Giving knives as gifts -- superstitous?

Mate,
Just think what would have happened if you did not carry your lucky coin,
YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!

Be on the positive side.
You can sing soprano in the church choir for the next few weeks.
 
Originally posted by nifrand
When I give a knife as a gift[I do it quite often]I make the recipient give me a coin so that the knife does not cut our friendship.Been doing it since I was a small child and my grandfather made me give him a coin.I think it comes from the English.
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Nifrand is correct re: recipient giving the coin to the Knife Giver.I'm of Scottish decent and learned this custom from My Grandfather approx.43 years ago.So it might be an English custom or at least of the British Isles.tom.
 
a few posts back someone said its good luck to be cut by a new knife. never heard this but i think its true, if you get cut it usually means you were doing something stupid with it. once you are cut you gain a lot of respect for it.
 
Hi there,

the habit of trading a knife for a penny instead of receiving the knife as a gift is still common in Germany, where i live, and it's the same ritual all over Western-Europe. It's said that it cuts the friendship between the knife-giver and the knife-taker if you don't give a small coin (preferably copper)in retour.
I don't believe in this kind of stuff, but i do practise it, because i think it's a nice old tradition.

Gruß

Lorbas
 
I live by that custom, from my father here in So.Louisiana. It came from who knows where as everybodys custom ends up here,:)
 
I gave a lady friend of mine a Spyderco Cricket for Christmas and I explained about how the coin is representative of a shield as to not "cut off" the relationship. She never has heard of that before but gladly gave a coin in return. That's about the only superstition I have when it comes to giving knives as gifts.
 
Superstition or whatever, I think it is a nice custom that deserves respect. Ira never gave me a knife, but after his last post, I would be happy to send him a cup.
 
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