Few things irritate me more than watching most people open their mail, especially when they struggle to loosen the envelope flap, force in a finger and let it rip … messy, and annoying as hell. Which is exactly why everyone needs a paper knife—designed for the purpose it fits perfectly under the flap, and opens in a clean, crisp line.
And a great feeling, too, tearing the knife through paper, perhaps best likened to being the first to get at a new peanut butter jar, thus having the great satisfaction of breaking the foil sealing the top … a great thing.
Mine, by the way, was not intended as a paper knife—it is an odd luncheon knife in the King’s Pattern, that was once part of an 1890s flatware service by Tiffany & Company. I found it in the bottom of a box of vastly dissimilar material sent to the FRHS years ago through an auction house; no idea how it got there.
Good to repurpose.
