A tip about knives

To The Daily Telegraph

Reader Donald King argues that banning the points on kitchen knives would reduce stabbings. It is a historical fact that when prudent captains of square-rigged sailing ships signed on their crews, they had the ship’s carpenter snap off the point of each sailor’s knife in a vice, to prevent serious injury in any fight during the voyage. For splicing and rope-work, sailors traditionally used the Green River knife, which was designed for trapping and needed a point to skin an animal. The later cobblers’ knife was modelled on the sailors’ blade (minus point), as it was shorter and easier to use in confined spaces. Peter J. Newton, Chellaston, Derbyshire