Honey... could you come in here? Now?

[DRider]

I debated the title - "hair whittling sharp is bad for your fingers."

Tonight was my very first hospital trip from a knife cut. And I've been cut a lot.

Anybody out there ever hurt themselves fairly bad and done the classic call out to the wife? "Honey..."

I'm typing pretty slow right now. I was reading a post about a guy who slicked up his sebenza with a little light 600 grit action on the inner wall of the titanium and polishing the washers with some Flitz. Sounded like a fun little project. Got the work table ready, took out the screws, made a fundamental mistake - left the knife in the closed position. Seemed safer to work on that way. Boy, was I wrong.

Now, I've opened the sebenza before with no problems. Take off screws, lift off handle slab, no biggie. But this time the slab stuck a bit on the pins. I pulled. But at a slight angle, not straight up. And when it gave, my pinkie and ring fingers of my right hand slid right across the upfacing blade.

It never hurts at first. This knife is hair whittling sharp - I even posted a picture on Vasilli's thread in the sharpening section of the forum. There was some blood, of course, at first...

So I go over to the sink, and see that the tip of my ring finger, above the fingernail, is gone. And the pinkie is cut deep, about half way through the meat of the finger on the fingerprint.

I notice that there's blood everywhere. "Um... Honey? Could you come in here?" She takes one look and says "we're getting that stitched," wraps my hand in 4 paper towels and a real towel, and into the car we go.

Funny moment - at the emergency room window, the nurse says "show me." so I unwrap the towel, and all four paper towels are pure red. They look like red paper. There another ER patient next to me and she goes "oh my God wrap that back up!" Then we sit to wait for help and these other people who are waiting are like "oh you need to go in first." And I did.

After it was all cleaned out it only took three stitches to tack down my pinkie tip. The ring finger was... well, tough, there's just no tip there. So they put this special non stick gauze stuff there and put these metal tips over my fingers so I wouldn't hit them on anything. Found the tip, by the way, at home. Looked like half a bean or something like that.

Lessons? Open folder before disassembly. Keep Kaiser card handy. Treasure level headed wife. Learn to type with three fingers on right hand. Knives that sharp can cut your flesh like warm butter and it doesn't really hurt until a lot later.

Irony? This is the new knife I've been raving about.

[Bushman5]

DAAAAAMN! nasty! been cut a few times myself, but never that bad. Ouch! heal up quick, and treat your awesome wife to a nice dinner!

[Gollnick]

Originally Posted by DRider

Anybody out there ever hurt themselves fairly bad and done the classic call out to the wife? "Honey..."

Being single, it would do me no good. Instead, I drove myself to the hospital with a knife impaled in my right foot.

[Coffee Black]

Drink some whiskey. Hope you get well soon.

[Eric N.]

I hate when one of my toys bites me. It makes me feel ................... Well you know.

[Hanae4fun]

wow~ you should have been more careful...

at least you're okay.

Well get better soon!

[WhitleyStu]

Got "bit" about an hour ago by my Strider SMF. Doing a little "clean & oil" job on the Strider and when putting it back together it got my ring finger. Not as bad as your though. That's what we get for playing with knives...

[Dantor]

Sorry about your accident DRider but you did a nice write up and I'm still chuckling (from your humor)!

Kudos to your wife and thanks for the warning! Heal fast bro.

[topspeclt]

There was a news report of an incident where someone in the UK cut the tip of his finger right off but putting it into a rotating propeller of a model aircraft.

He grew it back!

How? He used a special powder.

Here's the news report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7354458.stm

I'm sure if you make a few contacts you can get that powder too and give it a try. I think it's worth a finger tip at least!

[Absintheur]

I learned long ago that if you are going to work on a knife taping the blade is not just a good idea, it is mandatory.

[Thomason]

I cut myself with a 1970 Case 6232 Texas Jack but it wasn't too bad or anything. I guess I should have taped the blade like Absintheur said.

