Seeing the knives you gave as gifts?

I'd rather see a knife I'd given scratched up and used than still in the box and neglected. That having been said, maybe you should offer to sharpen them when you see them so that whoever you gave them to can get more use out of them.
 
No matter how many times I tell my old man to take care of his (my) knife he never will. Thats why he will never get anything outisde spydercos china line anymore:D
 
I once gave a friend a pretty good ($135) knife from the A.G. Russell catalogue for a birthday present. The next time I saw it was at a garage sale he was having, where I noticed he had taken a grinding wheel to it and totally ruined it. He was selling it for $20, with no takers as it was destroyed. I forgot to get the penny in trade, and I now see the truth of the old legend that you should always get something in return when you give a knife as a gift, or it will sever the friendship. I resent what he did to this day. It REALLY offended me, and I couldn't get over it.
 
dericdesmond said:
No matter how many times I tell my old man to take care of his (my) knife he never will. Thats why he will never get anything outisde spydercos china line anymore:D
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That's the same situation I have going on with my father. :o I keep telling him to at least TRY and clean the blade on whichever knife I've given him after use but it doesn't seem to be happening.

The last knife I got him was a spyderco meadowlark 2 and he's loving it. I haven't seen him in a while so I'm curious to see what condition it's in!
 
I offer to clean and sharpen the Boker Subcoms I gave my dad and brother-in-law when I think about it. I don't think either gets a ton of use but it is a habit more then anything. Those are the only two knives I have given out in recent memory. Most folks I know just wouldn't appreciate them or they'd just rot in a drawer somewhere.
 
I love giving knives as gifts and they are usually given with my own personal "Lifesharp" guarantee. If the person wants me to sharpen or repair it (if it's repairable), I'll do it. I figure that I love knives more than the average person I'd give one to, and if I offer to upkeep it, it'll get used and they'll know what a good edge feels like.

I've got one family member that I've given two in the past year and he uses them like mad and takes really good care of them. That's really nice to see, I admit, but like others have said, I'd rather see them used than neglected. I don't usually give away cheapo's from China, so they're always going to get something good quality and practical for their usage.
 
I guess I'm a little different when it comes to giving gifts. Or maybe most folks feel the same but just haven't mentioned it.

When I give a gift of any kind I have no expectations, either good or bad, regarding its use or care. Especially if the gift was not requested. Once given it belongs to the recipeint to do with as they please and I feel that I no longer have a say in the matter. I wouldn't want anyone telling me how to treat my belongings, whether they gave it to me or not. Most people don't want gifts with strings attached.

When I see that a gift I've given has been regifted or poorly treated it doesn't bother me in the least because I accepted that possibility right from the start.
 
I only gift out knives that I would carry myself. So far it's been a Skyline, Salt 1, and a ZT 350. Each of the friends that I gave them to use them everyday. And I'm pretty sure they're all addicted to flicking them too. Glad I could make some of my friends lives just a little easier with the help of a simple tool.
 
I gave my cousin a little Gerber Mini Paraframe about 5 years ago. He has used it more than any of his knives. Hes used it for everything. Prying, throwing, screwdriver, scraper, you name it. Its held up very well with minimal bladeplay.
He has even batoned with it a few times. Im very surprised at the 8 dollar quality.
 
I gave my girlfriends dad a spyderco. He showed it to me one day and he must have used it for hours cutting boxes at work and there was crud all over the thing. At least he uses it, but you would think a guy who spends hours cleaning his guns every week would have enough sense to clean a knife.
 
I gave my step dad a BM Mini Grip for his b-day last year. I knew it would get abused but I thought a quality knife would hold up better than the cheap knives he buys for himself. Whenever I stop in for a visit I make sure to bring my diamond stones and give his knife a new edge. I've never seen him use the knife for anything really tough but from the condition of the edge I can only image the hell that blade goes through. It looks like he uses it as a scraper, pry bar, screwdriver etc. The good news is that the mini grip is holding up great despite the abuse it takes on a daily basis. I'm glad to see the knife being used and it shows how much abuse a quality knife can really take.
 
In last 15 years, I've given about 60-70 knives as gifts to my friends, all types, folders, kukris, kitchen knives, fixed blades. Nothing was broken so far, couple got lost, including ZDP-189 Keshaw Shallot, the rest are either unused(kukris and larger fixed blades) or quite heavily used, mainly kitchen knives and a few folders. Nobody abused them(screwdriver thingy) etc, although kitchen knives get the most use/abuse in general.
 
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