Category: Daily Living
Hey all,
Was wondering if a blind person can use an electric knife safely or not, and if so if there's any tips you'd suggest for them? I might be able to get one soon but don't want too if i couldn't use it.
Yes, it can be done. Just keep your fingers away from the blade as you would with a regular knife. Sorry I can't think of anything else. It's been a while since I've used one. I hated every minute of it when I had to use one for slicing the loaf of bread I had made from scratch. It's just the kind of bread that was. Not burned or anything. A regular serrated knife would have required extra muscle on my part, so the electric knife definitely came in handy for that task.
I have never used electric cutlery in the kitchen of any sort, for the main reason that its purpose is usually to speed up the process, and, to a point create uniform slices.
However, I can give you a few principles I use when assessing any sort of power tool for my use.
First, only do this if you are of a calm disposition and at least somewhat mechanically inclined. You may not want to if you do not possess what they now call spacial orientation. Or at least my methods would not work for you.
So to begin with, work alone: you don't want a sighted person to see you try, because your methods will differ greatly from theirs, and while you are learning they will become dazed and confused, and depending on their disposition, start becoming hyper and acting out. It's motivated by fear, and understandable, but you want analysis and not fear.
Take your power tool, unplugged and mechanically move the blade, so you know how far it moves in a single cycle. Obviously that's not the case with a circular blade - one that spins around like a plate with teeth. I don't know what an electric knife looks like, but an electric cutting implement has some basic principles to it that you can look for.
Obviously, you need to know how the device turns on and off: many handheld power tools have what is called a deadman's switch, kind of like a glorified trigger. Squeeze and it's on, let go and it's off. Don't be confused: that is a grip, but not technically the handle. There's usually a chassis - the rounded or square housing around the main motor and other mechanical elements to the device. This also has the most weight, and you will use your hand on top of it to help control its movement - how much weight gets applied to the blade or bit.
Now one main difference between the way I use any electric power tool and the way most sighted people do is, they tend to turn on the device, lift it up, hover over the object, make as many cuts as they want, and then turn it off.
That's because they're relying almost entirely on hand-eye coordination for their aim. But you and they both have to use the weight and counterbalance, it's not that different in practical implementation. So for us, I line the blade up with where I want to make the first cut, rocck the device back somewhat on its housing to raise the blade from the surface so the motor will bring it up to full speed, turn on the power, then engage the device with the cutting surface. You will get to know when you have cut all the way through something, though again I've never tried it on food that wasn't frozen solid. Once you get to know how to use a particular device, you can get good at judging distance enough that you can engage, raise the blade, slide by a quarter inch or however far you wanted and re-engage, for as many slices as you want.
A note about cutting a straight line:
No matter how much guff you get about straight lines, even sighted people can't do this right away with most tools. No matter how much some people howl about us not being straight, rather like dogs in a thunderstorm, it takes practice for anyone, not just us. A couple summers ago I taught my fully sighted daughter to use a saw, one of those life skills she didn't want to learn how, but when you need it you need it.
And her first cut was definitely not straight. She has very good sight, takes professional-quality pictures.
So don't despair of having to practice, and frankly, more than lining things up, your best friend is the weight balance I described earlier. Once you set yourself up, you can get into a rhythm and make a bunch of cuts along whatever you are cutting. Your best bet, as I said, is to really understand how the device you're using works. If you're not slightly nerdy, I'm not sure how some aspects of this will work out, but I'm sure you can manage it. I don't know if an electric knife would be a performance enhancer for us the same way it can be for someone sighted. I've used an electric meat slicer, which operates similar to an electric wood planer on its side, except that its blades are on a spinning disk rather than attached to a cylinder.
Oh, and once you have some confidence with the device, you needn't be alone when using it, since you'll be able to get the job done no matter what sort of flailing, flapping, and semicoherent babbling others may exude. Most of their responses are fear-based: many people (and for good reason) themselves won't use an electric power tool, even something as safe as a drill, because of their perception of it. Add misperceptions about lack of sight into the equation, and you have quite a little stew going on there. You just need to be by yourself when learning it, so you won't be distracted by the antics, and be able to take your time to get it right.
While you yourself are figuring this stuff out is not the time for their so-called education, or re-education, or whatever new words people come up for it. You just want to become effective with the tool, or it will be useless to you. You being effective benefits you, and frequently benefits the flutterbudgets who would otherwise get in your way while you're trying to learn it.
Oh my. Its really simple and safe. Smile.
The blades move back and forth, so do much of the cutting for you. You place it on whatever you want to cut pull the trigger and press lightly down. If its not cutting as fast as you want just move it back and forth a bit like you'd do with a regular knife.
You know how to cut, so you'lll not likely cut yourself. You'd have to put your fingers under the blades, press the trigger, and press down. You're not going to do this.
You can even put your hand on top of the blades to feel how they move if you want. There are 2 of them and they lock together. You'll understand when you touch it.
To clean it disconnect it and pull the blades out of the handle and wash them. Piece of cake and a fast way to cut safely.
Use a cutting board, because these will saw counter tops pretty good.
Enjoy your new tool.
I've used a food processor a few times, but I had never even heard of an electric knife until I came across this thread. Based on the description the last poster gave, it sounds like it would probably be a very helpful tool. I haven't done much cooking yet, but maybe I should invest in one for when I start to cook more.
i have used a carving knife to cut bread, and yes it works. as others have said, get used to the device away from the bread, feel the blades off the bread, they are a little sharp indevidually, but not too sharp, as it's the seratted blades moving back and fourth that makes them razor sharp. take the two blades, and fit one, which will have an eye bolt through the hole in the other blade. they will only fit flush with each other one way, so you can't go wrong fitting the blades together. then, taking the blades in one hand, and the unplugged motor housing in the other, click the blades into place on the housing, again they will only go one way. listen for the click, it should be quite loud, though you can also feel it. once the blades are firmly atached to the housing, plug the housing in, and here is where it gets noisy, take the complete knife in your hand and, pointing the blades away, keeping your other hand well away, press the trigger. it is important to get used to the sound and feel feel of the knife in your hand, as it will vibrate while cutting. most knives will work at diffrent speeds depending on how hard you press the trigger. most work on a thumb switch. squeaze hard, the knife goes faster, release the pressiure, it goes slower. once you are used to the vibration off bread, as it were, feel the bread, lie the nife width ways across the bread, making sure you have the nife far enough in to make a slice of bread. check the set of the knife, IE where it is in relation to your bread, and feel the weight of the knife in your cutting hand. keep your free hand away, and put a little pressure through the knife with your cutting hand, and squeaze your trigger. you'll feel the knife start up, and then feel it cut smoothly through the bread. don't press too hard, otherwise you'll overtake the knife and rip the bread. the knife is an aid to cutting, the pressure downwards doesn't need to be too hard. listen for the sound of the knife hitting the board if you can, if not, you can feel it, as it will bottom out, and you'll feel a change in the sensation of the knife going through the bread. i hope this helps.