Dangers of a blunt knife in the wrong hands

SIR – There is no point in blunting knives that are designed for cutting things (Letters, May 31).

I recall being told that, while you are unlikely to cut yourself with a truly sharp knife, a blunt knife, if improperly used, can be dangerous even in the most innocent cutting operations. Chris Harding

Parkstone, Dorset

SIR – It’s said that in the 17th century Cardinal Richelieu, tired of his guests picking their teeth with pointed knives, ordered that the points should be rounded off. Thus, the roundended table knife was invented.

I have a 19th-century round-ended steel knife, and it is sharper than any equivalent modern knife. Bryan Oates

London SW18 SIR – As Rob White (Letters, May 30) says, it was standard practice for ships’ captains to require sailors to remove the tips of their knives, in order to limit injury during fights.

However, clasp knives did little to improve matters. In 1798, a young naval officer called John Carden wrote: “A workaday tool or an instrument of terror, the clasp knife could be found in every sailor’s jacket pocket, easily concealed and easily drawn when the occasion required.”

The knife of choice in today’s Merchant Navy is based on the Green River trapper knife, with a five-inch blade, a brass-rivited rosewood handle and a full-length sheath that prevents it being dropped when working aloft. Worn on the belt, it cannot be used as a concealed weapon.

Captain Peter J Newton MN (retd) Chellaston, Derbyshire