Am I more clumsy than average?

[Steven Mikes]

I keep "discovering" small cuts on my hands. My tools are sharp enough that I don't feel when I cut myself, I usually only notice them the next day when they hurt a little. I think chisels and shoulder plane are the usual culprits. Is this pretty normal or am I just being clumsy?

[Gerald Schram]

happens to me almost every day at work. ill look down and see blood on the ground or on a piece of wood ill be like where did that come from. jerry

[David Eisenhauer]

My nicks seem to come most when I use the Stanley 70-something-or-other rabbeting plane. I have also nicked myself a couple-three times when reaching my off hand towards a freshly sharpened chisel I am holding and accidently bumping a finger on the reaching hand against the tip or corner of the blade. I do know how to get a chisel sharp and have that old-mans skin that will bleed if looked at harshly. And you are correct - a shoulder plane has that tiny little corner of the blade (the side running against the shoulder) that is exposed. I'm calling it normal...........not clumsy..........never...........ever.

[Mike Henderson]

I have the same thing happen. I usually notice when I see blood on a piece of wood. If anyone wanted a sample of my DNA, all they'd have to do is come to my shop.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

I notice as I get older, nicks and cuts come easier. A project doesn't seem to go by without a small blood donation here or there. I give blood on almost every project.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, little nicks seem to be an age-related issue. Hair and nails and skin all are pretty much the same stuff, and it doesn't work as well as we age. Hair gets thinner, nails break more often, and skin seems not quite as puncture-resistant as it used to be.

[Frederick Skelly]

Happens every single time I use an edged tool. I keep bandaids in my plane till.

[lowell holmes]

I almost cut the end of my thumb of on the table saw one time. I still have numbness in it.
Use push sticks when ripping.

There is an article in the February issue of Fine Woodworking about Safe Ripping on the TABLESAW.

[William Fretwell]

Totally normal Stephen, not sure about Frederick..........

[Andrew Hughes]

I almost chopped a toe off when my Mortice chisel fell out if the handle. It's been so dry here this winter I've noticed a lot of loose handles. Plus I am clumsy and have bad luck.:(

[ken hatch]

If I'm not bleeding I ain't working. Pretty simple.

ken

[James Pallas]

Just part of the territory. I get cut by the sharp edges of wood as often as edge tools. Sharp tools make sharp edges so the dangers are surrounding you in all directions.
Jim

[David Eisenhauer]

Pay them no mind Frederick. I recently added a Band Aid supply to my shop after finding some that will actually stick in place.

[Frederick Skelly]

Totally normal Stephen, not sure about Frederick..........

Owwwwww! :D

Thanks David!

[Bill McNiel]

Pay them no mind Frederick. I recently added a Band Aid supply to my shop after finding some that will actually stick in place.

Which ones are those, David?

[David Eisenhauer]

I will have to check the brand tomorrow am Bill and report back. Shop is separate from the house, down the slippery slope, its dark and cold out there.

[Franklin Ferrier]

It took me a while to realize I was cutting myself on the long edge of my chisels after I flattened the backs. The sharp square corners can cut, not just the leading edge!.

[john zulu]

There could be sharp burrs on the tools you are using. I don't have that issue. You can knock them down.

[david beck]

I finally got fed up with bandaids and now use tiny finger condums, sorry i dont have a clue what they are called really. They work slick(similiar to using rubber gloves) just slide them on and no blood. Then i can clean it later if needed. I still think its funny when you get a set of flex cut tools they come with a bandaid dispenser lol

[David Eisenhauer]

3M Nexcare Active - Waterproof Bandages. I have a pack of the flesh colored ones in the shop, but I believe they may also come in transparent. Wife says the transparent ones are better. They stick to your fingers and can withstand some light hand washing.

[Ted Phillips]

I also keep bandaids in my tool box - along with some CA glue.

This thread reminds me of one of my favorite "shop wisdom" sayings:

"A falling knife has no handle."

[Peter Christensen]

Sounds like there is a need for flesh sensing technology that will retract the cutting edges of planes, chisels, awls and for some of us,,,,,,,,,, sharp pencils. :rolleyes:

[Marshall Harrison]

We don't knick ourselves more when we get older. Its just that a lot of the knicks our bodies used to absorb and shake off now inflict damage. Our skin seems to thin out as we get older and for those on blood thinners there is more bruising and bleeding.

[Patrick Chase]

I finally got fed up with bandaids and now use tiny finger condums, sorry i dont have a clue what they are called really.

Finger cots. I use those sometimes to cover super-glued cuts so that I don't get an awesome-looking mix of crusted cyanoacrylate and swarf all over my hands.

