7 Stitches !!!! Damn !!!!

RDT

RDT

Joined
Dec 17, 1999
Messages
4,117
Damn it! So i get a delivery from Admiral this morning. As you all know, they really, really over boxtheir materials. like 3/16" thick card board and 1" thick pine wood ends ! Nailed and stapled together. So, I couldn't find the screw driver I normally useto pry these babies open. I grab an old knife I made that sees use only for these situations. I'm pryingwith the knife, hacking away and prying with my damn fingers too. I take the knife and get it insidethe box and start to pry making a little progress finally. During the now high level of stress the knife slips through the box and right into my hand !!! I think to myself "I'm a F**king idiot !!!" I don't feel much pain but see a whole lotta blood. I look at the wound and WHAM!!! about a 3" long gash from the top of my wrist to the fat of the thumb and real deep too ! it cut through the fat and exposed the muscle but didn't appear to sever any tendons thank goodness ! It was seriously nasty though. Normally when I think I needstitches I will just hold tight and keep it raised until the skin starts to cometogether a bit. no matter how much I've bled. This time it looked lik a mouth agape and the bloodwas just way too much. So, I went over to the emegency room about 8 blocks away. Held my hand up in the air as much as I could and was promptly stitched up. I'm an idiot, I know, I was waaay to anxious to get to finishing my current order. Now all I can think about is...my 4 current kinda large orders are now on hold....DAMN !!! I have a deadline, I can't go to the GYM..DAMN !!! How do I sleep with my arm raised above my heart ???? Has anyone had a similar experience ? and how long did you have to wait before you could grind some knives ??? Take care.....RDT




























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Sorry to hear man.

Use this time to get more clients? Study that new technique you wanted to learn? Get to know the wife better?

Hope you heal soon!
 
Get a drawing pad and start designing your next masterpiece.:)

or go here and see how many of the 3040 knife related links you can get through http://members.lycos.nl/knifelinks/ Theo's knife links.
Number one thing to do is if you have an order with a deadline contact the customer and let them know what's up!!
 
Sorry to hear that. Next time just burn the box off, after all its just steel inside... unpack and normalize at the same time ;)
 
Capricorn, Shappa, thanks guys ! I have all this work (finally)and now it has to be put off even longer... ARGH! Anyway, thanks forthe kindwords. Any of you fellas have to work with a bum hand and been successful at it ? I think I am going to wait til Thursday and start grinding then, depending on how i feel. I am thinking if i wear surgical gloves i might be alright. Peace....RDT
 
I'd suggest taking it easy for a little more than the day you plan on... more like about a week. Work one handed if you can, putting the injured one in a sling, and NOT using it. Less likely to split open if it's not getting used. Might drive you crazy if it's your "strong" hand, but the other hand is what screws with your mind. There for support and then suddenly useless.
 
RDT, it's gonna be a few days before you will be grinding, unfortunately. Sorry about your injury, Rich. I did one to myself, had a blade with pointy end upright in a vice for a few days, with a small coffee can over it, for safety. I needed the can for cooling with water,and I took it off the blade. A half hour later I had to run back out to the shop and grab something off the shelf above the blade. Yep, grabbed the item and brought the wrist right down on the sharp tip, stabbing myself in the right wrist, pretty close to the palm of my hand. Nicked a couple of tendons, hurt and bled like hell. I was in a hurry, grabbing some stuff before going to work. Hand is kinda stiff, but everything works. Being a southpaw, I still miss having 100% use of both hands. And yeah, I still feel stupid for injuring myself needlessly.
 
