I lost it - it fell out of my pocket with a whisper. It was inevitable, like Facebook – eventually you must look up someone, a birth, marriage, or death. A penknife will eventually be lost.
Unlike Facebook, the knife is missed - specifically my father’s knife. When he passed, I found 3 penknives in his top left dresser junk drawer.
My annual inquiry, “What do you want for Father’s Day?”
His annual retort, “A penknife, the smallest you can find.”
Losing knives is a family tradition.
It took me 5 years to lose his 3 knives. A good average, but this last knife was special - the smallest. Fit in the palm of my hand and had one blade. To some, 2 blades are de rigueur, one blade an abomination. Not my Dad.
Why the smallest? “Won’t wear out your pocket.”
I carry on the tradition with 2 penknives from my top dresser junk drawer.
Penknives have gone the way of quill pens. A cashier shuddered when my penknife fell out of my pocket. Did she report me? No, simply avoided eye contact.
How did my father use a penknife? Besides obligatory whittling:
Peel apples, pears, and peaches from his fruit trees.
Open recalcitrant pistachios or extract pecans pieces from shells.
Pry, poke, cut, or scrape anything - typically greasy motorcycle parts.
Then clean the underside of his fingernails.
No, he never cleaned the blade, simply rubbed both sides across his right pant leg.
Me? With no fruit trees or mechanical ability, I cut the tape on Amazon packages…
I am happy using the penknife once a week or so. It keeps my father close.
How about you? Do you have a memento? Share a story.
2nd helping
Why call it a penknife? From Wikipedia, “Originally, penknives were used for thinning and pointing quills (cf. penna, Latin for feather) to prepare them for use as dip pens and, later, for repairing or re-pointing the nib.[1] A penknife might also be used to sharpen a pencil,[3] prior to the invention of the pencil sharpener.
What is the difference between a penknife and a pocketknife? From Wikipedia, “A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife.[1][2] A typical blade length is 5 to 15 centimetres (2 to 6 in).[3]
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