Midnight Manor Private Residence, Saturday Evening

[pocketpretzels]

Having made the decision to do an actual Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, Watts was spending a significant portion of today repeatedly herding a cat out of the kitchen making some of the dishes ahead of time. Like the dinner rolls which were currently cooling on the counter.

Humming a song as he worked, he was currently chopping apples for tomorrow's dessert.

Though part of him was also wondering if perhaps some butter tarts might not go awry. He'd even found a vegan recipe. Was two desserts too many?

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

He wasn’t that bad, Marc, oh my god. Hence the slightly exasperated look as he handed over the knife. Handle first, yes.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc simply quirked his eyebrows up to show he wasn't assuming anything.

"First up, you want a sharp blade," Marc said. "A dull blade is a dangerous blade. Do you know how to test it?"

[pocketpretzels]

“Other than attempting to use it and hope it gets the job done?” Watts asked. “Not in the least.”

[hasaknightjob]

"Piece of paper works," Marc said. He rummaged through the drawers until he found a spare note pad. He tore a piece of paper off of it and held it up. "Okay, watch. See how I'm holding the knife? 45 degree angle? If it cuts the paper we're good. If it catches, it's dull."

[pocketpretzels]

“All right,” Watts said, watching curiously.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc made a slice in the paper, going slow enough that Watts could watch. "Okay. See? That's fairly smooth. Doesn't hurt to hone them every time you use them though. Let me worry about making sure all our blades are sharp."

[pocketpretzels]

“Is it possible to over-sharpen something?” Watts wondered.

[hasaknightjob]

"Sharpen, yeah," Marc said. He put the paper to the side to get it out of the way. "Honing the problem would be if you did it wrong. So maybe I should make taking care of that one of my chores for a while. Let's get you learning how to cut first and then we can get into taking care of the blade."

Especially because if Watts didn't have the right coordination for cutting, honing could be a recipe for sliced hands.

[pocketpretzels]

“No use putting the cart before the horse,” Watts nodded.

[hasaknightjob]

"Now if you were fighting with a knife we'd be doing different lessons," Marc said. Not that he figured Watts would ever want to, but all the same didn't hurt to establish some guidelines in case of emergency. "What we're focusing on here is dealing with food without hurting yourself."

Marc handed the knife back to Watts, handle first. "Show me how you hold it."

[pocketpretzels]

The answer was ‘awkwardly’; essentially, Watts was making a fist around the knife, his thumb resting overtop his middle and ring fingers.

[hasaknightjob]

Well that started to answer some questions. "Okay, hold on. I guess literally."

Marc went to get himself a knife of similar size to the one Watts was using. He held it in his left while demonstrating what he was talking about with his right. "You're controlling the blade. Not the handle, the blade. Where's the most control in your hand?"

Marc pinched his thumb and index finger together. "Here, right? You want to pick something up, you're most likely to use these fingers?"

Marc was asking because he wanted to be sure. As far as he knew Watts didn't have any problems with his hands, but it didn't hurt to check.

[pocketpretzels]

No problems with his hands, just the way he gripped things like utensils and writing implements.

"I... suppose, yes?" Watts said. "I've never given it much thought."

[hasaknightjob]

"Okay, so you want to get those two fingers as close to here as you're comfortable with," Marc said. He moved his knife back to his right hand to demonstrate. "This is one hold. It's a fist like you were doing but see how my thumb is higher? It's touching the index finger. Try that one, see how it feels."

[pocketpretzels]

"Odd," Watts decided, sliding his thumb up to mimic Marc's grip. "It feels odd."

[hasaknightjob]

"Try this one then," Marc said. He adjusted his hand so that his index finger and thumb were at the base of the blade instead of around the handle. "Might be better. This one has more control."

[pocketpretzels]

"That's still- it may just be because I am unaccustomed to it," Watts admitted. "But it doesn't feel right."

[hasaknightjob]

"They'll both feel weird until you get used to it," Marc said, "but which one felt better?"

[pocketpretzels]

"The second one," Watts said, after thinking about it for a moment. "Which is strange- the first one is closer to what I am accustomed to, you'd think it would be the other way around."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's why I showed it to you," Marc said. "But the second has more control, which you might be picking up on. See?"

Marc held out his arm, still holding his knife, and tapped his forearm with his left hand to indicate the places he was talking about. "Solid. Straight line from my arm to my wrist to the knife. That's going to make it easier to keep the blade where I want it."

[pocketpretzels]

"I see," Watts said, slowly making a chopping motion with the hand holding the knife to see how it felt.

[hasaknightjob]

"Good," Marc said. He then got a spare cutting board and put it in front of him so Watts could see that easily too. "Next up, we're not moving it much. We're going for a rocking motion where the knife stays in the same spot the whole time. Like this."

Marc demonstrated, showing how the knife he held stayed above the exact same spot on the cutting board even as it rocked up and down.

[pocketpretzels]

"That is not at all how I do it," Watts admitted. He usually lifted the knife all the way off the board with each cut.

[hasaknightjob]

"Most people don't," Marc told him. "But you see how this is safer? Less chance of you cutting yourself instead of the food. Also we're letting the blade do the work. Whatever you're doing, let the tools do the job as much as possible. That's what they're for."

[pocketpretzels]

"The logic there is- sound," Watts agreed.