Gift a knife, get a penny.

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
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How many of you oldtimers still abide by the old custom about giving a penny when someone gives you a knife so as not to cut the friendship?

Anyone know how far the custom goes back?
 
My Grandmother got me started in this, and I still do this to this day.

I never heard of this custom outside the family, or are we Related?:eek::D
 
Don't know where in our family it originated but has been a tradition I still implement to this day. Gave my oldest brother a knife for Christmas and added the penny with the gift. Always my brother and always a friend so I didn't want to take a chance and break our friendship.
 
When my Dad gave me my first knife there was a penny in the box.
He told me that it's bad luck to have somone give you a blade. The idea behind the penny is so you can "pay" the person for the knife so it's no longer a gift.


My Dad is Scottish.
 
My variant on it is it must be a SILVER (coloured)coin of some kind. Solid silver be nice...It's a European tradition that I know my grandparents-born in the 1870s followed.
 
I saw this done in the movie The Edge. The character Charles Morse is given a knife for his birthday by character Robert Green. In return Charles gives Robert a coin so as not to cut the friendship. A few years ago I gave my Father a knife as a gift and he did the same thing.
 
From a website selling Laguiole knives:

"Why a Laguiole knife has to be sold and cannot be given ?

Superstition is the reason.
The custom says that a cutting object cannot be given in order to avoid the risk of cutting the love or friendship existing between the person who gives the present and the one who receives it.
To ward off misfortune or to maintain tradition, the person who receives a knife as a gift has to give a coin to the the one who offers the knife, the present becomes a trade.
When discussing with our foreign customers, we realised that this tradition is widespread in all the neighboring countries! Its origins are a mystery to us."
 
I don't observe it, personally, although I was just thinking about that old custom the other day when I gave a Benchmade Vex to a friend of mine.
In the past, I've given several knives to friends/family/girlfriends. Some of these friendships have lasted, some have fallen by the wayside, and of course the old girlfriends, well.... ;) I've given my father several knives over the years, and he's still my greatest friend (well, now that I'm grown anyway!).
 
zombieHD55 said:
I saw this done in the movie The Edge. The character Charles Morse is given a knife for his birthday by character Robert Green. In return Charles gives Robert a coin so as not to cut the friendship. A few years ago I gave my Father a knife as a gift and he did the same thing.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly the way my favorite uncle brought me up on pocketknives.. A coin, basically any coin, so as not to cut the friendship. Pennies will be the least of these but other coins would be preferred. However, I took it to mean of coarse nothing less then a penny.

I can tell you for a fact that if you don't provide some compensation for a gift of a knife that you will in fact experience bad luck and sour the friendship.

Anthony
 
I never heard of the tradition until I got with my fiancee and her mother told me. However since Vikings were honored to give and receive cutting instruments and they did not have to pay for them I will follow my ancestors tradition (which I believe is older).
 
kamer said:
When my Dad gave me my first knife there was a penny in the box.
He told me that it's bad luck to have somone give you a blade. The idea behind the penny is so you can "pay" the person for the knife so it's no longer a gift.


My Dad is Scottish.
Click to expand...

Same tradition here, in a french canadian family...very interesting!
 
I see so many cultures have a variation of this practice, but it had to start somewhere, or humans/people bein' the superstious creatures we are, did this start simultaniously around the world, like the discovery of fire?
 
I've seen it in Edge, but have never practiced it, or heard of it otherwise until this thread. When my dad gave me my first knife it was never brought up. 15 years later, we are still pretty tight. I've given my brother two knives and we are still on good terms.
It is just a superstition, I'm not superstitious.
 
zombieHD55 said:
I saw this done in the movie The Edge. The character Charles Morse is given a knife for his birthday by character Robert Green. In return Charles gives Robert a coin so as not to cut the friendship.
Click to expand...

The guy was screwing his wife and tried to kill him so I guess the coin thing didn't work.

:(:o
 
In our family, whenever a knife is given, a penny has always been exchanged.
Didn't know that it was to ensure a friendship.
We've always thought that if you didn't give a coin in exchange,
you could be sure to expect bad luck or have the knife "bite you". :(
 
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