Sometime's sheeple dislike knives, but have they ever made you feel epic?

Grease

Grease

Joined
May 10, 2012
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Last week I was up in Canada with some friends on a houseboat for the week. While we were up there, I realized that the boat had a knife block. Fearing the worst, I started examining the knives in it. As I suspected, all were low quality Stainless China stuff, and had never seen a sharpening device of any kind.

I always carry my 600 grit DMT card in my wallet, so I thought "Hey, I'll fix these knives!"

After a minute or so of freehand sharpening, I glanced up to find 4 guys watching me in awe. Apparently most of my friends don't know how to sharpen a knife, so the fact that I did it successfully made me seem like some amazing hero in their eyes.

Have you ever had one of those moments where your knife/sharpener/knowledge of said things made you stand out as the cool guy?
 
I once sharpened a neighbor's set of gardening sheers because they were dull like the back edge of a butter knife. He was amazed at how well they worked for chopping vegetation afterwards.
 
One time at a friend's house when we were cooking some lunch, I found that his kitchen knife was dull as eff. I took a few minutes to sharpen it on a SiC stone he had(never used too). They were amazed at how sharp it was after(not even sharp by knife nut standards).

The buzz wore off when his wife promptly cut herself soon thereafter.
 
I once sharpened a friend's parent's knives for them while they used my Bark River Rising Wolf to prepare dinner. Their daughter later said that I had made it very difficult for any guy she should later bring home to meet the parents. :D

I also once saved the day at work when one of the ladies brought in a can of soup, but had misplaced the can opener. She came by my desk and said "If anyone in this building has a can opener on them, it's you." I whipped out my Leatherman and she was able to have lunch.
 
Um not really, they've made me feel silly. Once for a joke I handed someone a 7-inch fixed blade just before going somewhere, and asked if they could carry my pocket knife for me.

They proceeded to stick it in their coat without a blink, I had to tell them "no" and my joke was ruined. :p
 
Kitchen knives, shears, machetes, axes, every time I find one, I offer to touch it up for the owner. They are always impressed by how sharp I am able to get these things, sometimes with crude methods, and they always put way more force behind it than they need to, because they are used to powering through things with a dull cutting tool.

It's funny every time.

As a flipside to this:
Some guys were putting insulation in at my workplace, and they stopped me when I went to touch up an insulation knife. They explained that these knives are only as sharp as they need to be for cutting insulation, because of working by touch in small, dark, crawl spaces. They have also had children show a little too much interest in the hardware when they were doing remodeling jobs.

It was new to me to think that a knife could really be "too sharp".
 
To me the most gratifying is when someone who has never carried a knife actually purchases one for edc after watching me use mine and/or asking why I carry one.

I helped a friend buy a Christmas tree a couple of years ago and the guy who tied it up did a hell of a job. We got it into his back yard and he needed a blade to cut the twine and remove some of the branches. I let him use my edc at the the time(griptilian) and I could tell he really dug it. He asked me if I always carry an knife etc. When I saw him a couple of weeks later he had ordered a Rat 1. He now owns 4 of them and is am admitted "convert."
 
I lent my little Case Peanut to a coworker who had some cutting chores to do. When he gave it back later, his finger was all bandaged up and he commented in awe how sharp it was. I said "it's not much good if it isn't."
 
This weekend at a parade they were throwing out freeze pops in those impossible to open plastic wrappers. I opened my kids with the scissors on my SAK. My son said "dad you are the best". That is all I needed and proceeded to let him eat as much candy as he could gather.
 
My sister brought me a bouquet of flowers on my birthday and I was going to cut the stalks before putting them in water. I reached for a small fruit knife that I had practiced sharpening on, held the bouquet over the sink and went *chop-chop-chop* and the stalks all had clean cuts. My sister looked impressed and said something along the lines of "you sure have sharp knives".
 
nik870 said:
This weekend at a parade they were throwing out freeze pops in those impossible to open plastic wrappers. I opened my kids with the scissors on my SAK. My son said "dad you are the best". That is all I needed and proceeded to let him eat as much candy as he could gather.
Click to expand...

Winner?
 
mattmanyam said:
Winner?
Click to expand...

Definitely.


I remember another time I impressed everyone...

