With some know-how and practice, a kitchen knife can be your best friend during food preparation, or it can be a potential source of serious injury. Depending on your skill and what you already know about knife safety, it's always a good idea to hone knife safety skills. The first step in kitchen knife safety is purchasing the most quality set of knives you can afford. Avoid sets that have gaps at the joint - where the blade and handle meet. Quality knives should feel heavy and solid in your hand. And most importantly, take the time to learn how to use the knives and care for them.

There are five basic types of kitchen knives:

Chef's Knife

A chef's knife is typically the largest knife in the kitchen, with a wide blade that is eight to 10 inches in length. For the best wear and stability, the knife should have a full tang. In another words, the blade should go all the way through the handle. The chef's knife is one of the most important tools you can own when it comes to cooking. It can be used for slicing, chopping, dicing, mincing, julienne cuts, disjointing large cuts of meat, and even smashing garlic.

Paring Knife

Another often-used kitchen knife is the paring knife, which is generally 3 to 4 inches in length. It is ideal for peeling and coring fruits and vegetables, cutting small objects, and slicing.

Utility Knives

Longer than paring knives but smaller then chef's knife, utility knives are typically 5 to 8 inches long. Utility knives are also referred to as sandwich knives because they are an ideal size for slicing meats and cheeses. Utility knives are good to keep around as extras.

4. Boning Knife

Generally 4 to 5 inches long, the boning knife has a more flexible blade that curves around the meat and bone. With a sharp point and narrow blade, the boning knife is used for removing the bones of poultry, meat and fish.

Bread Knife

Bread knives are usually serrated. It's recommended that a serrated knife have pointed serrations rather than wavy serrations for better control and longer knife life. Consider using a 10-inch serrated bread knife for whole loaves and a six-inch knife for cutting smaller items, such as sandwich buns. When cutting through bread with a bread knife, use a sawing motion.

How to Safely Use a Knife

When using a knife, the most important guideline to follow is to chop the knife slowly and carefully. Always cut away from your body. Use a nonslip surface to cut on and make sure your hands are dry. Fingers on the hand holding the food should be curled under to protect from the knife. The knife should not leave the surface you're working on.

Keeping Your Knives Sharp

Knives that are not kept sharp are unsafe. They can easily slip off food that you are cutting and cut your fingers instead. Keep knives sharp by using a steel, which sharpens knives by straightening out the edge. When sharpening a knife, hold it in your dominate hand and the steel in the other with the steel point pressed into a solid waist-high surface. Holding the knife base at the top of the steel at a 20-degree angle, slowly draw the knife down the length of the steel so the entire blade, from base to tip, moves against the steel. Repeat on the other side. Sharpen the knife like this five to six times. Rinse off and dry immediately.

Storing Your Kitchen Knives

Knives that end up in a drawer will become more quickly than those stored in a knife block or magnetic knife rack. Plus, there's a better chance of injury reaching into a drawer full of knives. High quality knives should be washed by hand and dried immediately. Avoid putting your knives into the dishwasher.

Safecutters Inc. provides an online store of utility knife box cutters for opening shipping boxes and shipping packages, as well as safety knives to open moving boxes and packages.

For more information about Klever Kutter and Klever Koncept and other Safecutters products, visit http://www.safecutters.com.

Knife sharpening has progressed beyond the days where a bench stone was used to sharpen dull knives. Nowadays, you can still use an old school tool for sharpening your knives, but there are lots of more sophisticated choices as well. You should choose the kind of sharpener you need depending on what kind of knives you need to sharpen and what type you like the best.

A grinding wheel has bits of harsh grain materials that will cut small chips away in your knife and therefore sharpen it. You can find wheels with all kinds of different materials in them. The most common type of material is aluminum oxide, which is present in most wheels. You can also find ones that have other kinds of oxide in them. Aluminum oxide is the best for getting steel, bronze, and iron sharpened.

You can also find zirconia alumina is a combination of aluminum and zirconium oxide. This will make for a very strong wheel. You can sharpen lots of types of steel and alloy materials with this kind of material. This si the second most common material used after aluminum oxide.

One of the newer substances used in a wheel is ceramic aluminum oxide which is very powerful and precise as well. This can be combined with another substance. This usually depends on the type of metal it will sharpen.

