subject: A Not-so-serious Look At The Serious Topic Of Safety Knives [print this page] Advertising for safety knives cant be the easiest thing to do. Of course they have several selling points: the frenetic assortment of colors, the fun and exotic names like the Penguin or Olfa, and of course the plastic coverings that make sure the only way you can cut yourself is by being quite deliberate about it. Theyre much more inviting to use than say a carpet knife, designed after talons found from the late Jurassic era.
But with all this going for them, there are areas where safety knives could use a little help. They can be a little confusing to look at. A knife isnt something that generally requires an instructional video; you generally just have to find a happy medium between pointing and gliding, and the sharp edge will do the rest. Then there are those nouveau cutting implements that look like a cross between a fish-hook and a stapler; its hard enough trying to figure out how the cardboard gets cut, let alone somehow getting your finger anywhere near the blade.
Theres also the age-old stigma that goes with using safety knives, harkening back to kindergarten art classes where the scissors were as plastic as the slide in the playground. You see a guy in a factory using a safety knife and the thought inevitably comes to mind, Uh, did he lose his privileges with the real knives, or does he have to graduate from the safety knives to the open blades? At this point the guy in the factory drops the knife so that it bounces off the top of his head and to the ground and everybody is thankful he was holding a knife that was 2% sharp and 98% handle.
Of course, with health and safety reports showing that cuts make up 30-40% of all workplace injuries, safety knives do have just cause for being brought in to the home and workplace. And since the cause of most cuts is either improper training or being in a rush, a knife that takes some time to figure out fixes both problems without even needing to obscure the blade. In the end you have to ask yourself whats more important: showing you can wield an open blade or having to explain where the rest of your finger went at every party for the rest of your life.
Dont get me wrong. Having a conversation piece for just such occasions never hurts. What really hurts is time and blood loss, and safety knivesdespite the stigmaprotect against both. Its time our knives started to live in the 21st century. Cell phones and mp3 players have gotten smaller, so theres no need for you to carry around a safety knife with a blade the size of Oregon. Demand more from your knives. Demand more from yourself. And always be sure that while walking you hold your knife blade facing in, not blade out. Unless you have a safety knife, of course.
