Painful splintered fingers - What do you do?

[Luke McFadden]

I just finished building some saw horses, a workbench, and started working on my first few canoe and kayak paddles. But man, my fingers are extremely sore today. I got about 6-7 splinters and various cuts here and there. I was going to try some gloves, but I don't have anything that would still allow me to feel the wood well.

What does everyone do to treat sore fingers?
What does everyone do to prevent sore fingers?

Thanks!

L

[David Wilson]

Luke

When I am kayak building I sometimes use open finger gloves. They also work great for paddeling.

[John Schreiber]

Each time you do something that hurts don't do that again. :) After you've eliminated that first thousand mistakes, you will make far fewer. :D

Do be careful and think through each motion to make sure it won't draw blood (or damage the workpiece) if something goes wrong. Especially with power tools. Think of what could slide or slip or skip or get caught or what would happen if you slipped or tripped during the cut. After a while, it becomes second nature, but you can't let it become completely second nature. You have to keep safety in the front of your thought at all times. Also, if you find you are making more mistakes than you should, you may be working tired and vulnerable to making serious mistakes.

Depending on the species of wood, splinters can be a real challenge though.
Be careful out there.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

What does everyone do to treat sore fingers?

Depends on what ails 'em. I like to clean the cuts with bleach so they don't get infected and hurt worse.
For that ache from too much cold weather I use heat, single malt scotch (Redbrest), and a warm fire.


What does everyone do to prevent sore fingers?

I delegate.
I watch out for splinters.
I wear leather work gloves but not when using machinery.
When chopping wood, stacking cordwood, hauling or whatever I always wear leather work gloves.

[Ben Grunow]

Wrap em every night with Neosporin (pain relieving) under band aids.

Cut out any splinter as soon as it happens. Sharp razor and grit your teeth. THe small cut will heal faster than a festering cedar splinter.

[Nancy Laird]

But be careful with Neosporin. About 50% of the population is allergic to it and it will only make things worse. Hubby and I both developed allergies to that stuff in our 50s, and we tossed every bit we had. See if you can get some Silvadine instead, or Bactroban. Neither have any metallic elements in them. However, both are prescription, so you'll have to see your M.D.

Nancy

[Steve Rowe]

For treatment of sore fingers I use either Neosporin, Bag Balm, or Udder Cream.

For prevention, I like 3M Vetrap. It is easy to apply and stays put and does give a reasonable feel.

Steve

[Gary Herrmann]

Nicks and cuts? Typically, I bleed. I seem to get caught up in what I'm doing an only notice I got nicked when I see the drips. Then I clean it up with some soap and water and put a bandaid on it. 'Course if I haven't applied enough pressure, and bleed thru the dang bandaid, the whole thing starts over.

I don't wear gloves in the shop, except for when I'm carrying a bunch of rough lumber down. I do wear gloves when I fire up the chainsaw or am otherwise harvesting wood outdoors.

Working with sharp tools and chunks of wood, we're gonna get stuck. I clean the wound once I leave the shop, put some antibiotic ointment on it to avoid infection, slap a band aid on it and try to avoid doing it again next time. 'Course, I don't, always.

[fRED mCnEILL]

Because I live in a damp climate on the We(s)t Coast the ends of my fingers crack in the winter. I use bag balm and it works like magic. If my fingers are cracked at night and I use the stuff it is cleared up in the morning. Just run your finger thru the stuff, rub it in and thats it. Not greasy, only smells a bit( kind of a hospital odour)and works great. And its cheap(I Think-my wife buys it)

Fred Mc.

[Mike Cutler]

I wish I had a good answer for you Luke. I just dig 'em out, put on a bandage if necessary, and get back to work.
The splinters from Wenge are really nasty.:eek: I will use fingerless gloves, ie cycling gloves, and I have also been known to use full gloves on the jointer when working with it. It gives me the heebies though. Gloves and rotating machinery are a bad combo.

[Charles Wade]

I keep a wall mounted, lighted magnifier , a sharp needle, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the shop. After disinfecting with the alcohol, the needle will almost always remove the splinter. I disinfect the site, then later use antibiotic and some aloe vera. The latter overnight cures the pain of splinter holes, of skin disturbances (also of things like burns and beginning blisters). I only wear gloves if moving items not working on them.

[Chris Barton]

Your best bet to prevent splinters is to wear a good pair of well fitting gloves. Second line is to prevent infection which can be done by using warm saltwater soaks, topical antibiotics (Sorry, I differ with Nancy's statistics on Neosporin and the composition of the alternatives) and band-aids. Most of us don't use band-aids properly because most bandaids aren't robust enough to stand up to the rigors of the shop. If you get a minor cut, nick or splinter, remove all fragements, wash vigrously with soap, cover with a bandage with a small amount of antibiotic on the dressing. The longer you can keep a wound covered, the better your chances for a rapid heal.

