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

Samael said:
It's funny, but I've been thinking about this exact topic for the last half-hour or so, after sharpening my brand new Ruana 20B from "sharp" to "scary."

I prefer to keep my knives hair-popping sharp, and think they truly are safer in use when they're as sharp as you can get them.

However, how many of us can honestly say that we've never cut ourselves with our razor-sharp knives? Paying attention or not, sooner or later you're going to have an "oops" moment, and a dull knife can easily save you a cut - and maybe even a few stitches - over a sharp one.

And y'all can quit being so smug now. Everybody cuts themselves.
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Oh I have cut myself more than a few times over my 44 years. LOL :D

Thankfully I haven't ended up in the ER. :)
 
It's not necessarily about intelligence! I mean come on! What's the general education level here on BF? What's the average income?

I know more than a hundred people that at least have a college education, or a dozen that make serious cash without education and all of these people still don't like my sharp knives. Some of them are lawyers, professors, stock-brokers etc.

Screamingly sharp knives scare them, but that does not make them stupid — only cautious. They appreciate a sharp knife of course, but they twist and turn when they see me shave off some arm-hair. It makes them uncomfortable.

Regular people (regardless of status or intelligence) are not used to handling razor-sharp knives, so that is what makes them dangerous for them; but it doesn't make them stupid.

We are enthusiasts, so we make it our business to learn how to use sharp knives, but more importantly — how to become comfortable having one. That has got nothing to do with intelligence.
 
stoffi said:
It's not necessarily about intelligence! I mean come on! What's the general education level here on BF? What's the average income?

I know more than a hundred people that at least have a college education, or a dozen that make serious cash without education and all of these people still don't like my sharp knives. Some of them are lawyers, professors, stock-brokers etc.

Screamingly sharp knives scare them, but that does not make them stupid — only cautious. They appreciate a sharp knife of course, but they twist and turn when they see me shave off some arm-hair. It makes them uncomfortable.

Regular people (regardless of status or intelligence) are not used to handling razor-sharp knives, so that is what makes them dangerous for them; but it doesn't make them stupid.

We are enthusiasts, so we make it our business to learn how to use sharp knives, but more importantly — how to become comfortable having one. That has got nothing to do with intelligence.
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I liken it to driving a car really fast. If you don't know what you're doing, you will be very seriously hurt (or killed). If done carefully under the right circumstances, it just makes life that much more fulfilling.
 
It does have to do with intelligence, if a person is smart or dumb, and not with cultural level. For instance, I never handled a fully automatic rifle, and I have no theorical or practical knowledge about it. But if right this instance I were to handle a fully loaded one and with the safety off, I would take some necessary measures to NOT do something stupid and probably would not shoot my foot or someone else's.

Doesn't the saying goes "consider all guns loaded and all knives sharp"? If you're smart you will follow that saying. Of course accident happens, when sometimes your concentration slips or some external factor gets in the way, but then it's an accident, not something going wrong because you were pulling some stunt. If you're smart you won't try to pull a stunt.
 
And then there's the elephant in the room that nobody's talking about: How many of us have had a bit too much to drink and decided that it would be a good time to fondle that brand-new knife that just arrived in the mail? I know I have, and it's a recipe for slicing yourself up pretty good.
 
LUW, what are you suggesting — that normal people are juggling with their knives?!
 
Heh. Maybe. Who knows? I'm probably the last guy in the world to talk about what "normal" people do.
 
Someone on the Spyderco.com forum had this on the bottom of every
post "Having a dull knife is like having a stupid friend".

I dont have any stupid friends...what about you!!
 
With firearms a negligent discharge is a discharge of a firearm involving carelessness , which is what I believe most of the cuts fall into , negligence and not accidental.
 
stoffi said:
LUW, what are you suggesting — that normal people are juggling with their knives?!
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I really wouldn't be that surprised, since stupidity seems to be the norm nowadays :rolleyes:.

And I'm guilty of pulling stunts. When I got my first SAK (I think I was about 14 or younger) of course I had to open all the blades at once - "because it looked cool". My dad, who gave me the folder, told me that that was a great way to getting cut. Even at that time I knew my dad was anything but stupid, so I followed his advice and never did it again.

But that's the point: I learned from someone more experienced then me, and right away. Not that I consider myself the sharpest tool in the drawer, but I like to think that I'm smart enough to take notice of good advice. Most people do not, I don't know if they can't understand good advice or they're plain stupid, but the fact is that most accidents involve somebody being negligent or foolish.
 
From LUW: "...the fact is that most accidents involve somebody being negligent or foolish."

Totally agree. My dad also taught me the "treat all guns as loaded and all knives as sharp" when I was little. I've never owned a firearm, but know enough to not monkey around if I have to handle one.
 
Planterz said:
It's alright, the gun isn't loaded. He's also scared of getting in a car accident, so it sits in the driveway without any gas in the tank.
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Hahaha, I hope it's loaded! He is supposed to be covering me!
 
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John T Wylie Jr said:
With firearms a negligent discharge is a discharge of a firearm involving carelessness , which is what I believe most of the cuts fall into , negligence and not accidental.
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Could not agree more. Handling any dangerous tool or weapon requires discipline. While we have all cut ourselves, 9 times out of ten it was doing something stupid or during a laps of attention. I do not think we should degrade the effectiveness of our tools to the neglect of other safety precautions. It is because of that kind of thinking that some people don't carry a round in the chamber and think that weapon safeties are the end all solution to negligent discharges. In the end a tool is best used in peak condition. A gun is best clean (and loaded), a car engine runs better cool and a knife designed to cut works better sharp. Mental alertness and attention to detail will save you from more cuts that carrying a dull knife.
 
In my kitchen I have a knife block that holds 30 knives, a large knife drawer with about 20 longer knives and cleavers and a small knife drawer with about 20 paring knives and petty knives. (This is not even half of my kitchen knives, I have cupboards with plastic tubs full of others). My son's fiancee recently cut herself with one of my knives. It was not in use. She reached into the large knife drawer and bumped into a knife next to the one she was reaching for. I recently cut myself while trying to put a long knife into the knife block and my hand slipped when I snagged the tip on the block. If those knives had been dull enough neither of us would have been cut. Just working around or with the knives (when you are not employing them to cut yet) puts you at risk.

Anyway my real point is that the less you really use the knives for cutting the more of a liability a sharp edge can be. At the soup kitchen it is not so much the women who cut themselves with sharp knives it is the husbands and teenagers who are inexperienced. Those amateurs are probably more at risk around the house with sharp knives than with dull ones. Even women who don't cook much may actually be at greater risk from sharp knives than dull ones.
 
She reached into the large knife drawer and bumped into a knife next to the one she was reaching for.
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Proving the point , that the cut was due to in-attentiveness ( fault of end user ) and not a fault of a sharp knife.

Anyone who sincerely feels a dull knife is safer , probably doesn't even need a knife in the first place.

And I suppose scissors would be safer dull too I guess ? And razors ?
Run that one past your Barbour and watch him laugh. ;)

Anyway my real point is that the less you really use the knives for cutting the more of a liability a sharp edge can be.
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Do you feel the less you use a firearm , the more of a liability its accuracy can be ?
 
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