Safety with sharps

[swright81076]

Well. Yesterday I did a very stupid thing. I was using chisels and gouges on my kuksa but couldn't find a mallet or hammer, so I decided to use the back of my axe. A shaving sharp axe.
I know it was a stupid thing to do, but still went ahead anyway.
I had been merrily chipping away, I then put down the axe to talk to our son, picked the axe back up, and proceeded to chip away, in a moment of stupidity I had the axe the other way round.
The blade deflected off the back of my chisel and found itself next to my thumb bone.
I've just returned from hospital after having my tendon repaired and stitches. (The surgeon agreed with me that I'd made a beautiful text book incision)

I'm now out of action with my tinkering for a couple of weeks, but will be back tinkering again as soon as I can.

The moral of this post is to use the right tools for the job in hand. Just be extra careful and please respect your sharp tools.


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[plastic-ninja]

That one will be the kuksa with the really unusual colouring then?
I guess at least with our silly-sharp axes one does make a nice neat incision for the surgeons to suture.
A good job that you were just tapping and not trying harder : you could easily take a finger off with a
sharp axe when you see how easily they go through small branches.Glad you are fettled and I may use your story
in my next axe & knife safety session with the Scouts.
Cheers , Simon

[mountainm]

I hope you didn't roll the edge on the axe?

[swright81076]

Please feel free to use the story, explaining how an idiot nearly lost his thumb. I still say blunt tools are far more dangerous.

Haha the first thing I did was make sure the axe was OK.

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[Chiseller]

TWO weeks of tinkering.... Noooo
Glad tha med mi stove when yer did


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[swright81076]

2 weeks of boredom. Think I'll be going over first aid and safety, and teaching swmbo how to make pastry

Glad I did too chiseller, you wouldn't have been able to burn a crater in your stump if not.

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[swright81076]

Just come back from having a lightweight splint put on. Apparently I'd managed to cut into my tendon so no heavy lifting for 12 weeks.

Here's a couple of pictures. Sorry no gory ones, just post op and in splint.







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[treelore]

owww bugger, hope you heal soon......reminds me of a few months ago then i used the back of my axe to smack in a stake when i was hedgelaying and was leaning a lttle too fare over and cutt my ear lobe in two.....very easy to have thes silly mistake when we all put are brains into nautral !!!

[Harvestman]

There's nothing like a bit of self harm to lighten the mood of everyone else's day.

I've not done myself any serious damage with an axe, yet, but for some reason my wife won't let me buy a chainsaw...

[treelore]

lmao Harvestman (touch wood that i never have a chain saw accident. i've seen plenty and have delt with a few and the worst thing again they could have all been provented !!! the silky saw we arbourist use are the ones that account for the most accidents !!! i've cut myself so often that in my first aid kit i carry super glue and just glue the cut and carry one.... you've got to love the "friday cut" lol

[Harvestman]

Ah well, if we are talking saw-inflicted injuries, then I have a lovely thumb scar from trying to extract a sapling from a national nature reserve rather quickly before the warden found me

The one-handed drive through the Brecon Beacons back lanes to A&E was... shall we say... interesting.

[treelore]

lol and explaining to the A&E staff !

[swright81076]

Oh yes. During to casualty was interesting. Thumb wrapped in paper towel, then finished with a little duck tape. Scariest part was setting fire to the makeshift bandage while trying to light a fag.

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[Harvestman]

Burns and an axe wound would be a first on here

[swright81076]

Stitches out tomorrow (one already "fell" out) hopefully get this restrictive brace off too. Woohoo.
12 weeks before any heavy lifting but they said nothing about tinkering or the like. So hopefully back to normallity too.
I'll be able to try out my new mallet too.

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[swright81076]

Sutures removed yesterday. Wound healing nicely. Had a chat with the surgeon who did the op. Turns out that I was fortunate that the axe was so sharp, in that the tendon was cut surgically clean. If the axe was blunt it would have caused serious soft tissue damage and possibly crushed the tendon.
I've been given exercises to do, and already have about 90% mobility in the thumb so should be spot on when fully healed. :thumbup: (haha)
Anyway, I should be able to drive next week, and back to tinkering. No heavy lifting or practising magic for 6 weeks
I already have an idea to greatly improve my wood gas stove without using thermoelectric generators, instead using true forced air from a separate source. So roll on next week.


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[dave53]

hi make sure you adhere to the 12 wk rule otherwise like me you will end up with a pin in your thumb as i did and no fixed in one position and by the way bad luck sorry to hear you did it in the first place heal well regards dave

[swright81076]

12 weeks seems an awful long time though. I am a close up magician and need to get back earning asap. At the moment swmbo is making and selling beaded bracelets, but that only just about pays the bills.
What happened to you, and why was a pin inserted if you don't mind me asking.

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[vizsla]

Hope it heals ok mate. the first thing i do with a new axe is make the sheath,mask agood fit with the strap around the shaft so when using it as a hammer the mask can stay on. Abit late for that of course

[swright81076]

I have my mallet now. In the field I'd go with batoning rather than back of axe. This is a lesson learned.

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