Your knife at the restaurant...

[Poez]

Crocodile dundee lives!

 

[Ankerson]

My point is that I don't do it with pride, I don't do it for fun, and I don't do it for attention. These are the only reasons the detractors can seem to come up with in this thread. I don't like getting grease and oils on my blade that I have to clean off later. I don't like the fact that the wait staff was so incompetent as to leave me with no knife. I don't like waiting around in restaurants. I use my knife when it makes it easier, but it isn't the ideal solution.

Since I eat at a restaurant minimum 250 times a year when in the states, and I first used my own knife at the table about 10-11 years ago, I have roughly averaged taking out my knife once every 500 or so meals when seated at a food service establishment. 0.2% of my meals at a business - not meals in total, not out of every restaurant trip, but only those in the last decade. Three or four times out of thousands. No spectacle, no mishap, no nothing.

I used to eat out a lot also, 3 to 4 days a week on ave sometimes 3 meals a day.

Things are different now thankfully that I don't have to eat out that often.

 

[Doug S]

For years I was a field archaeologist, eating out 3 meals a day. Unless one of those meals happened to be in the field, my pocket knife didn't leave my pocket. I simply used the supplied tableware. Cooking in the field is a different story. Now generally, I only do summer field schools, but it's not uncommon for me to build a fire and have students cooking off the site. The Buck 110 has made short work of some good steaks and other things. So, I do understand using what is necessary to get a job done. Just not buying that this is necessary while eating in a restaurant (that just seems a bit overeager).

 

[BKbladezZz]

lol but i wouldnt use a william henry for that the mexican food will give it heart burn lol

 

[stoffi]

"do you have a sharper knife"

"no"

same thing. hardly something to complain about or be yelled at over.

That depends. You first claimed that LuisG wrote this (quotes):

"no, i'm sorry, we have nothing sharper"

This is not true. What was written by LuisG was this:

"I asked the waiter politely if they could provide a sharper knife, the waiter said no."

I merely read it as the waiter WOULD not provide him with a sharper knife, but of course it could also have meant that they COULD not provide him with a sharper knife.
What LuisG wrote is ambiguous and we both (you and I) read it like we wanted to. That's why I wrote what I did. Obviously, if they simply didn't HAVE anything sharper, there's no foul (IMO).

 

[Dekz]

That depends. You first claimed that LuisG wrote this (quotes):

"no, i'm sorry, we have nothing sharper"

This is not true. What was written by LuisG was this:

"I asked the waiter politely if they could provide a sharper knife, the waiter said no."

I merely read it as the waiter WOULD not provide him with a sharper knife, but of course it could also have meant that they COULD not provide him with a sharper knife.
What LuisG wrote is ambiguous and we both (you and I) read it like we wanted to. That's why I wrote what I did. Obviously, if they simply didn't HAVE anything sharper, there's no foul (IMO).

It's wasn't ambiguous at all, and you just proved that you are the one that misinterpreted it.

 

[stoffi]

Hahaha! I completely missed that!

You are right, and I obviously need to read better.

 

[IGotStabbed]

These threads always scare me. A pocket knife is not silverware. In public, it's bad manners no matter how you spin it!

 

[tom1417]

I've never used my own knife at the restaurant and frankly don't intend to unless absolutely necessary. Think of it this way would me pulling out my Benchmade 275 Adamas at the restaurant last night have sent the right message to anyone around. Not exactly comforting to most people. So I'll just deal with the dull steak knife for know.

Just an aside I thought the Adamas was way to big to carry (which is why I first passed up purchasing it) but I was wrong. Not your average knife but if you need a hard use knife its perfectly doable and comfortable.

 

[Bishop2Queen's6]

Many dull steak knives at several different steak houses prompted me to carry my SAK Sentinel w/ clip serrated when ever I dine out or picnic. It's slim, not tacti-cool, and looks just like a steak knife so its very discrete. It's sharpness amazes me. The ease at which it cuts through steak, breads, vegetables makes me wonder why I didn't carry it sooner.

 

[viva la]

I can think of quite a few restaurants where I have used my EDC to cut food:

-Starbucks: Good luck trying to find a knife to cut a pastry in half here. My guest is always appreciative.

-Chinese: Most Chinese food is made to be eaten with chopsticks (even American style) or hands, so knives usually aren't on the table. I've cut egg rolls in half with my EDC.

-Japanese: Usually not necessary at good sushi places, but every once in a while I get served a hunk of raw fish (sashimi) that is half an inch thick. Not cool. If I don't feel like sending it back, I'll use my very sharp EDC to slice it thin. If you're sitting at the sushi bar, the chefs will often love to talk about knives and whose is sharpest.

1) Starbucks: is not a restaurant

2) Chinese: i have never been to a chinese restaurant where if you asked for a knife they wouldn't give you one. a fork or spoon also for that matter...

 

[viva la]

Not quite sure who I was trying to BS, or where I ever posted that it was a need. In the instances where I used my own knife, it was because I needed a knife that I didn't have, sure. What I wanted was to get done with my meal and avoid another disappointing interaction with a waiter/waitress who didn't bring the proper silverware the first time.

