This was a question asked of me by my 6 year old nephew, he's just started noticing I always have pocketknives on me, and he's starting to get curious
First, we were talking about the tomato plants I have growing in my Aerogardens, one of them, downstairs in the kitchen is a "Golden Harvest" yellow cherry tomato, and one of them upstairs is a "Micro Tom" dwarf cherry tomato plant, I was telling him how small the Micro is, he asked me how tall it would get compared to the Golden we were looking at
I got out my Swisstool to measure it
"Boy, Uncle Russ, that tool has a lot of stuff, what else does it have?"
I showed him the toolset, he was transfixed, then he asked the pivotal question posted above
I explained to him that a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, and to demonstrate, I picked one of the ripe, yummy cherry tomatoes, found one of the dull steak knives in the knife drawer, we went over to the cutting board and I had him *try* to cut the tomato with the steak knife....
He squished it, squirting the seeds all over the cutting board, then ate the tomato
So, Logan, how hard did you have to push on that knife to try to cut the tomato?
"I didn't cut it, I squished it, I was pushing hard"
Now, watch this...
I grabbed another cherry tomato, opened the plain edge blade on the Swisstool, rested it on the tomato, and using no weight or pressure, pulled back on the knife, the Swisstool cut the tomato cleanly in half, no squishing, no juices, nothing, a surgically clean cut
He was *amazed*!
So, Logan, what knife do you think is safer?
"the sharp one"
We then discussed why it cut so cleanly, and more importantly, why it was so important to use knives safely, I ended the subject letting him know that getting cut accidentally is par for the course with sharp knives, especially if you're careless, but it's nothing to be afraid of, it happens to everyone, yes, even *me*, and the best part about getting a cut from a razor sharp knife (if there can be a "best part"
) is that the cut doesn't hurt very much, and it heals quickly and cleanly
I think he's beginning to understand, he's been showing a lot more interest in my knives lately, and once he matures a little more, I think there may be a Victorinox SwissChamp in it for him, it's definitely a great first cutting tool for a curious youngster....
And I *KNOW* he'll respect the blade after seeing what a sharp knife can do
Yep, gotta' start 'em young...
First, we were talking about the tomato plants I have growing in my Aerogardens, one of them, downstairs in the kitchen is a "Golden Harvest" yellow cherry tomato, and one of them upstairs is a "Micro Tom" dwarf cherry tomato plant, I was telling him how small the Micro is, he asked me how tall it would get compared to the Golden we were looking at
I got out my Swisstool to measure it
"Boy, Uncle Russ, that tool has a lot of stuff, what else does it have?"
I showed him the toolset, he was transfixed, then he asked the pivotal question posted above
I explained to him that a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, and to demonstrate, I picked one of the ripe, yummy cherry tomatoes, found one of the dull steak knives in the knife drawer, we went over to the cutting board and I had him *try* to cut the tomato with the steak knife....
He squished it, squirting the seeds all over the cutting board, then ate the tomato
So, Logan, how hard did you have to push on that knife to try to cut the tomato?
"I didn't cut it, I squished it, I was pushing hard"
Now, watch this...
I grabbed another cherry tomato, opened the plain edge blade on the Swisstool, rested it on the tomato, and using no weight or pressure, pulled back on the knife, the Swisstool cut the tomato cleanly in half, no squishing, no juices, nothing, a surgically clean cut
He was *amazed*!
So, Logan, what knife do you think is safer?
"the sharp one"
We then discussed why it cut so cleanly, and more importantly, why it was so important to use knives safely, I ended the subject letting him know that getting cut accidentally is par for the course with sharp knives, especially if you're careless, but it's nothing to be afraid of, it happens to everyone, yes, even *me*, and the best part about getting a cut from a razor sharp knife (if there can be a "best part"
) is that the cut doesn't hurt very much, and it heals quickly and cleanlyI think he's beginning to understand, he's been showing a lot more interest in my knives lately, and once he matures a little more, I think there may be a Victorinox SwissChamp in it for him, it's definitely a great first cutting tool for a curious youngster....
And I *KNOW* he'll respect the blade after seeing what a sharp knife can do
Yep, gotta' start 'em young...
