The; "Be Careful Thread!"

Dantor

Dantor

Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
1,350
I was in another forum and they were showing a multitool made for people who can use only one arm. It's for fastening buttons on your clothes, helping you be more independent and it got me thinking.

What it must be like to be not be able to use both hands or worst. I take if for granted and I don't want too. Here in the survival section we chop and throw and carve because we love our blades and tools but some people can't or can't as easy.

So I wanted to start a thread about the "dangers" of our sharp tools. I've seen some stories here about cuts and wounds and such and I wanted to hear more and give tips for us all, so we don't have to use special tools in our life and the lives of those we know and care about.

IMO taking chances has never been more "Public" then now; with reality shows and the media. We've all done some crazy things in our life, especially when we were young and dumb, but not for the world to see! With todays media everyone can see and learn our foolishness!

Think about what your doing with your tools and try to understand their limits and "Your" limits and skills. At the very least think about what can go "Wrong!" or bad. Keep your mind focused and on what your doing and don't cut towards yourself!

I hope others will join in and share their stories and safety tips so we can all enjoy our tools forever...

worry rant over! :D
 
Hatchets are probably the most dangerous, as a missed swing can easily go into your shin. Same goes for golok's which hurt people when the thing slices through something they expected it not to cut fully and the carry through brings it into their leg.
 
I've been fortunate enough never to have been too seriously wounded using any kind of sharp tools. I did slice the side and tip of my ring finger on my left hand one time a long time ago, requiring a few stitches. I was working as a line/prep cook in a restaurant and in the process of peeling an avocado for guacamole I slipped and the tip of the knife sliced right through the pad of the finger. It left me with a nice little scar to remind me to be careful. I guess the firearms safety rule "know your target and what is beyond" applies to knives as well. Try to keep in mind where the edge and tip of the knife is going to go if you miss your target with a slice or chop, or if you slip while carving or whittling.
 
kgd said:
Hatchets are probably the most dangerous, as a missed swing can easily go into your shin. Same goes for golok's which hurt people when the thing slices through something they expected it not to cut fully and the carry through brings it into their leg.
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You posted while I was typing my first reply. I was thinking about saying something about hatchets too, but decided not to. I love my hatchet but I understand how dangerous it can be and try to only use it when kneeling so that a missed swing will go into the ground, or standing on the opposite side of a log or other barrier from what I'm chopping.

I know exactly what you mean about goloks. I picked one up at a gun/knife show a while back and finally got to use it a bit last weekend. Fortunately I was using it to trim some limbs from around our camp sight and the brush was too thick for a full swing. It was going through much larger stuff than I had thought it would with not much more than a flick of the wrist. If I had opened up with a full swing I may very well have ended up with it in my leg. :eek:
 
kgd said:
Hatchets are probably the most dangerous, as a missed swing can easily go into your shin.
Click to expand...

Or your thigh. I agree completely and so that is the reason I won't use them any more. I've heard more than one story of that very thing happening with dire results. Besides, my sweet and lovely Machax can do everything I need to do.

Doc
 
you guys are bringing up good points about axes and hatchets, thx.

I have several machete's and a couple of times, lets just say I came close. my biggest is 18" but you know they make longer ones, talk about being able to reach your toes/feet!
dca1ky.jpg
 
Interesting thread. I was just instructing my 2 teenaged sons about use of a chopper or hatchet this evening. I have been on the receiving end of my own stupidity and feel lucky I didn't chop off my own thumb! (Still have the nice scar).
Careful is the name of the game...hey, does anyone know what some of the most common injuries are to occur while camping/hiking? My guess would be twisted ankles and/or knife related.
 
Dantor said:
you guys are bringing up good points about axes and hatchets, thx.

I have several machete's and a couple of times, lets just say I came close. my biggest is 18" but you know they make longer ones, talk about being able to reach your toes/feet!
dca1ky.jpg
Click to expand...

You make a good point, however, with the length of the cutting edge there is less chance of glancing off something and unintentionally 'modding' your leg. :(

Doc
 
Dantor said:
you guys are bringing up good points about axes and hatchets, thx.

I have several machete's and a couple of times, lets just say I came close. my biggest is 18" but you know they make longer ones, talk about being able to reach your toes/feet!
dca1ky.jpg
Click to expand...