There are many different shapes for a wheel, but the straight wheel is the most often used. Another popular wheel choice is one with a cylinder shaper.

You should also consider the grit size when you are choosing a wheel. You want to find one with that matches your needs. If you find one with a lower number like 10 or 24 then you know it is a coarse wheel. If you find one with 100 or 180 then you know it is a fine grain wheel. A fine grain is an excellent match for finishing things up because then can get off the tiniest bits of metal.

A bench grinder is a cheap and easy way to sharpen lots of knives. You can use them to sharpen other things such as hand tools and drill bits as well. You can mount on on a workbench and the wheel will come in either a 6 or 10-inch size. You can get a motor that has 1/3 to 1 horsepower. You should get one with a tool rest so that it will be more precise.

You need a sharpener for your chainsaw if you have one in your workshop. You can get an automatic one that is really the best way to sharpen this tool. Your chain is secured in place and the wheel goes down on it. You can sharpen each tooth at a time to make sure that they are very even and exact.

Getting a manual sharpener may not be worth it. They are very expensive and can work with lots of different chains. You will use a lever to secure the chain in place and many times these sharpeners have more than one wheel. You can use them to work on all different chains. If you have a simple chainsaw than an automatic sharpener should be sufficient.

Thousands of workers are injured each year using box cutters. To avoid injury or damage to inventory, retail workers should use caution when opening boxes and checking freight. Here is a quick guide to safely when opening a carton with a box cutter.

While working with freight and opening boxes, always keep a box cutter with a sharp blade handy. Set the carton on a flat, steady surface. Examine the box to determine the thickness of the cardboard. Thin cartons require less pressure to cut.

Caution should be taken not to damage the contents with the box cutter.

Place one hand on the box. Use the other hand to firmly hold the box cutter.

Begin cutting with the box cutter blade angled slightly upward and away from the merchandise. Cut away from your body and as close to the top of the box as possible.

Additional Tips:

With each cut, be sure that your body and clothing are not in the path of the box cutter and you should also heed the following points:

? Always wear safety glasses when using utility knives. Blades can snap off unexpectedly.

? Always use sharp blades. Dull blades are a safety hazard, requiring more force to make the cut, which can lead to tool slippage.

? Always pull the knife toward you when cutting, and make several passes when cutting thicker materials.

? To prevent slippage, make sure blades are seated properly in the knife.

? Never leave a utility knife unattended, especially with the blade exposed

You can choose from several different types of utility knives including the following:

Retractable Blade Utility Knife

This is a general-use tool designed to cut materials such as drywall, cardboard cartons, laminates and plastic. The blade retracts into body of knife for safer operation and storage. Some models have up to 3 different blade positions for different cutting depths.

Higher-end models have rubber grips and ergonomic designs for better gripping. The handles on these knives generally unscrew or swivel open to permit blade changes. Many models provide extra blade storage in the handle and some models have spring-loaded blades that automatically retract when the knife is released.

Fixed Blade Utility Knife

On these knives the blade locks between the halves of the knife to provide more blade stability than retractable models. The handle generally unscrews or swivels open to permit blade changes.

As with the retractable knives, the higher-end models have rubber grips and ergonomic designs for better gripping but unlike the retractable models, the fixed blade knives accept larger or special-purpose blades that can't retract into the handle.

Snap Blade Knife

On these knives the blade sections snap off (generally between 8 and 13 per blade) without having to open the tool to change blades. They are generally used for cutting light- and medium-duty materials such as wallpaper, rubber, vinyl and leather, or materials with adhesive backing that will stick to the blade and prevent sharp, accurate cutting.

Carpet Knife

Just like its name, the carpet knife is designed for trimming and cutting carpet and other flooring materials. It's angular design provides easier access to hard-to-reach places and many models feature retractable blades and blade storage in handle.

Precision Knife

Popular with graphic artists and hobbyists this pencil-sized tool Is used for precision cutting of lightweight materials, such as paper or poster board. It is also know as a "hobby knife" or by its trade mark name, X-Acto® knife.

These knives feature ultra-sharp blades made from surgical steel and they come in a variety of sizes in triangle and curved shapes and contain a built-in chuck to hold and secure the blades. Some models feature blade storage in the handle.

So, choose the utility knife that is appropriate to your task, and above all, use it safely heeding the tips that are contained in this article.