What not to do with a chisel

[Karl Brogger]

I thought I'd try out a little body piercing with a chisel a while back. Thought you guys might enjoy the pictures. No damage, but it went entirely through my finger and into the table. I didn't even realise it had gone all the way though for a while. I washed the wound off, superglued the one side shut and sat down in the shop for a bit. A sink full of blood makes my stomach turn. I felt something warm dribbling down my hand and looked at the floor to see a new puddle of the red stuff, but not from what I had already glued shut. Son of a..........

Remarkably they cut through flesh very efficiently! Who knew?:D

[Peter Stahl]

Sorry to see that. Sharp tools are a must for woodworking but are bad for people. Keep it clean and get a tetanus shot. Don't know that I could have glued my self back together.

[Norman Pyles]

Ouch!!!!!!!:eek:

[John Karam]

amazing thing with chisels is I'll get cut by one and not realize it until im wondering why im sanding blood off my project....haha

glad it wasn't worse
maybe you should post a warning about the pictures...i know people that pass out at the sight of blood, fortunately not me.

[Karl Brogger]

Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all, untill the swelling really kicked in.

[David DeCristoforo]

Gluing yourself back together may be.... well I won't say it but please, take Peter's advice and at least get a tetanus shot.

Oh, and thanks for the pics.... lovely...

:confused:
YM

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I've said this before.....and for several years. As far as I'm concerned one of the most dangerous tools in the shop is a dull chisel.

I don't know how sharp yours is/was. I was cleaning out the corners of a router rabbeted back on a bookcase so I could fit the back in. I was using a dull chisel (as is usually the case). Had it been sharp I 1) would have been cutting down into the wood more, and 2) not pushing as hard. I pushed - it jumped. Several years later and for the rest of my life I will have a scar right across my wrist. Right at the place where I feel a pulse, which is I guess where you slit your wrist after you leave the "goodbye cruel world" note. It just happened to not go deep enough to do fatal?:eek: damage. Needless to say I didn't get anything else done in the shop that day. Did a lot of mumbling to myself.

[Bill Wyko]

I dropped a freshly sharpened bowl gouge on my hand a couple weeks ago, went right through my skin. I hate when that happens.:mad:

[Terry Teadtke]

There may be no human being that has had more tetanus shots than I have; and I can almost guarantee you will never run into someone who has had 2 tetanus shots in less than 24 hours.:eek: I know, I know, they’re good for anywhere from 7-10 years but you couldn’t tell my old school mid-western grandmother that. When I was a kid my brother and I would spend a lot of time at my grand parents farm in the early 1960’s. We were generally building tree forts out of any old lumber we could scrounge up and unbending rusty nails to re-use. One afternoon I stepped on a rusty nail and off we went into town so I could get a tetanus shot. OK fine, the doctor said I was good to go for a couple of years. The following morning I stepped on another rusty nail and casually mentioned it to my grandmother thinking I was going to get another dose of Methiolade:( which was bad enough ( for you youngsters Methiolade is basically iodine and really stings on an open wound). Well guess what, off to the clinic again for another tetanus shot. It didn’t matter I had just had one the day before. It didn’t matter how many times the doctor told my grandmother I didn’t need a shot for another couple of years, and it didn’t matter what the nurse had to say, we weren’t leaving until I had my shot. So I got another shot. :mad: Calling my grandmother stubborn would obviously be an understatement.

Anyway, now I get a tetanus shot every other year just to be on the safe side because. I’ve figured I’ve had close to 30 shots to date and I’m just a little over 50

[Richard Dragin]

I think Grandma was just trying to teach you to be more careful or else you would get another shot. Probably would have been easier to just smack you in the head and save a trip to the doctor every time. Either way she is still with you if you are getting a shot every other year.

[Eric DeSilva]

Gluing yourself back together may be....

Actually, superglue--although not invented as a liquid suture--is used extensively by ERs for that purpose. During the Vietnam war, they even developed a spray version for stopping bleeding pending transport to medical facilities.

[Michael Wildt]

Bummer, sorry to hear you had an injury. Though it looks like a clean cut. I'm glad you still have mobility.

From my experience even 'dull' items can be sharp. It is amazing what a screwdriver can do.

The chisel does look a bit chipped on the edge and heat damaged.

Michael

[Doug Shepard]

Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all, untill the swelling really kicked in.

The really, really sharp ones dont hurt a bit. Thankfully I haven't cut myself that badly with one and nothing requiring stitches, but the dull ones hurt like crazy. The sharp ones cut like butter and you hardly feel a thing. Hope you recover quickly.

[Jim Becker]

You're causing me to reminisce about how I spent New Years Day a few years ago after a...sharpening accident...with my then-new chisels! The good news is that you will heal!

[Sam Yerardi]

Ouch. That makes MY hand hurt. Hope you're doing well.

[Peter Quinn]

I worked for years as a professional chef in NYC and was taught to sharpen a blade by a sushi chef from Tokyo. Very sharp. In my first job as head chef I took on an apprentice right out of school who brought in one of the dullest knives I had seen in years. I gave him a lesson in sharpening...he watched while I transformed his dull axe into a razor blade. Within one minute he had used that blade to cut off the tip of his finger...that was the last blade I sharpened for anyone. On the bright side they were able to reattach his finger due to the precision of the cut!

Lesson: Sharp tools, dull tools, they are both potentially dangerous. It is often the loose nut that connects the tool to the work which posses the greatest danger.

