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Dan Sheehan
11-08-2011, 2:12 AM
So I finally went to the emergency room for treatment related to Neanderthal woodworking.

Completely wound-up about some personal issues, I retreated to my basement shop to blow off some steam and practise some joinery. Frustrated with my inadequate workbench and annoyed by the por lighting, I adopted some "unorthodox" work holding techniques to speed things up a bit. Then I sliced open my left forearm with a newly sharpened 1/4 inch chisel that left a museum quality 1 1/2" gash.

I hardly felt a thing but the blood and gore were hard to ignore. The ER staff admired both the straight clean cut and my duct-tape first aid. Two hours and four stiches later I am here to tell you, the woodworker's state of mind is as important and anything else in the shop.

The good news is that it could easily have been much worse, and I'll be the wiser from now on: It doesn't matter what you know... matters what you do.

But you already knew this. So did I....

Jim Koepke
11-08-2011, 2:32 AM
Good to hear you are Okay and that you see this as an experience to increase your wisdom.

jtk

John Coloccia
11-08-2011, 7:46 AM
It's funny....I've ended up in the ER due to chisel slips too. The staff always mentions how clean the cut it. "It looks like a scalpel incision. What did you cut yourself with??" And I beam with pride....as they stitch me up.

It is a sickness.

Chris Griggs
11-08-2011, 7:52 AM
It's funny....I've ended up in the ER due to chisel slips too. The staff always mentions how clean the cut it. "It looks like a scalpel incision. What did you cut yourself with??" And I beam with pride....as they stitch me up.

It is a sickness.

Too funny John! We Neander woodworkers are some sick folks.

Jim Belair
11-08-2011, 8:17 AM
Thanks for the reminder Dan. Hope you heal quickly.

Zach Dillinger
11-08-2011, 9:13 AM
Ayup, sharp things will bite you if your mind is somewhere else, no matter if they are electron powered or alcohol powered. Hope you heal quickly and get back down in the shop. You did clean the blood off the chisel, right? Blood will rust that sucker right quick.

Derek Gilmer
11-08-2011, 9:27 AM
At least you know your sharpening technique is up to snuff.

george wilson
11-08-2011, 9:43 AM
Chisels are the MOST dangerous of hand tools. They can cut nerves so easily. And,I have cut myself several times with HAND tools,but only once with a table saw when I was 21. Got away with it,too,luckily!!(no permanent damage!) Since your hands are in much more intimate contact with hand tools,it is easier to cut yourself. Plus,you are not in as guarded a state of mind with hand tools.

John Coloccia
11-08-2011, 10:52 AM
Speak of the devil. Guess where I'm sitting right now. Razor blade took be out this time. :::sigh:::

Derek Gilmer
11-08-2011, 10:58 AM
Speak of the devil. Guess where I'm sitting right now. Razor blade took be out this time. :::sigh:::

You've earned a pair of:
212364

Dale Cruea
11-08-2011, 11:49 AM
After numerous cuts to various parts of my body with hand tools of various types. I have developed a mantra that I try to pass on the my youngest son that is getting into woodworking.
"Always keep body parts behind the cutting edge".

Dan, Glad to hear you are OK.
I understand the importance of mental frame of mind in the work shop.
If I am not thinking of woodworking I play Solitaire for a while.

Jim Neeley
11-08-2011, 12:11 PM
Boy, Dan.. I'm glad to hear that you are OK.

I had a much smaller wake-up call about a year ago, right after I'd received my set of Shapton glass stones and a new cocobolo L-N #8. As a test I decided to test out the stones by giving the new blade "one heckuva sharpening". I know it was gross overkill but just because that plane was so purdy and I wanted to, I spent a couple of evenings honing the back couple of inches and the full bevel from 1,000 through 30,000. I know many of you could do far better and far faster but I wanted to see what it'd feel like to plane with such a blade.

Anyway, while removing the blade from my MK II and installing it in the plane I managed to get not one, but two, small cuts. The blade was so sharp I didn't even know I'd received the cuts until the blood started appearing on the sides of the blade. I thought I was being incredibly careful but obviously not... and they bled and bled and bled. Small cuts but deceptively deep.

It really drove home an old saying that I first heard from Rob Cosman: "If you keep yourself behind the blade and slip, you may need a stitch. If you permit yourself to be in front of the blade and slip, you may need flowers."

