There’s a dull knife in my kitchen kit. I use it for peeling because it’s safer than using a sharp knife. If I slip it’ll rub my skin, but not break it. A sharpened kitchen knife might need stitches.

Any cast iron lovers? A dull knife is great for scraping cast iron cookware clean. Or if I need to reseason the cast iron, it’s no problem to aggressively scrape down to the iron. You could use a sharp knife, but you’ll have to resharpen it after every use.

Dull knives make for a cute little pry tool, and for scoring alignment grooves when disassembling parts.

Dull knives are not intrinsically unsafe; using any knife without respecting its dense materials and blade sharpness is a recipe for injury. Cuts usually come down to inexperience, distraction, or poor physical conditioning. If one has to exert force in a less controlled fashion—due to hand/arm/shoulder/back/neck weakness/stiffness—that overexertion transfers to the blade and yields ineffectual knifework anyway. Physical ability is important!

Knife practice makes perfect.

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