Are You Making This Common Mistake When Holding Your Knife?

There are few kitchen skills as crucial as good knife technique: Everything from a simple fruit salad to a multi-course meal requires a knife, and holding it correctly is safer, more efficient, and results in better control of the blade. Holding the knife comfortably is important, but sometimes a grip that seems intuitively correct may not be the best. One such knife-holding mistake is placing your index finger along the top of the blade.

While this grip may feel like it's giving you more control over the blade, it's actually taking away a lot of the stability that your index finger provides the knife. Furthermore, if you're cutting something particularly dense, your index finger quickly gets tired when positioned on top of the knife. How you hold the knife informs not just how much control you have, but also the cutting motion; getting the right grip can completely transform how you chop and prep food. A lack of control over your knife is dangerous under any circumstances but especially if you're chopping fast. Different knives are suitable for different chopping motions, so it's important to know when to use which type of knife in the kitchen. A blunt knife is also risky since it's more likely to slip, so even beginners should consider getting good-quality knives that stay sharp for longer.

The best way to start off is with the handle grip. It's the most intuitive way of holding the knife, where your fingers and thumb simply curve around the handle. This is the safest way of holding the knife and is suitable for beginners, especially when using larger knives. However, it sacrifices accuracy — once you're comfortable with chopping ingredients and have a bit of a rhythm going, you can modify this hold for more control over the blade.

The pinch grip is the next step on your knife-wielding journey, which involves holding the knife between your thumb and index finger with the latter curved so that it's flush against the blade. It's very much like how you hold a key when turning it. The traditional pinch grip holds the base of the blade between your thumb and index fingers with the rest of the fingers wrapping around the handle, but you can pinch the handle if you're not comfortable holding the blade. This grip is perfect for chef's knives or their Japanese counterparts, the gyuto, which is the one knife home chefs should splurge on. A final handle grip variation is with the thumb on top, which can help add more pressure.