Scrub Up

And now I will display my vast knowledge of medical technology.

You know how doctors scrub up before working on a patient?  They lift their forearms up in the air, palms facing toward them and then soap from elbow to fingertip?  Well if you can summon up that mental picture easily then you might consider using it as a cue when you do knife work.

All other things being equal, it’s best not to get cut at all when dealing with a knife.  Actually, it’s probably best to steer clear of dealing with knives at all if you can help it but we’re dealing with possibilities here so let’s go ahead and dive into the worst case here.  If you do get cut, getting cut on the outside of your forearms is one of the less bad places to get cut.  You’re likely to get cut on the arms as you defend yourself and getting cut on the inside means a much higher risk of one of those cuts opening up an artery.

So, scrub up.  Turn your palms towards you as you work against the knife so as to reduce the risk of arterial bleeding.  (Does this whole post make everyone pretty sure they want to stay away from knives?)