atreic | (no subject)

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.

To clarify, I hadn't heard it until I moved to the UK.

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...

It rings a bell now you say it, but I'd completely forgotten until then. I don't mind positive superstitions so much, but I don't like negative ones, they just seem to be asking for trouble.

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.

I'm amused by the implication that The Police are an auditory assault weapon.

Oh dear, I hadn't even thought of that interpretation - Sting is Bilbo's sword to me. :-D

If someone gave me a pop star, I think I'd be demanding money from them. I suspect they are rather expensive pets to keep.

Knives are really bloomin' useful things! :D (Especially if you like meat. Or watermelons.)

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.

Dito my Dad. (His father was ethically Jewish)

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've only heard of it because you have talked about it.

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.]

If you have a legit use for carrying the knife (such as for cutting the cheese you are also carrying) it's not illegal IMO, folding or not.

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).

Edited 2011-07-17 22:08 (UTC)

I canNOT be doing with superstitions that are based on nothing sensible at all. I suppose if they are not suitably boxed they could cause an injury though? ;)

Are you the (potential or actual) givee, or giver?

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 ;)

Currently resisting - just - the brightly colored knife set in John Lewis…

Give in to temptation...

l-P

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

'Knives "cut the friendship" and you have to draw the fkat of the blade across your forearm before you give it to the recipient so you take the danger to yourself, you don't pass it on.' (The Marvellous Mexican Engineer)

i don't give knives as presents, and it is probably due to some atavistic fear of giving danger away. Anyway, knives are personal. My mum hates carbon steel and I can't really do well without my three thirty-year-old cs Sabatiers.

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 the superstition. Gave my brother and sister-in-law cheese knives for Christmas (in February) and no-one commented on this.

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.