Knives

The commercially available adapted utensils are overpriced and ridiculously ineffective. I often wonder if the occupational therapists or engineers who develop these actually tried them. They are laughable and the day I started using my favorite hunting knife for chopping and spreading was a huge step forward from what my occupational therapist provided me with.

The adapted knife with a serrated blade, laying on its side, is designed to have you stick your fingers through it and the blade protrude perpendicular from the user's palm. The blade has a useless point and is far too flimsy for any serious work. More than that, is the fact that many quadriplegics have weaker muscles in their chest which would be required for the safest movement of "sawing" left to right in front of you. The stronger muscles are those which pull things toward the user which would make for a nice stabbing motion with this device. However, that's not terribly concerning because the point in the flimsy blade make this thing very safe but very ineffective.

The second adapted knife, the one sticking in the carrot, is only marginally sharper than a butter knife. I tried grinding in edge on it with a rotary tool and refining it with a wet stone but this metal just will not take an edge. In addition to that, the short blade combined with the typically curved fingers of a quadriplegic (an example of this can be seen in the next photo) means running your hand through just about anything you are trying to chop or spread. Again, not well thought out.

Source: Occupational therapy catalogs and certain specialized sellers online.

My solution has been a decades old serrated knife. In my dad's much appreciated efforts to help furnish my first home, a lot of knives of this style were purchased at garage sales. Most certainly serrated blades and the styles knives have a much lower likelihood of cutting yourself with. That also translates into much greater strength needed and much more time required to complete any prep work required with a knife like this. Slicing an onion is almost a joke with this knife and I would even imagine trying to shave paperthin slices of ginger root with this knife.

However, it is perfect for any spreading needs or a quick opening of a package and seldom leaves the countertop above the lower portion of the island where I do 95% of my work in the kitchen.

Source: In my case, garage sales. I imagine department stores would sell knives like this new for a very reasonable price.

There are specialized tools by the hundreds for common kitchen tasks. Many of them work well and many of them are junk. Regardless of their effectiveness, nothing beats a razor-sharp chef's knife for me. One tool for so much and, as long as I am the dishwasher in our home, that much less time spent washing dishes. Besides that, why would I want to be running to the drawer or cupboard for special tool for every little different task?

Where a universal cuff positions a utensil to protrude between the thumb and index finger, I would not feel comfortable using one to hold my chef's knife. The grip and tight fit of my gloves is something that a standard universal cuff cannot provide. Perhaps a cuff with a wider band and something with grip on the inside between the palm and the utensil might make an adequate adaptive device. For now, my gloves are serving the purpose well and in 10 years of significant cooking I have cut myself less than five times, none of them seriously.

I do appreciate a knife that incorporates some nice grippy rubber in the handle but I have yet to find a high-quality knife that does so. The large handle of my favorite knife, as pictured above, fits snugly in my glove as I mentioned and a safe grip is not a concern. The sharpening steel below it is, though. The perfectly smooth handle makes it difficult to hold firmly in my glove without it slipping out and the blade of the knife slipping with it. So far I have simply used the nice wide rubber bands from bunches of broccoli wrapped around the handle of the sharpening steel to add grip (they were removed for this photo) but another solution for any handle you need extra grip on might be Plasti-Dip, as mentioned in the post about it and my typing pencils.

Finally, I do not mind using a medium-sized kitchen knife when I need to. However, the shorter blade and smaller handle make it less effective than my favorite full-size chef's knife. A paring knife is out of the question for me to use safely and effectively.

You do get what you pay for when it comes to owning a good knife that will keep you safe from slips and if you wish to keep the edge on your blade hand wash it and don't run it through the dishwasher. The heat will get rid of the edge on your knife faster than carving a turnip or squash.

Source: Knife stores, kitchen specialty shops and certain hardware stores.