Recently a customer contacted us to say an employee's knife had broken after only two months of use. The customer gave no details on how this happened. Upon further investigation with the employee, it was discovered that the knife had been taken apart completely to replace the blade, making the knife both unsafe and no longer functional.
Why and how could this have happened? Lack of training!
Safety knives operate differently than your standard exposed blade utility knife, and the employee was likely unaware of how to maintain the knife. The user was either not provided with the appropriate training needed to operate a safety knife correctly or failed to read the enclosed technical data sheet supplied with each safety knife.
Knives are one of the most valuable tools in the workplace, but, at the same time, they can be one of the most dangerous. Implementing a training program is a crucial step to preventing injury and reducing costs. Typically, training for the safe use of knives should take no more than 10 minutes and can be completed individually or as a group. Some of the topics you may look to discuss during training are:
- How to identify unsafe knives
- Using safe knife practices
- How to change blades safely
- Safe disposal of blades
- Maintenance and cleaning of knives
At MARTOR Australia, our advice to employers is always to train an employee when they are provided with a new knife to use. MARTOR offers all our customers a range of FREE training materials such as technical data sheets (supplied with each knife), training posters, training videos and, our NEW toolbox talk handout on safe knife use in the workplace.
If you have a cutting problem or new staff members unfamiliar with your cutting applications, please contact us to discuss your training options. We can provide help from a safe distance so your employees can continue to work efficiently and safely.