Knife grabbers...

[chefworks91]

Ok, here's my question. I love the guys I work with, they are awesome, but, I hate it when they are constantly taking my knives to do their work. Now, how do I tell them ( without becoming "that guy") I don't like it when they take them. I trust them and everything it's just my knives were not cheap and, they are mine after all. So...what is my next move?

[winesonoma]

Stab their hand to the board with a fork?

[WolfChef]

Most kitchens the rule is you use your own knives, or the kitchen knives. Never another chef's knife without thier permission. You basically have two choices...either tolerate it or put your foot down. Look em square in the eye and say "Not yours, mine...get your own." You can trust em if you want, but when you go to use it sometime and it's chipped or the tip is snapped off, you'll only have yourself to blame for tolerating it. It's not theirs, they didn't have to research the item before buying, or pay for it, or keep it clean and sharp. Are they going to use it with care like you do...no way.

[nwyles]

It is a statement of your professional attitude that you show with your own knives. Tell them to fuck off. Communial kitchen knives are for them, and yours are for you. If someone is doing a specific job and you lend them a tool to make it easier, that just shows you are a good guy. They need to be respectful that they are your tools. Do not worry about offending. If they are any type of serious kitchen guy, they will understand. IF they are not, it is better that they do not use your knives as they probably do not show the or you the respect you are due.

[peppyre]

Knowing how I react when someone other than myself touches my knives at home without my express permission, I would be hard pressed not to yank it out of their hands and tell them to get their own fucking knives. I'm a little obsessive about my knives. I helped my mom buy her first knife after her divorce and whenever I see her new husband sharpening it I have to restrain myself. My ex (the guy I lived with) was actually scared to use my good knives because he knew that I would be in the kitchen, over his shoulder, telling him what NOT to do with MY knife!

It's a tricky situation and you probably will become "that guy", but as far as knives are concerned, I think it's a fair trade-off. Become that guy! Your knives will thank you.

[TJHarris]

You have to lay down the law. No two ways about it. I have a collection of empty blade guards and blades with broken tips to show for not being firm about this. It is all about respect and your co-workers don't show it.

[andiesenji]

I agree. If anyone touches MY knives without permission they hear about it in no uncertain terms.

I have inexpensive knives for other people to use.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm another home cook who is obsessive about his knives. As usual, Andiesenji is talking sense:

I have inexpensive knives for other people to use.

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Maybe that's a solution: wrap up a few Ginsu knives in a towel and bring them along to work. $15 for a set of ten!!

[andiesenji]

One of the restaurant supply places on the net sells a bundle of paring knives very cheaply just for this reason.

I bought a bucket of them a couple of years ago when we were going to have a big neighborhood cookout. I didn't want to take any of my knives outside.

About a third of the knives disappeared, either into the trash or off with sticky fingers people.

[winesonoma]

As a carpenter the rule was don't touch my edged tools, Don't touch my tools, you risk losing a hand if you touch my tools. We all understood it. If I really trusted you I might let you borrow one, but more likely I'd tell you where to buy one.

[zilla369]

I keep my knives in my kit on my desk, unless i'm using them. I will lend to certain people that i know will not abuse my tools. Understand, i have a separate pastry kitchen - but if i put my knives on the magnet strip, some fool will grab them to open boxes with or stab a jar lid to make it easier to open. NON!

I believe Bourdain said it best in Kitchen Confidential: "Don't touch my dick, don't touch my knife."

Also, please have your knives engraved!!

[chefworks91]

I keep my knives in my kit on my desk, unless i'm using them.  I will lend to certain people that i know will not abuse my tools.  Understand, i have a separate pastry kitchen - but if i put my knives on the magnet strip, some fool will grab them to open boxes with or stab a jar lid to make it easier to open.  NON!

I believe Bourdain said it best in Kitchen Confidential: "Don't touch my dick, don't touch my knife."

Also, please have your knives engraved!!

←

Yeah, I want to engrave them, do I need to buy an engraver or can I bring them somewhere to get done?

[dano1]

funny, a number of years ago at a hotel i worked the line at same thing happened. I called the 17year old s**thead on it. My "conversation" was overheard by the sous. I ended up with a warning in my file for "dissuading" the punk from ever touching anything of mine again.

The good ole days.....;) dude probably has no idea how close he came to assault with a deadly weapon.

[halloweencat]

have you ever seen someone say something with force and intent +and+ humor that would have been harsh without humor? sometimes giving it a slight, humorous edge (no pun intended), allows one to say things in a crystal-clear fashion. i'm not talking about obsequious humor, or playing the buffon. but if you're worried that your colleages are not listening to you because you have not been firm enough, and your reluctance in taking it up a notch has been not wanting "to be that guy"...perhaps you can take it up a notch with a little comic edge.

e.g. (perhaps...)

"george, do you see mary here? she just used one of my precious knives without my permission. i want you as a witness for my defense, because if she does it again i'm going to slice her fingers off at the knuckles and wrap them up in puff pastry and force feed her. mary, i love you, but i'm not kidding."

cheers :)

hc

[Gastro888]

Try using colored tape to ID what knives are yours if you can't find an engraver. One chef I know uses blue electric tape on the handle.

