Is 8 too young to use a sharp knife for cooking?

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DDs who’s 8 loves helping me in the kitchen but I’ve never let her have a sharp knife yet so she uses a peeler for carrots and potatoes and has a pull string chopper but I still do anything that needs a sharp knife.

What age did you let your child use a sharp kitchen knife?

Watch Joe Wick’s latest instagram reel where his 6 year old son is chopping garlic like a ninja with a huge sharp knife.
With correct instruction and supervision, kids can use knives / saws / chisels etc from nursery school age.

Eight seems about right. Would definitely not start as toddlers.

I think 8-10 is a good age to start with very carefully supervised and monitored "risky" things - I was pondering this recently because I saw a thread on reddit where a poster approx age 16/17 was worried they were the only person ever to be afraid of lighting the gas hob, and their parents were dismissive and thought they were being precious.

It kind of made me think that I probably learnt to light a hob at a much earlier age. And DS1 apparently was learning how to build and light fires on a camping holiday and school trip aged ~8-12 (we are in Germany where they have a more old fashioned approach to risk). If you think about it, if you were going to teach something risky to children this age you'd be very thorough and careful with it and educate them fully about the hazards and what to be aware of, but by the time someone is nearly an adult, it's not something you'd think to do because you'd assume it's obvious or patronosing to tell them. And I am not sure that it is, if you live by the more modern attitude of keeping everything that could possibly cause harm away from children, then suddenly just expect them to cope with it at 18. It's like we've skipped a stage in the middle.

My 2 year old uses an adult knife with my hand on it too, my 4 year old under supervision.

By 8 I’m expecting to be able to give them a carrot and let them get on with it!

Just seems weird letting toddlers use sharp knives, even supervised. Plenty of time for that when they are a bit older.

They’ve helped us cook dinner since they were old enough to stand. First they watch/steal pepper, then they rip the food apart, then they have a toddler knife, then they get annoyed with how blunt the toddler knife is and move onto to a normal knife with my hands on it too.

Before they were old enough to stand they were in a sling or being held whilst watching the cooking.

Seems like a pretty natural progression to me. They aren’t running round the house with knives, just helping with the broccoli!

Have an 8-year-old who loves cooking things and making cups of tea and coffee. He can do pancakes from scratch.

Yes, he's touched the odd hot pan, etc., but I do the same, and I'm 40, so he'll probably never learn.

That's a really bad idea. A child or anyone needs to know how to use a knife safely.

OP if you don't already know, the hand not holding the knife should have the fingers folded so the knife side ( not the blade) brushes the knuckles.

Sharp knives are safer than blunt and 8 is more than old enough to start using one.

From about age 2 or 3. Teach them how to do it safely with bridge technique and closely supervise with very strict rules in place about only using knives with supervision.

A sharp knife is safer than a blunt one.