Possible Clues:

• Anchor, getting out of fine mess and into predicament
• What the chef uses in a tense situation?
• Wound fringe to a critical point
• It could be ground where games are finely balanced
• One's precariously balanced here on side of cutter
• Point that's critical about, say, writing material to limit what's eaten
• Tense situation for example with fluid about to smother fuel
• Precise fulcrum
• Very narrow boundary
• Narrow ridge, a perilous place on which to be