So you CHOSE to use yours instead of the intended cutlery provided by the restaurant which would have been perfectly adequate.

This entire forum is about wants over needs. There is no need for the locks, steels, and other materials we discuss so frequently. There is no need for custom kitchen knives or folders that are priced more than dinner for 12 at a decent restaurant. We could all get by with grandpa's slippie and some random fixed blade if we wanted; and we could eat dinner with them if we wanted, too.

Actually some of us NEED the "custom kitchen knife". I can guarantee that my custom/high end "kitchen knife" will last longer and remain sharper than a cheap walmart kitchen knife. I use my knife 4-5 hours a day to prep food. My knife is as much of a tool to me as a wrench for a mechanic. I don't want to waste half my day rehoning or sharpening a knife.

 

[hardheart]

So you CHOSE to use yours instead of the intended cutlery provided by the restaurant which would have been perfectly adequate.

No, they did not provide it. I clearly stated as much several times.

Nice how you need a sharp custom knife over a cheap dull one to cut food, but think a sharp knife should not be used to cut food when a cheap dull one is available on request.

 

[upnorth]

hardheart,

Hence, the " " around the word shamed. I chose not to use my pocket knife while eating out. You feel different. To each his own. My only real point in any of my comments in this thread is that I'm not inclined to believe that this is being done for any reason other than we knife people like to play with our knives given the chance. If you don't like my view, well we can agree to disagree. No "shame" in that.

Well said. And really, isn't this thread proof in and of itself that pulling out a personal knife in a restaurant is controversial ? If it wasn't contentious there would not be opposing sides arguing their point..... It's easy to be narcissistic but it's a higher level of social conscience to be considerate of strangers around us.

 

[stabman]

A pocket knife is not silverware. In public, it's bad manners no matter how you spin it!

Why?
Give a solid, logical, non-emotional reason, other than the emotional "It ain't polite" or some such thing.
No one has yet given an actual, solid reason why not.

 

[stabman]

And really, isn't this thread proof in and of itself that pulling out a personal knife in a restaurant is controversial ?

No.
You can say any old thing and people will argue it.
"Puppies are cute."
"No they aren't; they're disgusting disease bags that lick their own butts."

There will be no consensus on anything, not even the assertion that there will be no consensus.

 

[upnorth]

No.
You can say any old thing and people will argue it.
"Puppies are cute."
"No they aren't; they're disgusting disease bags that lick their own butts."

There will be no consensus on anything, not even the assertion that there will be no consensus.

I mentioned nothing about a consensus, but the simple fact that there are opposing viewpoints reveal that this issue is controversial even to B.F. members, let alone society as a whole. To each their own, I chose not to because it feels inherently wrong and against my social mores. It would not bother me or likely anyone around me if someone popped open a small SAK to cut some meat, bread, whatever. Not a biggie. I do however remember a post a few years back though, were a B.F. member was using a Becker BK-2 on his steak in a restaurant. Which goes back to what Doug S said. There is a difference between discrete use and simply another excuse to play with a knife in public. I'm done chasing my tail on this one. A dude either gets it, or doesn't.

 

[stabman]

There is a difference between discrete use and simply another excuse to play with a knife in public.

If I were "Ninja Flicking" my knife open and trying to garner attention, then some people here might have a point.
I don't though, and no one even notices because I'm not doing anything stupid, so the people here don't have a point.

 

[hardheart]

And really, isn't this thread proof in and of itself that pulling out a personal knife in a restaurant is controversial ?

owning a knife is controversial in many places. Personal experience and the fact that manufacturers like Shun and AG Russel make personal folding steak knives also works against this non-existent controversy.

All the talk of manners, but where is it written? Is it written in the same places that state that the only place for your napkin at the end of a meal is to the left of your plate? That you cannot put a spoon in your mouth when having soup, and that you can only sip from the edge? That you must never cut a bread roll with a knife and can only tear bite size pieces with your hands? That it is impolite to eat all the food on your plate? That a server must only deliver food from the left of a patron? That chicken must not be eaten as a finger food? That every man who was seated with a lady must stand every time she leaves and returns to the table? That you must never cut more than two bites of food at a time before putting down the knife? That the only way to place silverware at the conclusion of a meal is crossed knife over fork in the center of the plate?

Those are all casual dining rules of etiquette, so when I see those practiced at Applebees and Outback, I promise to never, ever, ever again use my own knife in a discrete and unobtrusive manner.

 

[Steel130]

Lol this thread looks exactly the same as when I last read it 5 pages ago. My only thing to add to this thread is. Does it really matter what someones opinion is on whether or not its polite to use your knife at a restaurant? If you want to use it by all means do so. If its not against the law then who cares. If I had a knife and the waiter or owner asked me to put the knife away, I would. It doesnt mean I may be happy withhaving to "rip" rip apart my meal, I however would not go back to that place if I was so unhappy. But then as others have stated I have never been to a place where the rounded off, half serrated, half oversized butter knife, wouldn't do the job. This is why I eat Sushi .