Lest any jump on the "haven't you heard of microbevels?", yes I have and use them regularly. This was a test... this was only a test. :):rolleyes::)

Jim

Jim Koepke
11-08-2011, 12:13 PM
I have developed a mantra...

I constantly think, "where are my fingers" or "what can happen if this cut slips?"

It is always when I am not being careful that a blade gets me. Fortunately for me this has been getting less often.

Maybe we should start a safety thread and see if it can reach the level of becoming a Sticky.

jtk

Dave Anderson NH
11-08-2011, 12:20 PM
Heal quickly Dan. You have given all of us a needed reminder that hand tools can do damage too. It is also important to point out that a first aid kit belongs in every shop whether hand or electric powered. I'm not talking about a few baind aids here, but rather a full first aid kit. Mine includes military "battle dressings" which are pressure dressings and in sizes up to 6" x 12" with built in ties. I hope never to use them, but they are good insurance. Remember that if you really klutz out badly and hit a major artery you can bleed out very quickly.

Martin Shupe
11-08-2011, 12:27 PM
I am glad you were not seriously hurt.

Kelly Mehler has always said that chisels are one of the most dangeroust tools in the shop.

He tells a story of a fellow woodworking who sliced up a few tendons in his hand, and was lucky to have the use of his fingers.

Kelly's rule is one that I try to follow: "always keep TWO hands on the chisel". If two hands are behind the chisel blade, then there isn't anything in front to get hurt.

Bill White
11-08-2011, 12:49 PM
Sounds like an excuse to buy Kevlar gloves. Get well.
Bill

Joel Goodman
11-08-2011, 1:01 PM
My stupidest moment was when I was advising my son to be careful as "this chisel is very sharp" and not watching where the sharp edge was -- it was cutting my arm at the same time! Fortunately not as bad as yours. Thanks for sharing -- it's a good reminder for us all.

David Weaver
11-08-2011, 1:03 PM
Haven't caught a chisel yet, have always been wary of them.

But I did accidentally drop a wet straight razor about a month ago and in an attempt to yank my hand out of the way of it falling, caught it as my hand was heading up and it was heading down, filleted part of my index finger. Luckily straight razors are not that heavy.

It is amazing how fast a straight clean cut will heal, as long as all of the tissue is still there and nothing gets "chunked" out.

I did catch a ryoba coming out of a cut one time when I was trying to rip 8/4 oak. Right in the thumb of my non-sawing hand, which was stabilizing the board well below the cut. That went in right to the bone, and the cut was not quite so neat as a chisel cut. The inexpensive induction hardened japanese saws of any quality at all have extremely sharp teeth (the "sharp tooth" western saws at home depot, not so much).

Anything sharp in the shop can get you if you don't figure out ahead of time where it's going if it comes out of the cut.

daniel lane
11-08-2011, 1:04 PM
Dan and John, glad you're okay. I've always said that it's not really a project unless I bleed, but I've made it this long with nothing major (no stitches). My hands have several scars to which I refer by lesson: "Don't push on a wrench," and "don't push on a screwdriver" at the two largest. Heal fast, both of you, and get back to making shavings!


After numerous cuts to various parts of my body with hand tools of various types. I have developed a mantra that I try to pass on the my youngest son that is getting into woodworking.
"Always keep body parts behind the cutting edge".

I always irritated the crap out of my scoutmaster by referring to this lesson as, "always cut towards the other guy" but humor aside, I live that lesson every day and try to pass along the wisdom. Has saved me several times when there's been a slip.



daniel

Jim Belair
11-08-2011, 1:39 PM
Anything sharp in the shop can get you if you don't figure out ahead of time where it's going if it comes out of the cut.

Ahead of time is the key and applies equally to using a chisel, a saw , or cutting drywall with a utility knife. In industry we called these "line of fire" injuries.

george wilson
11-08-2011, 5:04 PM
I recall someone in the furniture conservation shop instinctively grabbing for a freshly sharpened knife from a Lion miter trimmer that he dropped just after honing. Did him a bit of no good,as the Brits say!!!

Chris Griggs
11-08-2011, 5:27 PM
I recall someone in the furniture conservation shop instinctively grabbing for a freshly sharpened knife from a Lion miter trimmer that he dropped just after honing. Did him a bit of no good,as the Brits say!!!

