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Do you like/use Letter Openers?


Denny M

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Curious about this. I enjoy using a letter opener. It adds a touch of class to opening up both letters and otherwise mundane envelopes (including the bills!). I have a small one with a broad blade. Instead of a handle it has a replica of an ancient coin of Alexander the Great wearing a Lion skin on his head. The blade is too blunt for my liking though.

 

Can't attach pics for some reason but please post a description and pic of yours.

Edited by Denny M
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.pnghttp://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5642/postcardde9.png
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I actually have one shaped like a fountain pen :)

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher - Thomas Huxley

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png

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I have one that's like a mini keris... a Malay dagger.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4456841305_f9bae91f63_o.jpg

 

edit: add photo

Edited by cheekhiong
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http://www.victorinox.com/medias/sys_master/celum_assets/8797953818654_1_6795_Image_klein2_1533_eps.jpg

Ciao - Enrico

Diplomat #1961

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo288/enricofacchin/poker-3.jpg

Daddy, please no more pens - we need food, clothes, books, DENTISTRY...

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Yes. I LOVE using a Letter opener. and with my fingers being a pita lately it has become a must. I am a history buff (in case anyone missed that) and I love Egyptian stuff. Being I have so many cats I also have a fondness for the Egyptian cat goddess Bast (Bastet). So that is what my letter opener is. This is not a photo of mine but mine looks just like it, without the smudge on the blade.

 

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz47/AmbrosiaCreations/BastLetterOpener.jpg

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http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8703/letterminizk9.pnghttp://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7260/postminipo0.png

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My left thumb. I wouldn't call it a collector's item, but I'm very attached to it.

When you're good at it, it's really miserable.

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I had a plain stainless steel penknife until a month or two ago, when someone, uh, unobtrusively borrowed it from the house. A shame -- it cost only a couple of pounds but I'd sharpened it to a nicety. It had just the right point for starting a clean cut at the corner of an envelope. On the lookout for another now.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png
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My left thumb. I wouldn't call it a collector's item, but I'm very attached to it.

 

:roflmho:

 

I use an old butter knife that belonged to my Grandfather.

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch" Orson Welles

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http://www.victorinox.com/medias/sys_master/celum_assets/8797953818654_1_6795_Image_klein2_1533_eps.jpg

my First smile of the daybiggrin.gif .

I have a wonderful antique opener, which is a large brass feather, being held by a charming mouse, with a long tail.. carefully packed it away for a temporary move, a few years ago..will share it, once found...especially since I now have reason to use it!

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Curious about this. I enjoy using a letter opener. It adds a touch of class to opening up both letters and otherwise mundane envelopes (including the bills!). I have a small one with a broad blade. Instead of a handle it has a replica of an ancient coin of Alexander the Great wearing a Lion skin on his head. The blade is too blunt for my liking though.

 

Can't attach pics for some reason but please post a description and pic of yours.

 

I just can't stand envelopes that have been TORN into, leaving a messy, ragged edge! Such violence! :gaah: The ugliest envelope doesn't deserve it. I MUST have a letter opener for the sake of neatness. I have several of them. My favorite originally had a thin coating of silverplate over brass. The silverplate is completely gone so it's a brass opener now. That's OK. The reason it's my favorite is that it has a pretty sharp edge. I don't think it will slice a tomato, but it's great for opening envelopes.

 

I know what you mean about a blunt blade. I have some letter openers that don't even pretend to have a sharp edge. Were they intended to be desk ornaments? Was the manufacturer worrried about being sued by people who cut themselves instead of the envelope? I don't know. But even these letter openers do the job if I use my thumb nail and forefinger to super-crease the envelope edge before I use the opener.

 

Judybug

Edited by Judybug

So many pens, so little time!

 

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My Blog: Bywater Wisdom

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I like to use a letter opener. Here is my current favorite with its matching dip pen (which I also use.)

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4456545853_8b0c16243a_b.jpg

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I have three letter openers--a brass one with a Chinese coin at the top, a Sheaffer Nostalgia silver one, and one shaped like the Sheaffer Targa. I keep the two Sheaffer openers on my writing desk and the brass one in the kitchen where I often sit and open mail.

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I have a couple, the newest one is a pewter cheetah on a stainless steel blade from an arist house in South Africa called Dianna Carmichael. I will try and post pictures.

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I have a letter-opener/paperknife which I use for opening envelopes. It looks like a little sword.

 

It's also an incredible back-scratcher...

 

Mine looks like a big butter knife. I've had it for years in my office. But we get so little snail-mail at work anymore that my letter opener has been relegated primarily to back-scratching duties, which it performs *very* well!

Happiness is an Indian ED!
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I have two letter openers. Both are sentimental treasures, and both get used regularly. Sorry I have no pics.

 

The smaller of the two was hand carved by an aging woodcarver who created exquisite boxes and tools. This one is rosewood. He shaped it to fit perfectly in my hand. I bought it from him in 1990, shortly before he had to close his little shop and give up carving.

 

The second came from the estate of a beloved friend and professional colleague. It was a gift to him from one of his African tours. Made of a black wood, twice as long as the rosewood, the handle is a carved African figure.

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I have an antique lizard to open the post. I've known him all my life and he's a little bit battered from me playing with him when I was a child. The picture isn't him but an identical one sold on Ebay.

post-42042-126935983614.jpg

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I just can't stand envelopes that have been TORN into, leaving a messy, ragged edge! Such violence! :gaah: The uglisest envelope doesn't deserve it. I MUST have a letter opener for the sake of neatness.

 

Me too, absolutely. I even blogged about how much I love my letter opener.

 

Sesheta, that lizard is one of the coolest letter openers I've ever seen!!!

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