Knife superstitions???

D

Dr van Nostrom

Joined
May 8, 2001
Messages
536
I hurried home last night to find UPS package waiting.... ahhhh new knife has arrived! Used most recent knife purchase to open new knife (could this be a superstition?). Anyhoo take it from box, smooth action, no scratches, blade looks sharp...hhhmm those serrations don't look very shar.....ouch! Blood is drawn. This is now the second time I have drawn blood with a brand new knife. My last knife served me well so I came to two conclusions: 1. I am a clumsy idiot or 2. It is a new superstition and I must uphold it! Kind of a bonding thing. (I like the second one more). It also reminds me of an old Gurkha superstition I once heard: some Gurkhas believe that once the kukri is drawn it cannot be sheathed until it has drawn blood, when cleaning/sharpening I guess to uphold this tradition the knick their thumb before sheathing their knife. Does anyone else have knife superstitions/traditions??? Their own or ones they have heard???
 
In "Asian fighting Arts", the author ( Don Draeger?) has a section on Malaysia, and goes extensively into the superstitions surrounding the Malaysian Kris.
The knife is supposed to rattle in it's sheath to warn the owner of danger, fly through the air to fight on it's own, and have water or other fluids "milked" from the blade.
At the time of the book's writing, no self-respecting adult Malay would go out in public without one.
 
Around the Knife Works you get dirty looks if you hand a folder back to someone not in the position (either opened or closed) that it was given to you. I have had a knife handed back to me to close when I handed it back to someone open. Kinda odd but I find myself doing it now. Everybody around here says it is bad luck.

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Jason Cadden
jc.gif

Webmaster
Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Inc.
jcadden@smkw.com
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by jcadden:
Around the Knife Works you get dirty looks if you hand a folder back to someone not in the position (either opened or closed) that it was given to you. I have had a knife handed back to me to close when I handed it back to someone open. Kinda odd but I find myself doing it now. Everybody around here says it is bad luck.

Pretty much all of the countries around the Med. Sea don't allow you to give a sharp object as a gift. You will ussually sell it for smallest amount of currency in the country.

--Ben

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Same here- I never accept a knife, etc. as a gift without a small token amount of money in return- usually a penny- so that it is a "purchase". A knife, etc. as a gift is thought to "sever" the friendship. Silly, but I don't care- I do it anyway.
 
Yep, knives must be paid for. I've had many knives that sold for $0.01
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R.W.Clark

Proud Member : California Knifemakers Association
 
I'm finding this thread very interesting, especially as I notice how common this custom seems. As I think about it I rather like it. The "selling" of the knife to a friend for the very small sum seems to add a little something to the transaction. Perhaps its a good way to enlist a new "knife nut" in that it causes them to stop and realize that there is something special about the giving of a blade.

"Great," my wife will think..."just what I need....yet another idiosyncrasy for my husband to develop."
 
I've given countless knives as gifts, free of charge, and had many bestowed on me. None of my friends has been struck dead by a bolt of lightning from on high, nor have I.
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A superstition has as much power as you let it have, I think.

-Razor

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me.jpg

AKTI #A000845

[This message has been edited by Razoredj (edited 06-05-2001).]
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Roj Avon:
I'm finding this thread very interesting, especially as I notice how common this custom seems. As I think about it I rather like it. The "selling" of the knife to a friend for the very small sum seems to add a little something to the transaction. Perhaps its a good way to enlist a new "knife nut" in that it causes them to stop and realize that there is something special about the giving of a blade.

"Great," my wife will think..."just what I need....yet another idiosyncrasy for my husband to develop."</font>
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Yep I've heard of it is common in Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Greece and Algeria.

I would guess other places as well.

--Ben

 
Pete Gerber has a tradition of "trading" knives with his signature on them for a penny. I have one in my desk like this from Shot Show.

