Knifemaking Shrapnel

JCaswell

JCaswell

Joined
Mar 12, 2006
Messages
2,264
Okay, here's a new one on me.

I was grinding down the threaded end of a bolt (zinc plated, about 5/16 dia.) with 36-grit belt moving really fast and "Tick!" a very tiny shard shot straight into the 2nd knuckle of my pointer finger. :rolleyes:

It was a tiny hole that bled more than such little cuts typically do and I noticed strange coloration instantly around the knuckle -- looked like it was broken or something, but it didn't hurt to move and movement remains pain free and unrestricted. No real swelling either, just strange coloration.(It's been a few days, BTW) :confused:

Bottom line: I think there's a tiny piece of steel still in there--too deep for me to get at it or even know where it is.

Anyone with similar things?
What did you do about it if anything?
 
A lot of times it will push (travel) itself out of the body. I have had metal slivers come this way. You get like a pimple and squeeze it and out comes a chunk of metal. I also had sawdust do this when I berely cut myself with a chainsaw. Sometimes it is quick sometimes it takes years to come out. The funny thing is it can travel through your body. It can come out anywhere like your foot or upper arm. It is a very strange thing but I have had it happen before.
 
When I was a kid me and my cousin were hitting hammers together (geniouses I know :P ) and a piece of shrapnell shot into his leg. They dug it out at the hospital and it cost a bunch o money. It will most likely work itself towards the top of teh skin anyways, then remove like a large splinter that loged in imo.
 
the coloration could be from the zinc (espicaly if it was hot ) since it can turn into a gas and your body doesnt like tha gas. just a guess
or it could be as simple as you have a slight alergy to something in the metal

-matt
 
Doesn't sound too happy a situation to me. I'd get a Magnesium Poultice on it to draw out whatever went in if it were my finger. ;) Your pharmacist should be able to sell you the right stuff.
 
Just cut it open and pull it out. I doubt its too deep to retrieve. Youre a knifemaker! Get a sharp knife, cut the hole into a slice and pull out the sliver of metal.
 
If it hasn't entered the joint, you're in good shape.

Forget extraction by magnet. You'd need an 'industrial strength' electromagnetic...it's just not worth it.

I've had the same general experience as ashtxsniper, but with bits of Carbon rather than metal.

Just keep a general eye on that knuckle. If the joint starts to hurt, if you get swelling or too much discoloration...then get thee to a doc.
 
David Schott said:
Just cut it open and pull it out. I doubt its too deep to retrieve. Youre a knifemaker! Get a sharp knife, cut the hole into a slice and pull out the sliver of metal.
Click to expand...

That was my first instinct. Done it many, many times.

Problem is, this time, The thing is completely invisible. There's not a whole lot of skin to the bone/nerves/tendon there (top of the knuckle) ... I'm pretty sure it's down in around the 'works.' I don't mind cutting skin up a bit, but fishing around bone and tendon is more than I'd like to do in the 'ol shop. :o
 
bobby.t said:
Get an MRI.
Click to expand...

Haha.

This has happened to me many times at work when hammering pins back into arbors. Small pieces shatter off of the pins and fly into my fingers every once and a while.

I have a nice small collection of steel in my fingers and have had to dig some others out under the microscope. One I had recently wouldn't stop bleeding and hurt terribly.

I would try to get it out depending on how healed it is.

Good luck!

Alex
 
OldPhysics said:
If it hasn't entered the joint, you're in good shape.

Forget extraction by magnet. You'd need an 'industrial strength' electromagnetic...it's just not worth it.

I've had the same general experience as ashtxsniper, but with bits of Carbon rather than metal.

Just keep a general eye on that knuckle. If the joint starts to hurt, if you get swelling or too much discoloration...then get thee to a doc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the joint moves and doesn't hurt (though when it first happened it felt like it was fractured (looked like it too with the colors) but that went away in a few hours. Now it doesn't hurt at all, but there is occasional numbness between the 'wound' and the tip of the finger along the top--skin-level numbness. It's weird. :confused:
 
:D maybe I should cut the thing open and soak my finger in FeCL for a few hours and dissolve it out!:D :eek:
 
I would at least call the doctor and ask some questions if you have any sort of doubts about it.
 
The nerves that innervate the fingers runs up a the lateral sides of the fingers.Where the fingers touch when you extend your fingers and hold them together, think of a handshake. If the splinter is there the numbness may never fully resolve. I have had alot of metal and wood "fester" out of my hands, it is not usually a problem. I worked in the O.R. 25 years. I have seen metal migrate into joints, and rarely trashing the joint. Got a "medical" friend EMT RN MD DO Vet? Maybe they could have a look at it for you?!?
 
Soak it in George's relish . Zinc in compoud form is a very important nutrient but metallic zinc is toxic ,especially zinc fumes you can ge twhen welding galvanized steel. If the color doesn't go away it may be , in effect , a tattoo !!
 
ashtxsniper said:
A lot of times it will push (travel) itself out of the body. I have had metal slivers come this way. You get like a pimple and squeeze it and out comes a chunk of metal. I also had sawdust do this when I berely cut myself with a chainsaw. Sometimes it is quick sometimes it takes years to come out. The funny thing is it can travel through your body. It can come out anywhere like your foot or upper arm. It is a very strange thing but I have had it happen before.
Click to expand...
Not from a knife but when i was like 6 years old i fell off a skateboard and landed on a sliver of glass. It was in my palm from the time i was 6 till i was about 16. So yeh given enough time it will come out on its own hehe. I still got this cool little scar there. It forms this little hole i can stick automatic pencil lead in and suspend the pencil great little party trick :D
Only things ive done makeing or moding knives is get lots of burns from grinding etc. Typically if i grind on a old junker knife i have no fingure prints for a few months after heh.
 
a few years back i sliced my knuckle open ,the first knuckle of my index finger
anyways ,i went to the emergancy department of my local hospital where i got a few stiches (only took 5 hours lol)
the doctor who stiched it up ,flushed it out real good and took a very good look at it,,he told me that a cut to the joint could slice open the joint "casing" (im pretty sure that what he called it )
and if you cut that open it could allow an infection to get in the marrow of your bones and that would be very very bad and hard to get rid of

im not sure how accurate that is,,but its what i was told ,,so you might take that into consideration
hope this helps you in some way
shaker
 
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