Chisels, knives, and the quiet majority
Machines cause the worst shop injuries; hand tools cause the most. The stitches from a slipped chisel never make the cautionary tales, but they outnumber the dramatic stories many times over — and nearly every one shares the same geometry: a body part parked in the tool's exit path.
Machines and tools vary by brand, model, and age. Your manual outranks this page — read it first.
That geometry gives you the one rule that covers every edge tool you'll ever pick up: know where the edge goes when the wood suddenly gives way. Every cut ends one of two ways — the wood yields as planned, or it yields suddenly — and the tool follows through either way. The only question is what's waiting at the end of that follow-through: air, benchtop, or you.
The chisel's version
With the work clamped, chisel discipline is mostly follow-through management: pare with the edge moving away from your body, keep the guiding hand's fingers behind the cutting edge (choking up on the blade is fine — ahead of the edge is not), and take what the wood offers. A cut that needs cheating force is telling you to take a thinner shaving or reach for the mallet.
The utility knife's version
The tool behind the most shop injuries is also the humblest one. The same rule applies three ways: cut away from yourself and from the thumb steadying the work; use a straightedge thick enough that the blade can't climb over it onto your fingers; and never pry or scrape with the tip — snap-blade segments snap sideways, and where the pieces fly is anyone's guess. Extend only the blade you need, and retract it the moment the cut ends, not when the task ends.
Sharp is safer, and it isn't a paradox
A sharp edge cuts with ounces of pressure, so your body stays relaxed, the cut stays controlled, and a slip travels an inch. A dull edge demands pounds of force, so your whole frame loads up behind it — and when the wood finally yields, all that stored push releases at once, which is how dull tools produce the deepest wounds in the shop. Sharpening is safety maintenance that happens to improve your work.
Carving toward yourself, done honestly
Whittling and detail carving genuinely can't always cut away from the body — entire grips (the pull cut, the thumb-pivot cut) work toward the carver by design. The honest answer isn't pretending otherwise; it's armor and anchoring: a carving glove on the holding hand, a leather thumb guard on the pulling one, and strokes powered by the fingers closing — not the arm swinging — so the follow-through is an inch, not a foot.
Every hand tool you'll ever own is covered by the same three questions: is the work held by something other than my hand, is everything of mine behind the edge, and where does the tool go if the wood gives way early? Ask them before every cut, until you no longer have to.