sharp chisels... too sharp :(

Chisels collect more blood than the Red Cross, ask any woodworker.

Greg

I dropped a freshly sharpened 1/4" chisel. It was on its way to hitting point first on the concrete floor. But I was fast and I reacted without thinking (obviously). I quickly raised my leg up and stopped it with my thigh. And it only went in about an inch.

Preston

sharpening a kitchen knife once... got it nice and sharp... shifting hands, dropped it. automatically grabbed for the handle... missed. took the edge in the web between forefinger and thumb. heavy, quality

Ouch. I learned about quick, unthinking reflexes at Parris Island. Dropped my razor while shaving one morning. Caught it, and laid the palm of my hand open for a couple inches. Not deep, but painful. Went from there to a couple days pugil stick practice, where I got my right thumb dislocated (popped right back in with the assistance of a drill instructor who liked seeing the boots' eyes widen) trying to avoid getting that hand hit. The next day, we had hand-to-hand-combat training. Next several days, in fact.

I've never forgotten, of course, and even my reflexes remembered.

Charlie Self "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." Mark Twain

And it ain't just the obvious scary sharp edge that can get you!

Two examples of less than obvious dangers - BOTH with a Wilson beefy mortising chisel (the ones Steve Knight use to carry)

1. Initial mortise cut - left hand holding the chisel down at the cutting end - Right On The Line - thumb and middle finger touching the stock, right hand swinging the nice big wood mallet. First blow drove the chisel into the wood - pinching my flesh - between the intersection of the bevel face and the side face of the chisel and the wood. That bevel face/side face edge is nice and square AND sharp. It does cut - wood, and flesh. It's supposed to cut wood - contrary to those who bevel the edges of their mortising chisels. It's not supposed to cut flesh.
2. Chopping down approaching the bottom of the tenon - drove the chisel in and it stuck. Tug - nothing. Yank - nothing. Foot on the board, both hands grabbing the chisel handle white knuckled, biceps, triceps, latissumus dorsi contracting - chisel pulls out finally - accelerating - as its handle approached - my chin. There's a point on the chin, referred to in boxing as "the button", which, when struck, will cause the strikee to literally see stars. This one hit hard enough to see several galaxies. Were it not for the padding of my beard it would probably have been a knock out blow - right on the button.

So many sharp edges - such a limited amount of blood - relatively speaking.

charlie b

That reminds me of some old Army electronics instructor saying if you drop your soldering iron, don't try to catch it..some did and a lesson was learned.

Philski

Prest> I dropped a freshly sharpened 1/4" chisel. It was on its way to hitting

Super glue! On a somewhat related subject, I wouldn't recommend it for a deep cut though.

I have perfected my sharpening of carving gouges to the point that razors hide their heads in shame. As a result I also find myself bleeding from all sorts of places getting them to and from the tool rolls.

Seems like it's always in a painful slow to heal place. So, having gobs of CA for my model planes, I started gluing myself back together again, so to speak.

Asked my doctor if this was sane and he said sure, or you can spend ten times as much and buy the same thing from a rock climbers supply store.

Philski wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cableoneCanThis.net:

Do NOT hold your soldering iron up in front of your nose to see if it is hot yet - DAMHIKT.

Jerry

Lesson #2 Keep first aid stuff AT HAND in the shop.

I try to never be more than a few steps from a first aid kit...and I have several of them spread out though the house and garages.

Lesson #3 Carry a phone WITH you in the shop. SWMBO may or may not be able to hear you yell.

My dad went to the basement a few days ago...very hard of hearing and uses oxygen, but he was just going to be puttering around. A pipe clamp fell and caught him on the thumb and index finger of the right hand. Lost a lot of blood that he can not afford to lose and my mom wasn't due home for 3 hours. Thankfully, mom got off work early and was able to call 911.

Dad's going to be OK and he now carries a phone with him that has my cell phone number programed in. If I get a call from their house and no one says anything, I can be there in 5 minutes.

Now I just need to hope that I never get that call.

Luck

Mike

At least you did it to yourself. When our firstborn was a wee tyke we used to put her in her baby seat on the end of the kitchen counter while we prepared meals (it was a large kitchen and well away from the stove or sink). Once I turned around and caught her daintily inspecting a (sharp) paring knife. I jumped reflexively, grabbed the knife by the handle and quickly drew the dangerous object away from our precious one, leaving a nasty gash across her palm and a look of disbelief on her face. SWMBO almost forgave me until about a week later when her hand hand swelled up with an infection and her fever peaked at 104! Took a while to put THAT one behind us.

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 08:14:04 GMT, "Groggy" scribbled:

My only woodworking scar is 1" long on the pad of my thumb (i.e., the fleshy part on the hand). From a dull chisel though. I was trying carve a piece of wood that I was holding in my hand, 14 years old at the time. Dumb.

Luigi Note the new email address. Please adjust your krillfiles (tmAD) accordingly Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

Well, at least you only hurt your thumb. I shudder to think what could have happened while you were counting nose hairs :^)

JK

tmbg wrote:

I can only think of two woodworking scars. I acquired both of them last year.

One is on my left ring finger, the segment of the finger where the wedding ring lives. I poked a freshly-sharpened 1/4" chisel into that, spawning the "we look like chicken inside" thread. That one scarred, but not much.

The other, the middle segment of my left index finger has a diagonal scar. Looking at the palm side, divide the finger into quarters from palm to fingertip. The scar runs from the leftmost quarter all the way around to the middle of the back side of the finger. I did that one *guillotining* a backsaw into my finger when I slipped while showing my son how to cut a M&T joint. The work slipped in the vise, and the saw swung down in an arc, catching my off hand as it hung innoncently at my side. That one scarred big. I still haven't figure out how the hell I managed to do that to myself. I guess next time I'll have to put my off hand behind my back.

That's a strange coincidence. I had to go to the hospital on Sunday because my hand slipped while using a chisel and I made a very deep cut into my thumb. I guess I was lucky the chisel was sharp because the flap of skin layed right down and with pressure there was minimal bleeding. They used a type of super glue on the thumb to keep it sealed for a few days. So, been there, don't want to do that again. I felt stupid for making such a blunder. But it happens. Anyone else cut themselves within the last few days?

Jim Moyseenko snipped-for-privacy@osu.edu

Thankfullly I have never(yet) cut myself with a chisel due in large measure to my first woodworking instructor who, upon noticing someone praticing poor technique, remarked: "Remember, if that chisel slips it's probably not stopping until it hits bone!!" A particulalry vivid picture and safety reminder.

That's all too true... fortunately my chisel stopped when it hit the table, unfortunately there was an inch of muscle in between...

got my tetanus booster this morning. Nurse said I may or may not regain feeling in the end of my thumb.

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 11:17:44 -0500, Silvan scribbled:

Yup, I remember washing off enough blood in the sink to see the meat. White meat it was.

En garde! Fencing against the dreaded tenon using a scie à dos. Sorry, that's the image that immediately came to mind when I read the last line of your riposte. :-)

Luigi Note the new email address. Please adjust your krillfiles (tmAD) accordingly Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

if it was sharper it would not hurt (G) my sister cut herself passed out on the floor and was snoring with her eyes open. funny as hell (G)