It’s nice reading how you enjoy so much company and share similar interests with friends. You definitely seem to eat well.
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TLDR: ok, read the original post and a few others; sticking strictly to the topic, this is what I do regarding knife safety: Disclosure first - I’ve been cooking for decades and have done/do a lot of prep work, involving breaking down large cuts of meat, and all types of fruit and vegetables. I’ve only ever sustained superficial cuts, although having a few close calls for worse.
My practices are these: if there are more cooks in the house than one, the person that sharpens the knives needs to let the others know if a knife/knives have recently been sharpened.
I only use sharp knives. Also tuck your fingers under when slicing/dicing things. AND always take a minute to remove the thin, slippery membranes on onions when prepping. This has caused the most close calls for me while chopping.
If using unfamiliar to you knives, take it slow, and get a feel how they’re balanced - it can really throw things off, leaving you more susceptible to accidents. A friend gave me a set of inexpensive knives from Costco, which I appreciated, with the caveat that they were sharper than hell, and to be very careful. I kind of chuckled and told her not to worry. Haha I didn’t have the last laugh here. The knives were wicked sharp, but what threw me was the different balance. Once I got used to them, no more superficial, but painful cuts. Happy chopping and other knife work.
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Hi Lambchop,
Great practical advice. I’d add to know your weaknesses.
I’m left handed and not very good at making a claw. I know I’m a disaster ready to happen. So, I pre plan–and give myself ample ways to keep those fingers attached to my body.
So far, so good.
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Good job on keeping your fingers attached! I guess my weaknesses are that I don’t know how to filet fish, or debone a chicken, but I’d like to learn, for sure.
Hi Lampchop,
I’ve seen a chicken deboning that removed the entire bony frame, then filled the cavity–turned the chicken into a sort of sausage.
Just a little boning knife.
It was amazing.
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Look up “turducken.”
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Hi Meekah,
Much fancier.
I heard about that from Coach John Madden at Thanksgiving. This was done in Philippine tradition–and was served cold.
I’d never seen anything like that done before.
Absolutely. This thread has gone very far astray from safety and devolved into a pissing ground of sharpening techniques/terms/tools.
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That nicely sums up any and all gear discussions on HO.
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If it does not wander, it will be a short thread without much interaction given that we are usually talking about pretty basic things, pretty much all of the questions presented being quickly answered on the internet. Imagine if you were asked to write a ten page paper on knife safety!
a ten page paper on knife safety would never happen. More like two sentences: be aware. use a sharp knife. The End.
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Your safety points are good ones. In addition, having sturdy knives—kept sharp, of course—is important to me so that my knife won’t slip or bend when cutting through kohlrabi, cauliflower and cabbage (cores), winter squash, and other harder vegetables. Sometimes I’ll
hit an extra fibrous spot in the veg and I’m thankful that my trusty knife doesn’t slip.
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Yes, that’s a good point - sturdy, sharp knives are a must. I get slightly nervous when I’m cutting the large, hard squashes. I’m wondering if a cleaver (which I don’t have) would be good for that task?
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That’s called boning by the glove method – like turning a glove inside out.
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That’s how I always described my wife.
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That looks like an amazing cleaver - envious! The squash that I find challenging is Kabocha and Blue Hubbard, along with the other big varieties of hard winter squash. Butternut can be a bit of a pain too, and does take some time. Tempting to buy it pre-cubed!
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Squashes are difficult, but they get easier once you know what you are working against.
My wife is in the garden. 
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Learn proper knife techniques. And curl those fingers
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