My hands are a mess!!

J

John L

Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
1,330
Have been building knives for about two years now and my hands haven't been clean in two years. They are burnt, scared, chapped, caloused, bruised, missing end of trigger finger, nails missing, short, bleeding. This knife making crap has got to go. Er...uh...or just shuddup and live with it. What do others do to clean their hands? I try to keep them out of sight in public. That's about all I can do it seems. I wash them 4-5 times a day...whenever I come in from the shop. Shees!!#@?**^>##!:eek::eek::D
 
I will share a tip i heard from a old blacksmith/welder, when you are done working in the shop, before you start cleaning up a bit and shutting the lights off and putting things away, take a pair of rubber medical gloves and squirt in some of the orange cleaner or your favorite soap. Then put the gloves on and go about your end of day tasks. About 10 or 20 minutes later of using your hands with the soapy gloves on, take them off you will be surprised at how clean they are. Lengthen the time wearing them as needed for better cleaning results. Great for winter too if you have dry skin, get a bit of moisturiser in there and wear them for a few.
 
Welcome to the club :D
Gojo is pretty good for taking the black off your hands, but it won't help too much with the other stuff. I use it and then wash my hands right after with regular soap usually.
With all the breaking colts and baling hay, I've had rough hands my whole life. whether I was making knives or not. Just goes with the territory. And its great being able to take stuff off the stove without those sissy oven mitts! ;)
 
DL Blue label, Goop, followed by Neutrogena soap. I have skin so dry I literally do not leave fingerprints from 25 years of black and white and color darkroom work(caused so many problems when my day gig installed a fingerprint biometric entry systen that they violated their own policy and gave me a numeric code)
If I think to do it before I work, I have found that using neutrogena skin lotion followed by a little water, thaen wiping the slippery off about 1/2 hour before I work keeps the black oils from soking into the dry skin quite so much. I found when I was working as a motorcycle mechanic 20 years ago that the best handcleaner made was a BigMac and McD's Fries :D
When the dry skin gets so thick it starts to crack at the inside of the joints a little 120 grit handsanding takes it back to managable (not reccomended procedure, my doctor has fits about the idea, but he hasn't figured out a better solution)

Your milage may vary.

-Page
 
??? Where them as a badge of honor! It lets you and the world around you that you did some work. I'm proud of my hands when they are hard and rough. I just wash them with hot water and a little gojo to get the fuel, grease, and grime off. But I would never want anything to take away the roughness and callouses. Maybe that's just me though.

-Mike Sheffield
 
whine, whine, whine.......talk to me when you have nicked tendons and numbness from nerve damage:D lol
 
Calloused, gnarly, broken and dirty hands are what built America, keep it running, and keep it fed. Be proud of yours. I am, and mine are down right ugly from 40 years of working on equipment and working out in the cold. Just a little soap and water, and let that be good enough.

Let those fancy, keyboard tapping, manicured princesses out there turn their noses up at you. Anyone who matters knows the truth.
Scott
 
Same as cleaning and fluxing the steel. Borax. Go with the mules. Plus, I agree about building the world and a badge of honor. Mine may be chapped and calloused, but they are honest. I once cashed a paycheck from a construction company with no id in a bar in Montana. The woman asked how she knew it was my check. I showed her my hands and said "Does it look like I earned it?" She was a wise woman and cashed the check.
 
Just wearing latex gloves for an hour or two at the end of the day will make a huge difference. You will sweat out a lot of the grime that stays in your skin.
 
Usually I dont worry about how my hands look but I feel bad when I touch my wife! I am going to have to try the latex gloves thing.
 
my wife is allways asking me did you wash your hands. and i say. god made dirt, dirt dont hurt :).
 
Jewelers have the problem much worse. We wash our hands this time of year maybe 50 times a day. That plus handling hot jewelery, 3-5 hours of polishing,and the general ability of superfine metal dust to go about 1/8" deep in the skin (where it tarnishes)makes a jewelers thumbs and forefingers black.Often by Dec 20 my fingers are cracked and bleeding most of the time.
The above tips will all help. Using a heavy duty moisturizer,(I like Kiehl's ultimate strength hand salve) several times a day will help a lot. When I have a party to go to, and don't want black fingers, I first scrub the tub after taking a shower, then go and wash the dished by hand (Or wash the car), followed by a good scrubbing with a finger nail brush.The soaking in water and soap lifts most of the grime. Then I dip my fingers in Tarnex,rinse, and scrub with baking soda. They will be totally clean and just about as unmarked as possible. Apply moisturized well after this, since you will have removed all the natural oils in the skin right down to the meat.
Stacy
 
Sam Salvati said:
I will share a tip i heard from a old blacksmith/welder, when you are done working in the shop, before you start cleaning up a bit and shutting the lights off and putting things away, take a pair of rubber medical gloves and squirt in some of the orange cleaner or your favorite soap. Then put the gloves on and go about your end of day tasks. About 10 or 20 minutes later of using your hands with the soapy gloves on, take them off you will be surprised at how clean they are. Lengthen the time wearing them as needed for better cleaning results. Great for winter too if you have dry skin, get a bit of moisturiser in there and wear them for a few.
Click to expand...

Thats really funny. At work i deal with this black paint for helicopters. That stuff does not come off. So what i do when i get it on me is Slap on a pair of rubber gloves after tringing to clean it off and do some work in them. when i take them off tahda!! clean hands. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
I started wearing medical gloves, good ones that fit well. My hands still get calloused up but stay clean.

When I shake hands with folks they know I am a hard working man:D

I have done the goop and gloves trick it works well

Spencer
 
bladsmth said:
Jewelers have the problem much worse. We wash our hands this time of year maybe 50 times a day. That plus handling hot jewelery, 3-5 hours of polishing,and the general ability of superfine metal dust to go about 1/8" deep in the skin (where it tarnishes)makes a jewelers thumbs and forefingers black.Often by Dec 20 my fingers are cracked and bleeding most of the time.

Stacy
Click to expand...

I was wondering why the rouge black never comes out of my hands (almost like it's tattooed in) the metal dust thing makes total sense, never looked at it like that.That probably explains also why when I was working in a store that did a lot of white gold I got really horrific nickel sensitivity (suddenly the white gold in my wedding ring was giving me burns if the rhodium wore or got nicked) but since I've gotten out of that store I haven't had problems

-Page
 
How hot do you have to get your hands before adding the borax and how do you get the glaze off your finger nails?:D

I like the GOJO followed by lava soap and a stiff brush. We don't have the cold dry air that some of of you guys do, but a little lotion helps the chapping too. I don't mind them being a little rough, but it gets bad when they stick about half way through a coat sleeve.
 
My hands were like that from work so I started using Bag Balm. Every night before bed, if you can handle wearing gloves to bed, put it all over your hands then put on a pair of latex surgical gloves or it makes a big mess, sleep with them on and after a few days you see a huge difference. For awhile, I was using it inside my leather gloves while working. Go here:http://www.bagbalm.com/
 
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