Safe Working Practices with Knives!!

Ian Allomes

Ian Allomes

Joined
Apr 28, 2003
Messages
1,550
Seriously, everyone I know that has worked with knives or at play has at sometime or another cut themselves with a knife.
I don’t mean minor cuts; we all do that. Maybe sharing experiences here can be a reminder, and prevent an accident in the making.
I am sure looking back in hind site they all could have been avoided.

Unfortunately we are not always close to help when a serious knife accident happens.:barf:
 
Well, I don't know about knives, but you shouldn't run with scissors.
:)

I don't remember cutting myself badly with a knife. By badly, I mean requiring stitches. I did a pretty good job on my left thumb with a hacksaw, but that's another story. (I broke the cardinal rule about cutting toward a part of your body:()
 
I have had one nasty experience; I once owned a knife called a rabbiter’s set, came with a five-inch carbon steel blade and a small steel in a sheath.
The knife had a straight wooden handle, I was butchering in the field and had taken all of the cuts off one side and was reaching up under the rib cage to get the long fillet under the backbone before rolling it over.
The knife stuck into a rib from underneath and stopped dead in it’s tracks, my hand didn’t, it went straight up the blade, I managed to cut three fingers to the bone. Luckily my index finger missed.
I have never used a knife without a guard since it was a lesson sorely learnt. :)
 
The worst cut I ever got came when I was 11. I was making a sling-shot. I was pushing my stepdads Buck up through a swatch of leather to make a hole for the string. Like a kid I had the sharp edge pointed towards my finger that was holding the leather, instead of away. When I applied pressure, and it finally pushed through the leather, it kept on going and scraped bone. That was the last serious cut I ever got. I guess you could call it a valuable lesson learned early.:)
 
I've heard that, "Dull knives will cut you more often than sharp ones will."

Hmmmmm.. . . . . .I've been cut by both and really can't say I've enjoyed either!!! ;)
 
I usually don't get into a lot of cutting accidents! The last time I can remember, was when I got my first one hand operated folder (BM Mini TSEK) and was trying to learn the right way to close such a thing.
It is wise not to have fingers between blade and handle - alas I realized I had just that a bit too late and gut two really annoying cuts on both finger tips!
 
This happened 2 months back. I like flipping balisong, and no sir, I'm not a punk who flips to look cool in front of friends. I enjoy the art of balisong flipping and strive to improve my humble skill. In order to do just that, I actually provide 30-45 minutes a day just for flipping. At that time, I was ready to take a shower, but alas, I had not practiced that day and it was already late at night. So I have this great idea, why don't I just flip and take shower at the same time ? Simply said, I cut myself on the tip of my right hand ring finger, and I can't feel anything there now. I guess I must have cut it pretty deep (duh !).

Lesson to learn : do not play with knives when wet !

Probably the worst cut I've ever had was caused by a bamboo. Almost split my left pinky into half. No stiches though. Doc just put some kind of balm and wrapped it tightly. Got well in about 2 months.

Another lesson to learn : do not play with bamboo......
 
I picked up a new axe last Saturday, and was clearing up roots sticking out of the neighbors grass on Sunday. The @$#@%# head came off the $^&$#@ handle and it bounced back into my shin. The skin cut wasn't large, but it cut into the bone so into the OR for a washout I went. (dirty axe and bone don't mix well) :D

Speaking of dull cuts, I was cutting down a refridgerator box about 7 or 8 years ago, and the box cutter was dull so it slipped out of the cut and jammed into my other wrist. (Yes, I was stupidly cutting toward my other hand holding the box...:footinmou) I wouldn't have slipped and cut myself with a sharp knife, but because it was dull it didn't cut tendons and nerves like it would have if sharp. :rolleyes:

Frodo
 
RE: Shelly Berman...

Not everyone here may know who Shelly Berman is. Shelly is an old time stand-up comic who did a lot of monologs about life. One of his skits was about the things we do to ourselves to cause us pain. For instance, the last time you hit your thumb with a hammer you knew it was going to happen, you saw it happening, but you couldn't do anything to stop it. You cut towards a body part and you know that you are doing something stupid, but you keep doing it anyway. OUCH!
Been there, done that. :(

By-the-way, Shelly is a knife collector and supporter of the custom knife community. He has been honored at several knife shows.
 
Reverting back to the rabbiter’s set.
I kept the small steel with the ring on the end, as it was a handy size to keep amongst my gear. While not paying attention one day I managed to swipe a knife back onto my index finger, (like Jerry mentioned no cuts are enjoyable) this one was not serious.
I managed to solve the problem by punching a hole in a piece of leather and pushing the steel into it, using it as a guard. I have hit the leather plenty of times since.
Admittedly with the knowledge that I cant hurt my self.;)
 
I use para cord to test retention on my sheaths.

One reason is that I get a measurable result (this is a good thing for QA). [That standard BTW, is an 18" inverted drop X3.]

While it is true that the measurable result thing has allowed me to set retention standards, the paracord use did not initially come about for that reason. Frankly, I'm not that smart.

I was checking the retention on a rather large and very sharp piece of cutlery, when someone shouted to get my attention (working in another shop, I don't allow that in mine!) Eyes and head turned and knife went about 1.5 inches into the fat of my thumb. 7 stitches at the entry point (big knife!). 2 weeks of "light duty" and several advil later, 550 cord came to live on my work bench.