Above a certain length though it actually gets safer because a missed or deflected swing will end up hitting the ground before it reaches your leg. That's what makes a full sized axe safer than a hatchet even though the axe weighs more and will generally have a longer cutting edge.
 
I get hurt all the time..usually its just a small cut or scrape, but sometimes its worse. Its not outdoor related, but the mechanics are the same, I recently fell off a roof at work..it was because I ignored safety procedure and was in a rush...I was lucky and pulld some Jackie Chan theatrics...I slid down a 12/12 valley and was able to grab some wall brackets below, after taking a nasty blow to my thigh and then drop to the ground and land on my feet..I was F-ing lucky...to be honest, I laughed...mostly because I was still alive. I used to hike places with some pretty nasty cliffs, and I know I will again, just like many of you. Be careful, all it takes is loosing your balance once..thats all it takes. The idea is the same, if you make a mistake with your blade, its almost always from a lapse in concentration.
I have been stabbed, by myself, and once by someone else..that doesnt really apply, but the one that stands out in my mind..I was trimming my nails with some SAK scizzors when I was 12..I was sitting on the edge of my bed, and lost my balance...I stabbed the scizzors into my achilies tendon...that really hurt and bled alot!!
BE CAreful...I am very mindful of how I cut with my blades now...Mor Kochanski has a great chapter on safe handling of a knife by the way.
 
how far did you fall Gunknifenut? and omg!

I friend of mine fell off a cliff, slid down to the next outcropping (barely) and was stuck there all night until rescue got to him (helicoptor). He had a "pay before you use" cell phones, it had like one minute on it! but he called home and told them; "Help!" they almost didn't believe him but he was late in coming home, he suffered a broken leg.

He says now; "Make sure you have time on your phone!" and that he was lucky, he didn't have much else.
 
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This makes me think of all the time in the world that can be spent preparing and training for the worst, under any circumstances or conditions. But how little of that time is spent considering what it would be like if you had lost the ability to use either an arm/hand or leg.
 
Out of all the edged tools, I think matchetes have the biggest disparity between potential maiming or useful tool. The springy blade can skip or bounce out of a cut with a surprisingly high angle. The wide blade can steer through a cut with an inadvertant twist of the wrist like a rudder through water. And the center of balance so far forward means little control after a swing is started.

Someone familiar with a matchete "knows" that if you're chopping something heavy the point of impact needs to be at the sweet spot of the blade. The lighter the material you're cutting the point of impact moves further and further up the blade. Chopping something heavy forward of the sweet spot (balance point) is when the blade is most likely to skip or bounce out of a cut. That's something you learn with practice, but I've seen new guys on a landscape crew start swinging away with the blade bouncing out of the cut and just going every which way. Sometimes to the point of the operator barely able to hang on the the handle. It's scary to watch.
 
exactly Stekman, I know somebody that practices only being able to do things with one arm/hand, not just in case but to see what it must be like for those people, like; "how do they do it and what it must be like.
 
Dantor said:
how far did you fall Gunknifenut? and omg!

I friend of mine fell off a cliff, slid down to the next outcropping (barely) and was stuck there all night until rescue got to him (helicoptor). He had a "pay before you use" cell phones, it had like one minute on it! but he called home and told them; "Help!" they almost didn't believe him but he was late in coming home, he suffered a broken leg.

He says now; "Make sure you have time on your phone!" and that he was lucky, he didn't have much else.
Click to expand...

:eek:WOW..I would have still loved that "minute"..The bottom of the valley is about 10 ft off of the ground, there was a hole for a window well in that corner of the house..that just happened to be where I fell...adding another 4ft. I have been walking on roofs all my life and never gone over the edge...I wont be doing any more stunts...
 
The worse I've done is cut a tendon in my middle finger. My finger is now crooked and hurts all the time. I go to the Dr in a few weeks to get it checked out and see what my options are.

It does get you thinking what life would be like with only one arm or hand. It would pretty much suck.

Remember when Les tried to film his show with one arm tied up to see if he could do it and then abandoned it because it turned out to be way to risky? I'm sure one would never know what it's truly like until that limb is missing.
 
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