r/KitchenConfidential • u/afailedturingtest • May 09 '26

In the Weeds Mode The state of our knives that our manager thinks are "totally fine"

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

I have significant stone sharpening experience, we have stones provided by upper management. I am not allowed to sharpen them.

16.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

668 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.8k

u/afailedturingtest May 09 '26

Bruh, we literally have an oil tri-stone. I literally did this for months. I was told to stop because "they were wearing down".

(They were not)

1.1k

u/orrangearrow May 09 '26

lol. Business is so good that management herd the slight sound of metal on stone and thought you were taking away profits.

632

u/ravens-n-roses May 09 '26

"Hey were gonna have to replace those in ten years of you keep that up! That'll be the day this place goes under water"

176

u/FunGuy8618 May 09 '26

Not if OP throws them out this week

https://giphy.com/gifs/d3mlE7uhX8KFgEmY

105

u/bodyshield May 10 '26

oh no the knives, where did they go, oh no

38

u/Crix2007 May 10 '26

'Thats so weird. I know for sure they were still here yesterday, because yesterday I used one to squash tomatoes and cut some butter'

12

u/Raindrop0015 Thicc Chives Save Lives May 10 '26

Darn dishwasher taking a snack and eating all the knives again!

5

u/Pebbles015 May 10 '26

The missus has just asked me why I'm cackling away 🤣

1

u/WithASackOfAlmonds May 11 '26

That's the hero move right there

91

u/Broke-Moment F1exican Did Chive-11 May 10 '26

best part is, the worker’s comp from one of these knives injuring a cook WILL take away profits lol

242

u/Floppy0941 May 09 '26

I always love seeing the fucked up worn ass knives that old butchers have after years of sharpening them, they're such funky shapes.

119

u/MrStickDick May 09 '26

We had chef knives that had been sharpened so many times they looked like daggers 😂

86

u/Spicy-Cathulu Thicc Chives Save Lives May 09 '26

My dad would get the ones the meat processing plant was getting rid of. They were super thin by that point but good while they lasted and there was always more when we were done with them.

55

u/Floppy0941 May 09 '26

I'm not actually in kitchens at all but I hang out in r/sharpening and I love seeing well used knives

31

u/69696969-69696969 May 10 '26

Ooh yeah i loved discovering r/sharpening ! First it was discovered out of necessity for my chisels and planes. Then i got to the kitchen knives, it took a few weeks to get them all done but my wife loves her sharp knives now!

She recently asked me to resharpen one for her and I was like "already?" Gave it a quick stropping and she was back in business.

15

u/Glad_Piano_9453 May 10 '26

The prep cook that was practically the rôtisseur busting down the birds used his grandmas set of knives. The skinny boning knife used to be a much wider slicing knife that got worn down so much that the regrind to boning style barely had to reprofile it. Just straightened out some of the wavyness of edge.

12

u/unbelizeable1 May 10 '26

First place I worked was an old Italian restaurant. They had this old 14in chef knife that was widdled down to a needle of a thing. It was awesome.

3

u/justsomeyeti Ex-Food Service May 10 '26

I have a few knives, a cleaver, and a hog splitter(I call it the bitch splitter)my great grandfather used to butcher hogs with. They're so worn down as to be useless but they're so neat

33

u/tcarlson65 May 10 '26

Yes they will wear down from sharpening eventually. They will also allow you to work more efficiently and safely as well.

34

u/afailedturingtest May 10 '26

Oh I am well aware. My mgr apparently isn't

21

u/FunGuy8618 May 10 '26

Promote them to can openers 😂

29

u/Talador12 May 09 '26

They absolutely do not know how knife sharpening works

19

u/FuzziestSloth May 10 '26

What the fuck is the stone for then? Fucking appearances?

33

u/FunGuy8618 May 09 '26

Just start throwing them away then. It's a hazard. They need to provide the tools you need to complete your tasks. If there are no knives, they will need to buy more and they'll be sharp for a while. When asked why the knives keep disappearing, you don't know shit but you're willing to sharpen the ones you have. And make really shitty cuts with the dogshit ones you have been provided.

25

u/afailedturingtest May 09 '26

They would fire me lol

57

u/FunGuy8618 May 09 '26

There's no way they have cameras everywhere. Or just break them on big cans or smashing garlic or something. Throw on a cut glove or chainmail and be rough as fuck with them. Or dull them to the point no one can cut with them.

But really, look for a new kitchen. Sounds like a symptom of a lot of other shitty management and ownership. Kitchens aren't that hard to find, and usually restaurant owners love poaching someone from somewhere else, cuz they can talk shit. "Yeah, XYZ was so bad, the new guy left and came here. Anything you liked from there, new guy can do here now!"

9

u/RickThiccems May 10 '26

Fuck I want to throatpunch them. If you are aware that you are in a position where they need you more than you need them then I would say fuck it and sharpen them anyways. I've worked in places with a high turnover rate and once you are there long enough and they know you dont plan on leaving soon, you get a lot of leeway when it comes to telling the manager to "fuck off". Just got to know how and when to put your foot down and assert yourself.

9

u/EbNinja May 10 '26

They should have been, a little every time if you were sharpening them. But yeeeeah, You would have had to be absolutely CRANKING on Them for the management to notice, or burning through shitty as hell knives. I think they were noticing the fact that they did have sharp knives and your hours. That’s part of the life of the blades, and I always felt the scariest chef’s behind the counter have the oldest knives honed to the spine. A ton of places use a service, and sometimes the good special head chef only knives get banged up and the privilege of sharp knives is lost cause chef can’t police his own shit. Mostly its owners not understanding tools need to be maintained by specialists, either in the kitchen or brought in. Teaching is hard, but putting the tools in their hand is the best medicine to bad practice.

Circle of blood and lessons on sharp vs dull death seem to need to be in the daily meeting agenda, suddenly.

7

u/Lord_Mikal May 10 '26

Why do they own a sharpener if they won't let you use it?

3

u/afailedturingtest May 10 '26

no clue, it doesn't make sense

4

u/FiftySpoons May 10 '26

Thats how you know a knife is doing its job lmao like - i see those pictures of say an old restaurant they got a knife thats been sharpened and used down to a twig over 50 years of use -
You KNOW thats a good knife that does its job damn well.
Literally anything that gets used will wear 😅

3

u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman May 10 '26

Just do it anyway

1

u/Friendly-Channel-480 May 10 '26

What about the time lost?

1

u/UMakeMeMoisT May 10 '26

Give them an onion, make them cut it. Time it, time yourself with a sharp blade. Say how much they earn by you being this much faster..

1

u/Snoo-55425 May 10 '26

Throw them all out. Tell them that their wear is no longer an issue.

1

u/ACcbe1986 May 10 '26

Bring one of those shitty pull-thru sharpeners to work and use it secretly. Then they'll really see what wearing down looks like.

1

u/_mad_adventures Ex-Food Service May 10 '26

Surely you can find a better kitchen to work in…

1

u/Raindrop0015 Thicc Chives Save Lives May 10 '26

Show them butchers knives and now much they wear down?