Cutting fruit against your thumb.

I see people do it all the time; usually fruit. Using your thumb as “the cutting board”. Bananas for cereal, etc.

With a razor sharp knife, is this safe?

Sorry, slow news day

This freaks me out to no end. Growing up in the south, I saw some old-timers doing this regularly... the technique actually shows up on Vivian Howard's PBS show "A Chef's Life" in a few episodes, where Miss Lilly -- a folksy home cook -- cuts all sorts of stuff off the board, using just her hand. I always chalked it up to dull knives, but maybe my skills just aren't up to snuff...

It is safe if done properly, thumb below the blade, not used as a cutting board.

Is onion a fruit? I can't remember.

[video=youtube;qms60P33nSc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qms60P33nSc[/video]

I very rarely do that even tho' i work in a kitchen.
1. Nothing bigger than my thumb, so halving strawberries, button mushrooms, new potatoes or such things, but definietly no bananas.
2. I use a small petty, what is sharp enough to do the task efficiently but not something with a highly polished razor edge.
3. Release pressure on the knife before you get through the item fully. It will come apart eventually.

My mom cuts her thumb against the fruit all of the time...People typically have dull knives so they can do this and get away with it. I just use a petty and do this stuff on the board but I am a home cook and time is not a worry.

Sharp knife is not relevant...you can do same with a razor blade just bump your thumb but doubt slide the blade.

yes, its safe if you do it safely

It's much safer than holding the object and cutting down through it with nothing stopping the blade on the other side. I see people do that a lot and it demonstrates a lack of confidence and disregard for people around them. They push hard to get through the material then the knife accelerates through the other side. You need to use both arms for that to work, one to hold the object steady and the second to push the knife through. Arms are stronger than hands and lack precision and dexterity so a lot of uncontrolled force can build up. Once the pressure releases all the energy goes somewhere and it's usually into the knife jerking off into some direction. This seems safer to many people because the knife is flying away from them. Whereas cutting into your thumb requires the closing strength and dexterity of a single hand. The blade is controlled, the pressure even, and the danger of hurting someone other than yourself is pretty much eliminated. A bird's beak paring knife performs this task well as the curve of the blade makes full contact with the pad of the thumb, similar to laying on a bed of nails.

you just have to apply direct pressure, no back and forth motion.

chinacats said:

Sharp knife is not relevant...you can do same with a razor blade just bump your thumb but doubt slide the blade.

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It is relevant if the person using it doesn't pay attention while cutting. :laugh:

I do this all the time, I actually have a 135mm right hand mukimono I use for thin slices of ginger, turmeric, etc. that works perfectly cutting towards oneself since I'm a lefty.

The idea is that your mind will not allow your hand to slice yourself. I was using a tourne knife to shave truffles with this technique last night. My thumb is fine.

aboynamedsuita said:

I do this all the time, I actually have a 135mm right hand mukimono I use for thin slices of ginger, turmeric, etc. that works perfectly cutting towards oneself since I'm a lefty.

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Hey Tanner,

I'm a lefty too, and I only hold a knife in my left hand when cutting on the board, but for some odd reason I hold the knife in my right hand when cutting toward my thumb...which I do a fair bit with fruit (apple slices and the like).

Cheers,
Blair

I tried. I bled. I no likey

ThEoRy said:

The idea is that your mind will not allow your hand to slice yourself. I was using a tourne knife to shave truffles with this technique last night. My thumb is fine.

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See but you know how to use a knife (and that is an understatement) and loads of people don't. When I first started sharpening knives for family and friends they cut themselves until the got used to it. I think it is because they were still using the same amount of pressure they would to get the dull blade to go through the veg and it just kind of slides through when sharp. Or something along those lines.

Mucho Bocho said:

I tried. I bled. I no likey

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Lol. W

I keep 2 Henckels pettys at home for: my wife and in hand cutting (for me usually is the cheese).

I never attempt to cut anything I hold in my hand with my J knives.

Your hand allows great control as opposed to the arm. I've read here before thet you can't or shouldn't do it with razor sharp knive but I find it works better rather than worse. Less pressure needed, knife doesn't stop and go. Current fave is a Herder paring sharpened on coti natural and yes that shaves as well as any. The most agressive to your thumb doesn't appear to be a polished edge either but rather a fresh toothy finish on a 600 or 800 stone or 200 to strop. Those edges don't last like the 'proper' ones but they do serious damage when new.

I don't do much in-hand work as a low-volume home cook, not enough to develop great skill at it. So what I do is just keep my thumb below the line of the blade when paring or other in-hand work. I never have the blade meet my thumb to finish the cut, I just twist the blade or the fruit sideways if needed to finish the cut.

If I did a lot of this, I might feel more comfortable finishing the cut against my thumb. Or maybe not. One of my other hobbies is playing music, and I like intact fingers and thumbs for that.

A really razor sharp knife tends to nick the skin on your thumb if you do it the unsafe way - and a nick can turn into a wound when stressed.... (this from someone who still thinks ko-debas are the best over-the-thumb knives. Not against-the-thumb!).

I must say, doing quite a bit of in-hand cutting myself, that first onion dicing video takes it to a level I never considered.

sharper the knife the safer it is regardless of how youre using it. easier to cut = easier to control

Once, my mother-in-law, who knows to leave my Japanese knives alone, grabbed an old rusty carbon knife from my block to slice some Chinese eggplant in-hand. For making stuffed eggplant, her technique involves alternating between slicing all of the way through and cutting 90% though the eggplant. She uses her thumb to feel when the knife has reached the proper depth for the 90% cuts. On her first cut she made a 1/4" deep gash in her thumb before she felt the edge touch her thumb. Once she realized that even my old rusty knives were razor sharp (and after cleaning up her thumb) she was able to finish up without further incident.

I'll let you draw your own conclusion.

CompE said:

Once, my mother-in-law, who knows to leave my Japanese knives alone, grabbed an old rusty carbon knife from my block to slice some Chinese eggplant in-hand. For making stuffed eggplant, her technique involves alternating between slicing all of the way through and cutting 90% though the eggplant. She uses her thumb to feel when the knife has reached the proper depth for the 90% cuts. On her first cut she made a 1/4" deep gash in her thumb before she felt the edge touch her thumb. Once she realized that even my old rusty knives were razor sharp (and after cleaning up her thumb) she was able to finish up without further incident.

I'll let you draw your own conclusion.

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Somehow, old school people tend to do this with minimal incident. More experience maybe? I know my grandmother did this as well and hadn't had any cuts to show for.

Andreu said:

Somehow, old school people tend to do this with minimal incident. More experience maybe? I know my grandmother did this as well and hadn't had any cuts to show for.

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Same with my grandma and, to some extend, my mom and I've never seen them cutting themselves either. My mom keeps saying that cutting an potato or a cucumber on the cutting board is kinda pointless. Harder stuff like root vegetables or onion dicing goes on the board, though.

panda said:

sharper the knife the safer it is regardless of how youre using it. easier to cut = easier to control

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Yeh but you still don't want to do anything like the onion-dice trick if you suffer from sub-clinical seizures. Take my first hand experience on this, and maybe get a 24 hour EEG before you start practicing. ;-)~

This is an old technique used when salt was a luxury and the next best thing was the red sauce in your veins 🤣🤣🤣

I think it's fine if you are very careful, and you have a prosthetic thumb, or want one...

@panda I am sure there will be some on this forum who could get a knife to the point where it doesn't take much force at all to push cut skin ....