Decoy Knives?

[daveb]

I would not buy a bunch of new knives for "decoys" or guests to use. I did mount a rack (below) for what I term "visitor parking". It's a mix of my pre-Japanese Henckels and Wusties, a Shun Petty and a 180 Suisin Western Gyuto for the lady visitors. Should someone show an interest in my "real" knives I do not try and dissuade them but do pull down the Suisin to try. At the end of the day even the real ones are just knives.

 

[Yamabushi]

Here are some of my tips:

(1) Segregation. It has worked well for me. The number of times an poor user dips into the knice knives is very rare. And here is the kicker, in order to get some really good segregation you have to buy a lot of knives. Ok, maybe that isn't necessary, but it helps.

(2) Cheap Henkels or Victorinox paring knives. Relatives and in-laws rarely use the big knives, and will mostly go for paring knives.

(3) Wa Handles. Wa handles scream out "DO NOT USE". It's just how it is. And the prettier they are the lower the chance of unauthorized use.

(4) Instruction. By instructing the poor users, you have a win-win situation. If they listen, they might actually learn something, if they don't understand it and think you are a knife knerd then they will be even less inclined to use your blades. Just take out a strop, spray it with diamond spray, and talk about angles and stuff. They will never touch that sh!t again.

(5) Throw in a letter opener into the knife drawer. Just see if anyone uses it -- you'll be surprised and amused. Unless that is until they use your letter opener constantly to cut cheese, spread peanut butter, and on and on. Then you will be forced to label your letter opener because you are sick of people using it for food.

I'd post a picture of mine, but I don't see how to attach photos to this thread.

karring

Haha! Great stuff!! :doublethumbsup:

 

[Mute-on]

Some very interesting points here ... Particularly Mr Drinky's point about Wa handles. Well made.

I have a knife block full of Globals and Shuns, plus some Victorinox parers in a drawer. Nobody ever need touch the Shigs, etc. I even bought my wife to be her own Hiromoto Santoku (the bigger ones are too scary, apparently)

Still, in the end they are only knives. The people who you have around (and who might use them) are likely more important ...

 

[WarrenB]

I would not buy a bunch of new knives for "decoys" or guests to use. I did mount a rack (below) for what I term "visitor parking". It's a mix of my pre-Japanese Henckels and Wusties, a Shun Petty and a 180 Suisin Western Gyuto for the lady visitors. Should someone show an interest in my "real" knives I do not try and dissuade them but do pull down the Suisin to try. At the end of the day even the real ones are just knives.

Your decoy rack looks a lot better than my 'real' knives:biggrin:

 

[Yamabushi]

Still, in the end they are only knives. The people who you have around (and who might use them) are likely more important ...

One would hope! lus1:

 

[Mingooch]

I use a set of Henckel miyabis as my guest knives. I love custom wa handles and have to agree with those that said those handles scream stay away. Having mostly 270 gyuto sized knives also helps since most people think that is soooooo BIG.

 

[bonnyboy]

Yep - lock the good stuff away and for everyday use, I have a set of Henkels that stay on the kitchen counter. My wife does most of the cooking and doesn't like my knives so I only bring them out on weekends. I keep one antique boning knife for my own bbq use on the bbq as well. I pick up the boning knives (and others) at garage sales and have so many garage sale knives that I have started to decorate my garage with them. They are all sharpened and ready for use at all times. Ocassionally I send them home with guests as party favours for those guests that show interest in old knives.

Ian

 

[dragonlord]

Keep this on the kitchen counter

http://www.josephjoseph.com/product/index-advance-with-knives

the knives are cheap crap, but that's just what you want for something that people are likely to use then put in the dishwasher.

 

[Ucmd]

I have an entire decoy knife block......has worked great thus far.

 

[bear1889]

Keep this on the kitchen counter

http://www.josephjoseph.com/product/index-advance-with-knives

the knives are cheap crap, but that's just what you want for something that people are likely to use then put in the dishwasher.

That's great, :rofl2:

I just have a big sign in my kitchen at home....."you can stampede the women and have your way with the cattle but if you touch my knives you will die a slow painful death! signed Dr. Death."

I am too old for political correctness and I am a student of Mel Brooks