Re examine your work with the dagger. In which way has it performed other than what it was intended to do? We can become bogged down in the ideas of others. This can color our perceptions in how we deal with things, etc.
Knives/daggers/athames are tools. Let us not lose sight of this. Knives are sharp. They cut things. In magic, the knife is used to cut things as it does in its other functions around the house or in battle. In magic the use of the blade trancends its normal functions. Depending upon its added functions determines whether it is used as one of the elemental weapons or as a scribe or...etc. YOU are the wielder of this tool. If you think that the tool is not performing to your specifications then you must ascertain just what it is doing and just what the deviations mean. Quite often the problem lies not in the tool but with the wielder of said item. Do you follow? If you feel that the blade is flawed then it will act up! So, again, what is it doing to vary from its job description?
Back to having the ideas of knives by others color your thinking... Stop. Don't fret. Has the function/results of the blade wandered away from its original duty? Is this caused by your views or by the physical part of the knife? It might do well to understand that many different cultures used tools with their use of magic. Not all cultures used straight knives. Personally, IMHO, the Air knife, I believe, evolved from the business end of an arrow or spear head. LOL! Hence it is associated with AIR. The Sword is associated with FIRE by it being forged and with WAR hence it constrains/intimidated recalcitrant entities. The wand/staff can be associated with FIRE as it is likened to a torch! (In some systems these are interchanged with the other but that will only add to the confusion!)
The Consecration of the tool is what fixes the purpose of the tool in the mind of the user as well as the astral foundations. The very act of Consecration is a Magical Act or Formulae! This is an essential facet for the tool. With out it the knife belongs in the kitchen, woodshed, etc. ONLY. But a Consecrated knife has expanded Uses and is effective on the Astral plane (or more). There is much info out there and in many primers regarding the making/use of the tools of the Arte. Read up! Besides, I'm rambling now and closer to confusion than to the original question...which I hope I've helped with... Let me know if I may add something. (IMG:
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