How Do You Thank Someone for Knife?

J

Jumbi

Joined
Mar 12, 1999
Messages
377
I recently gave a friend a knife as a gift. Several days later I received a note with a coin inside. He said it's customary to give a gift of money in return for a gift of a knife.
What say you all?? :confused:
 
There is an old superstition that if you don't give someone something in return for a knife, the knife will "sever" your relationship.
 
I believe the old superstition is true. I gave a knife to one of my friends at work years ago. Not long after we became enemies. It all worked out though he got fired for being such a jerk.:D
 
In my neck of the woods, the old superstition seems to work the other way - when you give someone a knife you include a penny for good luck.
 
I'm not superstitious so I just give people knives and don't worry about it. If they give me one I say "Hey thanks, I really appreciate that!".

:D
 
This custom must go back farther then when it started here for given knives I was in Europe for about a month a few weeks back and gave away several knives as gifts and was suprised when the recipient,(usually a relative) gave me a coin in return as was customary in Hungary.

I was told that it was a custom that went way back to when people used knives like currency and they didn't want to ruin a friendship over the gift of a knife, it was more like a business deal.

I was given three silver coins whose face value were less than a dollar each but in the silver market were worth over $20 each, on the collectable coin market worth probably 10 times that. :)
 
T. Erdelyi said:
....as was customary in Hungary....
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Same custom in Germany. When I was given my first knife as a little boy in Germany, I was also given a copper "pfennig" with it. It was explained to me that the metal coin was to prevent the knife from severing the friendship.

A quick search will bring up a few threads covering this topic at length.
 
I had never heard of that before comming to bladeforums. Sounds like a nice custom though.
 
The penny tradition is in my family as well, we are german so I am sure thats where it comes from but we give a penny so it doesnt severe the relationship.
 
barrabas74 said:
The penny tradition is in my family as well, we are german so I am sure thats where it comes from but we give a penny so it doesnt severe the relationship.
Click to expand...

Possibly Germany, but the same custom is also practiced in Russia, from where my grandparents emigrated.
 
Lol when I said "I am sure thats where it comes from" I mean to say "I am sure thats where it comes from in my family", not intended as a global statement. I am cocky but not cocky enough to assume that. I know other cultures practice it. sorry about the miswording.
 
Interesting , I have never heard of this until now and my Dad's side of the family is full Russian/German stock from the "old Country".
I do recall as a kid my Greatgrandma (Dad's Grandma) would give my Brother and I a silver dollar when we went to visit her , never a paper one , always a silver one.

Also , a few years ago a girl I was dating gave me a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of a pickle (not kidding) , she said that her family (she was Russian/German like me) always had an old glass ornament in the shape of a pickle on thier tree and she wanted to share the custom , when I asked my Aunt about it (my Dad's Sister) she had never heard of that , and she is really into family history and keeping cutoms alive.
Maybe it is a regional thing more than a nationality thing ?
 
These are three of the silver coins I was given for some of the knives I left behind as gifts.

2006_07270051b.jpg
 
I think I replied in an older thread that my mom never gives a purse or wallet without a coin tucked away inside. Likewise she never returns an empty dish, bowl or tupperware without at least a hardcandy or an orange.
I do the purse wallet thing, but my best buddy and I regularly exchange knives at Christmas and/or birthdays without ever having our friendship compromised for lack of a penny....
 
To the question posed in the title:

Some variant of "Well thank you. This is a fine knife! I am sure I will put it to good use. Thanks again!"
 
The tradition I know of is to respond with a coin of some sort unless it is family, then "thank you" will do.
 
A coin is given when a knife is given as a gift or the friendship is severed,
what I've been taught and it's always worked out well for me. :thumbup:

Doug :)
 
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