I totally understand you on this. When I was 11 I had to have 5 stitches due to a kitchen knife cut, not pleasant especially since the anathestic didnt work. Ever since I have been very careful with knives.

We have one really bad knife which is used for chopping frozen meat/bones, but other then that most are straight edged.

I am very careful though, some knives are just down right dangerous not that they are blunt they are just heavy to use, thus you use more power and it's easier for them to slip. I only use a couple of knives I know will cut properly and ignore the rest.

We do have a bread knife that my sheeple relatives keep leaving blade upper most, so anyone reaching across it will get a bad cut. I regularly have to replace it in the cutting block less then 6 inches away (talk about a lazy bunch). I guess the thing is to get into good safe cooking practice before the event.

 

The only serrated knife I like is a bread knife.

 

My biggest issue with serrated knives is how hard they are to sharpen by myself.

 

I have a love/hate relationship with serrated blades. They are harder to sharpen. A serrated blade makes for easier cutting on ropes, nylon webbing etc but they're a pain on other items as they snag,tear what you're trying to cut instead of making a clean slice. I carry a 5" Cold Steel Vaquero as my daily knife because when working around horses I can cut a lead rope easily if the horse pulls back and looses it's footing while tied. If you've ever had this happen you know what I mean as they get to where they can't get up and the rope is as tight and as hard as an iron bar. The only thing to do is cut it so the horse can get up. I've had to do this a few times over the years and you either want a very sharp knife or a serrated blade that can saw through the lead rope. But like I said the serrated blade snags when you use it for other things like cloth so I'm thinking about going back to a plain clip style blade for pocket carry.
On another note serrated blades make for nasty cuts when it comes to self defense and my Vaquero has a certain intimidation value all by itself with it's curved serrated blade. Many people when seeing me use it have remarked that it's the most wicked looking knife they've ever seen and how much they'd hate to be cut by it.

 

You guys don't ever use half serrated blades?
Doesn't have to be full serrated.

And any thing sticking into your body would freak you out.

If I had to throw away every knife that cut me, all I would have is butter knives.

 

I think the trauma was caused by you insisting that it be removed. That could have made the problem much worse. You should have let them deal with it at the hospital. It would have hurt less and you would have had less trauma because of it.

I don't use serrated kitchen knives myself. They're hard to sharpen. A sharp straight edge is far more effective for food use. That's why you don't see serrated chef's knives. Not the real ones anyway.

Serrated are fine for bread knives, where they do the job better. But have limited usefulness for other kitchen duties. My Spyderco pocket knife is serrated because it does the jobs I need it for better. But that's about the only other serrated knife I own.

 

I was very young at 23 when it happened and the trauma was seeing it through the hand. I would definitely handle it differently now. I just recall wanting it out asap. Plus being so pregnant with all those other hormones in the mix did not help the situation.

 

After falling off a telephone pole and laying down, I noticed a foot long splinter of pole sticking out from my chest. I pulled it out not thinking about it, just wanted it out.
It was only stuck in half an inch, but what if it had been deeper? Could have bled out?
But, moving around with foot long stick of wood in my chest wouldn't have been nice either.
Besides shattering my knee, I also ruined two packs of cigs and a shirt.

But, I don't freak out seeing pieces of wood splinters.

 

Well it depends on what you're using it for.

If you need to stab something and retrieve the knife quickly it seems like serrations might get you "hung up" but I don't really know. There's an expert around here somewhere who could say.

 

I sharpen them the lazy way and stone the smooth side. That puts and edge on all the high surfaces which is mostly what is dull anyway. Granted in a few years they will be smooth knives but I don't care at least the darn things cut. I've been using a pair of those white handle kitchen knives from Sam's Club for about 15 years now and they are still not totally smooth but are more wavy than serrated.

 

Spyderco chewed me out for doing that to one of my serrated Enduras when I sent it to them for sharpening. :

 

I don't have a problem with them. They don't need as much maintenance as smooth knives. If they wear down I just toss them and get a new one.

 

I hate serrated knives. I will not own one. I will use my teeth and fingernails before I will own a serrated knife.

 

I have several knives that have both smooth and serrated edge. These days it's hard to find a knife with just a normal edge on it. I for one don't really know why they started making them this way. I have yet to find a use for a serrated blade while cleaning an animal or anywhere else where I could say to myself "hey, I'm glad I had this serrated edge or I'd be screwed." Now all of my knife purchases are unserrated.

 

My biggest issue with serrated knives is how hard they are to sharpen by myself.

On the other hand, it could be some sort of meditation/entertainment - beats cards from my point of view and somewhat close to fishing

 

The point I was trying to make regarding serrated knives is that they do not make a clean cut like a regular knife and they hurt like h_ _ _ coming out just like they doing going in as opposed to being cut with a straight edged knife.

 

What you say is true, but they do a better job of cutting things like thawed chicken and crisp turkey skin. Because of the surface more energy is applied to the cutting edges than is available at the cutting edge of the same size straight knife. So a duller serrated knife will seem to cut better than an equally dull straight knife. Most folk today don't know how to sharpen a knife.

 

Yikes! Horrible story. Glad you're OK. Sometimes we don't think about how easily a serious injury can occur. Carried pointing the other way, might have been your belly the blade stuck through!

My wife had a similar accident in the kitchen years ago carrying a large ceramic bowl. She was mixing up vegetable dip or something, turned around, stumbled a bit and as she fell slammed the bowl into the corner of our kitchen counter. A piece of the ceramic bowl nearly sliced off her entire index finger. She said she knew immediately it was really bad, because her finger went completely numb and she couldn't move it at all. She had to have surgery the next day to reconnect the nerves & tendons.

For my daily carry knife I prefer a partially serrated blade. Mostly because I'm not always great about keeping my blade sharp. I abuse my pocketknife pretty heavily. The serrations generally stay pretty sharp so I can usually still hack through what I need to even if the straight part of the blade is dull.

As for in the kitchen I prefer straight-edge knives for pretty much everything. Easier to sharpen.

 

When I was 12 I cut my thunb open from tip to 2nd digit. didnt even know I did it till there was blood all over the floor. Wrapped it up in my sock and went home. Next day went to the Doc, boy was he unhappy with me.couldn't use the thumb for a long time but its fine now, really cool scar.
Been collecting Knives ever since.

 

One of my sons collects pocket knives as well. I am banned from the folding type because I can never close them properly. I generally keep a k bar around.

 

All my knives are non-serrated in the kitcher bar the bread and steak knives.

The only thing I prefer a serrated knife for is to cut tomatoes. (and bread, of course...)

I cant sharpen serrated knives very well so 99% of the time I use my standard non-serrated middle of the range kitchen knives.