Mission Impossible - How do I take the edge off/blunt a knife

N

NJCutter

Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Messages
124
I have a 4.5" blade edge I would like to blunt to be safe around any circumstance. Material is Sandvik 14C28N. I don't have many tools other than household items like a Spyderco Sharpmaker, scissors, etc. Is it possible to blunt the edge with the Sharpmaker and not ruin the sharp maker? Any advice is appreciated.

I don't have a work shop machine or anything like that unfortunately.
 
How dull are you trying to make it? I would think that slicing the knife edge perpendicular to a Sharpmaker stone, especially on the corner, as if you were trying to cut a cross section, would dull it pretty quickly. I don't know if it would render the knife "safe". If you kept the contact near one end of the Sharpmaker stone then I doubt it would have a negative effect on being able to sharpen other blades with it.
 
Dull enough if a kid were to pick it up from a presentation shelf, they can't do cut themselves
 
A sidewalk, landscape paving stone, brick, bottom of a ceramic cup/bowel/plate or saw for a while on the rest of the ceramic surface, a rock, cut a bunch of thick and heavy card board, cut some sissal rope, asphalt shingles.......

What are you going to do about the tip? Even with the edge too dull to damage skin, the blade will still pierce.
 
Last edited:
I did this on several knives for my two boys.

Buck crosslock. Little son married that thing everywhere.

I did an Opinel #6 for my second son. Best part, was I was able to reshsrpen that one and he uses it all the time now.
 
Easy to do, as others have mentioned; but if the knife is nice enough to warrant its own presentation shelf, it'd be a crime to ruin it by flattening the edge and tip. Even though you could resharpen it, the geometry would be coarsened.

Those kids can't get to your kitchen knives?
 
Uh, why would you? Wouldn't it be better to educate the kids? Sooner or later they will encounter sharp stuff.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Leave it alone.
If the kids are smart, they'll only cut themselves once.
Click to expand...

And if they're really smart, not at all...I explained sharp knives to my kids at a young age and demonstrated a razor sharp edge cutting through meat and plastic and how easily it zipped through with no pressure. They were told they were not allowed to handle sharp knives until they were older. Neither of them have ever gotten cut, and more than a few times have come to get me to tell me that Mommy left a sharp knife lying on the counter. The oldest is 8 and just got his first pocket knife. I trust him with it.
 
Very sharp knives foster safe handling habits, one way or another. One will either learn to handle them safely, or choose not to pick them up at all. Dull knives that are always dull will ultimately foster bad handling habits, one way or another. And long-ago-formed habits are a very hard thing to break. That can be a good thing or not, depending on which habit was formed in the first place.

Over several decades, my mother had used some butterknife-dull kitchen knives for everything she did in the kitchen. The upside to that was, she never seriously cut herself with them, so far as I know. The downside is, she got used to the fact the knives were too dull to be a risk in casual handling of them. Just in the last few years, I'd resharpened (or maybe, sharpened for the FIRST TIME ever) two or three of those knives, one of which I did at my Dad's request. Within the first 48 hours after I'd sharpened one of those, my mother managed to cut herself with it, because she was in the habit of very casually fingering/resting her fingertip on the edge near the ricasso, as she'd been in the habit of doing for decades. And since that incident, she later cut herself a little more deeply on a paring knife I'd sharpened (for my Dad). So, the lesson learned here is, if one develops too-casual habits from the start, it'll eventually find a way to get somebody hurt.

I tend to believe it's safer to form knife-handling habits based on the assumption the knife is always extremely sharp, much as I believe it's much safer to assume a gun is ALWAYS LOADED, when picking it up. Never ceases to amaze me, how many people hurt themselves or others in handling a gun only on the assumption it's not loaded. Bad habits. Very, very, very bad habits.
 
They have wood knives, Spyderco for example. Cub Scout Knife badge / belt slide den material is easy to get online and will guide you. The dullest knife w glob of safety blob on the tip is... o_O
Training brother training. About now might be a good time to get the neighbor parents together and do a Facetime with kids after dinner, bars of soap and butter knives to start if memory serves. To shoot straight, fish, hunt, ride, run, hike and cut things. But most of all to listen really listen and see. Mom says now pay attention for the next minute son, grandpa wants to interject, yell really, always, always pay attention, don't stop paying attention, your never too poor to pay attention, and what you are buying will make your inner-man rich.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Leave it alone.
If the kids are smart, they'll only cut themselves once.
Click to expand...
I guess that says something about my IQ. I must have cut myself 30 times as a kid. Still have scars in a couple of places because I was afraid to tell my mom so it could be stitched.(:--KV
 
kvaughn said:
I guess that says something about my IQ. I must have cut myself 30 times as a kid. Still have scars in a couple of places because I was afraid to tell my mom so it could be stitched.:)--KV
Click to expand...

Sometimes smart can also mean strategizing. If she was anything like mine was, telling Mom would have probably meant bye-bye pocket knife...:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top