Would you use your own classy gents folder at a fancy restaurant?

I think it's perfectly acceptable on those rare occasions when the waiting staff are getting smashed on the weekend and forgot your steak knife the first time around. You could be sitting in front of your steak a long time before they come back your way if it's really busy. As long as you're not pulling out a monster batoning knife, like a Ka-Bar BK2, you should be fine. Besides that would be gauche. Everyone knows you only use a BK2 at the dinner table when feasting on mammoth.
 
I can’t remember if it was this thread or another. But it sent me down the rabbit hole of folding steak knives. And basically someone is buying them. And sometimes for some pretty decent money.

So yeah. I guess it's a thing.

And named knife brands as well. Emerson, Kershaw, a whole bunch of Japanese makers I have never heard of
 
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The Wagu Fillet we enjoy at our favorite place requires no more then a butter knife to cut and the service is such that I cannot even imagine dinner arriving before our table had been reset after appetizers and salad.
 
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CHNeal said:
The Wagu Fillet we enjoy at our favorite place require no more then a butter knife to cut and the service is such that I cannot even imagine it arriving before our table had been reset after appetizers and salad.
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But you must use the right butter knife...
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I am hardly qualified to post in this thread, because I’m hanging up at “Imagine yourself dining in a fancy restaurant…” However, I do have a funny story.

Few months ago I was invited out to a supper at the fanciest restaurant in a nearby town, not very fancy but definitely overpriced. I wore jeans without holes and a clean shirt, so you know it was a special occasion. After taking orders, the waiter brought out a bowl of these little crusty bread rolls. The diner to my right tried to cut one in half with the knife supplied, but only ended up with a big pile of crumbs and a misshapen lump of bread product.

So I sliced one open with the main blade of my jumbo stockman and handed it to her. She exercised admirable restraint considering her overwhelming awe and amazement at how cool I was, merely said “thank you” and started eating the roll. I sliced one for myself, applied a little butter, and turned out it was pretty tasty.

Unknown to me, the manager was watching from across the room. When somebody at the table asked if we could have more rolls, the waiter said “Sure” and came back with another bowl of them, pre-sliced this time.

Come to find out, the manager was kind of a junior knife nut, and approached me later asking to see my knife. He thanked me for helping the lady, and I asked him who does your sharpening. He said nobody, the owners think sharp knives are too much of a liability, but some employees bring their own sharp knives to work. The owners turn a blind eye to it if they take the sharp knives with them after their shift, i.e. don’t leave them for somebody else to get cut on. I said that sounds kinda goofy, and he agreed, but what can he do? He doesn’t use a knife much himself, but he used to cook and so has a chef and paring knife out in his car, just in case. So we talked sharpening for a few minutes.

He said they had a few regulars who bring in their own cutlery and use it discreetly, no big deal. So apparently it’s not just a thing in France.

Parker
 
I remember once someone said. "Don't do that. Use what they give you, for goodness sake. Why would you want to get mayo all over your nice folder?", and it resonated, haha. I mean, it's a bit overkill, usually, the cutlery at the place will suffice, be normal and use the dang steak knife. Part of me says that. Mainly because some folks are like "My wife gave me that look, cause she knew I was gonna whip out my Benchmade 940 Emerson stabinator 9000 to cut my steak, because this knife would not cut butter!"

The other part of me knows that it depends on situation. I was sitting in a Panera Bread taking my girlfriend to lunch and she asked me to cut her apple up, I did with a PM2, would not have chosen that knife if there was a family sitting next to me, but there was one old man two tables behind and to the left, and another couple on the other side of the restaurant. I am inconspicuous and nobody even saw it, I think. If people were by me or could see me, I would have used the slipjoint or the K55 Mercator in my pocket. I have no problem using a knife in front of people, or in public, in fact I think we should, when we need to, normally. To normalize it. But, the proper knife, not your XL Voyager.

People ask me, "Hash, how do you carry around an Espada XL and not make us look bad?!". Because it never comes out in the dang Panera Bread! I use the right tool for the job. If I'm at the back of work with my friends, THEN I will take that beast out. If a coyote runs up, THEN I take it out. Not when I have a loose thread. That's when I use my carbon fiber Chaparral, my Case, my Winchester, my Leatherman, my RAT2. I carry whatever I want. I use whatever I want, too. I am just smart, and responsible about how I use it, what I use, the way I use it, opening and closing it, etc.

I like the idea of "gentleman-izing" some of my knives. I LOVE my Carbon Fiber Chapparal, that is my new "gentleman knife" that took over my 5th pocket.
 
My simple philosophy for knives is - If I need to use it for something, I use it. What's the point of carrying it if I'm not going to use it when I need it.

A restaurant isn't a secure government building. What are they going to do if you pull out a little folder to cut something, arrest you? Call the cops? Throw your food away and tell you to leave? They're in business to make money, with very thin profit margins, they NEED your business. And the wait staff depend on their tips TO LIVE.

I've worked in a few restaurants.
 
Yep totally a fancy restaurant if you have to baton through the dinner rolls.

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