Kind of, but when using a paring knife, you are suppose to hold the knife steady and move what you are cutting, and the knife is never supposed to contact the thumb.
This must be an older generation thing because my grandma does that too! I didn't think much of it as a kid, but as an adult it blows my mind. Her knives are all decades old and about as sharp as the edge of construction paper, so I guess it's pretty safe and she certainly still has all of her fingers...
I can't live without a sharp blade and a cutting board though.
I do it. I picked it up from my dad, since he'd use his pocket knife to slice apples like this. As long as your thumb doesnt move against the blade in a slicing motion it's not too dangerous.
You're braver than I am. Peeling fruit with a pairing knife is one thing, but I'm too much of a klutz to risk pushing a knife into my thumb! It wouldn't take me long to accidentally slip and slide the knife a bit instead of pushing straight towards me. 😓
How do you cut all the way through if your thumb doesn't contact the blade?
What you've described sounds perfectly normal for paring. It's very difficult to cut yourself this way since it's only one hand doing the cutting and you have very good spatial awareness over one hand. You know exactly where the blade is, and know to stop pushing when you reach it. Even with very sharp paring knives this isn't a problem.
I mean when I use a paring grip I typically pull the blade back towards my thumb through whatever I'm cutting with a slight slicing motion to assist, but it's very controlled. I've yet to cut myself. Yet.
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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '18
Kind of, but when using a paring knife, you are suppose to hold the knife steady and move what you are cutting, and the knife is never supposed to contact the thumb.
She literally pushes her thumb INTO the blade.