Knives

I need to peel apples and potatoes and various foods. However, Tommy cannot peel anything with a knife unless he just whacks at it with a knife facing away from him.

We had a long discussion about this. I take a knife, hold it in my right hand and the apple in my left palm and pull the knife toward me when I peel. He insisted he had never done this. Why? Because his mother taught him to never slice toward himself. When? When he was five and cutting carrots in the kitchen. standing by the table with his mother overseeing him.  Yes, he told me he was five when he learned how to use a knife and has never advanced.

I do have a device to peel carrots. He cannot get it to work. It takes him hours to peel enough potatoes for a small meal. And, then he has a million tiny pieces flicked off with the carrot peeler.

He insists I am doing it wrong, that he never saw his parents or anyone but me draw a knife toward themselves when peeling. I even slice carrots toward me. Okay, very seldom do I lay a carrot down to cut coins. Really? Does anyone else draw a knife toward themselves when peeling? He thinks what I do is dangerous.

Now, I do use a cutting board or plate to slice somethings or to chunk carrots, apples or potatoes, but not always. However, I watched my mother cutting potatoes to fry by drawing the knife toward her to make the potatoes into French fry type cuts. One day, I asked my mother why she did not put potatoes on a surface to cut them into fries. She said it was easier in her hands.

I agree that with an extremely sharp knife it is much easier or just as easy to pull the knife toward me and against my thumb. I have never cut myself!

Just to make sure I was not the odd man out in peeling, I looked it up and found videos of people drawing a knife toward them when peeling an apple. I am not going to use an instrument other than a knife to peel an apple or potato. Now, if I had an apple peeling device that clamps onto the table, I would use it.

Make no mistake, I cut better with a knife sharpened to a dangerous edge. Dull knives are the ones that cut me when I try to use them. Daddy would sharpen knives until they were dangerous. However, none of us kids ever cut ourselves more than once. And, I used these knives when I was a small child in elementary school, much older than five-years-old.

Okay, how do you handle a knife?