[Patrick Chase]

It took me a while to realize I was cutting myself on the long edge of my chisels after I flattened the backs. The sharp square corners can cut, not just the leading edge!.

I "break" those edges with emery paper. Only the first <1" actually needs to be sharp.

That is why everybody recommends "pinching" chisels between thumb and forefinger instead of wrapping your hands around them.

[Patrick Chase]

There could be sharp burrs on the tools you are using. I don't have that issue. You can knock them down.

Scalpels don't have "sharp burrs" and yet somehow they seem to draw blood. Burrs certainly make things worse, though, by vastly reducing the amount of pressure required to break skin in a slicing cut.

[Patrick Chase]

I almost cut the end of my thumb of on the table saw one time. I still have numbness in it.
Use push sticks when ripping.

There is an article in the February issue of Fine Woodworking about Safe Ripping on the TABLESAW.

I have never (knock on wood) drawn blood with a power tool. Hand tools, all the time. It just comes with the territory, probably because you have to supply cutting force with your hands and so it simply isn't possible to isolate yourself from the cut the way you can with, say, a table saw.

In my experience proper use of riving knives and push sticks covers about 99.9% of tablesaw injuries. Everybody I know of who's had unfortunate outcomes with a table saw (including the fellow who severed and had his fingers reattached twice - perhaps a hint that it's time for a new hobby) has messed up one or both of those.

Of course the SawStop in the wood shop here at work goes through a cartridge/blade roughly once every week or two, so there would appear to be a LOT of people out there with questionable safety practices.

[Jim Koepke]

Of course the SawStop in the wood shop here at work goes through a cartridge/blade roughly once every week or two, so there would appear to be a LOT of people out there with questionable safety practices.

That says it right there, it is the way one practices safety and not letting one's mind wander around sharp tools. Usually my only cuts come from not paying attention. My worst practice is likely been one of my habits since childhood, running my finger across a blade to judge its sharpness. It is run ~90º to the edge, never in the same direction as the edge. This has never resulted in cutting myself. In the last few years, after sharpening a knife, removing some debris from the edge was done wrong in a moment of inattention which did result in a cut.

The tool most likely to release a bit of my blood is a rabbet or shoulder plane. It is a lot of work to break my habit of slapping the bottom of a plane to dislodge shavings. Recently my attempt at breaking that habit has me using a small paint brush to dislodge shavings.

jtk

[Jay Larson]

It took me a while to realize I was cutting myself on the long edge of my chisels after I flattened the backs. The sharp square corners can cut, not just the leading edge!.

This is how I get little slices on my index fingers. I ended up taking an old sharpening stone to the corners an inch above the edge.

A timely thread, as I need to replenish my stock of band-aids in the shop. Just used the last one when I caught a sliver of ash in the web of two fingers.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Happens every single time I use an edged tool. I keep bandaids in my plane till.

^+1
Seems like it doesn't always need a tool either ... Said she, "You're bleeding, again." Said he, "All I did was walk out to the shop...(thinking)...I might have stopped to pick my nose?"

"No project is finished until it's been bled on!" - Anon.

[Patrick Chase]

The tool most likely to release a bit of my blood is a rabbet or shoulder plane. It is a lot of work to break my habit of slapping the bottom of a plane to dislodge shavings. Recently my attempt at breaking that habit has me using a small paint brush to dislodge shavings.

My favorite example of an "unfortunate safety habit" was a fellow who liked to allow his circular saw to swing down against his thigh at the end of every cut (don't ask, it sounds as insane to me as to you). This was all fine and well until the day he needed to make a cut with the guard locked up such that it didn't rotate to cover the blade at the end of the cut. It took a *lot* of sutures and stitches to put his quadriceps and miscellaneous blood vessels and connective tissues back together.

If people are stupid enough to ask me for safety advice it usually comes down to "think carefully about everything that you're doing". You can give people specific advice about riving guards and push sticks all day long, but if they're not attentive to what their bodies and tools are doing they're probably going to come up with some novel and gruesome way to mess up anyway.

Of course it's not just woodworking. I had a coworker (actually a fairly senior engineering architect) who literally amputated his own foot with a shotgun. I tried very hard to incorporate some variation of "we should be careful not to shoot our feet off here" into every subsequent engineering discussion in which he participated.

[David Eisenhauer]

It seems to me Marshall that is especially true for those of us that worked out in the sun most of our lives. I'm followed the easy-bleeding pattern as I got older that my farmer/rancher grandfather and father both went through. My forearms cannot withstand the slightest bump or scratch without bleeding or at least showing those ugly blood-below-the-skin bruises.

