How old are you and have you always had these things in your house growing up?

[PaperDoIIs]

Things like can opener, knife sharpener, potato peeler.

I'm late 30's but grew up in a different country and we didn't have these in my house until I was late teens. My grandparents in the countryside never had them. I learned at a very early age to just use a knife for all these things and I can do it well , so bar the potato peeler (and even that one took me a while) I just stick to what I know.

OH is early 50's and English so he always buys /uses these things . It's a thing in our house because he moans I make the knives blunt, but then sometimes sheepishly asks me to open a can for him if there's no pull ring and the can opener broke again.

We were talking today and he said he always had these things growing up , so it made me wonder.

Riveting conversation... I know.

I suppose if it's a dedicated, sacrificial can knife, I could live with someone doing this. When you said your husband complains about you making the knives blunt, I was picturing you indiscriminately picking up whichever treasured and meticulously-sharpened Wüsthof, Sabatier or Zwilling came to hand and stabbing at metal with it

I'm 64 and in NZ, but yes we had a potato peeler and can opener when I was growing up. I can remember my DF sharpening knives with a whetstone however.

Born in 70s England rural - knife sharpener never had, potato peeler - yes as child had a machine one and a handheld one. Can opener - as a young child no, cans were pull open or keys to open and wind them (e.g. corned beef) maybe in 80s we got a can opener as the tins / cans changed.

I'm 58 and grew up with all 3.
My mum loved a gadget so we also had a potato peeling machine and the tin opener was wall mounted.
I still have the (hand held) tin opener that I bought from Woolworths when I left home 40 years ago, so I can't imagine how you break yours so quickly

I'm 60 and we always had vegetable peelers when I was growing up, but I think I chucked the last one out in the last move, because I don't have to cook where I am now. Never had a knife sharpener, though do have a couple of those Staysharp knives somewhere. Always had can openers around, still have one (did anyone have those electric ones where the lid is held on with a magnet?). Still have a fruit knife Mum probably bought before I was born, too.

This thread has dredged up a memory for me that I haven't thought about for probably thirty years — when I was little, my grandparents had an electric tin opener on the wall which was used every single day, for opening dog food. But for human food, they used a manual one instead. I wonder if that's normal, to use a different tin opener for dog food.

@DumboHimalayan Our electric one was always used for dog and cat food too, possibly because the tins were so big. I don't remember if Mum used it for human food, or even if we had much tinned food (this was in 70s Australia - I don't mean no tinned food was around, just that I don't remember what Mum bought).

We had a tattie peeler but it was different to the Y- shaped ones you get nowadays. The cutting blade was parallel with the handle rather than perpendicular to it, IYSWIM. I was rubbish with our peeler and used to get told off by my Mum for removing too much potato with the skin. When the modern ones came out it was a revelation!

My mum used to tell me stories about when she ran a small hotel and they used to take their potatoes across the road to the chip shop to have them peeled in the “rumbler”, a big centrifugal machine.

Wrt can openers... we had the same one for over 10 yrars up to two years ago. Have gone through a few since then. Modern ones are rubbish compared to the ones from 10,+ years ago!

Was it this sort? That's the type we had.

Pretty sure we had a potato peeler, but mostly used to peel veg with a knife. We definitely had a sharpening steel - it's still in my kitchen and is used quite often. We also always had a tin opener. Usually plural, because if we got a better one, the old one didn't get thrown out.

The tins my grandparents opened with it weren't that big… Pekingese don't have big appetites unless it's any kind of food whatsoever that happens to be hanging from an inattentive six-year-old's hand, in which case it was instantly stolen and snaffled.

@DumboHimalayan 😂😂😂

I'm 54 and until I moved out into my own home had never seen a potato masher. Mum just used a fork. She used a peeler for carrots but potatoes were peeled with a knife which is how I do them myself too.

41 and always had them. Sometimes one will break and it takes me forever to remember one from the store, so I'll end up using a knife for months. It's just a bit unsafe so I prefer the gadgets.

Knives are better for potatoes imo.

I just bought an upmarket version of that recently - I think I got it for some sort of fruit. Definitely not potatoes - I don't peel them and haven't done for many years.

I wish our potatoes in the prepared meals were peeled, but it's understandable that they're not!

I used to use this type more for peeling apples in earlier years.

57 always had a potato peeler and an opener. Dad used to sharpen knives on a stone as a child. I don’t recall whether it was purpose made or a lump of Yorkshire stone.

Haha nope, tbh certain shapes and sizes are better if you want to do it right, not just hack your way through it. So it should never be just any knife anyways. We also argue about the right way of doing the dishes (mine of course). We live such an exciting life .

If you have to buy a very specific knife to open cans with, and it's only used for opening cans, that doesn't seem much different to just getting a can opener? Each to their own!

I had all the things you list except the knife sharpener... which my parents still don't bother with!

Yes to all those things - I'm 40s. I prefer a D shaped peeler, and my DM and grandparents had one more knife like.

How is your husband breaking the can openers? I've only been through 2 in my adult life!

I'm 53 we had all.of those things growing up in Denmark.

I can also peel potatoes with a knife. This was also an expected skill

So was being able to sharpen a pen with a knife

I can also open a glass bottle with cap in the door lock. (Nessesary skill as a teen growing up in DK

@limefrog I don't buy knives specifically for it. Years ago when we moved in together I relegated two knives to can opening duties as well as normal use.One got ruined by being dropped tip down and somehow it bent, and the other is still pottling about in the cutlery drawer, because it's my can opener knife and I refuse to get rid of it. We're on our 3rd set of knives so the newbies haven't been traumatised yet by the experience.

Im early 50's , British mum, Irish dad and have lived in both .
Used a knife as a peeler.
Remember the tin opener was the stab into it type. One Christmas DM got an electric tin opener and she was honestly thrilled.
We had a long yolk to do the knives, DDad did them every few weeks.
My parents were early adopters of the microwave- my Aunt was terrified that it would give us all cancer !