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Jason Cadden
jc.gif

Webmaster
Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Inc.
jcadden@smkw.com
 
I was told that one must give a penny to someone who gives them a knife. If not the knife cuts the friendship. I do not believe in superstition, but I practice this as part of a tradition. Also I too always hand a knife back in the position it was handed to me, open or closed. The world won't shatter if these customs are broken, but I think they are kind of nifty. BTW, I also followed the tradition of carrying my bride across the threshold on our honeymoon. That was 22 years ago this coming Saturday. I am almost over it
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David

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AKTI# A000150
NC Custom Knifemakers Guild member
NC Knife Knuts member
 
Congrats David...here's to you upholding the old tradition of keeping your wedding vows till death.
I recently traded my brother-in-law a BM Ascent for a Gerber EZ-Out (he complained it wouldn't hold an edge, and when I spine-whacked it it released - unacceptable for a mid lockback). I had already explained about the penny tradition, so he kept wanting to give me a penny. I told him that because we were trading, thus it wasn't a gift. So then he thinks we both ought to give each other pennies. Finally got him to just take the knife. Cleaned up and sharpened the Gerber, as soon as I am sure he's still happy with the deal, I'll sell it.
 
Knife Folklore is very interesting. Here are some of the ones I have gathered:

From Iceland: If someone drops a knife while cleaning a fish and the point of the knife indicates the direction of the open sea, it is believed that this indicates good fishing ahead. If the knife falls to where the point indicates an inland direction, the fishing will be bad next time out.

From Ireland:
Nightmares were evil dwarves riding on the chest of the sleeper. Being straddled accounted for the constricting suffocating feeling. The remedy was to put a knife or scissors under your pillow.

Iron and Steel in the form of old knives, scissors, sickles, etc. were almost universally considered potent in warding off malicious spirits in Europe, England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Swiftwater Rescue Technician/raft guide lore in various parts of the US, is if you use a knife during an in-water rescue, it later gets sacrificed to the river.

There is a Russian folk belief that if a knife is left laying with the sharp side up, murderers are being born as long as the knife is left this way.

If you stab your knife into the headboard, and leave it there through the night, it will make afraid the demons that cause nightmares.

The accidental crossing of two knives at the table must be avoided, as it is likely to cause a desperate fight between members of the family; if knives are crossed inadvertently, they must be touched only by the same person who crossed them.

If an Ozark woman finds a pair of scissors open, she closes them instantly; if she fails to do this she will quarrel with her dearest friend before the moon changes.

From Indonesia and Philippines have come certain blades covered in glyphs and in them is a power that allows them to be milked of their venom. Using fingers, the knife’s master strokes the blade. Soon surprisingly a substance that is milk-like begins to drip from the tip of the blade!

-John

 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Razoredj-Give it time...you`re still young. </font>
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I am? Just how young do you think I am, Steve?
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-Razor

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AKTI #A000845

[This message has been edited by Razoredj (edited 06-05-2001).]
 
The way I heard the "must pay for the knife" superstition was that only one person could give you a knife, that being your father. Otherwise, someone giving you a knife was tantamount to a challenge to duel and since you have no weapon with which to fight the challenger is offering you one of his! To avoid the duel, one reaches into one's pocket and pulls out the smallest denomination of currency he happens to have on him, and that is the payment.
 
Interesting stuff - a common thread seems to be that in most societies/countries knives are atrributed with some kind of supernatural powers, negative and positive!
 
JohnMike,
Outstanding post! I learned a ton! It also reminded me of a story that my grandmother told me years ago. When she was giving birth to my mom in the early 1920s pretty much everybody birthed at home. She was having hard labor with my mom. Her mother(my great-granny) rubbed tobacco on her belly and placed open scissors under my grandmother's pillow. This was to ward off any evil that might be causing the problem birth. I had forgotten about it til I read your post. Cool!
David

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AKTI# A000150
NC Custom Knifemakers Guild member
NC Knife Knuts member
 
I have heard that it is bad luck to hand a knife to someone else either open or closed. The knife should be laid down by the giver and picked up by the person receiving it. I learned this when I went to show a friend a knife many years ago, and they would not touch nor hold it until I laid it down for them to pick up.

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"A true edge will not reflect light"
 
Matthew, your story about the knife being given only by the father or as a weapon for a duel woiuld tend to be supported by the fact that I have only encountered the custom of paying for a gift knife in the South, where knife fighting was common well up into this century. Go to AG Russell's page and look up the "Texas Toothpick", and you'll see what I mean. This was the type of knife of the old Kingston Trio song, "Everglades".

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Walk in the Light,
Hugh Fuller
 
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