So I lent a good friend a knife....

PurpleHaze

PurpleHaze

Joined
Mar 8, 2010
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I bought a small Galyean JYD from a fellow forum member a few weeks ago at a great price, but it needed a new detent ball. The knife came and I replaced the detent ball and the knife was great except for a little lock face stickiness that would have worked it self out with a little use. A few days later a friend of mine wanted to borrow a knife for a home improvement project and seeing as I wanted to give this knife a good workout I lent it to him. He was going to cut drywall and a few other tasks but agreed to not pry with it and would take care of it. Fast forward to yesterday and he stops by to return the knife but had a confession to make first. He had tried to take the knife apart to clean it up and perhaps fix the stickiness........

He didn't know the knife had IKBS, so when he took it apart the bearings went everywhere. He also tried fixing the lock bar face with a little sanding and polish. Needless to say when he returned it to me, he felt pretty bad about it and offered to pay for it or buy me a new one. He's a good friend and had good intentions, so I just let it go and moved on.

The good news is the knife still locks up rock solid with a little lock bar adjustment, the bad news its not as smooth without the bearings and the lock bar face is not as straight. I had to replace the bearings with washers until I can find some replacements. I guess I can now use and abuse this knife without worry. Its a good thing these are built like tanks. Here she is all cleaned up minus a sharpening:

58198340-3178-43a9-a19c-27ff8b5de67d.jpg



Moral of the story.......Do the cutting jobs for your friends...

Thats my knife horror story, Do you have any similar stories? If so, lets hear em.
 
That sucks because thats a more uncommen knife. The worst i ever had happen was i let my cousin use my blue endura ffg and he wanted to trim the flours that he was about to plant before he did. Bang laid it down on the cement and does a push cut right through the flours right into the cement... i let him keep the knife for the 40$ i paid for it i wasnt going to spend 2 hours fixing the indents in the knife edge...
 
That is a good friend to offer a new one. My father and his contractor friend will use my Mini Recon to do dumb stuff when they are helping with the house - it's a little gladiator. Historically I would only lend my multi-tool or box cutter, sometimes Vic Camper since they are always $20 at Target.

Kinda similar story. When I was in Iraq I would throw an old Endura and Voyager into pallets and sandbags for fun and a brother told me to try his. Lock destroyed and blade snapped on back to back throws - Gerber Paraframe. Can't believe the model is still sold all over.
 
So I lent a good friend a knife....

That was your first mistake.

The simple ugly truth is, most of the rest of the 99% of the people on earth do not give a tinkers damm about a knife. To them it's no more special than a .99 cent screw driver from the dollar store. They cannot fathom a knife costing more than they would spend on a cheap serrated edge wonder in the utensil isle at Walmsrt. To them, we the knife nuts are obsessed nut jobs. I learned early on in life not to lend anyone a knife. If they don't bother to carry one, then they won't care about it.

If you have a friend that does not have a knife, give them an Opinel and see if they can keep it without breaking it up.
 
I keep relearning this lesson. The other day my office manager asked to use my knife, I was doing something so I just handed him my Para 2. Well, the knife is fine but he managed to stab himself in the leg doing whatever he was doing. Luckily it wasn't bad and he mostly thought it was funny.
 
yeah its generally unwise to lend someone a knife, because chances are if they were unprepared enough to not have one in the first place, they aren't a knife person...

I dodged a real bullet recently. I was helping my friend move out of her apartment recently. A pretty lady friend if you catch my drift. Near the end of the move all the silverware had been moved already, and her mother was asking if she had a knife or anything she could use. Since she had nothing I pulled out my knife and went to hand it to her. Now, like always I am carrying my Spyderco Military in cpm m4 steel, Ti frame lock, g10 non locking scale, I believe they only made 500 of these and if you are ever lucky enough to spot one for sale they go for one to two hundred dollars more than I paid for mine....

Anyways her mom looks at it for a second, then says "oh no, I wouldn't want to damage the tip, because I actually need it to unscrew some screws..." I think most people would not have thought twice about messaging up my irreplaceable knife, so her mom is cool in my book.

Oh, and I actually ended up using it to take those screws out, because I understand the limitations of my knife. Yes, the Military with its fine tip did not disintegrate upon this task like many people on bf would imagine because "it's just so fragile". ;)
 
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Lending a friend a knife is a good way to lose a friend.
 
I had a co worker borrow a brand knew knife. She handed it back missing most of the blade finish, and all of the edge chewed off. She had used it to open about a ton of silicone carbide blasting grit.
 
I never let others use my knives. These days I won't even let others handle them. People are far too selfish and even more so with an expensive folder. The more expensive your knife, the bigger a joke it is to them. Unless they are a good trusted friend, most people won't think twice before intentionally throwing your money away
 
My Dad knew and Eskimo one time and he said that an Eskimo would loan his wife out but never his knife. I think the Eskimo's where on to something.
 
jackknife said:
So I lent a good friend a knife....

That was your first mistake.

The simple ugly truth is, most of the rest of the 99% of the people on earth do not give a tinkers damm about a knife. To them it's no more special than a .99 cent screw driver from the dollar store. They cannot fathom a knife costing more than they would spend on a cheap serrated edge wonder in the utensil isle at Walmsrt. To them, we the knife nuts are obsessed nut jobs. I learned early on in life not to lend anyone a knife. If they don't bother to carry one, then they won't care about it.

If you have a friend that does not have a knife, give them an Opinel and see if they can keep it without breaking it up.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more...+1 :thumbup:
 
For a home improvement project usually saws, hammers, drywall knife with replaceable blades are used. I could understand if he borrowed it for a weekend camping trip. I agree with most of the responders, do not loan out your knives, agree to look at what needs to be cut and if appropriate cut it for them.
The right tool for the right job.
 
Good knives are a lot easier to come by than good friends. He kept his word and didn't abuse the knife, just made a mistake by trying to do the right thing. I don't buy knives to collect, I have enough junk lying around collecting dust. Plus I can't take it with me in the end so no big deal. On a side note, anyone need to borrow a small JYD?
 
One time I let a buddy check out my brand new Benchmade 530 I had in my pocket. He threw it straight on the ground. As I was like, "are you.... kidding... me?", he just said that he wanted to test how tough it was. Nothing happened besides minor scratches but what the heck?

So, now I'm pretty particular about who I lend my knives to...
 
Yup, stories like this are why I don't lend out my knives, not even beater knives. A box cutter sure, Anything else no way.
 
Threads with titles like this never end well. Using a $400+ knife to do drywall is nuts.
 
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