Safe disposal of knives

Last year I asked our refuse collectors and was told to wrap the knife well in newspaper and put in the bin with the normal rubbish.

I put metal knives in the recycling bin wrapped in newspaper

That's useful to know, Riverwalk, thank you. I have a boxful of blunt knives that I keep wondering what to do with. I've never been able to sharpen them successfully although I remember my father doing so somehow.

Wrapp the blades together with sellotape or, better still, gaffer tape and put in metal skip at the tip.

How about giving them to one of the organisations that set up people starting off in their first homes with no equipment? A lot of churches are involved in this, or know other organisations running such schemes. Readymade food is an expensive way of eating, but it is very difficult to do any real cooking without a sharp knife.

Does anyone know of a good way to sharpen knives? I bought a sharpening stone which doesn't seem to work. And one of those sharpeners that you pull the knife through. That doesn't work either.

I've got a drawer full of blunt knives, help!

I tape up the blades so they are no longer sharp - electrical tape normally - and if there is a small sharp point usually stick a cork on the end as well. I wouldn't want anyone handling the bags at some point to get cut. Then stick them in the black refuse bags. If there were a lot I would probably take them straight to the tip and ask them what they wanted me to do with them.

Throwing them into landfill is a waste. Google search at www.google.com/search for uk new start kitchen equipment homeless and add your location.

When I did this it showed several organisations in my town and in a dozen others in the area, all wanting basic household items for homeless people needing stuff for a new start.

Severnsider Get an old-fashioned sharpening steel, it works better than any of the fancy ones, and that is what real chefs use. They used to be included in every canteen of cutlery. Most of those have now ended up in charity shops, but you can get a new one on Amazon for less than £10 (or you can pay more in a kitchen emporium). A video on how to use it is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKYPCxx20zg

That’s what I did, we had a carving knife which we don’t use, I felt uneasy having it in the cupboard so wrapped it in bubble wrap before put it in a bag and taped it all up. Only then I disposed of it in the wheelie bin.

The charity shop I worked in always handed them into the police .

Elegran Great video but I seem to have a fear of knives! I really don't like them. It makes me cringe watching him waving that knife around. I am not very keen on cooking and mostly use one small knife which isn't very sharp. I think I'm paranoid about cutting myself and using a razor sharp knife would scare me. But I have a device which chops food into small pieces so I only have to give things a rough chop.

Most police stations have bins outside especially for knives - kitchen knives for cooking and carving can go in those to be disposed of safely.
Knives for eating are gratefully received by charities helping people set up their first home here.

Regarding sharpening knives, we have a married couple who come to our town in a van every other week and park up in the garden centre car park. They sharpen everything from secateurs to carving knives - a brilliant job and very cheap. Maybe there's a similar set up near you Severnsider.

Severnsider

Does anyone know of a good way to sharpen knives? I bought a sharpening stone which doesn't seem to work. And one of those sharpeners that you pull the knife through. That doesn't work either.

I've got a drawer full of blunt knives, help!

I have a small electric grinding machine with fine and heavier duty blades. It works very well, re-grinding blunt knives then giving a fine finish. If you just need to re-sharpen a sharp knife you just use the fine grinding.

For anyone who has Japanese knives you need to use a different sharpener as they are ground at different angles to European cutlery.

Just thought that maybe a good butcher would be willing to give the blades a new edge.

@ NotTooOld
James Martin was talking about sharpening knives this morning, he recommended a diamond sharpening rod.

Take them to the nearest police station if they are sharp food preparation knives - I thought that everyone knew that.

Cutlery can go to an upcycling charity, I think.

Everyone is very keen that people ought to do more cooking from scratch, but a lot of people (on here at least) don't want to let them have the tools with which to do it.

No, just following local advice from the police.

I use a steel regularly on my trusty old Sabatier Elegran blunt knives are more likely to injure you than sharp.

If you want to buy a kitchen knife in eg Tesco it's a right palaver. You have to take the empty cover from the display to the till then they call an assistant and they fetch the real one.
if your appearance fits the bill.
The same happened to me in John Lewis kitchen dept when I bought high quality kitchen scissors.
I agree with you, Callistemon.

When we got our new kitchen, I had a good clear out and decided to ditch a lot of big knives. I took them into our local Police station, where the very bemused officer on duty hadn’t a clue why I felt I should be there, handing them in as if it was an offensive weapons amnesty and told me to take them home and put them in my bin!

This thread reminds me that a couple of years ago my husband and I were walking through a park and came across an abandoned rucksack. It only had one thing in it - a massive hunting knife - a terrifying thing! We drove straight to the police station to hand it in and the police woman who served us seemed utterly bored by us and as disinterested as the officer in Georgesgran's post. I can't imagine how scathing she would have been if we'd turned up with a veg peeler and some steak knives.