[David Kreuzberg]

Try adding Coumadin or Plavix to the mix....

[Franklin Ferrier]

We are getting way off topic but I'm on rivaroxaban now. Interestingly the little paper cuts don't seem to bleed as much, if at all. Low dose Aspirin was the worst culprit for increasing skin bleeds for me.

[Bill McNiel]

3M Nexcare Active - Waterproof Bandages. I have a pack of the flesh colored ones in the shop, but I believe they may also come in transparent. Wife says the transparent ones are better. They stick to your fingers and can withstand some light hand washing.

Thank you David, I went out and bought some today.

[Patrick McCarthy]

My worst cuts come from my wife. No blood drawn, but sometimes they hurt . . . .

[Stew Denton]

Hi Steven,

The last two times I cut myself was on the freshly sharpened iron of my moving filister plane and the other was with a handsaw. I have cut myself with a sharp hand saw more than any other way, I think. The only time I had to go to the emergency room was a cut with a utility knife.

That is one thing about getting better at sharpening, once sharp, the stuff cuts you easier.

My pocket knife, on the other hand almost never gets sharpened, because I don't use it much on things where "sharp" matters much. If I need a sharp knife it is usually for something where I am going to use some force, and for that I almost always go get a utility knife. I have heard it said about a dull pocket knife (if you don't force it of course) that "I don't want to get cut, but am not afraid of getting bruised."

I know, a dull knife is usually more dangerous than a sharp one because you have to force a dull knife, but I don't use one for that kind of work. I use a utility knife for that kind of work, and normally only carry a fairly small pocket knife anyway.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

One of my fellow farmer's market vendors was impressed by my being able to easily being able to slice through rope in one pass with my pocket knife. Right after sharpening it was my most recent "major OOPS" cut a few years ago. It was an unthinking mistake.

jtk

[Gary Cunningham]

When using a Veritas marking gauge I usually manage to knick my thumb. Someday I will learn to keep my thumb below the boards edge.

[Jim Koepke]

When using a Veritas marking gauge I usually manage to knick my thumb. Someday I will learn to keep my thumb below the boards edge.

This sounds like it could still be a recipe for laceration. My thumb is kept on the non-cutting side of the fence.

When striking a line, before moving the knife my fingers are all checked to make sure they are out of the way of the knife's path.

Checking before any cutting stroke to make sure fingers or any other flesh is out of the way becomes a habit. Checking and acknowledging to yourself of the checking may reduce the amount of blood one needs to remove from their work. It seems to have helped me.

jtk

[Franklin Ferrier]

One of my mantras is "where will it go when it slips?" and try and have no bodily parts in that path.

[Jim Koepke]

One of my mantras is "where will it go when it slips?" and try and have no bodily parts in that path.

Yes sir!

Good one.

jtk

[Jerry Olexa]

Yes, it is a regular occurrence for me...I usually discover it later or after I've unintentionally stained the wood ...

[Patrick Chase]

One of my fellow farmer's market vendors was impressed by my being able to easily being able to slice through rope in one pass with my pocket knife. Right after sharpening it was my most recent "major OOPS" cut a few years ago. It was an unthinking mistake.

We've all done stuff like that. My only woodworking-induced ER visit was due to trying to pare a workpiece that I was holding in my other hand with a chisel. When the inevitable happened I nailed my knuckle, which meant I couldn't make do with self-applied tissue adhesive and surgical strips.

[david beck]

Last summer i was doing some simple work in my room with a narex 1" chisel, the end caught on something flipping it up and over towards me. I could see it going up and over and down towards my lap, all i was thinking was the obvious lol, i realized whew that was close it missed my groin and legs then realized my knee was warm looking down there was blood spurting up and onto my knee. It hit just above the ankle bone and went down ripping right thru socks and shoes. Its the only trip i had to ER from my little work room.

[maximillian arango]

Yeah, little nicks seem to be an age-related issue. Hair and nails and skin all are pretty much the same stuff, and it doesn't work as well as we age. Hair gets thinner, nails break more often, and skin seems not quite as puncture-resistant as it used to be.


I'm on the other end of the spectrum being in my 20s after learning how to sharpen I seem to get cut more often, I attribute my cuts to my gained ability to sharpen. When my tools were as sharp as a banana I would never get cut, now that I've gotten better I have noticed an increase in band aid usage.

[John Towns]

Much the same with me.

I was going to post a pic with a bandage from my most current project and a scar from a past project, but I couldn't decide on which hand to use. I have multiple examples.

John