Bushcrafting for bairns

[elrond]

I have recently given my 7 year old a knife ( went through the usual dad mode - don't mess about with it, take care of it, etc)

The knife is shaving sharp & a buddy suggested that I should maybe take the edge off it a wee bit, since if it slipped it would go to the bone ( which i most likely would). Now I have always taken the view that a tool should be kept as sharp as possible - but this has got me wondering - should the edge be made less keen ( but not blunt) until he has learned to handle the knife or will doing so make an accident more likely.

I would be grateful for opinions on the approach to take.

many thanks

 

[spamel]

As long as you teach him the correct handling techniques and always ensure he asks before using the knife with a reason as to what he wants to use it for, I can't see any problems. If you tell him that it is very sharp and show him with a carrot what a sharp knife can do, and explain that it could be his fingers if he doesn't use the correct techniques, I'm sure he'll listen carefully!

 

[JohnC]

With the boys we practiced handing a knife to each other. Joe's (8yo) knife has a rounded tip, to avoid impaling accidents. The edge is sharp however.

 

[exped.equip.]

I wouldn`t worry, they only tend to cut themselves once and then they are more careful !!! My three boys all had knives when about 7/8 and they too where very sharp.The problem that they had was getting the knife out of the sheath and also putting it back---they had a horrible habit of holding the sheath at the top and running the blade through their fingers when pulling out or pushing in.Two out of three cut their fingers the third watched and learned.Since then they have not made any mistakes and to be honest they are more likely to cut themselves in the kitchen than on their knives.I think the cut fingers which by the way were not serious in any way have taught them to respect sharp blades.

 

[andy_e]

Yup, I learned which was the sharp end of a knife from my mistakes as a kid - experience is the best teacher. Same with the fire=hot lesson - though I still cut and burn myself from time to time - am a bit slow perhaps

 

[robin wood]

I think JohnCs advice is good...sharp edge but it is worth grinding the point off and rounding it. Not many uses for the point and it causes a fair proportion of injuries.

 

[BushTucker]

My six year old boy has a Jack Pike fold knife, took the edge off it and rounded the point, he has not been silly with it since I made him cut a piece of pork rolled leg with it, scared him ****less as I said it would cut him or some one else just as easy.

He does the char cloth and sparker to light fires, makes netting ( prepairing him to make a hammock ) and loves nettles and scrambled eggs , cooked fress in the garden by himself.

Love to see and hear of youngsters learning early.

 

[Sleepy Weasel]

Hmmmm, I guess 3 year old is a bit too young to be given a knife then. Having said that, my boy who is just past 2 and a half knows not to touch daddies knife, and to his credit doesn't make a fuss of it.

I think I was about 7 or 8 when my father gave me my first knife, and respect was learnt the hard way, yet, even when I nearly removed the top of my little finger with it the knife was never taken away. I learnt to be careful with it(must have worked, I can still count up to 10 without taking my shoes and socks off, or my pants if I need to to fractions.........).

Whether to take the edge down and round the point is a tough one. Personaly I wouldn't but them my boy hasn't reached that age where he can have a knife, ask me again in 6 years!

 

[BushTucker]

Rounding the point and taking off the edge does not seem to make a difference to my boy, he thinks it can cut paper like I showed him before it was doctored. He remembers the sight and believes it is still as sharp, so in a way he has a respect for it. I do from time to time repair the edge if he shoud do something silly like try and cut metal with it , but this he never knows.

 

[DoctorSpoon]

Our kids learned about knives in the kitchen first... the fruit salad method! As soon as they were old enough to stand on a stool they'd start with a banana and a butter knife, then once they'd got the basics move on to harder fruit like pears and kiwi. Then they'd get a little sharp kitchen knife and do soft fruit with it, then work up to harder fruit. There was occasionally blood in the fruit salad, but not often

Now they're 10 and 13 and whittle lots. We just bought this book after it was mentioned by someone on here and they've really been inspired. Here's this weekend's production (just using SAKs):
Cockerels by 13 year old daughter, freestyle bird by 10 year old son:

Balancing thingies by 10 year old son:

 

[BushTucker]

Fantastic stuff , love it

 

[Sleepy Weasel]

Wow, I'm very impressed, and jealous, I can't even do things like that and I'm nearly 40!

And as for blood in the fruit salad, I'm afraid that my efforts would up the meat content in said salad, finger food anyone?

Seriously tho' I congratulate you on what you've taught your kids to do, and congratulate your kids on what they have achieved.

