It's true, dull knives are safer most of the time!

Jeff Clark

Jeff Clark

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Apr 27, 1999
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For decades I have argued with people that, used properly, sharp knives are safer than dull knives. I finally figured out the error of my logic. Most of the time knives are not used at all, let alone used properly. So most of the time a dull knife is safer than a sharp one. When sitting in a drawer a dull knife is safer. When sitting on a counter a dull knife is safer. When sitting in dish water a dull knife is safer. When you are polishing a knife, showing it around, or just playing with it a dull knife is safer. Even resting in a sheath a dull knife is safer. It is only during those brief intervals when you are using a knife and paying attention to what you are doing that a sharp knife is safer. For years I have been arguing with people who hardly ever use a knife and never use them correctly that sharp knives are safer. In reality for those people sharp knives are a menace to have around. What a fool I've been.
 
Very interesting perspective - however wouldn't it be a better idea to have sharp knives and sharp people??

Isn't that the problem sometimes?
 
Stop sharpening your knives NOW! You don't want to cut yourself.
 
Treat every knife as if sharp and every gun as if loaded.

Good points though. Regardless of how intelligent or diligent you are, a sharp edge you do not know about has a better chance of separating skin than a dull one.
 
I look at knives in much the same way as I see snakes. The vast majority of snakes are essentially harmless to us humans, but it's amazing how many folks end up hurting themselves when they come across one (ever hear the story about the fishermen whose boat sank after they shot the thing full of holes while trying to kill a snake in the boat?). Even the truly 'dangerous' snakes aren't that much of a threat to an informed, mild-mannered observer who gives them their due respect. Same holds true for knives (or guns, or cars, or power tools, etc.).
 
Jeff Clark said:
For decades I have argued with people that, used properly, sharp knives are safer than dull knives. I finally figured out the error of my logic. Most of the time knives are not used at all, let alone used properly. So most of the time a dull knife is safer than a sharp one. When sitting in a drawer a dull knife is safer. When sitting on a counter a dull knife is safer. When sitting in dish water a dull knife is safer. When you are polishing a knife, showing it around, or just playing with it a dull knife is safer. Even resting in a sheath a dull knife is safer. It is only during those brief intervals when you are using a knife and paying attention to what you are doing that a sharp knife is safer. For years I have been arguing with people who hardly ever use a knife and never use them correctly that sharp knives are safer. In reality for those people sharp knives are a menace to have around. What a fool I've been.
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I couldn't agree with you more. One can not teach old dogs to sit and regular people are not prepared for hair-poppin' razor-sharp knives in these days of multi-tasking. I would say that a screamingly sharp knife is definetly more predictable than a dull knife, but not "safer"; because the dull knife forgives you more if you don't use a lot of force. It is argued that a dull knife invites you to use more force to compensate for the lack of sharpness, but that doesn't always need to be the case. If I merely graze my knives then I gotta run to the hospital! So far (not hoping for more, so knock on wood!), since I first started using blades, all of the serious wounds I've suffered from knife-use have been from those that have been exclusively razor-sharp.
 
Jeff Clark said:
For decades I have argued with people that, used properly, sharp knives are safer than dull knives. I finally figured out the error of my logic. Most of the time knives are not used at all, let alone used properly. So most of the time a dull knife is safer than a sharp one. When sitting in a drawer a dull knife is safer. When sitting on a counter a dull knife is safer. When sitting in dish water a dull knife is safer. When you are polishing a knife, showing it around, or just playing with it a dull knife is safer. Even resting in a sheath a dull knife is safer. It is only during those brief intervals when you are using a knife and paying attention to what you are doing that a sharp knife is safer. For years I have been arguing with people who hardly ever use a knife and never use them correctly that sharp knives are safer. In reality for those people sharp knives are a menace to have around. What a fool I've been.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree. :thumbup:
 
I honestly can't tell what is and isn't sarcasm in this thread.

But I tend to agree with the OP about knives that aren't used. Same logic follows why many large fixed blades are shipped dull-ish.
 
Good point, Jeff. I agree that "looker" knives are best left dull for maximum safety, but ones that are ever used should be sharp.

Or you could keep 'em all sharp and just not let any dull people handle them.
 
I tend to agree with the OP. I have never cut myself with a dull knife, but have needed stitches from just slightly careless handling of a razor sharp blade. I am quite confident that if that knife had been dull, I would have never needed to go to the hospital.

Dull people should use dull knives
 
If I'm being honest with myself I must admit I mostly collect folding knives to play with them, and they're infinitely safer to play with if they're not razor sharp. That being said, it goes against the grain for me to have tools that are not optimized, so I do keep them as sharp as possible.
 
As best I can tell I mostly collect knives to shave hair off my forearm. They need to be sharp for that.
 
I sharpened a friend’s knife at work. The next week he told me that it was too sharp and had to dull the knife with a file so he would stop cutting himself. The morel of the story is some people should not have sharp objects. Scary part is this guy carries a gun.
 
I tend to agree with the OP. However, I think the safest blades are those with a working edge. Those thta are fairly sharp, and will cut stuff without a ton of effort, but wont take off your finger easily as well. Basically, I find a knife that can just shave a little bit tends to be my favorite sharpness
 
I always assumed this old axiom meant sharp knives are safer in use than dull knives.
 
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