[jill jackson]

I was notching a branch to install in a bird cage when I was about 15, with a Buck lite-weight (the old green plastic handled model) and I stupidly held it and the blade slipped hitting my left hand. Wow, looking down I see the white of bone on my inner thumb and outer index finger. The blade had traveled down the branch to where I was gripping the branch and laid my finger and thumb wide open. Makes me cringe to this day to remember that. But, i did learn never to pull a blade towards any part of my body.

[nephildevil]

previous summer



and being single i was walking to the ER across the busiest shopping street of the city, sum cops saw it and then gave me a free ride to the hospital

who needs expensive ambulances, when u got cops patrolling the streets anyway

[doublebladed]

eek ... I once sold a guy a knife that he saw me sharpening and the next day I saw him with a bandage. Thank you for the humorous read though, that sucks dude I'm sorry for your loss.

[Gunfucius]

Hehe. A little over a year ago I laid my palm wide open with a butter-knife dull blade on a Leatherman Kick. Keep in mind, that a year ago, I was considerably dumber, and much more immature. I grew up a lot this past year, due to various reasons. Anywho, I was showing my then-friend (he is my friend no longer) how "dull" the blade was. How did I go about doing this, you may ask. Well, I used the palm of my left hand to show him. I laid it on my palm, said to him, "watch this, the knife won't cut cardboard"... *1 second later*... "Oh snap, this is gonna need stitches." Yup that's pretty much how it happened. I walked into the library we were close to (showing everybody who passed by the gaping, bone-deep wound) stopped the bleeding, then went home, woke up my mother, who drove me to the hospital, where I recieved 5 stitches. The coolest part was the wound itself. I could see the fat in my hand, and if I pried it apart a little, I could see one of the bones in my hand. Strangely, I was the only one not freaked out by this. I remember thinking, "wow, that's pretty neat." I still have a cool scar there that reminds me of the lesson I learned that day; Never underestimate the cutting ability of a dull knife!

If I only would have used rational thought for one second before I did that, I would have remembered that something only has to be thin to cut. Sheet metal doesn't have a true edge, but it cuts all the same. Stupid 16 year old me...

Also, I was told that I came close to cutting a tendon, and that I'm lucky that there was no tendon damage.

[boro]

My father has had some bad luck with knives... I remember a christmas morning years ago where I was given a gerber multi-tool, and he ended up severing some nerves in his thumb.

I have yet to cut myself with any of my knives. Mind you, I've never had stitches for anything, so I must be the cautious type.

[red96ta]

Luckily, I haven't cut myself badly with a knife since I was a kid...although it seems I cut myself on just about everything else, including a porcelain glass I was washing that spontaniously decided to shatter in my hands. Then again, I'm one of those cautious types that respect the blade and always make sure I check whats on the other side of the blade should it go through what I'm cutting.

Accidents happen, so long as you stay calm and get it taken care of....those pics above are nasty. If that were me, I'd have to lay down to keep from passing out. It's a weird thing, I can watch someone else bleed to death, but if I see my own blood, I tend to get really light headed.

[jp101]

meh most of the time i catch myself before any big damage is done, ive barely broken the skin before!

although my leatherman kick's blade is hair popping sharp, and im almost afraid oto give it much use, with these horror stories going on.

[THG]

All the cuts I get are paper cut-like. They're thin, shallow cuts; nothing too serious. I did have one where I cut the hell out of the tip of my index finger, though. It's the part right above the nail. It was bleeding for over 12 hours. I got one of those wooden clothes pins, took it apart, put it under my finger, and taped my finger up with gauze. I needed that pin to keep my finger from bending, because even after those 12 hours, if I bent my finger, it would start bleeding all over again.

[OldPhysics]

Originally Posted by Gollnick

Being single, it would do me no good. Instead, I drove myself to the hospital with a knife impaled in my right foot.

You win.



Sorry the prize is so unpleasant.