Thumb saving technique.

[ChefCrash]

If you find that the thumb of the hand you use to feed food stuffs under your sharp knife may be in danger? Move elbow of same hand away from your body. Start by about 5" or so. Go from there.

Go on.. Try it.

[ElsieD]

I am one of the "mature folk". Thanks for the tip. I think I must have the shortest thumb fingernail in town. Luckily, I haven't cut through the actual thumb, although I've come close. Good thing I'm not very fast or that tip would be a goner for sure.

[Lisa Shock]

By moving the arm out at an awkward angle like that, you decrease accuracy and add stress which will mean the arm fatigues faster. Using the dead spider position for the thumb in question (and all the fingers on the pushing hand) is a more ergonomic solution. -I just took a knife skills workshop focusing on how posture affects performance. Elbows out mean that you're uncomfortable, at a bad angle and more likely to make mistakes.

[ChefCrash]

By moving the arm out at an awkward angle like that, you decrease accuracy and add stress which will mean the arm fatigues faster. Using the dead spider position for the thumb in question (and all the fingers on the pushing hand) is a more ergonomic solution. -I just took a knife skills workshop focusing on how posture affects performance. Elbows out mean that you're uncomfortable, at a bad angle and more likely to make mistakes.

Uhmm..I'm not asking anyone to do the macarena here. The distance doesn't even have to be 5" (I pulled that number out of my....), I just tried again at my counter top. Holding my left elbow a mere 2" away from my waist, pulls my thumb back behind my forefingers:)

Did you try it?

[Lisa Shock]

Yeah, it alters the position of your shoulders affecting your cutting arm position.