Part of Lesson Plan: Basic Knife Handling Skills With a Chef's Knife

Activity Overview / Details

Teaching note:  You will need product to cut. Potato is cheap and works well. And it plays into the next lesson plan for my class which is "types of cuts and other techniques."

Say and demo again. Okay here is how I prefer to Pinch the blade I have done it this way so long I have a callous on my finger.

Now I am placing the tip to the table or at the least as close as I can get it for safety and leverage.

Here is my preferred method of hiding my fingertips. Now I am going to slice part of the potato and show you how to rock the blade. Notice how I put the flat part of the product down on the table for stability. Safety first, always when using knives.

Continue Demo - Take a piece of the potato and show them the motion used to cut with.  Stress economy of movement and keeping the blade as low as possible. Demonstrate as long as you feel is needed restressing each rule. Re-emphasize the economy of movement and safety of keeping the blade back on the product for safety.

Demonstrate or Explain the most common mistake ," finger on top of blade" a very dangerous mistake. This causes loss of lateral control. If the knife hits something, you now have a 50-50 chance of getting cut. I demonstrate how the finger pushes the knife in the direction of the deflection and it will assist in the cut because of loss of lateral control.

Teaching point-  I over-stress this point to save myself from having to write an accident report. My first cut each year is because of this mistake- student places their finger on the blade because with their little home knife they are okay but not with a 10 inch chef knife!!