My knifes are getting dull. We have been using the same cooking knives for over 15 years, and have never sharpened them.

I see my wife in the kitchen smushing a tomato with a dull cleaver.

"I usually use the bread knife for tomatoes," I suggest. "The serrated knife."

"There is a knife for bread?" she asks.

They are all really just dull wedges now, why should she know there are different blades for different tasks.

"We should get these knives sharpened." I say.

"No, with kids in the house, we don't need sharp knives around."

Our kids are 8 and 16, and not idiots. Sharp knives are not a problem unless my mother-in-law visits. But best not to push it. I will just get a sharpener and do it myself without saying anything.

I go online to look for knife sharpeners. I find this pretty graphic in the description of one:

I wonder if my wife has not already bought this one without telling me, and used it on our knives.

Maybe this is why she uses a cleaver on tomatoes.