And so, tonight I got bit.

C

c.irroratus

Joined
Apr 4, 2009
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34
So tonight I got much smarter. I work on commercial fishing boats, and as you might assume there's a lot of cutting involved. Most of the guys use dexter russel fixed blades, carbon steel because it's easy to resharpen and anything's going to rust out there anyway so there's no sense buying something expensive. Naturally it gets rusty from time to time, and tonight I decided to polish it up. LIKE A FOOL, I held the knife by the handle with my right hand. It instantly cut in about an eight of an inch but enough to hit a vein so I spurted blood all over the place. If I had been dumb enough to do this at sea it would have cost me a very expensive helicopter ride home, and my job. Or it would have required the captain to blow the whole trip to bring me home, and presumably, my job. As it was my injury took four stitches to close, and more importantly will require two weeks of antibiotics and a tetanus shot because I've used that knife to take DNA samples from animals that carry human diseases. It also bumped me off of tomorrow's trip and that costs me $1500. The nurse who said that if things were slightly different it would have cut the tendon and required surgery. I've come to believe that "bites" are just like accidental discharges with a gun. There is always something someone, somewhere could have done right that would have avoided the whole mess. Personally I'm never doing anything more involved than light sharpening without a proper workbench ever again. I've always assumed that accidents are rare, and that I'm rarely stupid. Today I learned that assuming makes an ass of me.
 
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Sorry to hear about your lost income, but definitely glad it wasn't any worse than it was. Good to see someone who accepts responsibilities (no matter how small) for stuff like this. I've been bit more times than I care to remember, and every single one of them have been my fault. Live and learn.
 
Most in the knife trades and heavy users,call a folder a "pre-broken" knife.

Guess you learned that and now will learn from your lesson.

My last artery cut was my left palm and it was due to sheath failure and my STUPID idea of pushing a blade into the palm with sheath held by thumb and forefingers.

Anytime you aim a blade at your self = TROUBLE is a coming.

I got a few stitches and no cut artery or nerve damage and I healed in about 4 weeks.

Glad your good to go,and hope you make back the scoots ya lost.
 
I am sorry that you got cut and suffered a loss of income, but youe analysis of what happened and why is spot on.One can never be to carful and a loss of concentration can be devestating. One thing for us all to remember is that "familarality breed contempt", the more experienced we are at anything the more vareless we tend to become, that is what leads to a lot of accidents. I am guilty of this and have suffered the consequences and it is something that I always stressed to my employees. I would tell them that I worried more about an experienced operator getting hurt even more than a new person, the new person is normally nervous about what they are coing and watching what they do really carfully, the experienced hand tends to get careless. You have learned your lesson well
 
Sorry guys, pics not forthcoming, it's all under gauze and a splint to help keep the wound closed so there isn't much to see. The actual injury's very small, it's about a quarter inch long, and about an eighth of an inch deep. (technically it's exactly as deep as the serrations of my knife, because that's how far it went in) Not so bad except for the gushing blood spray. If it weren't for the contamination issue I would probably have tried to superglue it shut and make some money. The good news is at least the damn thing was sharp.
 
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sorry to hear that, sounds frustrating to say the least. if i was you i'd check out the spyderco salt knives, completely rust proof so something like this wouldnt happen again.
 
Heh, ironically that's my other knife. (SE Pacific Salt) It's a good recommendation and a lot of the guys out there have them. I personally wish they still made the aqua salt but I guess I was in the minority on that one. It's just as well it wasn't the salt though, I hate to think of what a spyderedge would have done! Well, aside from not getting me cut because I didn't have to polish it in the first place but alas that was not how fate had it. On a side note, I wish they made a waved Atlantic salt or a cheaper Jumpmaster. Most of these things really get carried in case of emergencies and it's nice to not have to open anything.
 
Try Benchmade's folders in N680 steel. It's supposed to be made specifically to resist rusting from salts.
 
Okay, then try the N680 fixed blades. I got the Lone Wolf Mountainside Hunter myself, but I suspect the stabilized wood wouldn't like salt water very much. Haven't really tried it in saltwater yet though.
 
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