why can't I just give these knives away? (RANT)

It's about time for me to put some more knives up for sale here because I have too many still. but I'm always naively thinking: wouldn't it be so much easier to give them as gifts to friends/family/coworkers? I am always considering it and then see them do things with knives that say loud and clear: a knife is a durable tool, meant to be tossed around and not cared for.

Selling knives is such a hassle, especially when I feel a personal, meaningful connection to them (thinned, refinished, made a custom handle for it, used for years, etc etc). I want to gift it to someone close to me (especially someone who uses a knife all the time at work) but I am pretty certain all of these people would, chip up, bend, leave dull, let rust over, etc etc this special knife and therefore completely subvert my reasons for gifting it to them. :/

Am I just another arrogant, covetous a-hole?

One example: I have a boss at work who buys j-knives and then lets everyone use them, including apathetic high schoolers who throw them in sinks when washing dishes. All of these knives are bent, rusted over daily, chipped, sharpened aggressively, never thinned. He asks me what knife he should buy next, I tell him not to buy a knife, I tell him buy a Kiwi if he must buy another. I'm exaggerating just a little when I say my workplace is a graveyard of knives, where j-knives go to die. I'm sure there are others out there who mistreat knives much more but but but but AHHHHH

Have y'all ever gifted or not-gifted special knives to friends/family you didn't believe in?

wbusby1 said:

It's about time for me to put some more knives up for sale here because I have too many still. but I'm always naively thinking: wouldn't it be so much easier to give them as gifts to friends/family/coworkers? I am always considering it and then see them do things with knives that say loud and clear: a knife is a durable tool, meant to be tossed around and not cared for.

Selling knives is such a hassle, especially when I feel a personal, meaningful connection to them (thinned, refinished, made a custom handle for it, used for years, etc etc). I want to gift it to someone close to me (especially someone who uses a knife all the time at work) but I am pretty certain all of these people would, chip up, bend, leave dull, let rust over, etc etc this special knife and therefore completely subvert my reasons for gifting it to them. :/

Am I just another arrogant, covetous a-hole?

One example: I have a boss at work who buys j-knives and then lets everyone use them, including apathetic high schoolers who throw them in sinks when washing dishes. All of these knives are bent, rusted over daily, chipped, sharpened aggressively, never thinned. He asks me what knife he should buy next, I tell him not to buy a knife, I tell him buy a Kiwi if he must buy another. I'm exaggerating just a little when I say my workplace is a graveyard of knives, where j-knives go to die. I'm sure there are others out there who mistreat knives much more but but but but AHHHHH

Have y'all ever gifted or not-gifted special knives to friends/family you didn't believe in?

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For anyone who works for me more Than a year I tell them they can have any knife they want , I will make them for free , I had few pairing knife requests and a santoku [emoji23] but one guy said , your knives need to be wiped after use ,
Otherwise they will rust . I do buy Kmart knife every month until i have to sharpen it again ... don't worry about it [emoji13][emoji16][emoji23][emoji6][emoji90]
P.s he longer works for me [emoji23]

Have not gifted expensive J knives, but a couple of my old beloved and well cared for germans. Nothing like the knives i personally use nowadays, but then again... Result: they live a sad life inside a kitchen drawer where they get banged around and clunk against cheap kitchen ware while the edge guard I gifted with them lies unused at the bottom of the pile. Because they dislike cutting stuff up that much my sister now got a nicer dicer which the entire family just loves....sad fate for my trusty old Henckels which served me well in their time. :-(

The knives that I've put some work into but don't want to sell for one reason or another I try and find a way to PIF. Knyfeknerd used to do a PIF project where he matched up giveaway knives with young cookso and it was easy and satisfying to send them to him. Now I just pay attention to folks around me. You can find someone who's looking to get out of the dishpit or someone who's just had their "stuff" stolen. A little goes a long way.

