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8:14 PM
Tim Williams
There is nothing I loathe more than sharpening chisels and plane irons. Let me repeat that. There is "NOTHING" I loathe more than..... It is just something I force myself to do for the sake of the project because, (insert mantra here), "Sharp fixes everything!" That is exactly what all my students get sick and tired of hearing me say. Nonetheless, I hate it.
Now, having said that, let me tell you a story. While on a job recently, I was using a one-inch chisel (very sharp!) to ease the back of a miter, ever so slightly, on a piece of molding. This is an operation I could do in my sleep. I have done it a hundred thousand times. I know what you are thinking, why not a block plane? I needed it to taper, so a chisel is perfect to be able to still see my taper line.
Well... the line broke, the monkey got choked, the chisel slipped, (and in this exact order), incision, bleeding, "why can't I feel my finger?" Yes, if you cut your index finger just right, you sever nerves, maybe a tendon, or an artery perhaps! Did I mention the whole "I hate sharpening" thing?
Well, no more! Due to the fact that my tools are kept sharp, regardless of how painstaking the process may be, the cut was so clean the hand surgeon felt re-attaching the nerves would be fairly successful. (I just nicked the tendon, and missed the artery somehow.) The only downside is having to wear a catchers' mitt-sized bandage/cast contraption, and no use of my left arm for three weeks.
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| My wife calls it "The Claw" |
3 comments:
AAKK!!!EEEKK!!!I am hesitant to say it, but every now and then we get reminders. Reminders of the scalpel sharp tools we work with. It could have been worse, it can always be worse, but that doesn't help much. At best, maybe a corpusal deep inside your "noodle" is screaming " don't do that again". Maybe now you'll visit me.
Wow so glad you are ok! It is amazing just how fast things go wrong even with hand tools. I have often been thankful of how quickly little knicks heal because of the cleaness of the cut and now I can rest easy knowing the same is true of the deep cuts. Not that I want one mind you! Feel better soon.
Tim,
I'm glad you'll be ok and hope the hand heals quick. While it certainly caused the injury, hopefully the sharp chisel lead to a cleaner, easier to fix and heal wound than a dull one would have.
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