I just recently demonstrated to my roommate about how sharp knives tend to be safer, as well as more useful and more enjoyable to use. I was using a Chinese cleaver to cut some peppers, and the rather dull edge slipped off the skin and chopped about 1/3 way into my index fingertip. The knife would not have easily cut my skin except for the fact that the knife weighs somewhere between 10 and 12 ounces, so it can chop reasonably well. Instead of a nice clean cut, it caused lots of local tissue damage and I'm guessing will result in an ugly scar for a few months.
I admit I was lazy when I was using his dull knife, but I didn't have mine available at the moment. I do believe though that a good efficient cutting tool is one of the most enjoyable parts about working in the kitchen for me. After demonstrating to people how nice a sharp knife works for general uses, I've gotten a lot of people to lust after sharper knives.
The next trick will be getting those people willing to pay for knives that are intended to be sharp and useful.
