What do you do when someone asks to borrow your knife?

Moxy

Moxy

Joined
Oct 30, 2011
Messages
1,648
A while back I was hanging out in the engineering lab the with a few buddies of mine waiting for our next class, and someone asks one of them if he had a pocket knife. He was working on a circuit board and needed a knife to scrape off some flux reside build up off some component. My friend says "I don't have one on me, but this guy always carries a blade" as he's pointing at me. Me not knowing what he wanted the knife for, I figured okay no biggy, and I handed over my small Sebenza. As I'm watching him about to start scraping away at a piece of metal, all of a sudden I was like "whoa whoa what are you doing". I'm not against using my Seb to scrape away at something, but I wasn't really comfortable letting someone else do that. This guy had no idea what he was holding. Once I realized what he wanted to do I said "here don't scrape it off, use alcohol to remove the residue". The lab has cleaning supplies available for that purpose, and I handed him the bottle from the shelf.

In reality the knife would have been fine, but I just don't trust non-knife people using any high-end folder especially those with brittle steels. I've had a guy ask me for my knife and then attempt to use it as a screwdriver. I recently started carrying a Leatherman Juice in addition to my main folder. So now when ever anyone asks me for a blade I hand them my Leathermn, because odds are they don't want a knife. They want a prybar, or a screwdriver, or a can opener.... and they think a knife will get the job done.

So what do you do if someone wants to borrow your expensive knife?
 
I don't let others use my knives.

If someone does not carry a knife, I reason that they cannot be trusted to use one properly.
 
I also have a leatherman to lend out, nobody gets the real knife ;)
 
All depends on what I'm carrying. I always ask what they need to cut first. If I'm carrying a beater(rarely), I might let them use it, if I'm carrying g a custom or other high end knife, I usually say no.
 
I havea hard time letting anybody use my knife. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. :D
 
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It usually depends, but mainly my family asks to borrow a knife and I of course let them even though I am more willing to let the male family members handle my knives. When it comes to friends usually they just want to look at my knife as I do not have to many knife people around here (the reason I come to BladeForums) and they are always wandering what awesome knife I have with me. But when many of them ask to use a knife of mine when it comes to friends and people I recognize or even don't know then I have no problem saying no. I have 2-3 friends that I will usually say yes to, but it also depends on what I am carrying for the day. The main thing I want to say them is "no" you are a guy and you should be carrying your own knife,..... now hand over your man card until you get one or start carrying it. lol (Yes I know we have many female members here that are awesome knife ladies, I just rarely have one around me)
 
Only family members get to use my knives. Otherwise I say no or I'll do it. I'm not a trusting person.
 
Never hand an engineer a knife. Only 10% of engineers deserve the title and can operate a knife without help.

I'd ask said person whether or not they're a Jedi, as my knife cuts like a lightsaber. If they don't pull credentials, they are obviously full of sith.
 
honestly i hand mine out without a second thought. far and away the benefits of showing people how handy having a knife readily available outweigh the risk that they are gonna do something stupid. its kind of like that give a man a fish / teach a man to fish thing.
 
j4ckwr4th said:
honestly i hand mine out without a second thought. far and away the benefits of showing people how handy having a knife readily available outweigh the risk that they are gonna do something stupid. its kind of like that give a man a fish / teach a man to fish thing.
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If you build a man a fire, he'll be warm for a night. If you set a man on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
 
I grew up in the country, so most people carried a knife anyway. :cool:
If someone asks for my knife, and I don't already know what it will be used for, I will ask.
I rarely have people I don't know really well ask to borrow my knife (they already have one), usually they will just ask if I "have one" so I can cut/open something for them.

RemyKaze said:
I'd ask said person whether or not they're a Jedi, as my knife cuts like a lightsaber. If they don't pull credentials, they are obviously full of sith.
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Thanks, I got a good laugh out of that.:D
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I don't let others use my knives.

If someone does not carry a knife, I reason that they cannot be trusted to use one properly.
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Very well said. The only thing I think I would add is that I would loan a less expensive knife out if the chore was proper. Most people think that paying for a quality knife/gun/tool is frivolous because they "sell them cheaper", and since I can't reconcile myself with that thought process, I can't understand how they would treat a tool that I would probably take very good care of, even in use. Still others have too much expendable income, and probably do not respect the work that an average person puts in to purchase something nice. Most people saying "Can I borrow your knife" would consider a Sebenza a safe queen or museum piece anyway expecting a swiss army knife or a bone handle slip-joint, so they would understand your caution. I think I would slap my friend for throwing me under the bus though OP lol, or at least loan out some of his possessions for him.
 
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