Take some time off from major work, keep the wound clean, you'll be much better off in the long run. I think (?) the closest I can do is a couple years ago I was working on a very pointy switchblade, somehow the blade decided to bite me. The point went about 3/4 the way through the palm of my right hand. Luckily did'nt hit anything but muscle, ,didnt even bleed that much ( and unfortunatly didnt leave much of a scar ). I took a good week off and caught up on reading and movies. It took about a month before I could use a pair of pliers or wire cutters again. Sorry to hear about the mishap, hope it heals quick -- Charles
 
are you on a first name basis with the folks at the ER yet?:D all kidding aside. i had a blade spin on the drill press and open my left index finger to the bone for a couple of inchs:eek:. take a few days off. it will heal faster. i went back to the grind the next day and split the stiches. it took a long time to heal from the inside out. one thing about this knifemaking biz, RDT is it gets done when it gets done. e-mail you clients and tell them what happened. most people are understanding and as long as you let them know whats going don.t mind the wait. so relax a little and heal up
 
Won't say I never hurt myself but sometimes, when you are in a hurry the best thing to do is slow down.

Take a few days off at least, it will heal all the faster (See the sentence above)

Feel better and good luck.
 
Sorry to hear about the injury. For future reference, I just take a hacksaw and cut the top of the tubes off when a shipment comes in. It's a whole lot faster ( and apparently safer :D ).

[EDIT]
Wait a minute. You mentioned a box with wood, nails and staples. Did your shipment come in a "square" box instead of the heavy-duty shipping tubes with the screwed on steel caps? If so, then my tip is useless.

I buy stock in the 18' to 22' long bars and have them cut the bars up into lengths of 5' to 6' feet for shipping. Sounds like you may have had something else altogether.
[/EDIT]
 
Sorry about that, however,

On my first knife grind I cut my index finger down to the bone on the 1 X 30 and still have no feeling in it. What's the problem?

Just because you deal with every single aspect of knike making that can hurt or ultimately kill you?? Things like burns or deep cuts caused from ginders, 2000+ degree temperatures, -300+ degree temperatures, nitrogen poisoning, toxic dust, exposure to ultroviolet light, chemicals, and it goes on, etc.. Why are we complaining??

And, no body (including myself before I got into this) knows it but the one that makes the knife they use.

I love it and I ain't going to quit till I get it right - no matter how many fingers I loose feeling in :confused:.

Roger
 
as terry said a hack saw will work. i get my culinary blade blanks laser cut from admiral. they come in a box like you describe. i shake it all down to one end and cut the end off on the bandsaw.
 
Aw man! That ain't nothing, let me tell you what happened to me one time... :)

Hope you heal fast. As my brother-in-law tells his kids, "It'll feel better when it stops hurting".
 
Thanks guys,
Yer all right. I should just take it easy for a week or so. I am scared to tear the stitches. I've ground nails down to bloody stumps, ground finger tips down, burned hands and fingers, ground knuckles down, been cut deep on most of my fingers but this one is the worst for thefactthat itwas hanging open like a mouth and bleeding like a damn faucet and because of the placement of the wound and with my deadline nearing only makes it worse. However, I definately need to just relax and keep it clean so I won't have problems using it once it's healed. Makes me nuts but I guess having strong flexible , steady hands will be more useful than one that keeps hurting all the time. So, time to heal, watch tv, read and not do much else. Next time I will saw the top off the box. It was one of those 2 ft long square boxes with wood on the ends and like 3/6" or 1/4" cardboard. Nailed and stapled shut. I guess that's where they get you with the packing charge. Thanks for all the kind words guys, take care, watch those hands !
:D RDT
 
Sorry to here about the injury. I am ok with sharp things I am a blunt instument kind of idiot. I squashed the end of one finger trying to shift a pipe with a lump on concreat on it stiched back ok.

The second finger was squashed between the bottom of an Anvil and my steel cap safety boots. Does that make sence safety boots. I think it broke the little bit on the end it swelled up for a couple of weeks. did not go to the doc. they can't do any thing with that bit same with some of your toe bones.

Main point you make a bamn strong knife and damn sharp good advertisment for your making skills.

Always look for the bright side.
 
LOL ! That's what I keep telling myself..."at least I know my knives are sharp !" he, he... Take care of those toes bro....RDT
 
My sympathies go with you, I just tried to cut my pinky lengthwise with a band saw a couple of days ago, went through the middle of the nail down to the nailbed.

I do have to admit that I get a kick out of showing it to the squemish people.:eek:
 
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