Discarded Cheapo Kitchen Knives

Robert66

Well-Known Member
I cannot tell you how many old or 'rubbish', discarded knives I have rescued, renovated or just plain cleaned, bought and and sharpened for a few pence from car boot sales, I found one in a skip today. my family, friends and neighbours have most of them.
Most of these knives have only cost £1 or less when new, they are usually stainless steel and sharpen very easy/.

My point is this, does the average housewife really need a expensive kitchen knife, I say no.

Some need new handles but how do a drill the stainless steel when the plastic handles are smashed as some are
 
Whoa there, what do you mean she doesn't need an expensive kitchen knife? How else we gonna sell them if we don't convince her she "needs" one of our custom expensive knives? {g}

I have not yet made a kitchen knife only sharpened them including ones thrown away,,,, most of them 'sharpen up'.

My field knives are only just about reaching the 'selling stage' using 3rd class machines.. lol
 
Many inexpensive knives are actually good steel. The knives suffer from poor fit and finish and typically have terrible bevel angles, but that’s how the manufacturers get the price so low. I have reground a number of cheap knives and turned them into really good knives.

The issue is that it takes as much, or more, time to refashion a knife as it does to make a whole new one from scratch. I got my start by reconditioning old knives. Now that I’m fairly established there isn’t time to do that anymore.
 
I love "rescued knives". In particular, I like the non-stainless ones, I think the old patina they develop is beautiful.
An old, Old Hickory is a favorite, kind of like the old, inexpensive Timex wrist watches, they, "take a licking, and keep on ticking". My wife hates when I stop at yard sales and flea markets, says I have a one track mind with only an eye for old, ugly knives.
 
I love "rescued knives". In particular, I like the non-stainless ones, I think the old patina they develop is beautiful.
An old, Old Hickory is a favorite, kind of like the old, inexpensive Timex wrist watches, they, "take a licking, and keep on ticking". My wife hates when I stop at yard sales and flea markets, says I have a one track mind with only an eye for old, ugly knives.
I will always try to save a non stainless knife, I have a few rescues in my drawer. When I look at stainless steel knives I cannot help but feel...meh.
 
An old, Old Hickory is a favorite, kind of like the old, inexpensive Timex wrist watches, they, "take a licking, and keep on ticking".
My post was meant as fully "tongue in cheek", and agree there are plenty of $30 knives that work just fine in the kitchen. BUT - as the wife says, they're just not as pretty. Plus I don't think they hold an edge as long either.

One of those "Old" Old Hickory butcher knives would be well worth saving. While I personally sorta like a good carbon steel kitchen knife, the wife wants SS, since she does the cooking (or most of it) Stainless is what I make for her.
 
My post was meant as fully "tongue in cheek", and agree there are plenty of $30 knives that work just fine in the kitchen. BUT - as the wife says, they're just not as pretty. Plus I don't think they hold an edge as long either.

One of those "Old" Old Hickory butcher knives would be well worth saving. While I personally sorta like a good carbon steel kitchen knife, the wife wants SS, since she does the cooking (or most of it) Stainless is what I make for her.
LOL, I knew what you meant Ken. The old knives remind me of me, old, battered, time ravaged but still got a little something left (hopefully).
My wife would agree with your wife regarding stainless in the kitchen. She has stopped asking when I was gonna make her a stainless knife.
 
I love to see, use and generally admire the skilled results of knifesmiths, however I do believe there is such a thing as 'knife snobbery'

Before I got into knofe smithing we wiped out big kitchen knives overy the back yard concrete step to sharpen it for the Sunday joint as many did when I was a whippersnapper.

BTW, my first go at fasioning a knife was from a old springy paint scraper.
.
 
CDRCiod.png


In my very early days of knife rescuing I came across this 'blade' only in a dreadful state, because of the serrations I thought it would be a good bit of steel to 'play' with.
It was on a car boot and I gave 50pence for it.

I got it home and found it sharpened really good, so I dulled it and spent a bit of time polishiong it, resharpened and I made the handle which was my fist effort pf handle making.
 
however I do believe there is such a thing as 'knife snobbery'
No Robert, tell me it isn't so - knife snobbery? Well, to be honest that's a lot like "wine snobbery" isn't it? Always amazes me to walk thru a wine shop seeing all the wines with prices ranging from $10/bottle to $100/bottle, and sometimes you'll see a $10 to $15 bottle rated higher than some of the $30+ bottles.
 
Back
Top