[Kyle Kraft]

We don't use the term Scary Sharp for nuthin'. Heal quickly and be safe.

[Pat Germain]

I worked for years as a professional chef in NYC and was taught to sharpen a blade by a sushi chef from Tokyo. Very sharp. In my first job as head chef I took on an apprentice right out of school who brought in one of the dullest knives I had seen in years. I gave him a lesson in sharpening...he watched while I transformed his dull axe into a razor blade. Within one minute he had used that blade to cut off the tip of his finger...that was the last blade I sharpened for anyone. On the bright side they were able to reattach his finger due to the precision of the cut!

Lesson: Sharp tools, dull tools, they are both potentially dangerous. It is often the loose nut that connects the tool to the work which posses the greatest danger.

Peter, if you could find the time to post an online tutorial for sharpening a knife, perhaps in the Off Topic Forum, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll bet many others would as well. Try as I might, I can't get my Henkels sharp with a steel. I fully admit I just don't know what I'm doing. I promise I won't cut my finger tip off.

[jason lambert]

Ouch, Last year I cut 3/4 of the way through my thumb at the tip. I quickly reattached it and I was amazed now no scar and I have full feeling and use. I though for sure I would loose someting since I cut most of the nerves. Fingers can be amazing.

[Michael Gibbons]

Glad your O.K. but what I noticed more than your injury was the bluing on the end of the chisel in the second photo. What's up with that?

[Randal Stevenson]

Peter, if you could find the time to post an online tutorial for sharpening a knife, perhaps in the Off Topic Forum, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll bet many others would as well. Try as I might, I can't get my Henkels sharp with a steel. I fully admit I just don't know what I'm doing. I promise I won't cut my finger tip off.


Maybe I am naive, but I thought a steel isn't for sharpening, as just for honing between cuts?

As for the original poster, this is a woodworking forum, NOT an S&M forum. Test your chisels on some scrap wood in the future.:rolleyes:

[Joe Chritz]

The best way to sharpen a knife is considerably different than a chisel. An apple seed or convex grind is the best for all around use. Marble's knives used them for many years. One I know of personally has done two elk and many deer and has just now been sent back in for sharpening.

Sharpening that way is a learning curve intensive proposition so I use a good quality ceramic V sharpener and use it often. A couple pulls through before a kitchen project or every so often on a pocket knife is all it takes for a reasonable edge.

Super glue is great for wounds but the ER stuff is sterile. I have seen lots of angry people glued up at ER after injuries.

Joe

[Duncan Potter]

Cut the back of my thumb, just above the first joint, being stupid with a chisel. Still has no feeling.

Them is sharp!

[Peter Quinn]

Pat, I'm using Japanese waterstones from 800-6000 grit to sharpen the kitchen knives. Same stones I use for chisels and plane irons. I start from the tip moving in sections on one edge until a burr just rolls over, then move towards the hilt 1/2 the width of the stone for overlap. Do one edge, flip and do the other. Keep going up in grit eliminating the burr and gradually make the total included angle more obtuse. I generally use a 800-1200-4000-6000 schedule. A final strop on leather with 10,000grit aluminum oxide powder makes it really frightening.

It would take either a lot of words or a lot of thought to chose the right words to describe the procedure in detail, it involves a bit more "feeling" than most woodworking tools as the edge is often a curve and the grind is slightly convex. A Henkels (or any German knife) forces you further to eventually grind down the hilt, which is no great joy either.

I just keep thinking about that kid leaving in a cab headed for the hospital with his finger in a bag of ice...

[Karl Brogger]

Glad your O.K. but what I noticed more than your injury was the bluing on the end of the chisel in the second photo. What's up with that?

My old way of sharpening. It got a bit hot on the grinder. It actually buffs out, so it doesn't go very deep. I'd be willing to bet that it is more from contaniments on the surface getting cooked more than anything. But I don't actually know. Just a guess.

That chisel was dull, and I was using it stupid. Hence the massive operator error. Trying to square out some corners for a picture frame that wasn't mitred together.

I used the 3M liquid bandage. Same stuff from the ER, available probably anywhere that has bandaids. I've used it way more than I care to admit. Two months ago I was cutting something goofy with a jig saw while installing. Somehow I slipped my thumb into where the blade attaches to the tool. I literally tore the side of my thumb off when the blade came up. Superglued it back on, waited for it to dryup and fall off and all was well again. I've only visited the ER for stitches once, 5 stitches in the thumb from having my head up my butt with a band saw. There was no stopping the bleeding with that. I've probably saved my self thousands of dollars with the liquid bandaid stuff.

[Pat Germain]

Pat, I'm using Japanese waterstones from 800-6000 grit to sharpen the kitchen knives. Same stones I use for chisels and plane irons. I start from the tip moving in sections on one edge until a burr just rolls over, then move towards the hilt 1/2 the width of the stone for overlap. Do one edge, flip and do the other. Keep going up in grit eliminating the burr and gradually make the total included angle more obtuse. I generally use a 800-1200-4000-6000 schedule. A final strop on leather with 10,000grit aluminum oxide powder makes it really frightening.

It would take either a lot of words or a lot of thought to chose the right words to describe the procedure in detail, it involves a bit more "feeling" than most woodworking tools as the edge is often a curve and the grind is slightly convex. A Henkels (or any German knife) forces you further to eventually grind down the hilt, which is no great joy either.

Thanks, Peter. Sounds like I really need to get a set of stones. ;-)