This morning, preparing breakfast, I cut about 2mm off the tip of my thumb, about 10mm at the widest point.

Trip to the ER, bleeding stopped. It hurts. I will probably have an ugly fingertip permanently.

I must say, it's a psychological setback to an extent I wouldn't have expected. Oh well.

 

As a prime user in the kitchen, I always try and ensure all knives are kept sharp, use the steel on them at least once a week, if not more.
Less dangerous that way.
Max.

 

As a prime user in the kitchen, I always try and ensure all knives are kept sharp, use the steel on them at least once a week, if not more.
Less dangerous that way.
Max.

This was an exceptionally sharp knife. Quite well honed. I can report it slices thumb very well and easily.

 

You must have been still dozing!
Sharp knives are generally considered less dangerous in the kitchen.
Max.

 

Sorry to hear about your mishap.

Never hold your fingers straight when cutting food. Always bend you fingers upright so that the knife blade contacts the finger nails or knuckles.

 

I have been preparing food with chef's knives for decades. This was an error, not ignorance. I've never gotten a serious cut in thousands of meals.

 

I watched Julia Child's French Chef on WGBH (Boston Public TV) religiously. Her Bouillabaisse was one of the funniest episodes (http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_FCE3AFA560C24607BBB137BED1CFE183). She chopped as shown resting the chef's knife against the knuckles. She was almost as fast as an electric food processor. I have never come even close.

In a very late episode she had an assistant or student as she was getting quite along in age. He was chopping something and was right handed, then the show cut to commercial. Upon return, his left hand had a bandage. My guess is he wasn't quite as skilled as she was and tried to go too fast. Funny, but ouch.

 

Sorry to hear of your injury and glad it wasn't worse.
Wishing you a speedy recovery!

 

Not relevant here but I've enacted a rule in my kitchen that the wine or cocktails are not served until the bulk of the cutting is done. The rule gets bent but knowing that a safety rule is being bent reminds one to use greater caution. I do believe the accident rate has gone down. And yeah, sharp knives are a lot safer than dull knives. You may still get cut but the forces involved are lower.

 

There was no impairment save my own fail.

 

Sorry to hear that Yaakov
As a kid around 9 I cut my right pointing finger nail in half right down the middle. Cut all the way up to the first knuckle and could see the bone inside. Can't put stitches in a finger nail.

 

At least you have 9 other fingers.

 

I've lost my fair share of meat chunks out of fingers so I can confidently say you'll be fine. I once had this high speed cutting blade in the image below slice a good portion of my pointer fingers knuckle off. I washed it out with alcohol and wrapped it up for awhile. Healed up just fine, just a tiny scar there now. I wouldn't think about it at all other then making sure it doesn't get infected.

 

This morning, preparing breakfast, I cut about 2mm off the tip of my thumb, about 10mm at the widest point.

Trip to the ER, bleeding stopped. It hurts. I will probably have an ugly fingertip permanently.

I must say, it's a psychological setback to an extent I wouldn't have expected. Oh well.

It may not be as ugly as you're imagining right now. When I was about 12 I picked up a roll of steel wool (use for floor polishers) and it immediately dropped because it sliced the tip of either my index or middle finger clean off -- guessing a thickness of two or three millimeters. Bled like the dickens, but just applied lots of pressure till it stopped and wrapped it with a bandage. Amazingly, I can't even tell for sure which hand it was (pretty sure it was my right, but that's over forty years ago and the memory's not what it once was), let alone which finger. I've got a couple other small scars that took decades to disappear but are now gone -- or that I can only make out from time to time (but, then again, the eyes aren't what they used to be, either).

 

I watched Julia Child's French Chef on WGBH (Boston Public TV) religiously. Her Bouillabaisse was one of the funniest episodes (http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_FCE3AFA560C24607BBB137BED1CFE183). She chopped as shown resting the chef's knife against the knuckles. She was almost as fast as an electric food processor. I have never come even close.

In a very late episode she had an assistant or student as she was getting quite along in age. He was chopping something and was right handed, then the show cut to commercial. Upon return, his left hand had a bandage. My guess is he wasn't quite as skilled as she was and tried to go too fast. Funny, but ouch.

Hopefully it wasn't as bad as Julia's cut this time:

 

This morning, preparing breakfast, I cut about 2mm off the tip of my thumb, about 10mm at the widest point.

Trip to the ER, bleeding stopped. It hurts. I will probably have an ugly fingertip permanently.

I must say, it's a psychological setback to an extent I wouldn't have expected. Oh well.

You should see my own fingers, they're full of scars and distorted fingerprints here and there... dating back to a time in which I tried to learn wood carving using a pocket knife... in the end, I didn't learn much about that particular art, but I learned a lot about first aid...

Glad to hear your incident was not too serious...

 

Amazing how fast you can chop with a Mezaluna.
Two handed so no risk.
Faster than a food processor when you get good at it!
Max.

 

I eat mostly steam cooked vegetables every night.

Cutting is not in juliana but cubes. Do it every three or four days when coming with the fresh buy from the greengrocer. After washing and drying, I do the chopping in one session when I still feel not tired. Learnt that the less dangerous are not only the sharper but the bigger knives.

Later, tired or not, I just select what goes into the cooker.

BTW I never considered that mezzaluna but I feel too much for veggies only.

 

At least it wasn’t this...

Table saw attacked me

 

At least it wasn’t this...



Table saw attacked me

One of my great fears when using the table saw.