Am I more clumsy than average?

[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.

[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.