There's so many ways knives are used, that it's a hard question to answer, really. Common safety practices when using a knife say mainly not to cut toward you, or not using your thigh as a workbench when doing some delicate cutting on a hunk of wood. Woodworkers, however, often cut towards the body when using a drawknife or any knife for that matter. I think that one of the prime rules for minimizing cutting yourself is to keep the knife sharp. A dull knife is a lot more dangerous. The sharper the knife, the less force you use to cut with it, and the more controllable it is. A dull knife, where you're using a lot of pressure to make the cut means that when you finally do get the cut all that energy has to go somewhere, and it mostly goes into the knife moving with a lot of speed in an ofen uncontollable direction. Beyond that the next rule is to think before you cut; especially if you're new to knife use. Learning to keep the fingers of your off hand out of the way actually takes a bit of practice. I"ve been using knives for 50 years, and still occasionally cut my self; and every time I do, it's because I was not thinking what I was doing as I was making the cut. Being in a hurry can get yourself nicked pretty good also. If you are handling a very sharp blade, keep your fingers on the handle and off the blade. The blade is for cutting, the handle is for holding...simple enough. I think more cuts occur when someone is doing maintenance on a blade,i.e. oiling or waxing it or cleaning it under the faucet then occur out in the field. I guess it all boils down to two words...think and practice. Takde care
