A trip I could have done without...

[Quixoticgeek]

I spent the weekend with a friend camping in Hampshire. We had picked up some ash that had fallen on the road, with plans to practice wood carving with it. I have a new spoon knife from Mr Budd that I wanted to try out.

I had got the rough shape sorted, and was starting on the bowl of the spoon. When everything went kinda red...

The knife had slipped, and sliced into end of a finger on my left hand. Fortunately it wasn't too deep, the bone stopped it going any further...

It can be a bit of a surprise at the amount of blood that can come out of a finger... I used one of my big trauma dressings (it was on top of the FAK). This plus pressure got the wound to the point I could do something a bit more stable. Non-adherent dressing + tape, covered over with a glove to stop me getting blood over the car... just over 3 hours sat in A+E waiting for the 5 minutes it took them to clean the wound (agony), followed by 5 steri strips to hold it together, a dressing over the top, and discharged.

I feel like a bit of an idiot for making the mistake and cutting myself, but it seems to be healing well so far (it doesn't hurt unless I do something stupid with it, like touch it...). Going to have a pretty scar...

So now I'm sat here at home with a big dressing on the finger making typing that little bit more interesting wondering when it'll heal...

Oops

J

 

[Toddy]

Get well soon and I hope it heals soundly.

Russ did something similar with my sickle at the Moot. In fairness, the hooked handle caught on the pocket of his trousers and his hand slid up to the blade.

I'll see your three hours though and raise you this scenario….
I am a politely spoken lady from Lanarkshire. I speak Scottish English, iimmc.
Russ is from Fife, and his accent is even more Scottish than mine.
We were attended to at Bridgend Accident and Emergency (we were at the Moot) by a Welsh speaking nurse……and in the end she fetched a Doctor to make sense of all of us…..a Chinese Doctor !

Aye, and not a word of a lie, or a common tongue among us.

M

 

[mick91]

Sorry to hear that. Fingers tend to not take long to heal and we've all slipped with a knife!
Heal well

 

[John Fenna]

And at least you know the knife is sharp!
Heal fast!
I spilled a bit of blood from a finger recently as well...
I was making some of my infamous beginners flint and steel sets and was grinding the rough edges of the snapped sections of old high carbon steel file to make the edges nice and smooth and finger safe.
I knew that the rest was a fraction far from the worn grindstone and planned to reset it after that bit of steel as the danger was that the steel might bit on the stone, get pulled behind the rest and be potentially dangerous as it went...
Sure enough, it bit. The steel whipped over, taking the shortest route ... which happened to be through my fingertip, smashing a 1/2" long, pretty deep, bloody groove on it's way....
So for a week or so I wore a neat dressing, topped off with thick padding to avoid bumps onto the very painful bruise and healing laceration but the really fun bit was cleaning out all the steel and grindstone dust before I dressed it! Doing my self defense training for my Care job was also interesting...
Luckily my flesh heals fast (not so my joints unfortunately) and I am pretty much healed up now but for a while my middle finger on my right hand was being very rude to everyone from under it's thick dressing.
As it healed I had much enjoyment snipping off the bits of dead skin that hung from the tattered wound and which did not heal back into place - all I have now is a slight dimple in the fingertip with a dark heart...which is either rock and steel I missed or the last bits of healing still going on
Ours is a risky hobby!

 

[Harvestman]

Some good stories on here. Heal well chaps.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Heal well chaps.

Am I allowed to heal well too ?

Julia

 

[Fraxinus]

We have all done it, to varying degrees, comes with playing with sharps and wood
Sharp tools make for fast healing wounds with minimal scarring although we all feel a bit daft for it happening... if it helps we can make you an honorary chap to help it heal quicker
Rob.

 

[Harvestman]

Am I allowed to heal well too ?

Julia

Hey, I was only one out!

Heal well chapess

 

[NarzaCyst]

Something learned from taking the end of my thumb off to the bone.

Cayenne pepper! Cortorises the wound instantly and soaks up the blood.

Not looking to ask you guys to slice yourself open, but I always carry it and it always closes the wound within 5 seconds!

Slightly painful but every person I've mentioned it to and who has used it thanks me.

Just a thought!

Shame in the UK we can't produce the stuff Naturally!

 

[ADz-1983]

..So where's the pictures????

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Pictures will happen hen I next take the dressing of.

J

 

[Toddy]

Somewhere there's a thread.."Do not do this to yourself"…..

M

 

[Quixoticgeek]

For those wanting pictures. The current state having removed the dressings, but not the steri strips can be found in these links:

photo 1
photo 2

Nothing particularly gruesome really, but I know some don't like to look, so the choice is yours if you click.

You can't see much, the steri strips cover most of it. Tho now I can see it, I see there are 4, not the 5 I thought there were.

Enjoy...

J

 

[tankie]

Am I allowed to Laugh?

 

[Harvestman]

Proper job done there Julia. A scar to be proud of.

 

[mick91]

Proper job done there Julia. A scar to be proud of.

Every one is a little lesson learned that's how I see it!

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Am I allowed to Laugh?

Of course, that's a given.

Proper job done there Julia. A scar to be proud of.

Aye, every scar is one I wear with pride... well maybe not the one on my arm from where my walk came to an arboreal halt...

Every one is a little lesson learned that's how I see it!

Aye. I carry the markings of many lessons...

J

 

[nic a char]

Am I allowed to heal well too ?

 

[nic a char]

Ouch!
My last one was 3 years ago (the years bring more care) when I dropped my angle grinder, the electric cable caught on the workbench, and the grinder swung, slim cutting-blade first, into my thumb = NOT so

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Just taken the steri strips off, it's not pretty at this stage.

Photo link

Slightly worryingly, the area beyond the cut has no feeling to it, as if it's been anaesthetised. I just phoned 111, who say I need to goto a+e immediately... which seems a little over reactive... Time to wander to hospital.

J