I was filleting some sardines last week, and thinking about how I was holding my knife. The classic instruction is to hold your knife as you would a songbird, not so tightly as to crush it, not so loosely as to let it fly away. This pearl is usually handed down during your first week in the kitchen, when the only food you’re touching is vegetables, ideally ones which will later be mashed, and it’s the first and last thing many people ever hear about how to hold a knife.
Very interesting. I hold a knife with delicate precision and just enough pressure to succeed in my task. That's all.