A kitchen accident a year and a half ago left me with two numb fingers, and a reasonable fear of knives. I’m right-handed, so I wield my slicers with that hand, leaving my left to hold steady whatever is up for chopping. Unfortunately, if the knife strays, I can’t feel it — a worrisome state of affairs.
Which is why I like these tools so much.
Neither of these two are exactly like mine, but the idea is identical. Stick the tines into whatever needs cutting, and it’s easy to make uniform slices without using fingers to hold the vegetable in place. (Or the fruit — it works well for tomatoes, too.) I suspect it’s also a good choice for people who have visual impairments that make it difficult to see exactly where a knife is in relation to a vegetable.
Stainless steel makes the tines easy to clean, and indentations in the handle makes both easy to grasp. The all-stainless one, above left, is the MIU “Vegetable Carving Aid”; the wooden-handled “Onion and Tomato Holder” (right) is made by Norpro. Both are available on Amazon. I saw a similar one in a recent Williams-Sonoma catalog, but wasn’t able to locate it online.
Incidentally, potters often like this tool because it leaves uniform lines in clay. Something to think about — but mind those pointy ends when getting creative.