Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

Tradition of gifting a knife

There exists a long standing tradition when gifting a knife .. one I only recently became aware of. A customer with whom I had formed a friendship expressed an interest in a friction folder I had. I had originally purchased the standard & less expensive version with D2 blade steel & was impressed enough to have already ordered the VG10 core laminated blade steel version. After I received the “upgrade” .. the next time I saw Steve .. I first showed him the “upgrade” commenting, “You're gonna like this” ..&.. I then gifted the original unit to Steve … who insisted I take a coin in return.

Being unfamiliar with the custom .. I arrogantly insisted .. “Take it, Dude. You have an honest interest in this knife .. I know that. I've upgraded to this version. Just take it, Dude” He absolutely refused & we finally got to the point where we both realized I was genuinely ignorant of a long standing tradition .. one Steve proceeded to explain to me. When gifting a knife .. some form of “payment” is given in return .. generally, whatever coin one happens to have in one's pocket @ the time. If this tradition is not followed .. there exists the chance of the gifted knife later cutting or severing the existing friendship. At the time .. I was completely unaware .. truly ignorant .. of the tradition. The exchange occurred over a year ago. Steve & I are still friends.

Fellow iKC member John Bamford recently expressed his displeasure / unhappiness / dissatisfaction with the shave resulting from the ubiquitous disposable razor most often used today. Beyond the seemingly endless addition of blades ..(6-blade version .. http://www.herballoveshop.com/product.asp?PID=106515 ).. there exists little actual variation within the field of disposable razors. My experience has been that they do not hold an edge very long & are (in the long term) horribly expensive. John decided to escape this endless cycle of replacement by returning to the use of a straight razor.

His discussion is documented here .. http://iknifecollector.com/profiles/blogs/going-back-in-time?xg_sou...

My personal point of interest within the broad field of cutlery collecting is old stampings & the history thereof. As such .. I've accumulated a # of sharp items with old stampings ..&.. there exists redundancy within my collection.

Anyway .. as time passed .. and John documented his transition to a more traditional method of shaving .. it became obvious he was serious about the whole affair. Cool !!! And John's documentation of the process rekindled in me the interest in old razors & my intent to rehandle a few that I'd purchased in a broken state years ago strictly for their stamping .. thinking perhaps I'd someday rehandle them. I un-boxed some of the razors I'd accumulated over the years & offered one to John. A few days ago .. I received “payment” for the razor. This payment was in the form of a 1901 Queen Victoria Penny coin.

The Queen Victoria penny coin was minted from 1839 till 1901. This particular coin is the last of a series of three stampings of this coin. Those being loosely referred to as …

the “Young Head” penny coins .. minted from 1839 ~ 1860.

the “Bun Head” penny coins .. minted 1860 ~ 1894.

the “Old Head” penny coins .. minted 1895 ~ 1901.

Note: There exist variations within the three types which I am not fully aware of .. yet.

Beyond being the last year of mintage, there is further significance in the date .. 1901 .. as being the year of Queen Victoria's death. At the time of her death .. she was the longest reigning monarch of the British Empire .. nearly 64 years.

Note: This was topped in 2015 by the current Queen .. Queen Elizabeth II.

I've included a few U.S. coins for size comparison. With a measured diameter of 1.213” .. it is 0.016” larger than the 1944 “Walking Liberty” half dollar positioned directly above it.

I now have a very unique token of friendship that will daily remind me .. hope for humanity is still out there.

!!! .. Thanks, John .. !!!