 

[John Fenna]

I think the sharp knife is the safer knife, but used under supervision.
I like Dr Spoons teaching methods, and think my 60 year old wife could learn from it - she is still forever nicking the odd vein while cooking.
Pain is a great teaching aid (for those able to learn! obviously my wife is too old a lady dog to learn new tricks) kids tend to learn well from it and if they cut themselves once they tend not to do it again in a hurry!
Flesh regrows, scars have street cred but spending a couple of hours in A&E dripping blood, the pain of stitches and the stern lecture/being laughed at as having been silly enough to cut themselves makes kids learn the right techniques faster.



Worked for me and I still have all my figers....though some boast a fair amount of scar tissue (Inever was a fast learner).
Axes - now there is a different story.........

 

[Dave Budd]

I don't remember cutting myself a great deal as a kid and I know that my old man gave me my first pocket knife (brand new and hence sharp Victorinox SAK) when i was 5. I think he figured that if I cut myself it was my mum's problem as he was at work I think I was just well supervised to start with, but I was helpinig in the kitchen as soon as I could hold a knife (probably a blunt kithcen knife, my mum has only recently discovered sharp ones).

That book of whittling is great, I got it a while back for inspiration. I particularly like his tips of knife care:

Ten Extremely Important Rules of Carving:
1) make sure your knife is sharp
2) your knife must be really sharp!
3) don't try carving with a knife that isn't sharp
4)before starting to carve, check your knife to see if it is sharp
5)carving with a less-than-very-sharp knife is very frustrating!
6)in the realm of woodworking, sharp is good, dull is bad
7) keep your knife sharp!
8) if your knife is really sharp it will cut much better
9)If you missed the point of rules 1 through 8, make sure your knife is sharp!
10)if thre's any remaining doubt, refer to rules 1through 9.

kinda labouring the point, but some people do seem to need it drumming in I guess

All his carving is done with the small blade on a sak

 

[John Fenna]

You forgot rule 11 - keep your knife sharp!
You cannot over emphasise this point!:You_Rock_

 

[spamel]

And don't fprget that stropping is an intermediate part of the sharpening process, the very fine edge should be put on with the rays from the rising sun.

Ker-chinnnnng!

 

[DoctorSpoon]

And don't fprget that stropping is an intermediate part of the sharpening process,

my teenage daughter's good at stropping

 

[spamel]

my teenage daughter's good at stropping

My girls too. They are all under 8 years old. I need to have moved into the shed by the time they hit puberty!

 

[Toddy]

My sons were given pocket knives first, A sharpened his away to nothing in a couple of months J just asked where the wire strippers were (computer nerd from infancy )

Funnily enough, my kitchen knives aren't scary sharp, I can stop them against my hand without a problem, but they're very effective. The only ones that are sharpened to 'sharp' are the meat ones and they are kept seperately anyway.

I think kitchen and garden are good places to start, and a knife is just really another tool. Learning to use scissors or shears (or a screwdriver or a hammer) safely is just as important.
The more tools children use and become capable with the better, I reckon.

cbheers,
Toddy

 

[sharp88]

My first knife was a 1970s pipecleaner/penknife, when I was 8. 7/8 seems about the right time for the first knife.

I collected different penknives and SAKs from the ages of 8-12. It was a healthy obession, I was fanatical about knife safety, because my father was always telling me about knife safety and reminding me whenever I was using my knives.

Kids and knives do go, its just important to remind them that it could be seen as an offensive weapon in public, some frail people dislike children having knives, it can cause terrific damage to the flesh and that you should never use it out of supervision or against the rules. The most important rule was "never cut towards you or other people".

I did cut myself quite a bit in the first few years, but never anything serious and I don't have any scars. The most reoccuring injury I had was cuts to the thumb. Especially so when I started using a scalpel to cut paper (I was an artistic kid). But it never got so bad that I needed stitches or medical attention - just a plaster most of the time and as I got older and older the cuts got less frequent, my whittling became better and I learnt how to roughley sharpen on the oilstone.

I liked the priviledge of being trusted with knives, because all the other kids I knew couldn't be trusted and there parents would go nuts if they had one.

At 10 I had my first folding saw, at 14 I had my first decent swedish axe and a co2 air pistol and at 17 a PCP air rifle. Im pretty much 18 now and Iv never gutted myself or threatened anyone with a 'weapon'.

The only thing I would say is worth doing is blunting the tip. Its the thing I'd worry about the most and when I was a young kid my dad always dulled the tip.