worst carving injury!

[stickman]

Ok lets hear it folks whats your worst carving (or similar type activity) injury?

lets see there's the time when I rented a big gas powered hedge trimmer and cut the tip of my left index finger off(actually it was held on by a thread)and half way into my left middle finger .both were stitched up and work just fine.

Or the time when I first started to try to carve something and drove a knife into that area in between your thumb and index finger .should have got stitches but decided to super glue it instead.(I heard that super glue was invented for this purpose or something to that effect )

Funny I told everybody that asked what did you do to your hand? that I learned my first lesson in carving and when they said what was it ?I said buy a carving glove. still haven't bought one yet. I guess I like living dangerouslyMonkey

[whitecree]

Re: worst carving injury!

Hmmmm - I once used an electric planer in a dumb way to shave end grain down. Of course, it kicked back and chewed into the side of my hand.. Instant hamburger!

I was using a small detail knife, holding it in a dagger grip - blade projecting from the bottom of the fist - and was absent mindedly waving a fly away. Fly landed on my thigh, I tried to smack him with my knife hand and jabbed myself in the thigh. Missed the femoral by a hair.

I was cutting some deadfall red cedar. Raining like it often does in this part of the world, standing on top of a slippery log and working the saw around to cut limbs off before bucking a nice chunk off. Heard a raven yarking away, I looked up just as the saw kicked back and missed my face by almost nothing. Had the tiniest nick on the tip of my nose. Also got a lot of chain oil all over my face. Yuck!

[jillsy]

Re: worst carving injury!

ugh, read up to "hamburger" and could go no further! Too many visuals this early in the morning!

[Goody]

Re: worst carving injury!

Cuttin cork decoy bodies on a band saw. The cork had a big air bubble on the inside. Left the end of my thumb on the band saw table.
Goody

[Guest]

Re: worst carving injury!

This is an "almost" injury......I've been lucky, just a few small scars over the years, but......

I was trimming some springy shrubs with my chainsaw and decided (unwisely) that I could handle that branch one-handed, while holding another out of the way with my right hand. Two mistakes, here.....first trying to use that snarling snapper with one hand and then (I'm right handed) using my left hand to run the saw.

The saw cleaned that branch, hit the springy one I was holding and kicked back, full throttle onto the back of my right thumb......stung like H! I looked on the ground as I wrapped my stinging thumb in my fist, and there at my feet wast the entire thumb of my glove, cut clean off. One finger at a time I opened my fist, and found to my amazment that my thumb was still there. Somehow the chain had spun the leather thumb on the glove all the way around and cleanly removed it from the glove, but only nicked my knuckle...it didn't even bleed.

Sure coulda been a lot worse......the good Lord seems to watch over us idiots!

Al

[mark yundt]

Re: worst carving injury!

Have done some damage with a band saw to my index finger,half way thru ,between tip and first joint..also ran a router down the same finger trying to turn it into moulding ,also,( darn stupid router) fell on my leg while crouching down,took out a "plug" of flesh 3/4 round (core box bit) 'bout 3/4 deep in my upper thigh.

[santagibbs]

Re: worst carving injury!

Ouch .. those are bad injuries.. My son cut his thumb off with a skill saw and it was hanging by a thread.. We had to drive him to Jacksonville..seventy miles to the surgeon to have it sewn back on..It had a three hour time limit..Poor Curtis was driving by him trying to hold on to control with him saying .. look Mother at my thumb.. while it was floating with his hand in some kind of liquid that the hospital put it in.. When he got there they were puting a mans arm back on so the waiting time was five hours.. They put Johnny's thumb back on and he has ninty percent use of it today..Oh what prayer can do.. I won't tell you when he fell fifty seven feet and in 2005 after curtis passed away he fell 47 feet .. lost his spleen and broke his ribs again. He's still climbing trees but I am still praying.. Lord , please put your Angels in the tree with Johnny as you know accident prone he is .. Charlotte

[Tom-H]

Re: worst carving injury!

I hate to even bring this up - BUT! I know some of you younger carvers will eventually get old. One of the things that comes with gettin old is forgetfullness, shorter attention span, not able to do two things at once, etc. A worse case scenerio for me was when I had a terrible itch right between my shoulder blades, and thinkin I had a pencil in my hand. When actually I had a Dockyard V tool in my hand. Oh! I did get rid of the itch....
Tom H

[Bartster]

Re: worst carving injury!

took nine stitches across my left index finger one mourning with a 2 inch carving knife, that was before i wore a glove and from that time on i have worn one.


bart

[Tarik]

Re: worst carving injury!

I carve my pencil tops with scalpels, one day i stopped to carve to answer the phone and just forgot I had the tool still in my hand. As they are so sharp I didn't notice that I had cut myself until I saw the pool of blood in the floor. It ended being a 3 cm. cut, quite deep, in the wheel of the hand, below the thumb, fortunately, there is a layer of fat there that prevented further damage to the muscle and having a doctor mother in the house helped to not to need stitches too.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Re: worst carving injury!

I was making a fishing plug and hit a really tough place in the wood so I turned the knife around and pulled it towards me instead of pushing away (I know....really, really dumb). Like Stickman I wasn't wearing a glove. The knife hit the hard spot and jumped over it with the blade passing through my left thumb and stopping in my left index finger. Since I take a full aspirin everyday for my heart it looked like a scene from the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Seeing your own bone really does give you a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach! But 8-hours and 15 stitches later I was back to carving, bound and determined to beat that piece of wood! Ever since I will not pick up a piece of wood to carve unless I have a glove on!

[Whittlin]

Re: worst carving injury!

Been pretty lucky so far.
Minor cuts when I get going too fast and not respecting the knife.

Hence my saying, "Your tools only give you respect as much respect as you give them. And sometimes a little less."

Dumbest thing I ever did was playing tennis one time.

Was playing poorly and angry with myself for it. Missed a ball for the umpteenth time and took a wild swing in the air with my raquet.
It quickly clocked me one dead center of my forehead. Put out my lights.

When I say that I don't mean it knocked me out, but literally blinded me for what felt like an eternity, probably 10 seconds. Dumb then. Dumb now. But funny as a story. Back to the statement about respecting your tools.

A bit off topic, but worth it if it amuses anyone.