What age would a child have to be for you to let them use a sharp knife?

8–10.

5+

With supervision, my child was more than responsible enough by age five.

6 with supervision; both of my boys were in kitchen with supervision at 6 using knives and helping cook simple things.

2.

10.

Do I like the kid?

I remember my brother being given a pocket knife age 5. We lived on a farm, so it was practical then.
Being a girl, I was expected to never need a knife except in the kitchen.

Supervised, five. Unsupervised would depend on how they do with it on a consistent basis.

Agree with @Dutchess_III I used hobby- and exacto knives at age 10 and 11. But it depends on if the child is mature enough and knowlegable enough to use the knife.

When I was six, I was using a cheese knife to cut cardboard. It wasn’t a very sharp knife, so I guess that was my otherwise sensible parents’ reasoning.

But it slipped, and I cut a 2-inch gash about an inch from my eye, in the eye socket. Wow.
I am not exaggerating how close this was,

Pretty sure I had a pocket knife by 8

Probably depends more on individual temperament and dexterity than age.

Generally speaking, 2–3 for hand over hand, 4–5 with supervision, 6–7 should be fine on their own.

Actually…looking at the picture again, that knife looks pretty sharp. I was thinking more like a steak knife. (Which I consider to be sharp.)

For the knife pictured, probably a bit older?

Depended totally on if they were competent, sensible & confident in doing so.
In other words, if they were the sharpest knife in the box, which they were.

Depends on the child. Maybe around 8 years old. A friend of mine recently wrote on Facebook that she just realized her 10 year old daughter had never used a knife. I assume she meant sharp knife? 10 seemed a little old to me to use a knife for the first time.

I’m thinking mostly in terms of cutting food.

If it’s for a hobby I don’t know. I guess it’s the same.

A little off topic, but a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one. When a knife is dull you have to exert more pressure, so it’s more likely to slip.

I beg to differ, if you put yourself in the line of fire a sharp knife will cause far more damage. Those words of wisdom are nonsense.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I know 10 members of the local woodcarvers, rule #1 in group; keep your tools sharp.

@ARE_you_kidding_me do you use and handle tools ? Asking for a friend.!

Yes I do and I work with wood and I keep my cutting tools extremely sharp. A dull tool does not do it’s job well but if you are stupid and put yourself in the line of fire a sharp tool will cause more damage if you screw up and cut yourself.

I agree with that it depends on the child.

My little twin sisters (7 years old) are completely obsessed with the horror genre so…I would never want them anywhere near knives. :o

Are we measuring danger by frequency or intensity?

The likelihood of your hand slipping is higher with a dull tool. But a sharp tool would probably do more damage.