On 2006-09-12, Nexis > wrote:

> Don't feel bad. The other day I was clearly not thinking, though sober, when I
> attempted to use a paring knife to pry the top and bottom sections of a bottle lid
> apart. Knife slipped and plunged unceremoniously into my thumb of my bottle holding
> hand, hitting the knuckle and sticking there. Painful stuff. At least you can blame
> the wine....

Yes, ...this time. But, since we're spilling our guts, I'll relate my
most embarrassing knife anecdote. Even worse than when I cut my
fingertip off. This is the one about a brand new Henckels paring
knife I'd just picked up on sale that day. Here goes:

I'm sure you've all heard the old saw, "A dull knife is a dangerous
knife". Well, leave it up to me to screw it all up. I pulled out my
shiny new Henckel paring knife and started in on some fresh crisp
apples. When I peel and slice apples and other soft fruits, I cut by
pulling the cutting edge toward my thumb. This is a bad old habit I
probably learned as a kid slicing bananas for my cereal with a table
knife. Anyone here who doesn't see what's coming?

Anyway, I get through the job of peeling just fine. But, that first
cut to halve the peeled apple..... Sure enough, the new blade bogs
down and stops about half way through the apple. Not the fault of the
brand new razor sharp cutting edge, the one Henckels puts on with a
precision machine and is perfect. Nope. Surface stiction. You know
....the reason they put those hollow little divots just above the
cutting edge on a lot of todays knives, like the all-the-rage santoku.
So, I put just a little bit more pressure on the knife to overcome
that pesky stiction. Boy, that sucker freed right up. It came screaming
through the other half of that apple like nobody's business and
continued effortlessly right on into my big fat thumb just like that's
what I wanted it to do! Yep! Just as clean and slick a cut as you
ever did see. About an inch long and a quarter or so inch deep. And
red! Oooh, such a pretty color red all over that sink.

"SON OF A @%*#^@&!!"

Needless to say, I don't cut too many things that way anymore. The
things I do, like still cutting bananas and peeling apples, I've got a
nice dull paring knife that'll barely cut butter set aside for just
such occasions.

nb