Stupid knife thought !

[Kennieyk]

Does it seem that the more you handle knives the less chance you have of cutting yourself ? I mean when someone who has not handled sharp things much seem to cut them selfs soon after picking up a sharp blade! I dont know if its a mind thing or maybe the skin becomes tougher ??? Or even when you cut yourself and it dont bleed till you look at it , never had that happen but people swear it happens .

 

[Dark Nemesis]

I think it's a respect and experience issue. People who don't handle knives very often tend not to respect that a knife's edge just might be fricking sharp. After spending more and more time with knives we learn that as much as we like to handle them, the edge must be respected or we're going to need a band-aid

Along those lines I'd say you're right, the more you handle knives the less you cut yourself.

 

[VampyreWolf]

Just as those who handle firearms all day stand a lower chance of having a misfire or cleaning accident(still the chances from carelessness), those of us who use knives all day have gained a respect of a sharp edge that can only obtained through injury and experience(usually stemming from injury).

I haven't been cut in about 3 months(knock on wood). Are my knives sharper than they were the last time I was cut? damn right they are. I'm not using sandpaper and the strop on every edge(other than my serrated endura thats 24/7, still gets stropped, but with a cord, and hasn't been touched on the stones since about march)... my daily beater is the SS dragonfly with a 20deg(or about) edge, 1200 sandpaper and a 0.5micron strop. Takes about 4-5min to repair 2 weeks of use to shaving again. My other main use for the last 2(wednesday was 2) weeks has been the fb05 temp fixed... still shaves in single pass, haven't touched the edge, though I use it daily at home at work.
Hell, I used my 'fly to eat pizza last week, when I forgot a fork and had to scoop it out of a container... ate right off the knife.

This is 14yrs of use, and now that I know what a *sharp* edge can do to me(I've got my share of scars), I know what not to do with them also.

 

[TheMightyGoat]

It's mostly just experience with handling blades, just like anyone working around any other dangerous materials will have less accidents than someone who has never used them before. I guess it can work in reverse on occasion, when the experienced individual becomes over confident. For example:

I was hacking branches off a small tree today with my khukuri while holding on to it with my opposite hand. My friends were admiring how I am "surgical with that thing", meaning I cut the branches off cleanly at the trunk with one swipe almost every time, without skinning a big chunk of wood off. Them being impressed with my accuracy was ironic, because after a few minutes I just barely nicked my pinky finger with the blade. It skinned it so lightly on the sharp edge that it looked like a paper cut, but if I had missed by an additional half inch or so, I might have left a piece of my anatomy back in the woods.