WARNING: FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY!!
It's not a pretty subject. Most of us treasure and conscientiously tend our edged tools and can not imagine treating them with anything but the utmost of care and respect. Nevertheless, it's an ugly fact that not everyone shares our feelings. Some people are just plain careless and fail to clean and sharpen their blades. Although a shame, I am not talking about mere laziness and negligence. I am also not talking about tough knife tests or the actual use of a knife in extreme circumstances. This is a story of willful abuse.
As I mentioned in the "lost blades" thread, after a friend dropped my large A.G. Russell Sting into a lake, I decided to give him a knife as a birthday present so he would no longer need to borrow any of mine. I picked a very sturdy Schrade with a 4" Schrade+ (non-stainless) drop point blade.
Although we saw each other & fished many times since his birthday, I never saw the Schrade. I once asked him about it and he responded with something like, "Oh yeah, it's a great knife. It's back in my trailer." (We're neighbors in a campground.) He went on to explain that he seldom carries it since he doesn't wear a belt with his jeans or BDUs. His explanation seemed plausible so, with a false sense of well-being, I made a mental note to give him one of the promotional Barlow pocketknives I had in a drawer when we got back to shore. Little did I know then the dark secret that he was hiding.
Some time passed until one day he and his girlfriend stopped by as I was sharpening a knife. They both inspected the hair-popping edge and his girlfriend said that he should ask me to sharpen his knife. I told them I'd be happy to and he said he'd bring it by sometime. His girlfriend then said she had to go back for something and would get the knife. By the way my friend shuffled his feet and averted his eyes, I should have known something was wrong.
She got back, handed me the knife, and said that they had to be going. I noticed some grayish crud on the part of the handle that extended out of the sheath. Even that could not prepare me for what I saw next.
I'm not sure what to describe first. The gray crud that was smeared on the handle was thickly crusted all over the blade. I couldn't even see the edge, let alone sharpen it! (I later found out that it was PVC pipe compound of some sort.) The portions of the blade that were not covered by the compound were heavily coated with rust. The brass that I could see was green. In short, it was a total mess.
I scraped the compound off the blade to find both a broken tip and an edge that was chipped in several places. It turned out that in addition to using it as a putty knife, he also cut baling & electrical wire with it, that is, when not playing mumbley peg into the rocky soil! (BTW, this is a man who has a packed tool shed that could rival the Craftsman selection at Sears.)
After a considerable amount of effort, I got it cleaned up and reshaped, polished, and sharpened the blade. After months of hesitation, I reluctantly returned it him with a pair of spare Arkansas stones, honing oil, and a knife care leaflet. I never had the heart to ask about the fate of the Barlow but I warned him that I would inspect the Schrade from time to time. If he ever abuses it again, he'll lose it for good.
_____
Does anyone else have a tale of knife abuse to share? It may be painful to retell, but sharing can be cathartic.
Brian
[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 06 February 1999).]
It's not a pretty subject. Most of us treasure and conscientiously tend our edged tools and can not imagine treating them with anything but the utmost of care and respect. Nevertheless, it's an ugly fact that not everyone shares our feelings. Some people are just plain careless and fail to clean and sharpen their blades. Although a shame, I am not talking about mere laziness and negligence. I am also not talking about tough knife tests or the actual use of a knife in extreme circumstances. This is a story of willful abuse.
As I mentioned in the "lost blades" thread, after a friend dropped my large A.G. Russell Sting into a lake, I decided to give him a knife as a birthday present so he would no longer need to borrow any of mine. I picked a very sturdy Schrade with a 4" Schrade+ (non-stainless) drop point blade.
Although we saw each other & fished many times since his birthday, I never saw the Schrade. I once asked him about it and he responded with something like, "Oh yeah, it's a great knife. It's back in my trailer." (We're neighbors in a campground.) He went on to explain that he seldom carries it since he doesn't wear a belt with his jeans or BDUs. His explanation seemed plausible so, with a false sense of well-being, I made a mental note to give him one of the promotional Barlow pocketknives I had in a drawer when we got back to shore. Little did I know then the dark secret that he was hiding.
Some time passed until one day he and his girlfriend stopped by as I was sharpening a knife. They both inspected the hair-popping edge and his girlfriend said that he should ask me to sharpen his knife. I told them I'd be happy to and he said he'd bring it by sometime. His girlfriend then said she had to go back for something and would get the knife. By the way my friend shuffled his feet and averted his eyes, I should have known something was wrong.
She got back, handed me the knife, and said that they had to be going. I noticed some grayish crud on the part of the handle that extended out of the sheath. Even that could not prepare me for what I saw next.
I'm not sure what to describe first. The gray crud that was smeared on the handle was thickly crusted all over the blade. I couldn't even see the edge, let alone sharpen it! (I later found out that it was PVC pipe compound of some sort.) The portions of the blade that were not covered by the compound were heavily coated with rust. The brass that I could see was green. In short, it was a total mess.
I scraped the compound off the blade to find both a broken tip and an edge that was chipped in several places. It turned out that in addition to using it as a putty knife, he also cut baling & electrical wire with it, that is, when not playing mumbley peg into the rocky soil! (BTW, this is a man who has a packed tool shed that could rival the Craftsman selection at Sears.)
After a considerable amount of effort, I got it cleaned up and reshaped, polished, and sharpened the blade. After months of hesitation, I reluctantly returned it him with a pair of spare Arkansas stones, honing oil, and a knife care leaflet. I never had the heart to ask about the fate of the Barlow but I warned him that I would inspect the Schrade from time to time. If he ever abuses it again, he'll lose it for good.
_____
Does anyone else have a tale of knife abuse to share? It may be painful to retell, but sharing can be cathartic.
Brian
[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 06 February 1999).]
