Safe disposal of knives

ayse

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

Ours will do this but you need to give them the knives before their early closing day. There was a nominal charge that was donated to charity.

Monica I have my own knives, used whenever I cook, plus also several stowed away, that I inherited from my Mother-in-law (died forty years ago) Hers are in perfect shape and condition, except that they are blunt. I kept them to hand on to my children when they had homes of their own, but by then they had their own. My grandchildren are beginning to set up home, perhaps they will take them.

If not, they could go to someone else who is setting up home, and they could sharpen them to their own taste. In that they are no different to table knives, which could be lethally sharpened up by anyone who was keen to have a sharp knife.

You've just reminded me I do have an old fashioned knife sharpener which came with a set of carving knives in - er - 1962. I'm off to see if it works.

Kitchen knives do not have to be handed into the police. Just disposed of safely. I put mine in the metal recycling skip at the tip.

Elegran kitchen knives go to the tip, where the metal will go to recycling and reused. By the time I dispose of kitchen knives, they are knackered, - tips broken off, bent, or sharpened intil they are so narrow they are in danger of snapping in half. No charity would even contemplate handing them on to anyone else.

Cutlery is different. That would go to a charity shop unless equally knackered.

Where do you draw the line then Callistemon21? Our steak knives are as sharp as. Surely a knife, unless it's a butter knife, is a knife.

I never knew kitchen knives can and should be handed in to the police!

"Safe" veggie peelers are not all that innocent. I have one similar to this which frequently slices bits off the fingers of the other hand which is holding the potato I am peeling. With round vegetables and artriticky hands, you have to wrap your fingers well round to keep the slippery spud in place. That photo showing it lying there loosely while the blade peels off the skin is artistic licence.

We're not talking about a veg peeler and steak knives.

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.

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!

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.

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

No, just following local advice from the police.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.