The Superstition Of Gifting A Knife, Is It Real?

[tenngun]

I was thinking it was the bear, but it was the edge.

 

[ML48]

I have given engraved knives to my sons and grandson. We still love each other. Superstition is just that, superstition.

 

[mushka]

This is a new one to me. I've given away a number of knives and I still know and get along with the recipients and they didn't give me anything in return but friendship. So much for superstition.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Regarding swapping knives, I found a couple of historical references. This doesn't really have anything to do with "gifting" knives, but it is sort of related, and I though it might interest some forum members.

The first one is in Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains..., by John Kirk Townsend. This was published in 1839, and documented a trip taken in the company of Captain Wyeth in 1834. The scenario was that Townsend very nearly shot a Pawnee visitor in their camp the previous night, due to mistaken identity. The native man harbored no hard feelings, and even joked about it. This excerpt tells that part of the story:

This next excerpt is from "General James Henry Carleton," a short biographical paper in The New Mexico Historical Review (1955, Vol. 30, #1, p.27):

During the slow journey downstream [from Fort Croghan, Iowa] he met and became friendly with [John James] Audubon, who has left a glimpse in his Missouri River Journals. Audubon's boat and Carleton's convoy moved close together throughout the voyage. Carleton and Audubon frequently ate together, and they were both addicted to whist. They traded knives (this seems to have been a frontier custom). Carleton presented Audubon with a bear skin and a set of elk horns, and Audubon, in return, gave him one of his drawings. Finally, on October 11, 1843, Audubon recorded that upon his departure from Fort Leavenworth, "Lieutenant Carleton came to see me off, and we parted reluctantly."

Trading knives as a gesture of mutual goodwill or friendship seemed to be pretty well understood on the early western frontier, and was even practiced across cultures.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[Kilo Charlie]

I don’t think anybody BELIEVES this old tradition, but it’s a good feeling to honour these old superstitions. I have passed on several knives to friends and received a coin in return.

My father and some others of his generation (he’d be 88 next month) had an even more stringent superstition about giving guns away.

 

[Nameless Hunter]

I encountered the custom many years ago as a young man when my brother-in-law gifted me a knife and demanded a penny in return, so as to not cause bad luck from the gift.

 

[MSW]

if you believe in it, it's a thing... if you and i believe in it, it's a consensus...

sorta like money: it's got no extrinsic value at all: only worth what it's worth because we agree that that is what it's worth. makes the whole economic system quite fragile if you know how stich-stupid people can get

 

[TFoley]

The superstition that if you give someone a knife as a gift, the recipient MUST give the donor a coin or it cuts the friendship. Do you believe this to be a real thing?

Nope.

Superstition is just, uh, superstition.

It falls under the same category a 'stir with a knife and stir up strife', and so on.

Other aphorisms, like 'a stitch in time saves nine' are factual and based on human experience. Making a repair to something now, instead of waiting until later, may well save what started off as a minor hiccup that needs a minor fix into a major problem that requires far more attention.

Even walking under a ladder is based on practical experience - especially if the person UP the ladder drops a heavy item. Being somewhere else, rather than underneath the ladder when it happens, sounds sensible to me.

 

[saaman]

I never heard of this tradition until my Uncle gave me a knife and said I should give him a penny. Assuming the idea came from his Dad, my grandfather, who was born in 1899, I purchased an old Indian head penny and gave it to him.

 

[BuffaloSoldier]

I have given/received knifes for 65 years, first time I've heard about the coin, so guess, make of it what you will.

 

[Two Feathers]

Howdy folks:
I can't speak to actual/factual rituals, but here's my $0.02
FWIW. I've given away a lot of things in my life, including knives, and my dad always said "a gift is a gift." To me (and others) a gift is something that one gives away freely with NO thoughts of reciprocation. That has been my creed for my entire life. Maybe it's just that NO one ever really wanted what I gave them, and figured that the gift wasn't worth reciprocating over?
Again, just my $0.02. There are others here, far more scholarly than myself!
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[deerstalkert]

i don't really believe in superstition, i take it with a pinch of salt.

 

[Rudyard]

Being born in Sheffield the custom was normaly observed" So as not to cut the friendship' it was only the smallest token amount 1/2 a penny or some such .this being as a gift though if buying from a shop you paid for it anyway .I was aware some thought it unlucky to cross knives that sounds more like superstition. Rudyard

 

[Capnball]

The superstition that if you give someone a knife as a gift, the recipient MUST give the donor a coin or it cuts the friendship.

Do you believe this to be a real thing?

I have a cousin I grew up with. Great guy. Does everything, shoots, hunts, motorcycles, the works! He hit a particularly bad patch in his life. Long story short, lost his wife, house, job and ultimately his health. Hes got an 18 year old kid who's smart and kind and just wanted to go to college. My cousin sold the only thing he had left, his motorcycle so he could send his kid to college. Not near enough, but a start. Between my wife and I we got him the disability insurance he couldn't make happen on his own. I had a few favors from some friends and we were able to purchase a mobile home and fix it up. My bike friends were so moved by the guys story, they chipped in to buy the guy a good used 650 yamaha and fix it up a touch. (Tires, breaks, clutch) when he was up on his feet again and healthy enough to ride, we made a few trips with other members of our family who ride. That Christmas bobby took the two hour drive to where I live to give me a gift. It was his personal straight hunting knife made of Damascus steel and buck horn antler handle. It was worn and we'll used over it's 40 year life. I was so touched by the gesture. His health has taken a serious turn for the worse now. I have the knife in my end table drawer. When he gets called home, I'll gift it to his son who's his care giver now.
No coin required.
Neil

 

[Metalshaper]

My dad would not even touch a given knife it it didn't include a coin to be given back in return.. Something he learned
from his step dad years WAY back in the depression era.

To my Grandpa Fred, to give a knife to someone, without an exchange of even the above mentioned 'companion coin'... was equal to wishing death upon the recipient!! Dad told us about when he was pretty young.. what happened after he tried to give Fred a knife as a present.. he NEVER forgot the look of horror and then anger that came across his Step Dad's face.. said it took weeks before Fred would talk to him and explained....

who knows, but we never gave each other knifes, without a coin.. I gave each of my brothers a coin when I got my "old Timer" from them for my HS graduation..

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan

 

[vintovka]

On the 30th year of my employment as a professional engineer with the State of California i was presented with an engraved pocket knife and a plaque honoring my 3 decades of service. In return i immediately filed for retirement. The knife, still in its presentation box, resides undisturbed in a drawer. The plaque may be found on the shop toilet wall. The only "coin" is that paid to me for the rest of my life for putting up with 30 years of non sensical BS.

 

[danjf1966]

Yes I remember in the movie

 

[Kansas Jake]

I’ve never heard of the coin thing regarding a knife. To me a gift is an act of grace. To expect something in return cheapens it. I just try to pay it forward as the saying goes.

 

[RoadKill_RPD]

Not to revive a Zombie thread, but I am new to the forum and wondered about this. I was always told that if you receive an edged tool you had to give a coin so the blade wouldn't cut you. The severing of the friendship makes so much more sense to me now.

 

[Rum River]

Fifty years ago my Grandpa Dutch gifted me my first ever hunting knife. He had made it himself from a blade off the silage chopper on our dairy farm. Ten minutes later he walked over and told me had changed his mind and wanted it back.

In shock, I slowly handed it back - after which he smiled and said he'd sell it to me for a dime saying: "I figger you give a man a knife you could end up gettin' cut with it."