Can I get a disease from a knife I found?
 

While I was on vacation in Tennessee last summer with my girlfriend I found a Gerber knife left behind outside a bathroom. It was a nice knife, one of the folding ones, so I grabbed it. There were no cars and no other people (hadn't been for a long time) so I figured they weren't going to pick it up. Wording that way it was the wrong thing to do, but it was last June so now's a little late for that.

My question is, before I go about using it do I have to worry about diseases? My girlfriend had to take a course in infectious diseases for her cosmetology classes and she's told me that HIV will die when the blood dries and that hepatitis will live for two weeks. It's been almost a year. I'm still nervous about carrying it though and curious if there's anywhere I can find out about this. Also, I don't know if it would be an option to clean it in something like an autoclave machine since they use that for piercing needles and tattoo guns to kill off infectious diseases.

Any help or links would be great.

Are you using it to cut your wrists? At that point, wouldn't getting an infection be pointless? I guess dunk it in a container of alcohol...

You feel guilty about how you got it and fear about using it.
All health considerations away, it seems obvious that you have a bad feeling with this thing and should just throw it away.

Your girlfriend is correct. Hep B & C is a hearty virus and can live usually 7-10 days on a surface. HIV will die fairly quickly outside the body. So....clean up the knife and enjoy whatever plans you have with it.

Actually, it wasn't until writing the post that I felt bad about it. I read it and thought "if somebody read this, it would sound an awful lot like I stole this."

As far as using it to cut myself, no, but I wouldn't use a blade that might contain some sort of bloodborne illness over a new factory blade if that was a risk. Thanks for the input though. I appreciate your input but being it was so obviously deserted I don't feel bad about it.

You know, a new factory blade has no reason to be healthier than a rusty old one.
Clean and sane are 2 completely different concepts.

I'm not sure I understand your meaning? I know some people with hepatitis and not knowing the past history I wasn't sure if I had to worry about somebody with Hepatitis or any other disease having used it in regular work and nicked themselves with it or something.

Use it to cut some cheese. Then it will be lethal for all time.

THe point is that a brand new knife, straight out of the factory doesn't carry less germs than an old one.

I really enjoy reading some thread starts more than others, gives me an idea of who i hang out with.

You did the right thing by posting at Talkbass , where you will have access to information about disease transmission from people who are certified experts in areas such as microbiology, immunology, and public health....you should also take your questions about things like bass pickups, amplification, and the like to the CDC...

Part of me wonders what you are planning to do with this knife, that would require sterilization in an autoclave.

But since this is the internet, I don't think I want to know.

Okay. I guess I will be the wise guy here. Since this is a music related website, I think these two songs are appropriate for this question.

Bryan Adams - Cuts Like A Knife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQRB5h0YKKI

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Knife-Edge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGQYXqUqslc

Depends on how it was treated during manufacture and the type of germs. If a knife that's fresh from the factory has E-coli, cryptosporidium, hepatitis, giardia or something like these, I don't want that company's products. It would be a good idea for a knife maker to sanitize their products, just to limit exposure to liability from lawsuits due to people cutting themselves with their brand new sticker.

The First Cut is the Deepest

Mack the Knife


I imagine that most pathogens would not be viable after a year. Typical cleaning and oiling a knife would probably negate any living organism still around after a year. If it has a polymer handle there is a gun cleaning spray called "scrub free" which gets into cracks and crevices. WD 40 would likely do as well.

If you are really freaked out about this, then saturated the knike with a bleach solution for five minutes, then clean and oil it.

http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/disinfecti...infection.html

If the old alcohol trick works on old bass strings, it'll work on an old knife. Cut up some fried chicken afterwards to get some of the funk back.

It's as safe as a brand new knife.

Hopefully you didn't have unprotected sex with the knife yet.

DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH KNIVES. IT IS IMMORAL, UNHEALTHY, and DANGEROUS, and what about the KIDS????

Yeah, I find this thread very confusing. I don't know what you can even do with a knife that would give you diseases, unless you were cutting yourself. And in any case, why would rubbing alcohol not be sufficient to clean it?