One of the reasons I don't make knives from scratch but rather put a nice handle on a simple knife and give it away is at least the receivers of the gifts are familiar with the use of an IKEA or similar knife. I gift all knives with a lifetime free sharpening service included . Some people actually use that. I haven't been able to convince anyone besides my wife to start treating their knives better though.

That's a generous offer, Mert. Good employee retention program right there! Where were you when I was still working kitchens

I've given a few cheaper j-knives away, one to my parents who live near enough that I can sharpen it for them when necessary (though it took some convincing at first for my dad not to run it through one of those pull-through set angle knife sharpeners) and another to one of my sisters. No idea how that one is holding up.

But on a whole, I don't do it much, I'd rather them go to an owner who understands what's involved in owning such a knife or at least willing to learn. Selling can be a pain on occasion, but people tend to be more caring with things they spend a chunk of their hard-earned money on. Plus the extra cash means I can buy more knives.

I did give a knife away a just a month or so ago actually. Kind of an amusing story. Usually when people walk into my kitchen they're like, 'whoa, lotta knives you got here man' and then give me a sideways look of suspicion and back slowly out of the room as if they're suddenly worried that I might have plastic tarps all over my basement and bodies buried in the backyard. But a month ago at a dinner get-together, a friend of a friend who I'd never met before popped up his head into the kitchen and his eyes lit up and he got super excited and started yammered on about his grandfather who had been a chef and always had lots of knives in the kitchen when he visited as a boy. Told me he regretted his parents hadn't kept some of them after his grandfather passed away when he was still a kid. So, feeling whimsical at the time (and moderately inebriated) I told him to pick one and I'd let him have it. He refused and I assured him he would be doing me a favor with the wife, so he thought about it a while, cut with several of them, and then pointed at one and said, 'Can I have that one?' It was my Shig 270 gyuto. I laughed at him for at least a solid 30 seconds or so, then told him to pick a different one. He ended up going home with a 210 Tanaka I think and an old King combo stone I found buried in a drawer. The guy's girlfriend seemed none too pleased with me, but I noticed later she salted her food before even tasting it so I think we came out even.

I don't think this is an unusual stance. I have an extra Matfer Bourgeat pan that I considered giving away to somebody I know. After I saw how he treats his cast iron stuff, I decided I'd rather not give him the steel pan.

mise_en_place said:

I don't think this is an unusual stance. I have an extra Matfer Bourgeat pan that I considered giving away to somebody I know. After I saw how he treats his cast iron stuff, I decided I'd rather not give him the steel pan.

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I think you hit the nail on the head. If you give someone a [noncash] gift -- of almost any kind -- you want to be reasonably confident that they will appreciate it and treat it with proper respect. If they are likely to treat it as if it means almost nothing to them, then it completely depreciates the value and demeans the gesture.

I have given several stainless smaller less expensive gyutos to family and friends as gifts over the past few years to introduce them to Japanese knives. I put on new handles and usually either give a petty sized knife or a 180mm gyuto. Bigger knives are 'too scary' for most of them. I bought several of the Hiromoto Gingami stainless knives for that purpose when they were available. Now I get the Fujiwara FKMs. I hope they are getting used, but I think many times they end up sitting in drawers just used for special occasions (like when I come over). I do have a step brother working as a cook who I gave a 270mm Misono carbon dragon gyuto that I re-handled. It has become his favorite knife. I am working on a 12 inch carbon Sabatier as a gift for a cooking enthusiast friend. Anyway, I enjoy re-handling them. I remain reluctant to give $200+ knives to non knife nuts though. I stick with giving the nicer steel to those who already know what they are and how to use them. :knife:

No one's received anything past entry level stainless J-knife from me. It's not been a long list of folks so far. And all those folks I make sure have someone nearby who can stone sharpen, won't leave it sitting out dirty or in the sink, don't do stupid knife abuse things, etc. I've also made and sent out some cardboard sheaths just so I'll worry less about how they are being stored and protected
Considering most everything I have now is not fully stainless, I think these knives will be staying with me for a long while

chefcomesback said:

