I like fine knives, especially chef's knives. I have Shun, Henkels, Sabatier... and so on. I maintain them very well.

So, I noticed my Shun Ken Onion in the bird room on the prep table (???). Somehow the wife had selected it for parrot food preparation... veggies, fruit etc.

I traded it out for a less costly blade; however, the Ken Onion blade has small fractures in three spots! I now will send it back for refurbishing.

How does the group keep good blades away from the spouses?

Sigh...

My wife is pretty good with the kitchen knives. However, she did pick up a user custom of mine and proceeded to dig in the garden with it. No edge left and for years it just laid around. A local guy was recommended to sharpen knives, $5.00 each. It is now a usable knife once again.

Maybe spend a few bucks and get a set of serviceable but not really expensive knives for your wife?

Maybe something like this on the kitchen counter, to keep "her" knives handy, while you stow your good knives where they are not as convenient to access?

My wife is very careful with knives but the grown kids - not so much.

I view it as an opportunity to practice my sharpening skills.

I have this set and my wife has scrub padded every single blade. I about lost my mind. She treats them like they came from Walmart. It was pulling teeth to have her not dishwash them. She also won't dry them after use.

I'm eventually going to get a Pro S set that will be for my use only.

I finally found a woman that treats my knives with the same respect that I do.

Yup, I married her.
Heck, I even let her EDC my favorite, my Spyderco Co-Pilot.

Bruce

Every time I see one of these I go home and hug by bride of 30+ years. She is as aware of knife use and care parameters as I am, probably even more so in many ways. We have some decent knives we use everyday and a couple very unique/expensive knives we use for big cooking days. The list of people who I trust to lay hands on the latter is three, and only one without high pucker-factor (yes, the wife).

If I was married to someone who couldn't retain simple ROE not to throw them in drawers, dishwasher, use in garage, etc. I don't know what I would do. I suspect that willful ignorance of basic care wouldn't be isolated to just knives tho.....

Slight thread drift here: We had a member who was in the business of sharpening / reconditioning knives.

I have not seen him post here recently.

His name, if memory serves, was Albert.

His business was Seattle <something_or_other>.

Is he still around? Does he have a website for his business? If not, does anybody have his email address (maybe don't post it here, don't provide a spam magnet for him)?

quote:

s he still around?

His site is still up, he's not active here any more I think. He did a couple jobs for me, incredible work, also repaired a friend's chef knife he snapped a tip from. I would love to use him again, and soon, but the black hole of communication and long turn around times makes it impossible for me to send any knife I own to him again unless he changed his business/service model.

eta - appreciate jhe's update below. Seems that Albert may have improved on these fronts, I'd like to hear recent experiences from others here. I would love to have him as a resource!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Georgeair,

....most of the 'kitchen knife disharmony' was resolved long ago, when I gave her a cheap short paring knife with edges similar to a screwdriver that she can use for such as putty knife/scraper/grout pick for those mysterious chores otherwise requiring fine cutlery pressed into service as some kind of blunt gouging edge. Eliminated 95% of the previous...uhhh....."issues" with such cutlery.

quote:

Originally posted by SIG4EVA:
I have this set and my wife has scrub padded every single blade. I about lost my mind. She treats them like they came from Walmart. It was pulling teeth to have her not dishwash them. She also won't dry them after use.

I'm eventually going to get a Pro S set that will be for my use only.

Ex ran a set of these thru the dishwasher more than several times when I was out of town.

Knife laminated handles are now toast.

Woman had no regard for quality goods.

Thank God, I thought it was just me. I have a beautiful knife set from my post divorce bachelor days that is still packed in a moving box because my new significant other (much more than girlfriend but not officially wife) has ruined every knife in our house.

She’ll leave them underwater in the sink, throw them in the dishwasher where the handles get melted, use them as pry bars, open packages, you name it. I miss using my knives but will keep working with the set I cobbled together from what she had so mine stay safe!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Slight thread drift here: We had a member who was in the business of sharpening / reconditioning knives.

I have not seen him post here recently.

His name, if memory serves, was Albert.

His business was Seattle <something_or_other>.

Is he still around? Does he have a website for his business? If not, does anybody have his email address (maybe don't post it here, don't provide a spam magnet for him)?

That is Albert at Seattle Edge. He has a website and is pretty active on Facebook. He isn't hard to find.

Buy a set of cheap Mercer knives from Amazon. They're actually quite nice. Keep them out on the knife block. This will serve as a decoy set.

Put your nice knives in a knife block in the drawer. Out of sight, out of mind.

Same thing with tools. Get her a cute set of household tools like screwdrivers, measuring tape, hammer, maybe some pliers. Leave it in the kitchen junk drawer or ontop of your actual tool chest.

People are lazy. They'll just grab whatever is convenient that minimally satisfies the task. The problem is that people who are ignorant of the true purposes of a tool, or the true needs of a task, find that things like knives minimally fulfills a task where a pry bar might be better suited.

Exactly why I lock my walk in closet and carry everything dear to me on my person when it isn't locked away (knife, flashlight, weapon, keys).

I lost a pretty nice Shun chef's knife to an avocado pit, broke the tip off. I said don't worry about it, I think the gaurentee will cover it.

Oh, she said, I already threw it away.

Let me start off by saying that the first big fight that my wife and I had was after I saw her raiding my MAC Tech 1000 tool box. In which, I have a nice and extensive assortment of Snap-On, MAC, and Craftsman hand tools. She was taken aback when I told her that I did not want her using those tools and that I would be happy to put together a tool kit of her very own. She reasoned that since we were married that what was mine, was also now hers. I said, "technically that is true, but you still aren't going to use my tools." I emerged bloody but victorious from that battle, and I still walk with a bit of a limp, but my tools are still all accounted for and in good condition. I still feel it was worth the price I paid.

As for knives....

Steak knives are an essential component in my wife's "tool kit". For my wife, a steak knife is better than a Leatherman Wave. There is practically no job too big, nor too small for her trusty steak knife. I used to get upset when I would be mowing the lawn and find one laying in the grass next to where she used it to weed her flower bed or in the corner of the garage, covered in paint after she used it as a stir stick. Now, when I find them laying around, bent, rusted, muddy, utterly destroyed, I just smile and pick it up and throw it away, for it as served it's purpose. Having learned my lesson, I only buy steak knives in bundles for pennies on the dollar at various estate and garage sales.

As noted above, anything that I don't want damaged or lost is either locked up or on my person. I love high end knives, but thankfully kitchen knives are not a part of my collection. I don't know how one would go about keeping those locked up. I wish the OP lots of luck.

I gave up

Put them in your gun safe.

One of our kitchen drawers is hard to open. I keep my cutlery in that one.