The story of the old watermelon knife

When we visited Stanthorpe last weekend, we proceeded to cut up a watermelon with this old knife that Pa Murphy produced. He then began to tell the story of the old watermelon knife.

an old bone handled knife from 1939

This knife was given to Brian's parents as a wedding present on the 3rd of August 1939. Brian remembers as a kid rolling the large watermelons his father used to grow, they were so huge, up to where they would be cut up and eaten in the afternoon. They used to use this old knife which is the perfect length and strength for the task.

cutting up summer watermelon

Brian didn't see the knife again until he was visiting his brother John, who then was a bee-keeper. John was using the knife to scrape the wax away from the honey turning machine. I think Brian must have protested at such a special knife being used for that, and the knife got sharpened at a professional knife sharpener and the knife came up almost as good as new. Now the knife is in Brian's kitchen and was the perfect tool to cut up this summer's watermelon for a cool afternoon snack! I've tried to remember the story as best I could as it was told to me, maybe one day I'll get a chance to fill in more details ...