Knife skills for kids

[Janne]

I had a pretty bad accident while on my boat fishing summer -14.
I was bleeding a cod, the standard two cuts over the top of the gills, when she started twisting. I grabbed her between my knees and locked her where she was, with her back towards me. I did the cut - slicing towards me and out, slipped and jammed the knife tip into the middle joint on the middle finger.
went through the joint, luckily without severing the tendons, just nicked them and damaged the joint. The local doc wanted to send me to the nearest proper hospital in Bodo, but I just had a shot for Tetanus and one Antibiotics.
My friend the Ambulance driver fixed me up properly while we had a coffee in the local coffee house.

That is the first cut in decades I did towards my body, and it went wrong.
The finger is still a little bit stiffer and has some calcifications in the joint.
It was an excellent learning moment for my son.

 

[tracker1972]

That is one of the most dangerous ways to cut.

It is only safe (to the person doing the cutting) if the knife is never brought on top of the leg (i.e. all cutting takes place outside of one leg).

The femoral artery is just inside of the upper thigh; if a blade catches it, you have seconds to stop the bleeding.

I'd suggest using a board on the lap or following something like this: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/12/12/a-beginners-guide-to-whittling/ or this (one minute in) http://whittling101.com/

Notice in the picture cutting away that they don't hold the wood on their lap in the first link. In the second link they never hold the wood on their lap.

For peeling bark, kneeling down, stick end into ground in front of you, hold it at the top slice down stick towards ground. That's pretty safe.

I may have badly described it, they are peeling on the overhang, not in their lap so it is all away from the body, they were also peeling whilst holding sticks freely, straight away from themselves. Thanks for the link though, I've never taught any kids how to use a knife and don't think I was ever "taught" myself. Do try and make sure that they stay "out" of their legs as a matter of course though.
Again, thanks for the link.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Tiley]

In the bushcraft sessions that I lead at school, I limit the age to Year 7 pupils (i.e. 11 year olds). The knives we use are the good old Moras. Although a lot of them have had penknives from an early age, I've found that, even at 11, their hand strength is pretty poor and so a good number of the projects we do using wood, such as tent pegs, try sticks and spoons, take a long time and are of indifferent quality. That said, they all come away with a very clear understanding of safe cutting techniques (vital!), a healthy respect for the knife as a tool and a determination to carry on, trying to improve.

 

[crwydryny]

I was practically born with a knife in my hand, I think I had my first knife when i was 4 or 5 (a small 20p pocket knife) but I grew up using knives every day (and cutting myself a lot lol) and now I teach kids as young as 5 how to use knives, how to light fires and other such skills.

the way I see it all this hogwash about it being too dangerous for kids is stupid, best way to learn respect for a knife is to get cut. you quickly learn not to do it again (it also helps to teach first aid skills at the same time lol). as long as they are supervised and you make sure they're not doing anything stupid with the knife then it's ok (I keep my fance knife tricks for when I'm working with adults lol)