Sally's Journal

I've heard the superstition, I don't hold with such nonsense, but I still do the coin thing. Any coin, it doesn't have to be a penny. The recipient has to give the coin back to the giver so the knoves are "purchased." Otherwise the friendship will be severed. Again, nonsense, but a fun ritual.

I'd never heard it and my husband had never heard it.

His (weird-present-buying) aunt once gave us a set of knives that we actually count as the best present she has ever given us. There was no coin attached...

I know the superstition, but I only connect it with weapons, not kitchen equipment.

So if someone gave me Sting, I'd probably want to give them a penny, just for tradition's sake, but probably not if they gave me a cutlery set.

My mother, who is normally extremely rational and not at all superstitious, really believes in this one. Most of the people I know who care about it are Jewish, but I've never heard it explicitly described as a Jewish superstition including by the people who hold it.

I'm not saying I'm not superstitious sometimes, but not about knives, which I think can be lovely presents. I'm aware of it, though.

I like knives as presents. Pretty folding knives. Pretty folding pocket knives. Pretty folding pocket knives that are fairly blunt and only useful for cheese on picnics, for which they are very useful, but which are none the less probably illegal to carry because you need to press something in to fold them back in.

[Is it actually legal to carry such a knife WITH YOUR PICNIC? It seems utterly daft that you're allowed to carry an ordinary kitchen knife but not a folding knife that has a catch to stop it folding.]

I say I've heard of that superstition, but what I mean is that I've seen it in fiction (A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay) and until I saw this poll I wasn't aware that it was a superstition also found in reality, though it doesn't surprise me (with stuff like that in fiction, you never can tell).

My grandma bought a green suit for my wedding-that-never-happened-in-the-end. (And only after the purchase remembered that she thought wearing green to a wedding was a no-no.)

But I think on balance that was good luck ;)

Never heard that superstition. But I'd still say that knives are bad luck as presents, particularly to the under-fives.

I've given knives as presents before. I am *very* unlikely to do so again in the future. Yes, there is a reason, no, I'm not going into it in public.

Never heard of the superstition, but knives are bad presents to give, anyway - sharp, dangerous and far too personal to one's cooking and kitchen style.