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A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.
Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.
[...] He said laws designed to reduce the availability of weapons to young would-be offenders had had “almost no effect”, since the vast majority had merely taken knives from a cutlery drawer.
[...] He asked: “But why we do need eight-inch or ten-inch kitchen knives with points?
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Knives are too Sharp and Filing Down their Points is Solution to Soaring Violent Crime, Judge Says
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(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday June 01 2018, @05:04AM (3 children)
My gerber blade is fashioned of the very finest steel but I haven't had it sharped in eons.
When I diced up a tomato to top this evening's chili, I had to pierce its skin with my geber's point so as to start a cut that I continued with the now-dull edge.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by tfried on Friday June 01 2018, @07:43AM (2 children)
Do yourself a favor and sharpen that blade at least some. It may sound paradoxical, but over time you'll avoid a lot of cuts to your fingers that way. For one thing, with a sharp blade you will need to apply much less force, which allows for much more control. For another, you'll avoid risky maneuvers such as the one you describe. For the most part, you want your left hand (assuming you are right handed) to stay close beside the blade. Large relative movements between blade and left hand are both slow and prone to accidents.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 01 2018, @05:19PM (1 child)
The sharp blade also makes better cuts, in your hand, as well as your food.
Forcing a dull knive to travel through your flesh produces ragged tears, rather than a clean cut. Those take forever to heal. A clean cut, in comparison, heals rapidly, and far less painfully. So, not only are you less likely to cut yourself with a sharp blade, but if you do cut yourself, you'll suffer less.
(Score: 3, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday June 01 2018, @08:12PM
That's absolutely true (and I modded you up), though I still would caution people who aren't used to really sharp knives. A clean cut can heal faster. That's generally true. But I've seen how lots of people handle knives, and it scares me. Lots of people have knives that are too dull to push-cut through a tomato skin or an onion skin, and which would likely have difficulty push-cutting through vegetable flesh in general.
Those sorts of knives will rip a small tear in your flesh if you accidentally slip, but unless you rock them and continue slicing, you're probably not going to get a deep wound. For the same reason they can't cut vegetables, they often won't make it deep into your hand.
On the other hand, take one of my sharp knives and use it with force the wrong way with your hand in the wrong place, and you'll easily slice directly to your bone without even feeling it. Dull knives may create more minor accidents (due to people using them with excessive force and maneuvers to get basic cutting done), but sharp knives also ARE very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.