The axe-ident thread

A17

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Jan 9, 2018
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As suggested in Beverages and Axes thread this is the place to post about axe related injuries with or without pics. The goal is not to gross people out (though it would be fun to) or give good reasons why little Bobby shouldn't keep his Christmas hatchet, but to help prevent people from injuring themselves and teach proper axe safety tips. A few examples I can give are #1 Always be careful when sharpening. You fingers will be dangerously close to a very sharp edge and I have sliced my knuckles a few times when I wasn't paying attention while filing the bit. #2 Be careful when carving or splitting kindling with a hatchet. A friend of mine related to me how he was splitting kindling and it started getting dark so he started hurrying. He ended up chopping his finger off when he missed the piece. Fortunately, it was sewed back on and is as good as new. This leads me to #3 Don't rush. Unless it's a matter of life and death that you finish whatever it is you're working on in 15 seconds you're just liable to injure or maim yourself. As other suggestions come in they will be added to the list though maybe not immediately due to my schedule.
 
#4. Be aware of where your axe head might go if you break a handle.

At my aunts wedding, they wanted to have a big bonfire after sunset. They had an old axe, and a pile of log rounds. Cue groomsmen being manly for the photographer... Until one struck the log too hard, or at a bad angle, or who knows what. *crack* goes the handle, and away goes the head into the bushes in front of him. I don't want to think about what that 3.5lb chunk of metal with sharp splinters poking out the bottom could have done to a person.
 
I've had a few. The first one I remember was when I was about 20 years old. I was busting up some pallets for firewood with my boys axe ( I think a Woodslasher). While smashing boards along the center rail a piece of wood flew up and hit me hard in the head. Naturally my girlfriend was watching and had to continuously remind me of the time I "hit myself in the head with an axe".

Another axe-ident I recall happened up at Hart's Pass in the North Cascades. I was felling a small dry fire-killed tree for fire wood. Probably a fir or pine - I don't recall. Anyway those high elevation trees grow slow and hard. And being a couple years dry it was harder. Another boys axe, this one a Collins, glanced hard off the trunk and struck me in the shin. Thankfully I was wearing a pair of heavy Carhart 'Loggers' and the axe hit right on the heavy seam below the double knee. It still went thru the pants and gave me a gash about 1-3/8" long and 1/4" deep. I sat down and kept pressure on it while instructing my buddy where my first aid kit was and wear my sharp hunting knife was. I shaved my leg around the cut with the hunting knife and a applied a sort of butterfly bandage made of medical tape across the wound to hold it closed. I ended up with a decent scar.

Another time I was splitting some kindling to light the forge and I let my left hand get a little to close to my Stubai hatchet. Didn't take it off but opened it up pretty good. That was a trip to the ER for stitches.

I've had a few nicks while sharpening or cleaning the edge but nothing of note.

Your turn!
 
I've had some close calls with axes "bouncing". Mostly when bucking a fallen log, though. A pair of thick-toed mud boots and steel toes have saved my toes a couple of times from bouncers. I had a single bit jump out of a felling notch and hit my leg but it wasn't sharp enough to slice me or the pants. Only time I was happy to have a dull axe. I did have the corner where the sole and side of a hand plane meet slice my leg through my pants though. It wasn't even sharp!:confused:
 
I was 9 or 10 years old and walking through the woods at my grandparents with a half hatchet after building a “fort”. I was getting pretty good at throwing it and sticking it in trees but when I got back to their yard I threw it at a can. I didn’t pay attention to the clothes line between the can and myself. All I remember was waking up in the backseat of my grandpa’s car in a pool of blood while he ran red lights and the cop at the hospital telling my dad to “shut up, I want the boy to tell me what happened”. Now that the hair on my head is thinning the scar is much more visible.
 
Nothing mayor in general except for one. Mostly nicks from sharpening or when first learning to use polishing wheels setting the edge against the turning direction.

