Knives banned on drill rigs

Ming65

Ming65

Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Messages
2,177
I thought some of my blademates would get a kick out of this.....

Here we are in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (The outback for those of you who don't want to look at an Atlas) One of the wildest. most remote and inhostpitable regions on earth. A drill crew is camping out, five weeks on , one week off, helping map out the vast iron ore body up there.

The picture is of an offsider using a wood saw to cut the plastic wrapping off some piping because......you guessed it.....management have banned the use of knives. Some bufoon at head office looked at all the injury stats and saw that cuts to the hand where the highest incidence - so he instituted a company wide ban on knives at any of their worksites, regardless of how remote, that these guys will get fired for if they don't comply. :rolleyes:

Sawingplasticwrap.jpg
 
yeah, that guy is safer with the wood saw.:rolleyes:

how in hell can those guys do their job without a knife? I work inside--
and I don't think that I could do my job (as well) without a knife.
 
I reckon the desk jockey bozo who made the rule should be made to do a 5-week swing with these guys............
 
I reckon the desk jockey bozo who made the rule wouldn't know what to do with a knife even if he were on a 5-week swing with these guys............

Please don't anyone remind him that a man can drown in an inch of water or he'll ban water on all work sites as well.
 
There's still some hope. Last June/July I worked at an archelogical site with a few other folks from all over the globe. The most usual injury was, you guessed it: cuts to the hands.

Instead of banning knives, the director of the dig decided to take a look at what people were using: mostly crappy POS folders that would have lock failures and were as blunt as butter knives. His solution: get his workers better tools, he sent me out to buy a dozen SWAKs and sharpen them.

Still, for each sensible individual there seem to be at least a hundred idiots who force people to cut plastic wrappings with saws!
 
Too bad those three hundred idiots are protected by rules like this- if we didn't protect them they'd kill themselves off and we'd be much improved as a planet.

The human gene pool needs more chlorine, dammit.
 
I work on a drill rig and the gas company is very strict on any weapons of any sort. For example, a subcontractor was supposedly fired for a rifle cartridge that was found in his truck, his own truck, but one he used on the jobsites.

So far there has been no word about pocket knives or utility knives. I think most of the guys carry a pocketknife of some sort and the toolboxes are equipped with utility knives. Still, I don't carry anything that even vaguely resembles "tactical", a weapon, or a fighting knife. I think it's a matter of time...

-Bob
 
I work on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. same way, no knives. Only retractable razor blade type cutters and the sears craftsman handi-cutter type.
It makes sense from their standpoint, most serious hand injuries/ cuts require a trip in to a hospital, the onboard medic won't suture fingers because risk of damage.

As someone said above, most of the injuries come from cheap POS knives the hands get at the gas station on the way to work, the knive in the platic tub at the register type, $9.99 junk.
 
If they were getting cut on custom made Morans and Scagels, I still think it would be wrong to just banish a tool that is actually needed for that type of work.
 
Hey Dave - Gulf of Mexico eh? Not with DODI by any chance are you? I've met a few of those folks in the last couple of years.........

I can understand the banning of some knives. I remember an IR on an FPSO who stabbed himself with a very sharp Buck 110 when stripping wire. The point of his knife went into the thigh and just nicked the femoral artery. A couple of arterial blood spurts before it coagulated over. The guy got a bandaid and wasn't even medivaced.

I've recomended Spyderco rescues to a few offshore companies as I don't reckon pointy tips and pitching decks go together.

But these guys had banned everything, including box cutters and multi-tools. This in an environment where a bush survival scenario is not out of the question. Not probable but not out of the question.....

as Max said........
 
But these guys had banned everything, including box cutters and multi-tools.
Click to expand...
I wonder how much success they had using the saw on plastic tape? A video is needed. :D

In their situation, I wonder how I'd use a crosscut saw to slice my airline tubing or open packages of batteries?

-Bob
 
Just a thought - and a silly one at that - But perhaps the reason so many injuries on oil rigs are caused by knife cuts is that, while the workers are trained in the use of complex machinery (drills, compressors, and other mechanical equipment), it's unlikely that any of them were given any instruction in safe knife use.

A more forward-thinking policy would require workers to carry a knife (or be issued one), and to run through a short course on safe use. Additionally, such a policy would distance itself from the 'all knives are weapons' rhetoric that is so pervasive these days.

How anyone could think that an oil worker could be responsible enough to pump flammable material in a remote environment but not quite up to the challenge of using one of the most primative tools known to man baffles me.

I can understand the observations of Mississippi_Dave regarding medical liability, but I think that rudimentary training in knife use and first aid could circumvent that problem in most cases.

- Mike
 
Both of the larger drilling companies I've worked for have had a ban on knives.The first was a kinda 'don't ask, don't tell', the rig I'm on now is pretty serious. We have two boxes of "company approved cutting tools" which include wire cutter, hacksaws, scissors w/ blunt tips, and sack cutters which are a razor-blade inside a gut-hook that is too small to get your finger into. We either open a pair of scissors too far and use them or grind down scrap metal to use to open our sacks, but for carrying around on site we are stuck with the scissors, which are probably safer to use, but I refuse to carry them. So everytime I need to cut some rope, open something, or do anything else a knife is good at, I climb 30' of stairs, search for the approved cutting tool, and head back down the stairs to do the job. I love being paid by the hour:D
 
Aren't the Aussie politicians the same goofy bunch that made law abiding citizens turn in their .22 rifles and 12 gauge shotguns or else go to jail?

And hasn't the incidence of armed violence in Australian risen since the gun ban when into force?

Are you allowed to use sharpened boom-a-rangs?!!!
 
its pathetic no more no less. people that doesnt know shit should shut the f... up and listen to those who do, simple as that. if you work with your hands as the main tool guess what you will damage first.. right. your hands. there is no way around this, there truly isnt. ive worked with loads of stuff and i always get something in my hands i wonder why, could it be that we acually use our hands for grabbing stuff/ picking stuff up/ using tools with them? i mean i would love working with my feet but its kinda complicated since i actually stand on them while walking.. why not ban hands since hands seems to be the problem here. i really hope someone responsible reads this and tries to regain contact with planet earth again. :jerkit:

its funny the people who deciedes these things are the ones that never even left the office
 
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