'Rounded blades will save lives' says expert
Experts are calling on more schemes to replace pointed kitchen knives with rounded blades
Last updated 13th May 2025
Experts have told us lives will be saved if more households were to have rounded blades instead of pointed kitchen knives.
It comes after we were given exclusive access into a first-of-its-kind scheme, run by Kent Police, which offers those who've suffered the devastating consequences of stabbings - and vulnerable families - the chance to exchange their domestic knives for one with a blunted end.
Professor Leisa Nichols-Drew, from De Montfort University, has spent years researching the safety of rounded knives, and she believes deaths and injuries will be reduced, if new tactics, like those used by Kent Police to tackle knife crime - get rolled out across the country.
She said: "We found that a pointed tip kitchen knife caused the greatest damage to any clothing, and the only knife that didn't penetrate the garments, in all the experiments we did, was a rounded knife.
"This is significant because for the first time we could connect the fact that regardless of the length on the blade, it comes down to the shape of the knife's tip and whether that implement will penetrate that fabrics surface.
"Therefore, the likelihood of injury is severely reduced and we can say the rounded knife will save lives."
In the most recent data, by the home office, kitchen knives were use in two-thirds of all fatal stabbings between March 2023 and April 2024, meaning two people were killed every week by pointed domestic knives.
In contrast, zombie knives, samurai swords, and Rambo knives accounted for only 12.7% of such homicides.
This is why Professor Nichols-Drew, and the 'Safer Knives Group' is calling for a range of policy amendments such as shops removing of all their pointed knives from their shelves, storing them securely behind a counter.
She said: "Knives are there as a kitchen tool, to help us prepare food but unfortunately we know in a situation such as an altercation those pointed knives go from being a utility tool to a weapon in an instant and that's what we are trying to prevent.
"It's time to make our kitchens safer, rounded knives will absolutely save lives, and if I can help one person, to stop them from being injured, then that has to totally be worth it."