My First Knife Accident

BobW alleviated my first concern.....the knife, since you didn;t mention it, must be ok. Can we get a close-up shot or two of the edge to check for damage or dulling? The key to these kinds of accidents, I think, is to check the edge and do any stropping or touch-ups before panicking and running off to the hospital. Live and learn, I suppose.



((( :D )))
 
Can't remember the first knife accident, but two stand out in my memory above all others.

The first happened about 20 years ago with a Buck 119. I was cutting open a brand new pair of headphones and the knife slipped and the point entered my wrist - blood everywhere and instantly. It was only microseconds from the time the point entered my wrist until I dropped the knife and grabbed it with my now free hand. I was all of 18 or 19 at the time and still living with my folks and ran downstairs to the main floor of the house and told them that we need to get to the hospital. A few drops of blood had fallen to the kitchen floor. Dad grabbed the keys and away we went, the whole time my hand was on the wound. They get me into the ER pretty fast and here comes the doc to assess the damage. He asked me to remove my hand and I told him to have a towel or something ready to catch the blood. I removed my hand and my face turned red, not with blood, but humiliation. A wound about a half inch long and a quarter inch deep that had all together stopped bleeding is what I had to show. The doc insisted that I stay and get 3 whole stitched (3 more than what I needed). I still have the scar and a memory. I still don't know why or where all the blood came from, but after we got back home, I spent about 10 minutes wiping down walls, floor, carpet, etc.

The second didn't cause me to panic so much. I was using a box cutter with a brand new razor in it. It was about half an hour before I left for Christmas vacation. I was rushing and need to cut through some zip ties on a shelf. With one swift, less than bright move, I managed to get the tip of my left index finger in front of that darn blade. What I was left with was a quarter inch of my finger tip hanging by a thin piece of skin. Oh how I didn't want to go to the clinic due to the fact that I was about to leave on vacation (granted, I wasn't going too far and was driving, but still). Very little blood until I go to the clinic and they sewed it back on. Seven stitches (three that went through the fingernail) and a stint a bunch of guaze and an hour later I was on the road. I don't have feeling in that finger tip anymore and it points to the left a bit.

Rob
 
mine was when i was a 15yr old boyscout and my parents gave me my first knife which was a basic swiss army. I was stabbing something completely ingnorent to the difference between a lockblade and a slipjoint. of course it closed on my thumb I pnicked and jerked my thumb out completely ripping off the thumbnail dont remember how i took care of it but i didn't go to the hospital and you cant tell now!
 
I've had a bunch resulting in 3 beautiful scars on my hands and 1 on my foot. One resulted from using a folder in the reverse grip that resulted in a great lock failure cutting my pinky to the bone. Another resulted in slipping and stabbing my middle finger on the hand I was holding the dastardly item in. The third came from reaching into a bucket of newly sharpened bayonets. The foot one, well let's just say sometimes I have butter fingers.
I have to say, I refused to go to the ER and am really happy I did. They'll stitch you up for anything IMHO, the hassle just isn't worth it, and all you really need is some bacitracin, gauze, and tape.
 
My first real knife accident was with an exacto razor when I was modeling a plane when I was 10 about 15 years ago. 3 stitches in my thumb for that one, scar is almost invisible now.

My worst was actually just a few months ago. Never had a kydex sheath for a knife before, and my new Bark River Bravo One was just as sharp as they'd said it'd be. 2 full bottles of iodine, several boxes of gauze, 7 stitches later my left ring finger is healed, but has a nasty lump across the finger pad. Still has a tingly numbness too it, but works perfectly fine. I decided to pick up the leather sheath after that >_<
 
You can't really say you are into knives until you make that one particularly nasty slip! I was sharpening a Camullius Western Field knife with a handheld two-wire sharpener and sliped and sliced a good bit of the side of my left index finger. "not that ba..$hit!!!" (as put by Liam Ryan) is the best way to describe it!

Of course, no matter how deep it is, you gotta still love knives!
 
You guys wanted pics, so here's one for you all. Look away if you're squeamish. It's not the best quality being that I took it with a cell phone with one hand.

 
I'm just glad that it hasn't hurt all that much. Yesterday morning I was getting dressed and wasn't thinking. I slammed a dresser drawer closed with my left hand. That made me wince a little bit. The dull lingering pain I've experienced from the tetanus shot they gave me at the ER has probably pained me about as much as my finger though.
 
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