I had just designed an ankle rig for a knife, and I had been wearing it around the house to see how it felt. Turns out it was so comfy, I forgot I had it on. 2 hours later I was hanging out with some buddies, and one of them asks about my ankle bracelet. After a moment of confusion, I pulled up my pant leg to reveal a 6 inch bowie-style blade. Just about everyone in the room uttered some variation of "Woah!"
 
I sharpened my ex's kitchen knives and her mom was so scared of using them because they were so sharp; she later thanked me for how much faster and easier it was to prep some meals with those knives.
 
At a party recently...a bunch of couples sitting around talking (quiet dinner party). The wives started talking about knives and husbands. (I was new to the group so I was not sure what sort of people I was dealing with). The husbands all shot glances at each other upon hearing the knife talk and everyone reached and produced a knife...except one guy.

His wife then went on to chastise him for never having a knife when she needed him to.

I learned these were my kind of people...(except that perhaps the ladies should carry their own;))
 
A lot of times around Christmas, I give $12-$14 Henckels that I do a full sharpening through 3k Choseras. They whittle hair effortlessly, and aren't amazing knives, but they are fine for people who won't really take care of them anyways.

It's funny to see their faces when the weight of the knife slices a tomato or something. In fact, last year I gave my uncle a couple and didn't realize he had gotten a very expensive set of chef style knives the previous year. He kind of laughed when he saw the cheap Henckel. He kinda gave me this whole "no offense, but I have better stuff than this" sort of thing. His nice knives were dull as all get out compared to the Henckel. Bet he felt like an idiot when I caught him carving the turkey with the one I gave him.

Honestly, I had a feeling he would already have something "better" than what I gave him. He is one of those people who always has the "best stuff", even if it's expensive, worthless kitchen knives. But in this case, he didn't have anything but some junk pull-through sharpener, and I have an Edge Pro and a full selection of Chosera's.
 
Kind of like Dark Impaler's post above: As I'm sure many of you can relate...getting the wife on board with the art of collecting knives can be a challenge. I figured I would take a different road one day and instead of talking about chopping down trees and making shelters, I brought out a nice slicer, sharpened it up, and handed it to her to use for food prep in the kitchen. She was thrilled with it's performance and since then has not given me such a hard time with my obsession. Doesn't sound crazy but it felt "epic" at the time...
 
Years ago my folks picked me up from the bus station when I came to visit. They worked for a volunteer organisation where Mum ran a fully equipped kitchen capable of feeding a couple of hundred people, and we needed to call in for an hour or so on the way home. After a few minutes of boredom I started testing the various knives in blocks or on wall mounted magnets around the place, and all were nigh on blunt, so I hunted out a steel and, not really having much more than a very basic idea, started sharpening away. I got through the whole lot by the time Mum was done and we headed home. As she went to work the next day I reminded her to tell her staff of about six that I had sharpened the knives and they should be careful. She did so, and reported that afternoon that they were all very impressed with how much easier meal prep had been, but that four of them were also sporting an assortment of bandages and dressings for their efforts.
 
One of my favorite moments was actually on my wedding day. During the reception after the wedding, my wife and I were getting ready to cut the cake in front of all of our family and friends. However, there was a fancy ribbon strung around the edge of the cake that didn't want to come off. After tugging it a bit and realizing that it would smear frosting everywhere if she pulled it off, my wife glanced at me and gave me the, "go ahead," look. I promptly whipped out my green Endura 4 (I had been carrying it the entire day), and sliced the ribbon off, which resulted in the entire crowd laughing and clapping. The photographer loved it, and I have a great picture of my wife and I in front of the cake while I'm holding up the Endura with a big, goofy grin on my face.
 
Shorttime said:
It was new to me to think that a knife could really be "too sharp".
Click to expand...

I've heard the old saying that a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp knife. I believe in sharp knives but I don't believe in that old saying, and sometimes a knife can be too sharp. It all depends on who is using it and how they are using it. If the use of the knife allows it to touch things that you don't want it to cut, it shouldn't be capable of cutting just with a light touch. An accident with a very sharp knife can be serious.

I've also read about everybody sharpening random kitchen knives. I don't dare do that for my wife's knives or she would cut herself too frequently.
 
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