just venting--stories---People who should never use your knives

I hope that this is the right place for it, but I really need to rant.

Last night, I went home from an abusive day at work.
I reached for my favorite (and sharpest gyuto), only to find that my sister had:
1. Wedged a 255 mm gyuto into an undersized drawer
2. jamming the drawer shut
3. With the edge facing the front
4. after breaking off 8-12mm off the tip
5. and creating a series of 2 mm chips along the edge.

AAAARGH!

I think that I was pretty restrained in a.) not cursing at her, b.) not raising my voice, etc.
She is never allowed to touch my good knives, nor will I consider getting her anything nicer than a $12 cleaver.

Other instances include:
1. My ex roommate using my knife on a ceramic plate and wondering why it gets dull quick.
2. My dad who routinely uses the wrong end of our paring knives.
3. The "helpful" idiot that will use a knife on a stone countertop, and stick it in the dishwasher.


Any other stories? I'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread.

I'm sure that Salty, and the other pros have awesome stories.

Worst I ever saw was buddy put a giant 20ish quart pot onto a knife, snapping it clean off near the ferrule, the blade was instantly destroyed, I doubt it was a really nice knife but still sucks. Worst a family member ever did was put my knife away wet, came back and it was brown, a quick run of barkeepers friend and it was good. I would keep any and all good knives/equipment out of families hands, keep it in your room, away from the none believers. I am confident if a sibling did that to me, my hand would be out for a replacement, given the fact its a 255, I am guessing she was a pricey knife, you have my condolences and goodluck on the repairs.

I had someone house sit for me for 6 weeks while I was away in Mexico for work. When I came home my place was a mess. The woman who had been staying there had broken up with her boyfriend and moved home to Maryland the next day. when I came home, I found 3 Misono Swedish Steels up to their hilts in a pot full of water...totally destroyed!

My best friend put a wet knife back into the block. I didn't use it for weeks after. When I did I could not hold back and ... made her cry. Not my proudest moment!

I have cheap SS knives to share with my flatmates and i have ones that i am using... Locked away.
As for my family, i bought them some VG-10 knives, so they have something decent and "bulletproof".

I gave my GF a kom kom Bunka Bunka which cost like $8, she is happy, I'm happy and she knows to leaves my knives alone!

gic said:

I gave my GF a kom kom Bunka Bunka which cost like $8, she is happy, I'm happy and she knows to leaves my knives alone!

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Exactly! lus1:

gic said:

I gave my GF a kom kom Bunka Bunka which cost like $8, she is happy, I'm happy and she knows to leaves my knives alone!

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Same here. Though she uses sooner if my cheaper more "robust" stainless knives but she knows how to use them.

I have an 11-dollar Brinox santoku(ish) for people at home. Plastic handle, plastic hilt and soft steel, but a very usable beater if kept sharp. http://www.brinox.com.br/faca_para_peixe_e_legumes_2504307/p
All the japanese blades lie in my knife drawer.

I think that I'm seeing a similar trend here.

I may make a lockable saya to keep people away from prized knives.
If I make it, I'll post a tutorial up here.

You could drill a hole in the pin and put through a little padlock, but doing it for every knife seems a bit crazy, i'd rather go with a toolbox, knives in, lock on, job done.
Or just put them away from their eyes / reach.

Had a genius co-worker decide that my vintage George Wostenholm would be better off if he tossed it into a stainless round filled with like 50% bleach solution, tip down.
I wanted to snap the rest of the blade off in his skull.

shownomarci said:

You could drill a hole in the pin and put through a little padlock, but doing it for every knife seems a bit crazy, i'd rather go with a toolbox, knives in, lock on, job done.
Or just put them away from their eyes / reach.

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Coat the exterior with anthrax.

Just have to do some training with appropriate motivation. When I found the old man soaking some knives in the sink, I told him the next time he did that his guitars were going in the bathtub. Haven't caught him soaking knives since.

I'm keeping the good knives in the drawer and some older stainless (global, Herder) in the block... Within reach. Oh yeah, and an old crappy Tojiro Carbon that I HOPE my wife messes up so I can tell her that I need to get a replacement for this ... $400 knife [emoji23][emoji12]

ecchef said:

Had a genius co-worker decide that my vintage George Wostenholm would be better off if he tossed it into a stainless round filled with like 50% bleach solution, tip down.
I wanted to snap the rest of the blade off in his skull.

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Yeah, I wanted to do the same to the guy responsible for the tip of my favorite Shig Gyuto being broken off but I'm not sure I could get the blade through my skull without the point:curse:

Note to self: Do NOT mount magnetic knife bars with those removable sticky things....cowboy up and take the spousal beatdown like a man and use screws in the cabinets....the sticky things are not as good as they purport themselves to be.

Luckily my wife graciously allowed me to get a consolation prize at the Portland show - Pics after work.

Is it that difficult to talk to your loved ones about how expensive the knives are? Typically in a kitchen there is the unwritten rule that if you pick something like that up and break it, you've essentially bought it at the MSRP or whatever it costs to replace. I've worked with some people who, out of principle, will not pick up a knife without asking... every... f**king... time... Typically I have something cheap on the line.

For at home, I just pull knives out of my case and put them back when done. A bit of work but that way I'm the only one who uses them. There are plenty of lockable knife cases online, on ebay you can find a "yongho masterhands chef knife case" for 80USD which is a beautiful little coffin-type case that fits 6 knives up to 270 wa handle. It can be locked. Or you could just go to your local reno store, get a tool box and padlock and keep knives in there.