D ale

7 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on August 14, 2016 at 19:08

I do not believe I will ever again see my husbands full face LOL. He has a trimmer upstairs and another downstairs David. But it is when I say...your looking a bit ragged my friend that he remembers to use them :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin on August 20, 2016 at 21:48

Lol I was thinking the same thing, lol

Billy Oneale said:

Hm, I have a lot of relatives I need to collect a coin from. I was also ignorant of this tradition.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin on August 20, 2016 at 21:56

I have a number of mistake stamped buffalo head knickels. Missing a hip, dbl stamped etc.. With all the paperwork regarding each coin and which error in the stamp it has! I know what there value use to be and these are in mint condition, no pun intended and individually packaged. Can I take some pictures and run them by you. That is of course you know, lol. Ty, im new to ikc. Ty, Kevin

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on August 21, 2016 at 2:57

I may have this all wrong but was under the impression that KSF had included a "coin" with their latest SFO Freemont Jack . I was looking at the freemont jack not because I wanted one, although they are an attractive knife , but more out of surprise at how soon they had sold out !!

There seemed to be an almighty scramble to get these things and they sold out in hours if not in minutes . Then again I also heard that you can double your money on eBay selling these knives to the people who missed out so I guess it all makes sense , you can tell I am not a businessman .

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on August 21, 2016 at 7:06

Oh lord .. I finally got it.

"You laughed your as off."

I recently accepted new responsibilities with my employer.

This getting up @ 3AM must be getting to me.

I'm stealing this one, JJ , i.e. that pic is saved to my HDD

..&..

will most certainly see later use !!!

J.J. Smith III said:

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on August 21, 2016 at 8:09

Agreed , JJ

Also, you never shave your beard in the wintertime

unless , you enjoy freezing.

...SO0oo...

We NEVER shave our beards.

just an opinion .. specifically, mine

Enjoy the day

D ale

J.J. Smith III said:

You NEVER shave a beard in the summer, Jan.
At best, you'd have a beard tan, but you're surely inviting sunburn on the exposed area.

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on August 21, 2016 at 8:14

John .. forgive my ignorance .. who/what is KSF. I should probably know ..but.. don't.

John Bamford said:

I may have this all wrong but was under the impression that KSF had included a "coin" with their latest SFO Freemont Jack .

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on August 21, 2016 at 8:23

Knives Ship Free , Dale .

D ale said:

John .. forgive my ignorance .. who/what is KSF. I should probably know ..but.. don't.

John Bamford said:

I may have this all wrong but was under the impression that KSF had included a "coin" with their latest SFO Freemont Jack .

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dennis Hibar on August 21, 2016 at 9:23

Yes John, this was one of biggest feeding frenzies I've seen in a quite a while. I did manage to get one (seems it is on a tour of the US trying to get to me!), many didn't. And yes ... they are already showing up on the secondary market for unbelievable mark-ups ... most likely by people who grabbed as many of them as they could while the supply lasted. And it didn't last long. Hard to say how many were available (because the went so quickly), but I am guessing than more than 150 were available and they were sold out in less than 20 minutes! But, like I said, I got mine .... along with the included coin! Now, if it ever gets here!!!

John Bamford said:

I may have this all wrong but was under the impression that KSF had included a "coin" with their latest SFO Freemont Jack . I was looking at the freemont jack not because I wanted one, although they are an attractive knife , but more out of surprise at how soon they had sold out !!

There seemed to be an almighty scramble to get these things and they sold out in hours if not in minutes . Then again I also heard that you can double your money on eBay selling these knives to the people who missed out so I guess it all makes sense , you can tell I am not a businessman .

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on August 21, 2016 at 9:41

Thanks, John !!

Figured it was a club ..or.. retailer

..but..

Didn't know for sure.

John Bamford said:

Knives Ship Free , Dale .

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on August 21, 2016 at 9:55

Dennis you must have been sat with your finger on the button , from what I hear some people couldn't get the things further than their baskets before the sold out sign appeared .

I couldn't be bothered to be honest , there are always more knives that I want , than money to pay for them !

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dennis Hibar on August 21, 2016 at 10:51

No John .... Just lucky! They went on sale at 6 PM eastern time here. I was there at 6 PM on the dot. Put my favorite in the cart, went to pay ... but it sold by the time I put it in my cart and went to check out. Same thing happened with the second one I selected. Third was the charm. A nice brown colored giraffe bone. Now if it ever gets here!!!