Comment by throwaway889900
3 days ago
Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather teach how to use a knife safely? And a cut from a blade is a lesson to be learned, hopefully only once.
Edit: Oh and if anyone's looking for the tool name, it's called a nibbler. This one is just table-mounted, there are power tool and unpowered versions ofc.
You can introduce this way before you can trust a kid with a knife sharp enough to cut cardboard and they can use it way more independently.
Exactly, you're basically telling them you can't build stuff until you're 8+. Which coincidentally is around the age they'd lose interest
There are other tools you can safely use as a young kid and young kids can use knives etc they just need a lot of supervision and instruction. Hand saws are relatively safe compared to box cutters for example, they're unlikely to cut super deep but working with wood is a lot harder and more expensive. The cardboard hand tools mentioned elsewhere in the comments here are neat though they look like they work pretty well without having any sharp edges.
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> And a cut from a blade is a lesson to be learned, hopefully only once.
A cut from a simple blade (that can't chop your finger off) can be anything from easily healed to going through just the right part to limit the dexterity for life if you're unlucky. There's lots of time to learn using a sharp knife when they have great fine motor skills already.