I recognize their usefulness and having a variety of good knives around is practical.
But they kind of freak me out and I’m uncomfortable using them. Pretty much anything with sharp blades worry me. I’m terrified of cutting myself with them…it doesn’t help that I’m a little clumsy… I did, in fact, nick my finger just last night with a bread knife!
So while I wouldn’t turn down a gift of a practical knife, odds are my husband would use it much more often because I don’t trust myself with them.
We already have more kitchen knives than we need, including some very high quality ones. I don’t do crafts that require knives. I don’t hunt. I don’t hunt. I don’t keep a knife in my pocket. (I used to carry a small Swiss Army Knife when travelling, but not after TSA started cracking down on it.) I don’t intend to go into combat anytime soon. In short, I can’t think of any knife that I’d be excited to get as a gift. (Well OK, maybe an authentic antique sword would be cool, but nothing short of that.)
I gave him the AG Russell. He loved it and fidgeted with it all evening. His wife was eyeing it with ill-concealed envy. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she commandeered it.
I don’t know, every time I think of knives, I think of Glengarry Glen Ross, where second prize is a set of steak knives, and it’s pretty piss-poor in comparison to the Cadillac.
Of course, you’re probably not getting a Cadillac as a wedding present.
Hm, let’s see… At any given time I have on my person three different tools, with five knife blades between them. One of my most cherished possessions is a hunting knife my grandfather made for me (yes, made, starting with a chunk of steel and a chunk of wood), and a friend gave me a much-appreciated set of woodcarving knives for Christmas this year. Come to think of it, a year or two ago, my mom gave me an ulu, and I use that frequently too (just today, in fact). So I guess I do like knives. I’d never really thought about it before, though.
Pretty much this, with one exception: I have a friend who is a cooking snob. When we visit him, he makes elaborate dinners and talks about how he can’t understand how people can just throw stuff together and consider it a meal; he goes on at length about how important it is to have the right tools and implements; he finds obscure little shops for spices and seasonings and buys only the best ingredients, etc. He’s a little irritating but his meals are absolutely delicious, so you take the good with the bad.
Anyway, we’ve talked before about the “perfect” kitchen knife. He showed us his and how it’s ideal for mincing, chopping, on and on, and why it’s better than any other knife. Honestly, it sounds like a great knife, but I never think to myself “I should really get that knife he told me about”.
So if he gave me a gift of his “perfect” knife, I wouldn’t be surprised. But outside of that, I’d be really perplexed that someone gave me a knife as a gift.
On the other hand, the way the OP feels about knives, I feel about flashlights. I often have to force myself to walk out of the flashlight aisle at the hardware store when I’m gift shopping.
Really? Irritated? I guess you and I have different attitudes towards gifts. Regardless of what was in the box or envelope, I’ve never been irritated by a gift.
If that actually happened, I’d probably kick my brother or cousin, because they’re both the type to do something like that as a joke, right square in the jahoobies. It’d be a good-natured, fun loving kick in the jahoobies, though.
I love knives! My best friend had her uncle make me a custom hunting knife and then had it engraved - best Maid of Honor gift ever. Come to think of it, the whole wedding party got knives, mine was just the best.
I always get good feedback when I give a knife. Sometimes I receive knives that are cheap or not to my taste but they’re great too because I don’t feel bad about tucking them in a car or a handbag for emergencies.
I gave a few of these out to some of my crunchy granola, tree hugging, weapons-scare-me friends over the years. They were universally well received and were especially popular with the ladies as the little alligator clip allows it to be anchored inside a purse and not get lost amongst all the other stuff. It fill the same niche as a small folding knife without any of the drawbacks. It can’t close unexpectedly, for one thing. More importantly, some women have have long manicured nails that can be damaged opening a regular pocket knife and the Hunter Scalpel won’t.
I also sent a few of them to friends serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan. They were quite welcome as they can hook onto the dog tag chain every GI is already wearing. Quite handy for many small, mundane tasks without adding to the already large burden modern soldiers carry.
