, and I have no problem saying no as politely as possible to their kind requests.
 
Haha, just started a similar thread.
A while back on a jobsite, some wussy metrosexual type wanted to use my Sebbie(trying to impress his girlfriend). This after asking why I had a 'weapon'.
I said I'd take care of it as I didn't have time to waste while he cut himself.
 
this is the reason the good lord gave us the mighty Mora Clipper 860 and other such quality blades at attractive price points.

when i bought my Fallknivens, i grabbed a couple of clippers for this specific purpose.

one of them is now permanently stored in my mums car. the other one is there for me to loan to people who ask to borrow a knife.
 
I always ask what they intend on doing.... I HATE when someone thinks my knife is a screwdriver....
 
I'll only let my brother use my knives. Actually that goes for anything that's expensive. I didn't work my ass off for my good gear to let some mouth breathing sissy boy screw it up.

ETA: I don't have a polite way of saying no. No means no, people wont typically push the subject further.
 
it sucks that he dirtied up your knife, but i would have returned the favor by asking for a hit, and then dusting his entire bowl right there by myself.
 
I keep an extra knife in my pocket that I let friends, family, aquaintances (that don't know how to care for a knife). For the VERY few people I know that appreciate a knike, or at least know how to use one, I let them use one of my EDC.

When someone asks to use one, I don't hesitate at all about asking them what they plan on doing with it. It's my tool and my money. I'm not going to let anyone abuse it. If I won't let them use, then I just use it for what they need cut.

"I'll take care of it like it was my own" are the 10 words I dread to hear the most when someone asks to borrow something. I'll tell them, "PLEASE remember that it's not yours, it's mine."

Yeah, maybe it's a little bit of being an ass about it, but I don't care! :p
 
one of my friends always asks to use my knives for stupid tasks that dont require a blade.one day i was at his place,i went inside to get some water,come back outside and realize i had left my tenacious outside with my friend(who is notorious for messing up blades)sure enough i open the knife and there is three or four big chips taken out of the tip:mad:turns out he used it to take the child-proof gaurd off of his lighter.i never let him use my blades anymore
 
seelow123 said:
one of my friends always asks to use my knives for stupid tasks that dont require a blade.one day i was at his place,i went inside to get some water,come back outside and realize i had left my tenacious outside with my friend(who is notorious for messing up blades)sure enough i open the knife and there is three or four big chips taken out of the tip:mad:turns out he used it to take the child-proof gaurd off of his lighter.i never let him use my blades anymore
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A friend who does not respect my property would no longer be a friend.
 
This only happened to me once, I let a friend borrow one of my spydies and a few minutes later I walk outside to find him trying to saw his way through a 1/4" steel cable. He almost got halfway through before the edge was completely ruined. his excuse was that he thought s30v was some kind of super steel. now no one borrows my knives unless its for something like boxes, packaging, or zip ties.
 
Sorry about your kulgera man, lesson learned though eh?
Carry a Vic Cadet... and watch the less intelligent NKP's close it on their fingers doing stupid shit with it they shouldn't be doing with ANY knife :D
 
I do not let anyone I don't know borrow my knives in general and for the people I do know get the question "what are you going to do with it?".
 
Sevorius said:
This only happened to me once, I let a friend borrow one of my spydies and a few minutes later I walk outside to find him trying to saw his way through a 1/4" steel cable. He almost got halfway through before the edge was completely ruined. his excuse was that he thought s30v was some kind of super steel. now no one borrows my knives unless its for something like boxes, packaging, or zip ties.
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I don't think that was an excuse. He just wanted to justify his intended misuse of your property
 
Bill86 said:
I always ask what they intend on doing.... I HATE when someone thinks my knife is a screwdriver....
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Ding, ding, ding, ding.................


I never, ever let some one borrow unless I ask first. I have learned this the hard way. I have had knives handed back minus one inch of tip. Had a brand new folder handed back with all the finish missing, and the edge gone (looked like it had been used to block sword swings.........that is what happens when some one uses a knife to slice open 1000lbs of silicone carbide blasting medium bags).

The only exception is real knife people I know. My dad is also safe. My older brother is off limits.

Other thing that really pisses me off is when some one snapps one of my revolvers closed! Even "gun" people will do this!
 
Sevorius said:
This only happened to me once, I let a friend borrow one of my spydies and a few minutes later I walk outside to find him trying to saw his way through a 1/4" steel cable. He almost got halfway through before the edge was completely ruined. his excuse was that he thought s30v was some kind of super steel. now no one borrows my knives unless its for something like boxes, packaging, or zip ties.
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Weak. If he wants to do an experiment, do it with his own money.
 
I only let my brother use my knives, he takes care of them. I'm sorry to hear that your knife was abused by a stoner. Lesson learned eh?
 
singularity35 said:
A friend who does not respect my property would no longer be a friend.
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we go back aways and he is a great friend,he just doesnt realize that my blades arent crappy thrift store specials,there working tools that cost alot more money than that frost cutlery crap that he gets:barf:
 
i usually just tell them that they can use it but if it comes back in more than one piece or looks ANY different from how i gave it to them...they have to cough up the cash for a new one. they usually let me cut whatever they need cut for them.
 
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