The mayor one wasn't my axe, but something like what Grease mentioned. Only in stead of a bush, it hit just slightly above my ankle horizontally. Stitched it up ushing fishing wireand some honey (antihistamine). And taped it up so I could still stand on it. End result is a scar of about 7cm on the front right side of my lower leg just above my ankle. Luckaly no tendons and muscles got cut.

Got plenty of scars and freak accidents under my belt, but thats the only one axe related....

Honey is underrated when it comes to its medicinal use (antimicrobial etc.). First hand witness, involving a very stubborn dog that wouldn't tolerate any other kind of stuff on a very bad wound (even with an over-sized Elizabethan collar). Thank you, Mr. Vet, and sorry for being a little bit skeptical in the beginning.
 
When i was 13 i had a little mishap. I remember it so clearly because it was later that same day i was to go on the bus(by myself for the first time) and ride down to New Hampshire to visit my uncle Norm and aunt Sharon. I was excited! Anyhow i was out back chopping through some roots maybe? I don't exactly remember but my last stroke was too strong and it went clear through the wood and ended up hitting my left shin square on. The skin split apart only about 3 inches long but bleed didn't that bleed! All i could think about was that i wasn't going to get to go. So i went to my neighbors house to get patched up! My parents didn't know about it till later that night after I'd arrived in New Hampshire. Probably should've had a few stitches but made do with a butterfly bandage. Have a little scar there still. I've had many, many other mishaps as I'm sure we all have. But no others with an axe besides a nick here and there. But that one taught me respect for the axe early. That STUNG!! Cool thread btw. Hopefully I'll never have any more to add to this one....
 
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I was limbing out a very large pine with a boys axe that I had just felled with a felling axe and misery whip. The felling went fine. Tree laid over some thick under brush. There was a lot of slash (cut limbs) on the ground from other felled trees. As I cut a large limb from the just felled tree a sapling that was under the limb, and was under compression from the limb, was released when I finished cutting the limb. Once it was released It sprang up and smashed my face, breaking my nose and knocking me out. Did not cut myself with the boy's axe. This is a common hazard when felling trees with a full crown. You can not see this one coming as the saplings are pinned to the ground under the limbs. You would be amazed how often this happens and was always one of my big worries when felling with axe or chainsaw.
 
I was limbing out a very large pine with a boys axe that I had just felled with a felling axe and misery whip. The felling went fine. Tree laid over some thick under brush. There was a lot of slash (cut limbs) on the ground from other felled trees. As I cut a large limb from the just felled tree a sapling that was under the limb, and was under compression from the limb, was released when I finished cutting the limb. Once it was released It sprang up and smashed my face, breaking my nose and knocking me out. Did not cut myself with the boy's axe. This is a common hazard when felling trees with a full crown. You can not see this one coming as the saplings are pinned to the ground under the limbs. You would be amazed how often this happens and was always one of my big worries when felling with axe or chainsaw.
Thanks for sharing. Are there safety steps to avoid injury in that kind of situation?
 
Not much you can do other than keep your eyes open for these saplings under compression. As you are limbing, look for saplings trapped under the trunk or more importantly, under the branches still attached to the trunk. If you see this situation, pay attention before you cut the limbs off the trunk.
 
I was limbing out a very large pine with a boys axe that I had just felled with a felling axe and misery whip. The felling went fine. Tree laid over some thick under brush. There was a lot of slash (cut limbs) on the ground from other felled trees. As I cut a large limb from the just felled tree a sapling that was under the limb, and was under compression from the limb, was released when I finished cutting the limb. Once it was released It sprang up and smashed my face, breaking my nose and knocking me out. Did not cut myself with the boy's axe. This is a common hazard when felling trees with a full crown. You can not see this one coming as the saplings are pinned to the ground under the limbs. You would be amazed how often this happens and was always one of my big worries when felling with axe or chainsaw.

We call these spring poles. I mentioned disarming one in the 'Lets see those axes' thread a few weeks ago. I'm always on the lookout for them. Nasty buggers!
 
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