My only horror story was letting someone sharpen my knife before I was relatively proficient. He scratched up the ENTIRE face of the blade on 800 grit(all the way to the spine). Lucky it was just a tojiro dp 240 but I ended up having to polish the cladding off. Sold the knife shortly after.

If someone wants to **** with my knives they may as well slit their own throat :justkidding:.

I live alone so don't really have to worry about it, although I do have an old Henckels set in a block on the counter. Good knives are in sayas in a drawer, mag block will be out in the open so gonna need to be mindful. Anthony Bourdain said "don't touch my d!ck, don't touch my knife"

You guys are scaring me. I'm moving in with the girlfriend. I guess she has to have 'the talk'.

IndoorOutdoorCook said:

You guys are scaring me. I'm moving in with the girlfriend. I guess she has to have 'the talk'.

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If you love your knives, you will.

alterwisser said:

I'm keeping the good knives in the drawer and some older stainless (global, Herder) in the block... Within reach. Oh yeah, and an old crappy Tojiro Carbon that I HOPE my wife messes up so I can tell her that I need to get a replacement for this ... $400 knife [emoji23][emoji12]

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Herder Stainless seems so halfassed :eyebrow:. At least in germany the consesus is that their stainless series are somewhat worse than their carbonsteel knives.

tjangula said:

If someone wants to **** with my knives they may as well slit their own throat :justkidding:.

I live alone so don't really have to worry about it, although I do have an old Henckels set in a block on the counter. Good knives are in sayas in a drawer, mag block will be out in the open so gonna need to be mindful. Anthony Bourdain said "don't touch my d!ck, don't touch my knife"

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IndoorOutdoorCook said:

You guys are scaring me. I'm moving in with the girlfriend. I guess she has to have 'the talk'.

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Well on the german knifeforums there was a similar thread quite a while ago, and a commonly reported solution was pretty much alterwisser's (fellow native german speaker there ?). Meaning stash away your valuable blades and openly present some cheap(er) blades for general use. Other ideas included essentially putting price tags on the knives and stating that you would have to pay that price in order to use them. Could of course lead to people thinking you're kinda decadent...

tjangula said:

mag block will be out in the open so gonna need to be mindful.

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Learn from my pain....mount securely with screws.



Shig Kitaeji 185 that will soon be "shorter" and more agile...Trail of tears material :O totally my own darned fault but seriously, learn from my goof. You can sell me the 240 Kitaeji Gyuto since I've already learned and will give it a safe place to live

oh yeah, my maid also sliced herself on the knives....guess she didn't realize the business end can be.....aggressive. Warn random people who may be in your place that the knife bar is a dangerous place to the uninitiated.

Smurfmacaw said:

Learn from my pain....mount securely with screws.



Shig Kitaeji 185 that will soon be "shorter" and more agile...Trail of tears material :O totally my own darned fault but seriously, learn from my goof. You can sell me the 240 Kitaeji Gyuto since I've already learned and will give it a safe place to live

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Mine isn't actually going to be wall mounted. It's going to be a free standing magnetic easel similar to the Zwilling-Kramer one but wider (to hold more than 5) and should be made of nicer woods if we can source some. I'm working with a local woodworking artisan and I've personally done the tests with 1"dia. x 1/8" thick rare earth magnets for the spacing and mounting depth. I'm really looking forward to having it done

tjangula said:

If someone wants to **** with my knives they may as well slit their own throat :justkidding:.

I live alone so don't really have to worry about it, although I do have an old Henckels set in a block on the counter. Good knives are in sayas in a drawer, mag block will be out in the open so gonna need to be mindful. Anthony Bourdain said "don't touch my d!ck, don't touch my knife"

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If AB was really seriuos about his knife he should say I'd rather you touch my d!ck than my knife.:laugh:

tjangula said:

Mine isn't actually going to be wall mounted. It's going to be a free standing magnetic easel similar to the Zwilling-Kramer one but wider (to hold more than 5) and should be made of nicer woods if we can source some. I'm working with a local woodworking artisan and I've personally done the tests with 1"dia. x 1/8" thick rare earth magnets for the spacing and mounting depth. I'm really looking forward to having it done

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I'm interested in this. Do you have pics? I have some knives I'd like to display and would be more "available" if displayed like what you are describing. I've got more counterspace than wall space so something free standing would be ideal.

Mike

pjotr said:

If AB was really seriuos about his knife he should say I'd rather you touch my d!ck than my knife.:laugh:

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Ick lol.

Smurfmacaw said:

I'm interested in this. Do you have pics? I have some knives I'd like to display and would be more "available" if displayed like what you are describing. I've got more counterspace than wall space so something free standing would be ideal.

Mike

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I don't have pics of mine as were still trying to find a nice piece of wood for the face plate that the magnets are in, but here's the Zwilling-Kramer version (from the website):


It can only hold five because of the magnet placement, even if they're small enough to fit more, I'm putting continuous magnets on mine to avoid this, and eliminating the groove for the honing rod. I believe it can only hold a handle up to about 145mm or so.


You can get the block to fit behind. Loads from either side and takes knives up to 325mm or so, widest slot can easily hold a Takeda or perhaps even a cleaver. I'm not incorporating this into mine as it'll be too wide to load knives from the side.


Here's a pic with some knives.

I'm inspired! This is really a nice idea.