For anyone who works for me more Than a year I tell them they can have any knife they want , I will make them for free , I had few pairing knife requests and a santoku [emoji23] but one guy said , your knives need to be wiped after use ,
Otherwise they will rust . I do buy Kmart knife every month until i have to sharpen it again ... don't worry about it [emoji13][emoji16][emoji23][emoji6][emoji90]
P.s he longer works for me [emoji23]

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Can I work for you Custom Mert Tansu after a year of service, I don't even think my employer mentioned my one year

daveb said:

The knives that I've put some work into but don't want to sell for one reason or another I try and find a way to PIF. Knyfeknerd used to do a PIF project where he matched up giveaway knives with young cookso and it was easy and satisfying to send them to him. Now I just pay attention to folks around me. You can find someone who's looking to get out of the dishpit or someone who's just had their "stuff" stolen. A little goes a long way.

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I have an ebony handle from knives@stones that I would like to donate soon, is knerd still active w PIF?

Have not seen him in awhile cept on FB. Scoundrel seems to think kids and wife are more important than knife stuff.

daveb said:

Have not seen him in awhile cept on FB. Scoundrel seems to think kids and wife are more important than knife stuff.

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Never! Someone needs to go set him straight.

Godslayer said:

Can I work for you Custom Mert Tansu after a year of service, I don't even think my employer mentioned my one year

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Yes you can , just keep in mind a year in kitchen is like 2-3 years in other environments [emoji23]

chefcomesback said:

For anyone who works for me more Than a year I tell them they can have any knife they want , I will make them for free , I had few pairing knife requests and a santoku [emoji23] but one guy said , your knives need to be wiped after use ,
Otherwise they will rust . I do buy Kmart knife every month until i have to sharpen it again ... don't worry about it [emoji13][emoji16][emoji23][emoji6][emoji90]
P.s he longer works for me [emoji23]

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wow! kudos man. that's really awesome. too bad there arent more chefs (or people) like you in the world

If you sell a knife instead of gifting it, would you care as much if it were neglected and abused? I personally would prefer the knife be well cared for either way.

Maybe it's like beer for me. I am very happy to share my special cellared beers some of which are quite rare. But I do not share them with friends who have total crap palates and/or poor tastes.

Once it leaves my hands we're divorced. Usually I'll give a knife to a friend so I'll "help" take care of it if necc. Once or twice. Then I'm done. If they want to learn care and/or sharpening I'll do what I can but no more unsolicited advice.

chefcomesback said:

Yes you can , just keep in mind a year in kitchen is like 2-3 years in other environments [emoji23]

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Here comes a 280mm integral damascus workhorse . Now if only you had need of a structural engineer in your kitchen. Haha

there's no point in gifting non knifers anything more than a victorinox. you could be bold and get the rosewood handle one if you know theyre at least not gonna throw it in dishwasher.

im less concerned with babying my knives so giving them away to friends with no knife experience is par for the course. it is, after all, a sharp piece of steel meant to cut things. If it rusts it can be cleaned, if it chips it can be fixed.

I once gave a nice petty to my best friends wife, who is a good cook, because she fell in love with it at my house while using it.
A few months later, I asked my buddy if it needed sharpening and he replied, " No, she broke it opening a can of soup".
Lesson learned.

I have been laughing and smiling reading these thread. I have given away many knives to friends and family and almost in all cases (except a few) the new owners seem static about getting knives that were obviously much better than anything they have had specially knowing my fondness for good knives, although I confess that I am afraid of looking to the knives after. In one of those exceptions I selected a knife for a cousin in Spain and hand carried it all the way there. She looked at the beautiful kiri box it came in and threw it on a pile of things meant to be thrown away, then she took the knife and cut a few sausages with it washed with soap and slammed rundown to dry on the dish rack. When she saw my horror face she said the equivalent to "Oh, right", took the knife and (without wiping it) threw it on a drawer full of metal spoons, other knives, and a variety of metal gadgets saying "do not worry, I will take care of it"...
As far as I know it still is somewhere in that drawer hiding from her.