[Burt Alcantara]

For pain, take 2 tabs iburprofin every 4 hours. Soak your fingers about 4 times a day in ice water until you can't stand it.

This regimen, used by athletes, is commonly used for sprains, muscle tears, and general aches or soreness.

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

I have always done as much manual labor as I could even when I was a desk jockey. My hands were always tough enough that I have never been bothered by soreness. I can still get splinters, but I just pull or dig them out and get on with it. Of course many city people are in circumstances where they really haven't any hard labor to do. In that case, I am sorry for you but I have no solution.

[Per Swenson]

This is going to come off smart alecky....

Splinters?

Get used to them and ignore 'em unless they are huge.

Just pull em out when you are not so busy.

Cuts? Duct tape.

Gloves? Your shop, is it below freezing?

Gloves are a very bad habit. Not to mention gloves

and power tools are a no-no.

You don't form the callouses and even

those little splinters hurt.

Remember the work part of woodworking?

Tough hands are part of the deal.

Per

[Frank Chaffee]

Another option is do more physical labor.
This was my first thought when I read of your problem too, Luke. I didn’t post that because I understand that some must keep their hands soft for other reasons.

I only use gloves to protect from extreme heat, cold, cacti spines, or sharp metal objects. Calluses contain most splinters well.

[Eric Sabo]

Treat them?

Steve from a few posts above is onto something. I use Bag Balm for just about everything cut or sore related. Pads of my dogs feet if we take a long walk, my feet if I've managed to get rub through the skin or get a blister, or even while a tattoo is healing. My wife uses it on her hands when they crack in the winter and my grandmother has been using it on babies bottoms for quite some time now. I'd say thats just about the ticket. Put it on yor hands and try not to touch anything. If you want, put it on before you go to bed. Wrap your hands in an old tshirt and sleep on it.


Preventing it?
Definitely use. I haven't had to throw wood or stack hay in quite a few years now, so when I start again in the spring helping with the grandparents farm, I get the feeling I am going to be in the same boat as you. The more you use them, the more the caluses build up, the less stuff like that hurts.

[Clint Winterhalter]

I keep a pair of mechanic style gloves in my tool apron. I chopped the finger tips off at the first knuckle of the thumb, index and middle finger on both hands. They help keep my hands warm while working in my garage in dead of winter. I TAKE THEM OFF when I use my table saw SCMS etc. Glove and things that can cut your fingers off don't mix!

I picked up a pair of tweezer with a magnifier to deal with the occasional splinter. I've had good luck with neosporane for the occasional infection I get with a deep splinter.. I've also resorted to a piece of duct tape to hold a cut closed while I'm working on a project! If you can't fix it with duct tape, it can't be fixed!

Clint

[Karle Woodward]

Good clothe bandaides, neosporin and about 4 days rest will probably be your best bet.
Slightly OT, I was sanding some old wood work a few years back and my hand slipped and I knew I had a bad sliver. I looked down at it and it didn't look too bad. I tried to pull it out and realized it also had an exit hole on the other side of my index finger. I mean this thing was deep! I tried to get it out and failed. My doctor sent me to a surgeon and he gave me a shot to deaden finger - it was more painful than the sliver. He had a big overhead light and probably a dozen different picks and pliers and it still took the guy 5 minutes to get the thing out. Think about this the next time you get one. It might make you feel better the. Good luck!

[Al Willits]

Already spent 35+ years with hands that looked like they were run though a meat grinder, personally I'd rather find another way than "do more work"
and btw, I'm a city boy, not all of us have soft and pretty hands...:)

I have a fairly well stocked medicine cabinet I used when needed, pair of tweezers, little iodine and a fabric knuckle band aid.
That will take care of most splinters and most cuts.

I do wear gloves whenever possible, especially on rough sawn lumber.
We have a medicated hand cream at work called SB40 that works pretty good at keeping the hands soft and helps prevent cracking of the skin, when it gets bad I'll use a surgical rubber glove and Bag balm.

Another thing, I work a bit slower when I handle wood with out gloves, seems when ever I get going a bit to fast I'll run my hand over the wood and find whatever slivers there may be....

[David G Baker]

When I lived in California I worked with Redwood quite a bit. Redwood causes nasty infections/reactions. I would do my best to get all of the splinters/slivers out, cover with Neosporin and a sports band-aid. The sports band-aids are much stronger and adherer better than the plastic ones. For smaller cuts and slices I clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide, rinse, then dry the skin, pinch the wound together and coat it with New Skin or Super Glue. With the New Skin or Super Glue you can go right back to work because the wound is sealed and in most cases won't bleed.
I recently read that it may be better if you don't use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on wounds because they tend to kill the new skin cells that are trying to heal the wound.
I haven't purchased it yet, but the new type of tape that adherers to its self seems to work fine. When I get my blood work done the nurses put a piece of gauze on the puncture and wrap it with this type of tape. I think I have seen photos of woodworkers using it on the tips of their fingers for certain types of work,
David B