Does a knife cut hurt less with a sharp knife?

[Paul_B]

Just that really. I cut myself with a nearly new Norwegian made folder that's truly sharp. I didn't notice the cut for a few minutes until I noticed smeared blood on a finger (not the cut one). A day later I somehow cut myself cutting a potato up and it hurt badly. Our kitchen knives get rough treatment so are always needing sharpening or stropping.

I just wonder if anyone had any idea on this. Is it sharpness of knife or location of cut on your fingers? Also, sometimes such cuts seem to bleed a lot but other times not. They sometimes open up and sometimes close up tightly. Angle into the flesh probably has an effect.

It sounds like I'm accident prone with knives but I rarely get knife cuts. More likely to get paper cuts at work!! I'm just curious if there's logic to these small cuts. I know it's always best to keep cutting tools sharp. A sharp knife is safer I was taught.

 

[Mesquite]

An extremely sharp knife will slice much cleaner whereas a duller knife will tear at the flesh more than slice and that causes more pain and damage to the flesh.

Also what you're cutting has an effect as the juices can sting cut flesh also

 

[Robson Valley]

Knife cuts are quite popular among wood carvers. Particularly the tribe who insist on holding the carving in one hand and the knife or gouge in the other. Kevlar and stainless steel mesh butcher's gloves help a lot but not so much from stab cuts.

My answer is yes, the sharper the edge the less tearing and the less you will notice the damage. The worst cuts that I've not noticed were all with wood carving tools, all made "carving sharp."

Got popped in the chest with a crooked knife one day. Right through a relatively new shirt.
Saw the semi-circular cut in my chest at bed time.
Made a bib-front canvas apron the next day which has been hit maybe a dozen times without a puncture.

 

[Wildgoose]

As above a sharper knife requires less pressure so less crush/bruising.
in eye surgery ceramic blades are used to avoid any blunt trauma caused by a dull scalpel

 

[Paul_B]

Cutting potatoes when I got cut today, light wood laminate in a woodcraft model I was helping our 7 year old son make. The pieces were cut out of a sheet of laminate but the tabs that fix pieces together were all to big for the slots they were in. Soft wood laminate so very easy to cut down with my sharp knife. The cut was on the side of my little finger. I seriously don't know how because that finger was nowhere near the blade as far as I could remember. The potato cut was my stupidity. I actually cut through the potato and straight into the pad of my thumb.

So it's the blunt knife tearing that hurts more. Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Paul_B]

BTW the knife was an oyo folder bought in Geilo, Norway in the town it was made in. A good, thick blade, wooden scales and sharp from the pack. Cost about £25 in the conversion rate at the time bought. Best knife purchase for years.

 

[JonathanD]

Short answer: Yes.

 

[Robbi]

I've no idea.

 

[santaman2000]

As above a sharper knife requires less pressure so less crush/bruising.
in eye surgery ceramic blades are used to avoid any blunt trauma caused by a dull scalpel

Here most eye surgeries use lasers. Not only a finer cut but much less chance of infection.

 

[Wildgoose]

Now that’s cool. Who will be first to get a bushcraft laser?

 

[santaman2000]

Now that’s cool. Who will be first to get a bushcraft laser?

We can all dream. LOL. That said, 30 years ago how many of us would have thought we’d ever see a handheld GPS?

 

[homesicksteve]

I clean/wipe all my blades with Choji Oil.
The theory is that the clove oil is not only anti-septic, but also analgesic.
Furthermore, the anti-fungal qualities are good for the inside of the sheath or scabbard.

 

[TLM]

I find that dull knives cause more slips than sharp ones and so also more cuts. The same with chisels.

 

[Paul_B]

Now that’s cool. Who will be first to get a bushcraft laser?

I shared most of my masters course at uni with people studying engineering lasers. The university had one of the most powerful engineering lasers owned by any university. It could cut through several inches of steel easily. I once got told that without precautions it would simply cut through walls of the building that houses it and out of the building and towards the next. Powerful enough to modify material structures/characteristics I think they said. Later in the course they spent time at CERN on more serious equipment!!!

 

[Brizzlebush]

For what it's worth;
As a chef of 30+ years, I've lost count of the number of times I've cut myself.
As others have said: Blunt knives = more potential for slips = more potential for cuts (and slightly more ragged ones at that).
Sharp knives = swifter, more accurate cutting. If you do cut yourself the wound has "neater" edges, which are slightly easier to heal.

I don't know if either hurts more than another. But, perhaps a clean cut hurts more afterwards because it slices a little deeper, and through fine capillaries that a blunter knife might not? Also, as noted there's a tendency not to notice a sharp knife cut as much.
I find the healing often hurts more than the cut itself.
Most vegetable and fruit juices hurt like hell. Lemon juice, obvs, but tomato juice really stings. There's a surprising amount of pain to be found this way in apparently benign fruits and vegetables. Most carry salts or acids of some sort. So in an unprotected cut it hurts! You don't really think about it until you start cutting things or get the wound wet again, which allows the acids back into the cut.

 

[Paul_B]

My partner kept telling me that I should put lemon juice on it to help it heal. I'm still trying to think of what I did to her to warrant that advice!!

Both my son and I have little cuts on our fingers, this current situation with washing or alcohol hand sanitizer is real fun when the cuts are fresh.

As I chef I guess you have your own knives for work or do you just use ones the establishment provides? I heard once that chefs like to use their own. Something like fountain pens becoming personalized to your style of writing.

 

[Brizzlebush]

My partner kept telling me that I should put lemon juice on it to help it heal. I'm still trying to think of what I did to her to warrant that advice!!

Both my son and I have little cuts on our fingers, this current situation with washing or alcohol hand sanitizer is real fun when the cuts are fresh.

As I chef I guess you have your own knives for work or do you just use ones the establishment provides? I heard once that chefs like to use their own. Something like fountain pens becoming personalized to your style of writing.

Yes, sanitiser stings too!

I have always carried my own knives, and I've often had to lock them away or more usually take them home with me.

Some chefs don't, and just use what they find. The knives left in kitchens are left there for a reason! (because they're blunt or useless or both!)

There's a school of thought, that the way you sharpen your knife, the grip and angle of the steel, and how you hold the knife, makes sharpening personal. This could be true. I certainly don't like other people sharpening my knives.

But it also comes from the point of view that you just don't touch anyone else's knives in a professional kitchen.
They're your tools, without them you can't work, and they're often expensive. If someone else damages them, or steals them, God help them!
Also you don't want some twonk using your knife to chop bones, or something equally stupid! I treat mine with care and respect, others don't.

 

[Forest fella]

Depends where you get cut.

 

[fenix]

Yep, put a very sharp axe into my hand. Didnt feel a thing. Main concern was trying to hide it from my wife and not bleed on the carpet. Seriously pondered using superglue on it.

 

[Wildernessoutside]

No it still hurts either way ,I just think with a sharper blade you get a cleaner cut so is easier to stitch than with a blunt blade