Gaga my mum had one of those too! She had no truck with special knives for this and that. She had one knife that doubled as a bread knife and a carving knife and one old table knife which was for peeling, chopping et al. It had been sharpened so many times the blade was about three quarters of its original width, but it did the job for her!
My friend once left a teaspoon that she used to feed her baby with at our house after a visit. She got very wound up about not having it and kept reminding me to please make sure it didn't go astray before we saw them again (we only saw each other about four times a year!). In the end, I posted it to her!