Bodine said:

I once gave a nice petty to my best friends wife, who is a good cook, because she fell in love with it at my house while using it.
A few months later, I asked my buddy if it needed sharpening and he replied, " No, she broke it opening a can of soup".
Lesson learned.

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And that's why I will never give my mother a knife better than IKEA. I learned my lesson with a nice set of pans I gave her, I had them for a year and loved them but wouldn't carry them to Canada so I gave her the set and I couldn't recognize it when I went back 4 month later. Sad story about that petty btw.
My Dad is a different story but he lives with my sister and his wife... He is always stressed about his knives and kitchenware.

Casaluz said:

I have been laughing and smiling reading these thread. I have given away many knives to friends and family and almost in all cases (except a few) the new owners seem static about getting knives that were obviously much better than anything they have had specially knowing my fondness for good knives, although I confess that I am afraid of looking to the knives after. In one of those exceptions I selected a knife for a cousin in Spain and hand carried it all the way there. She looked at the beautiful kiri box it came in and threw it on a pile of things meant to be thrown away, then she took the knife and cut a few sausages with it washed with soap and slammed rundown to dry on the dish rack. When she saw my horror face she said the equivalent to "Oh, right", took the knife and (without wiping it) threw it on a drawer full of metal spoons, other knives, and a variety of metal gadgets saying "do not worry, I will take care of it"...
As far as I know it still is somewhere in that drawer hiding from her.

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This is the type of situation that would make me want to take the knife back...

Casaluz said:

I have given away many knives to friends and family and almost in all cases (except a few) the new owners seem static about getting knives that were obviously much better than anything they have had specially knowing my fondness for good knives, although I confess that I am afraid of looking to the knives after.

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I think the point most "regular" (non-obsessed nerds?) miss is that it is rather easy to get an excellent knife, it takes some work to actually have an excellent knife though.

Them using your knives is a bit like watching a movie. The actors look great and you may wonder how they can look that good, you don't see the hours of makeup beforehand

Bodine said:

I once gave a nice petty to my best friends wife, who is a good cook, because she fell in love with it at my house while using it.
A few months later, I asked my buddy if it needed sharpening and he replied, " No, she broke it opening a can of soup".
Lesson learned.

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In most cases I gift inexpensive knives but I will put a decent edge on them and offer to keep them that way. Wouldn't dream of giving a knife to anyone who keeps them in a drawer with other items (like Casaluz mentioned) or pop them in the sink or the dishwasher. But opening a can of soup?!? Can't imagine how a knife could possibly help achieve that.

Rather than gifting knives, I like to give items that will help look after their existing knives - e.g. cutting boards, knife blocks. I'm happy to sharpen friends' knives. If they show a little respect for their knives after that, they might just get a good knife from me. Good but not excellent.

spoiledbroth said:

wow! kudos man. that's really awesome. too bad there arent more chefs (or people) like you in the world

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Thanks, many cooks and chefs unfortunately can not afford high end knives, I let them use my work knives and they usually are getting interested in more quality knives

Marek07 said:

But opening a can of soup?!? Can't imagine how a knife could possibly help achieve that.

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You would be surprised, I've certainly done it when I was in a boarding school... with horribly cheap knives of course and only because there was nothing else at hand. Doing it with a nice knife is just a total lack of common sense, especially if at home.

When i was a kid we lived in Suriname. At some point my mother's can opener she had brought from the Netherlands broke. So we went to the city to buy a new one but there weren't any for sale (!). Next few years we used whatever knife was close to hand. I broke my father's butcher knife one day prying something open. Neither my parents seemed too concerned with any of it, as long as we stayed away from my mom's 'good' knives:two serrated german knives only labeled 'superscharff'. Now that i learned some about knives she is rather quick to pick it up though.