Mark Hennebury
Many years ago I read a Karate book written by Mas Oyama. At the end of the book was a section on self defence against a knife attack. With nothing to use as a sheild, Mas Oyama suggested that you can grasp and hold the knife blade quite tightly without getting cut, as long as you move your hand with the direction that the attacker is moving the knife. It is only when you move in opposition and create a slicing action that you will get get.
This I found quite fascinating.
It is quite true that to cut something with a sharp knife by pushing requires quite a lot of force on the tip, slicing requires very little. Same knife, same object being cut, slightly different approach, whole different outcome.