Isn't this a quandary? Sharp or not? I sat down and thought about all the times I've cut myself with a knife (counting the scars). It appears I've done myself with a knife 15 times that I recall. Of those, all were preventable except 3 (major splinter self-removal surgery) which required a very sharp knife. 7 could have been avoided with or were mitigated by a dull knife. Of those 7, 4 were preventable with smarter knife use (all involved holding something in one hand and cutting through with the other - right into the palm or fingers) and two were from testing the edge of an extremely sharp knife with a thumb (surprise! Your buddy actually learned how to put an edge on his blade!). The last was where I sat on an open lock blade that my buddy had stuck in a log. It just barely got me through my jeans and took no stitches. I didn't get cut worse because it was dull (he must be related to you, Jim <grin>). The remaining 5 incidents involve cooking, and I'm happier with the 2 times the knives were sharp because they all healed within a week with very little scarring. I still believe the 3 dull knife incidents would not have happened if the knife were sharp. They all involved trying to force a knife - cutting onions, potatoes and carrots comes to mind for two - and having the blade skitter off into my hand.

All that said, there are probably an equal if not superior number of times that I was NOT cut because the knife was not sharp. I'm not saying the knife was dull, but it just wasn't that hair-splitting sharpness I like on my Leatherman or Buck. When I cut food, sometimes I nick the nails of the hand I hold the food with. Those small nicks might have gone through with a sharper knife. But then I seem to do that much more frequently when I'm using other people's knives. Maybe it's because I concentrate harder on the task when I'm using my knives which I know are not very forgiving.

That reminds me of the hand ax, which has an edge that can easily slice newsprint. My buddy decided to split wood, and almost took off a finger because he's not used to a sharp ax. A really sharp edge will split wood with very little effort, but he took a whack at it and the head ran down the split into his finger. Since then, I don't lend my ax without reading the riot act about how sharp it is.