When I first got into woodworking I did that with a chisel on a few occasions - it can be really hard to stop oneself. Luckily I always escaped with pretty minor cuts.
I've since learned to put things in places where they won't roll of my bench to prevent the situation from presenting itself - trying to catch one of your nice tools is a tough instinct to fight in the moment.

I'll add that i think the the single tool I have cut myself with more than any other is a marking knife - it took me quite a while to learn how to hold down a straight edge and keep my fingers out of the path of the blade.

daniel lane
11-08-2011, 8:47 PM
When I first got into woodworking I did that with a chisel on a few occasions - it can be really hard to stop oneself.

I used to have this problem in general, until the day I moved to catch a falling XActo knife while sitting down. It fell into my lap and stuck vertically into my leg; I just looked at it and said, "that was stupid." Luckily, such cuts are quite clean and easy to close. I haven't done anything like it since, and in fact have developed a good instinct of quickly jumping out of the way to avoid falling sharp objects!


daniel

James Taglienti
11-08-2011, 9:42 PM
I remember thinking once that I bumped my hand with the side of a chisel... (close call, i thought ) Until a few seconds later when i flexed my thumb, the whole back of it "unzipped" from one knuckle to the other, right before my eyes! What a shock! When i got back from the hospital, i drilled my bench for dogs and put a good vise on it, and resolved to always work away from myself, with no hands in the path of the tools. I know that when paring especially i tend to get dangerous... I have found that locking my shoulder and elbow, and just flexing my wrist and fingers forward, i can get a controlled cut without overreaching if the chisel mistakenly exits the cut. I hope that makes sense.

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
11-08-2011, 9:52 PM
Between woodworking, being in the kitchen, and parts of my job and other things, my natural instinct has been trained to step away and get clear of falling objects, and not reach out and grab them. Now I'm really terrible at sports.

I've gotten good at the habit of planning where the sharp thing will go if it slips - I haven't cut myself in a long while (knock on wood) but I always manage to injure myself pretty good on all the dull items in my shop. The last one was when I took a big swipe with a plane and smashed my hand into a something at the end of the stroke. I lost a lot of movement in that hand for a while.

Brian Vaughn
11-09-2011, 12:13 PM
I too have (Through bad experiences) developed the cat-like instinct to no longer grab, reach, or attempt to slow a falling object. My failures have far outweighed the successes, and I have plenty of scars to prove it. But for me, it's been the close calls that have affected me the most. I knocked a pair of scissors off the counter one day, and heard them hit the floor but not bounce. When I looked down, they had stuck perfectly vertical in the wooden floor.

However, I tend to injure myself even when I'm doing things the right way...case and point, I can't count the number of times I have cut myself on the sides or corners of a chisel blade. Nowhere near the end, but still sharp if your hand moves at all. I've also cut myself on the back side of a saw...that's right, not the sharp edge, the blunted one. But I have never plunged a chisel into my hand (Since I was 13 or so). I've never lost a digit, or even had to get stitches from a woodworking accident, so if some minor bleeders are the price I pay, I can take that...besides, it adds character to a piece ;)

David Keller NC
11-09-2011, 12:53 PM
One aspect of this that often trips up beginners to the hand-tool side of things is that a proper workbench is not only a good-to-have, it's a must-have. What I say to beginners (often bringing a look of dissapointment) is that if you can't afford to construct a proper workbench, you can't afford to do hand-tool woodworking - for exactly the reason you descibe.

Bill Moser
11-09-2011, 6:48 PM
Chisels are definitely the most dangerous tools in the Neander workshop. Socket chisels add yet another dimension - watch out for the blade/handle separation at the most inappropriate moments. I've always been careful to keep my body parts behind a chisel when using it. But I've had a couple of surprises when the handle came loose as I was picking a chisel up to bring it to/from the work. I thought I was safe after the hairspray trick, but no such luck. Always keep your guard up, those chisels are out to get us all :D

Charles McKinley
11-09-2011, 9:56 PM
Glad you are OK. Here I thought I was going to hear about a new toy that put a serious dent on the wallet. A gash to the arm is no way near as much fun.

Dan Sheehan
11-10-2011, 11:09 AM
As usual, David, you strike at the heart of the matter.