Ow :( But surely your chopping technique might be as much to blame as the knife? Next time you're cutting something rapidly, try doubling over the fingers holding it down to the board, so that your knuckle rather than your fingertip is closest to the knife. This is a chef trick to stop you cutting off the end of your finger when chiffonading lettuce or whatever. It feels awkward at first, but does enable you to snatch your hand away faster and minimise injury. Much easier to demonstrate than to describe...
I'm sure you're right that there are chopping techniques that wouldn't cause this problem. But I've tried to develop them before, and find myself gradually falling back into old habits sooner or later. I was very careful with onions for several years after the 2009 incident, but last night shows that it didn't last forever :-/ So a technological fix seems more likely to be reliable, in my case.
Fair enough. I really like mandolins for cutting rapidly and evenly, but if you catch yourself on them they are a lot more vicious than knives. Brilliant for when you have to cut 3kg of cucumbers for pickle or a buffet, though.
What's your onion-chopping algorithm? I've had fewer mishaps since I started leaving the root end on the onion right up to the end of the process, since it holds the various layers together.
I was also wondering about turning the half-onion over so that I'm cutting into the flat side rather than the sloping side that a blade can slide down.
However, since I'm trying to reduce my accident rate from a current level of one every few years, it might take a while before I find out whether a new technique really helps, or just feels as if it stands to reason that it ought to :-)
This. Also, make sure your knife is really sharp. A sharp knife needs to exert less pressure to cut, which reduces the risk of either the knife or the onion slipping. Also, cuts from sharp knives hurt less and heal better.
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I was also wondering about turning the half-onion over so that I'm cutting into the flat side rather than the sloping side that a blade can slide down.
However, since I'm trying to reduce my accident rate from a current level of one every few years, it might take a while before I find out whether a new technique really helps, or just feels as if it stands to reason that it ought to :-)