[chefworks91]

HalloweenCat...that is subtle!!

I like it

[halloweencat]

chefworks, the manaical laugh is optional. ;)

cheers :)

hc

[eje]

You have to lay down the law. No two ways about it.  I have a collection of empty blade guards and blades with broken tips to show for not being firm about this.  It is all about respect and your co-workers don't show it.

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I'm with TJ here. I was working dayshift prep and forgot to put away and take home my 8" Wustof. Next morning I came in and found it with a nice S shaped wave in the cutting edge. It was my fault; but, I am still pissed about it 10 years later. I would have preferred if someone had just stolen it.

If you want your nice knives to stay nice, keep them to yourself.

Erik

[jsolomon]

You could always make some anatomically appropriate gingerbread men and emasculate one with the warning that he was the next SOB that took your knife w/out permission.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Ok, here's my question. I love the guys I work with, they are awesome, but, I hate it when they are constantly taking my knives to do their work. Now, how do I tell them ( without becoming "that guy") I don't like it when they take them. I trust them and everything it's just my knives were not cheap and, they are mine after all. So...what is my next move?

←

Do NOT let anyone except for the Chef or Sous, borrow your knives. No, no, no. It doesn't matter if they are good people or not. The only "guy" you will be is the one whose knives are not for general use. I'd still be a bitch -- just a bitch with all of the knives she started her Externship with. I'm still steamed over the MAC santoku with the ruined edge, and the serrated paring knives. They ain't cheap and even if they were, dammit, they were mine.

No more Ms. Nice Guy,

Fabby

[Sleepy_Dragon]

These people Really. Fucking. Suck. Oh what I'd give for a remote controlled miniature tazer thing installed in the handles of my tools... Or spikes which shoot out and impale their hot little hands as soon as they grab one.

I have a few such people in my class, including one particularly egregious kleptomaniac who has to gall to yell and whine about people being selfish control freaks when I catch him lifting my stuff. The caterwauling is incredible.

I think overall, it's a social contract thing. People either work with one in mind where they're considerate of others, or they work without one where anything goes according to immediate gain or loss for themselves only; what it means to others doesn't matter because hey, that's other people.

Also bad are the ones who leave their crap strewn all over your station. We get graded each week on factors like this, and I've lost points because of their self-absorbed behavior. One time I literally had to grab the chef instructor and tell him something wasn't my mess even though it was all over my cutting board, in plain earshot of the person who did make it. Hey, it's my tuition and my grade, your mother doesn't work here, go pout somewhere else.

Damn, in fact, forget the tazer. I want a high barbed wire electrified fence surrounding my station. I love culinary school and don't want it to end, but I can't wait to get away from this particular aspect of it.

I would never dream of just lifting someone else's tools or mise without asking or letting them know, or mess up their station. It takes labor and effort to be organized and ready with tools in good condition, and they have no right to just help themselves to it. Mess up your own tools and your own station and waste your own labor as much as you like, but you don't get any say in mine.

As for workplaces with knife grabbers, mise en thieves and station crappers, I've basically decided I don't want to work anywhere where that's part of the culture. Why follow where the tool grabbers will go? Plus IMO the food is likely to be better when everyone is organized for themselves in the first place.

Pat

[nwyles]

mise en thieves

Survival of the fastest !

Mise left unattended is fair game !

[culinary bear]

I had (note the use of the past tense) a Nepalese kitchen porter who 'borrowed' my brand new shiny global flexible filleting knife, costing at the time just under 3/4 of a weeks' wages, and used it to punch airholes in a 5-gallon drum of vegetable oil.

Scarily, it was the closest I have ever come to serious physical violence in a kitchen.

We have a commis chef in the kitchen at the moment, let's-call-him-Tariq. Tariq he no knives of his own. Tariq asked to borrow a bread knife to cut some sandwiches. Grudgingly, but perhaps with a sense of both realism and altruism, I let him borrow it.

I came in from a split-shift break three days later to find the annoying little scrote having opened the knife box I'd neglected to lock, and with three knives, total value about £150, sitting on his station. Points-downward. In soapy water. In a metal container.

I don't care if he has to brunoise carrots with his teeth; if I see the hapless little fucker anywhere near my knifeboxes I'm going to gut him.

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Edited to add : Fuck... it's with a sense of alarm that I realise that even a very rough estimate of the replacement value of the contents of my two main knifeboxes is positively bowel-loosening - in the region of a couple of thousand pounds.

Edited April 2, 2005 by culinary bear (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

...

I don't care if he has to brunoise carrots with his teeth; if I see the hapless little fucker anywhere near my knifeboxes I'm going to gut him.

...

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If only! Thing is, if I did gut the fuckers, *I* would be the one to go to jail! How messed up is that!

Pat

[Jake]

Yep, touch 'em and die!!

With regard to engraving or tape. I HATE tape on my knives, engraving is cheap. From the flag you're from Canada, if you're from Toronto go to one of the little stores in a mall or a jewellery store that does engraving on premises -- they will engrave while you watch -- said knives are never out of your sight!