There are others to be sure. Occupational hazard and all, but that was the BIG LESSON. When I work with Jerry's knives I don't find the small cuts until I wash my hands! That's sharp!
 
auuch!
I get minor cuts every day, but nothing serious so far. In my familiy my beloved wife seems so be the person who gets the major ones. I presented her a Leatherman micra for her birthday, and she tried to cut somewhat of a plastic cap from a soap bottle, the blade slid off and cut her finger tip right away. As always in such situations, it was sunday evening, I had to take her to the hospital, where they fixed it well.
Another time our son (8 at that time) was runing around with his puukoo in hand (which he's not allowed to do, so we always tell him). My wife tried to take the knife away. He pulled, she pulled, unfortunately he had the handle end. The result were two of my wifes fingers cut down in very deep, and a lot of loud bad unrepeatable talking.
So my preaching to my family is not to walk with open knife, not to try to cut things that should be cut with a saw, always use knifes with a guard, not to grab into the edge, and many more. slowly they learn...
Keep your fingers whole,
arno
 
OK, here I go again. Yea, I know what you must be saying to yourself, this blokes a walking disaster. It was not I this time. An old mate, Lorry and I were professional Kangaroo shooting back in 1963, in southwestern Queensland. We decided to visit his parents who live lived a little south of us over the border.

As a gift we decided to take a Sheep with us, then butcher it when we arrived. The idea was ok, except for the carton of xxxx that was in the back with the sheep.

On arrival we decided to butcher it in his father’s shed, so far so good. We had it hanging up, I had skinned it and was in the process of gutting it. The only light was a torch, as it was in the middle of the night. Lorry pushed his way in saying, here I’ll do it, you big girl, you’re going to take a week the way you’re going. He then stuck his hand in disregarding the fact that I had a knife in there in my hand. The fact that we were half inebriated didn’t seem to help!
He let out a yell, and pulled his hand out after the point had stuck into his wrist and had pierced an artery. While bleeding profusely we decided it was necessary to get him to a doctor.

Being three am when we arrived at the doctor’s house, his sense of humour was a little frayed to say the least. He mumbled something like give me a look at it as Lorry had it covered with a lump of dirty rag. When he removed the rag all that was showing was a spot where the knife tip had pierced his wrist, the bleeding had stopped. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get it bleeding again. After the doctor threatened to call the police, we cleared out a quick as we could.

We learnt three lessons that night: don’t drink xxxx when using a knife, don’t use a knife in semi darkness and lastly don’t wake a cranky doctor up in the middle of the night unless it’s completely necessary.
 
This thread reminded me of a list of injuries that lead to a visit to the emergency room. The most common injury on Sunday mornings is a bad cut to the palm of left hand from slicing bagels. Cuts to the right palm were not mentioned. I don't know whether it is because only about 10% of people are left handed or left handed people are smart enough not to cut a bagle while holding in their hand.

Ian:

I assume that you blokes have bagels in Oz, but just in case you don't know what they are, bagels have been described as a donut dipped in cement.;)
 
This is an interesting thread. I think that safety while using knives might be something I neglect to think about often enough. I have been fortunate on several occasions to just narrowly avoid cutting tendons and ligaments. It think in all situations, it was because I was being stupid. Something commonly neglected on modern knives is a good guard. The Busse integral guard is great and so are some other guard designs out there. While I don't usually have to punch holes in stuff, it is nice to be able to do it safely.


One thing I learned from my father while camping as a kid,is to use a stick in my left hand to hold a piece of fire wood from falling over while splitting it with my right hand with a knife or ax. I know I don't always hit where I am aiming with the knife, so I attribute having all fingers to using a stick when splitting.
 
Like Beluga the worst cut I ever got was from bamboo. Was tossing out bamboo shipping crates for plants from Thailand. Sharp edge halfway down the box snagged the base of my left thumb. 14 stiches. No pain at first, just a lot of blood.

Wet
 
While sharpening a bush axe blade with a 14" mill bastard file, something I'd done hundreds of times before and since, I felt my knuckle touch the blade. Sure enough, about half of my knuckle was gone and little red dots of blood were forming in the white ring of exposed flesh and cartilage. I flipped the axe blade over and there was my knuckle, stuck to the underside of the blade. About five years later I did the same thing to the same knuckle again.
 
I found the following simple rules on the Internet, I should get my wife to read them, she’s a lefty as I, but often manages to cut herself in the kitchen.:D

Knife Safety

A dull knife is the most common cause of accidental cuts. When a dull knife meets resistance, one's hand tends to be carried forward onto the blade, or the knife inadvertently jerks in an uncontrollable fashion due to excessive force exerted from a tensed-up hand and arm. Good safety habits should focus on the following rules:

1. Don't cut toward any body parts, including yours or those of people around you. Keep the path of the knife clear.

2. Properly maintain your knife. Keep it sharp.

3. Respect the purpose the knife was designed for and don't press it to perform beyond its limits.

Most knife accidents occur in the kitchen. Adherence to the rules of knife safety would eliminate these accidents.:)
 
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