How not to use a wood chisel...

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poolie

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Well thought I'd get most of the flooring done in my boat today but the murphy had a different idea. Since I'm typing one-handed I'll give the abbreviated version.

Needed to notch a piece of wood by 1/8" inch so grabbed a nice sharp wooden chisel. Well next thing you know blood is pouring everywhere. The chisel slipped and just plowed into my left hand... I know I know... been wood working for years and knew better than to hold the item I was working with. Just a moment of stupidity. Anyway, I knew a band aid wasn't going to fix this so while I was holding a rag over it tightly the wife drive me to the emergency room. Took 4 internal stitches for a muscle I cut and 17 to close up the gaping hole. They put the cast on it to immobilize the thumb and I have to go have a specialist check it out since I cut into the muscles.

I have a picture from the emergency room, but will spare everyone that one. Guess I'm fishing prospects are looking pretty slim for a 10-14 days.

By careful out there boys and girls ;-)

--Poolie

poolies_stupid_moment.jpg
 
I dont know whether to laugh at you or cry for you. 10-14 days of being gimpy :cry: , you know what they do with gimpy horses dont you? You probably wont make a good glue though :p
 
It can happen. Hope you didn't do any serious damage to the muscle.

When I first started my boat project, Me the big tuff guy didn't need to protect myself with a sissy dusk mask, I went ahead and stripped the old paint in the garage all week.
Well it happen. [-X

It killed my lungs and impacted my sinus'. Since the summer of 2007 I'm still trying to strengthen my lungs. It made me have nasty allergies since. :(

well I finished the boat project in spring of 2008.

Needles to say I learned a hard lesson and I will preach Lung Protection for now on :wink:
 
Hope you heal fast.... no matter how experienced we are (or believe we are).... we make these (stupid) human mistakes.... Lucky for most of us, they only amount to some recovery/healing time with no long term bad affects.... You were lucky this time & learned a lesson that will make you be much more careful in the future...... We all learn the hard way.... some of us are more lucky in our learnings :)
 
That sounds like a nasty injury :shock: Hope you get well soon! [-o<
 
The doctor said, I can give you something for pain if you need it, and my reply was, "the pain is natures way of reminding me I did something stupid". I'm not sure I want to dull that.
 
dang bro! Glad you still have everything in tact though..

This reminds me of when my father-in-law and I were putting down hardwoods in his basement... We did his whole basement (close to 2500 sq ft) and I was doing the measuring/laying, and he was doing the cutting... well I got down to the last piece, and needed a piece that was 6" long. To get that 6" would require opening a new box, and he didn't want to do that... so he searched and found a piece that would work, but the notches weren't right for the lay... he decided he could cut that notch in the end with the chop saw (I didn't know that's what he was doing, otherwise I would have told him to keep looking)... well I'm sitting there waiting and I heard the saw make on of those "banging/screaching" sounds like when wood flies up in and jams the saw... 2 secs later he comes in holding his hand and said "I just cut myself" I thought he was BS'ing me and said let me see it... as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get him to the emergency room because that was beyond my capabilities with a needle and thread... he's not good with blood, and I my immediate words were "let's go." I think he knew then it was bad, because I'm very laid back and don't have reactions to anything unless it's serious.. I tried to hide him from my wife and his wife, but they heard the same thing I did. I wouldn't let them see how bad it was, so I went took him to the kitchen sink to clean it (I didn't want blood all over my car, plus I wanted a closer inspection).. bad move - he went straight to his knees when he saw it. I ended up getting him in the car and we took off to the emergency room... he nearly cut his thumb off - he was holding the wood in his left hand and didn't brace it against anything - as soon as the saw hit the wood, it pulled it up along with his thumb and it sliced the back side of his left thumb pretty deep. He missed his tendon by a micrometer and now has full movement of his thumb back..

That was my eye opening experience to doing "stupid" stuff with power tools (I had already cut 3 or 4 boards like he just did...)
 
Dang man sorry to hear about the injury. Hopefully you'll have a speedy recovery & didn't do to much damage to the muscle.
 
Thanks for all the well wishes guys :)

I've spent the afternoon discovering all of the things that are hard to do one handed. The way they braced me thumb I can't touch it with my fingers to it so I'm getting a preview of why opposing thumbs are handy.
 
russ010, The EXACT same thing happened to my buddy, except he got his tendon, They did get it fixed back with surgery. We renamed the chop saw to meat saw...

Hope you heal up quick poolie. There's fishing to be done.
 
ouch.i broke my ankle 19 months ago falling off ladder and was laid up for 3 mo.and wife don't like me to use anything sharp either.she says i accident prone.
 
Good news is all your fingers are still there!

Those chisels can put a hurtin on skin real quick. Been there, seen that.

Prayers sent for a 100% recovery!
 
Have a Speedy recovery my friend and "STAY AWAY FROM SHARP OBJECTS"
Hope there isnt any damage.
 

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