mauls & risk of rep motion injury

[Johanna]

Someone posted that they prefer a maul to a mallet. I do, too, for setting rivets and punching holes, but I'm told that mauls are not the best choice for carving because of the risk of rep motion injury. I wondered if anyone here has ever experienced any troubles with elbows, wrists or hands from leatherwork? How can these injuries be prevented? Are there things you can do to minimize the discomfort once the damage is done?

I shattered my right wrist in January 2004. I slipped on ice, fell on my bottom, and stuck my hand out for balance on the bounce. It took four nails to hold together after the surgery, and months of physical therapy. I have regained about 60% of the function in my hand, but I've lost quite a bit of the strength, and the ability to turn my wrist palm up. The folks who helped me were quite surprised at how strong my right hand used to be, but years of guitar playing and leatherwork (think hand sewing!) will do that. I'm pretty much a lefty now, and I have to make sure I don't overdo with this hand, or it swells and hurts and I can't stand it. The doc has decided that surgery can help, and it looks like after the holidays I'll be under the knife again. (Millimeters count in wrists, he said.) I'm hoping that some of the range of motion can be restored. Anyone have any good advice for me? No, I don't expect to be able to be doing leatherwork again, but I would like to be able to lace a checkbook if I feel like it. I would like to type with all my fingers too, but since I never did before the accident, I doubt I'll start now.

Johanna

[HorsehairBraider]

Sorry about the wrist! OUCH! And it's very hard when you have an injury that keeps reminding you about its presence. Here's hoping the surgery really helps, I have friends who have had the carpal tunnel surgery and it has worked amazingly well.

I've got both carpal tunnel and tendonitis in both hands/arms. What I have done is re-train myself on how I hold tools and how I use my hands as I work.

If I can avoid holding a tool between my thumb and first finger, I do it. I often hold tools between my first and second fingers, with my wrist bent backwards (NOT inwards) which may look peculiar but it sure helps. I NEVER bend my wrist inward. In fact, I gave up playing the guitar for that very reason. I even make sure I don't do this while sleeping at night. If I am doing a task that requires me bending my hand inward, I just keep trying to find a different position until I do.

I keep my arms, hands and shoulders flexed and stretched. If I have a difficult work session ahead I take a few minutes and stretch out my hands and arms.

I made sure my chores were not quite so hard. That meant selling the rare breed of sheep I had been raising for years and years, because of course the shearing is very hard on the hands and arms. I also sold my very old colt-breaking saddle because it weighed about 75 lbs and was hard to put on a horse. (That can still bring tears to my eyes... I loved that saddle.) I got a lighter, more modern saddle. I can't say I like it as much, but it sure is a lot easier.

I guess you can see I had to make some major changes. Now, I have friends who had surgery and they had excellent results, but I do think you have to be reasonable about the demands you make on your body. I do think every little bit helps, so even starting with small changes can probably make a big difference. At present I normally have *no* pain in the hands or arms and I am able to do most things. Now, right after we put in the hay for the winter (about 600 bales) yeah, I could hardly hold a coffee cup without pain. But already I feel much better, and I've been working like a fiend for all the Christmas orders.

[Billy P]

Hi everybody, some years ago I had surgery for carpel tunnel syn., then as it turned out I didn't have carpel tunnel, but Diabetic Neurothopy (sp). That means nerve damage caused by diabetes. My right hand sometimes hurts as bad as passing a kidney stone, and yep I did that once too, so I know them both. Until a couple of years ago I had not worked with leather for a while, no time, no place, too busy working 12/15 hr days. When I had to retire in 2002 I started going stir crazy so I bought a 8x16 building, put in elec. and off I go working at working with leather. It got to where after a couple of hours my shoulders and elbows hurt to I felt like crying. I'm right handed, but have always held the mallet/maul in my left hand and the tool in my right. Well it was the left side giving me the problems. It finally came out that I had torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders. Not bad enough for surgery, but hurt like hell. I had seen and read all the emails from the IILG and I finally ordered me a maul. I just got mine from Grizzly Tools because it was cheaper than Hidecrafters and ws the sme thing. I wanted to try one before I invested very much in one. Anyway to the point, It did'nt take long to realize that I really need a better maul made out of something harder, as mine is soft and I have to use my old Garland mallet for pear shading and some of the bigger stamps. The truth is you would have to really fight me to make me give up my maul now though. It has helped my shoulder and elbows a lot. I can tool for a long time now and it hardly bothers me at all. As soon as I can get some stuff straightened out and can afford it I intend to get me a decent maul about a lb or 20oz er. As long as it is made of the harder material I'll be fine. I said a lot to say that changing to a maul made a big difference in my tooling and how long I can tool at the sitting and how much trouble I was having with my shoulder and elbow. With Regards Billy P

[CitizenKate]

I really find my mauls much easier on my wrist and arm than the rawhide mallet I used before. I was starting to get a chronic "tennis elbo" type of problem in my striking arm, and when I got the mauls, the problem cleared up.

I think it also helps to use the right weight of striking tool for the job. One that is too light can make your arm (and wrist) work harder than it should have to in order to get a solid impression from the stamp. The rule of thumb I was taught was, if you have to force the striking tool down, it's too light. If you have to control the fall, it's too heavy.

Kate

[Hilly]

I got bad golfer's elbow on both sides. It became so bad that I could not touch anything without feeling like a white hot knife blade was slitting the insides of my elbows. I had surgery on both elbows 5 years ago, and the left one came out perfect, and the right came out kinda so/so, not great. I did lose a lot of strength in both hands to the point that I cannot open twist off caps. That's what husbands or friends are for!

The best advice I can give you is to make sure and stretch those tendons as often as you think about it, even if you have to do it at times that it looks really strange to others. Exercise and blood flow to the affected parts is extremely important, so make sure and have your doctor or phys therapist work out an exercise routine for the affected parts. Also, mildly arobic exercise helps with blood flow. Go for a brisk walk at least 20 minutes a day.Take extra vitamin E, as it helps in collagen production, and healing the micro tears in the tendons. I also use physical restraints to the affected muscles to anchor the muscle to the bone before the tendon has to stretch (elbow straps).

If you have surgery, keep in mind that if you start using the arm/hand in the same manner as what caused the injury in the first place, the injury is much more likely to recur. My tendon troubles are caused by my job (repetitive motion), and are beginning to return, as I haven't changed occupations. I have 8 years till I can retire, but I doubt I can tough it out that long and still be able to use my arms. It's a choice you need to make for yourself. Also, if you can learn to use your hands/arms in different positions, it will help, but can injure other parts. I'm now beginning to get bad tennis elbow because I use my arms differently than I used to, so different muscles are affected. Carving leather and using a rotary punch really give me grief. Tooling and stamping are fine. I'm trying to talk my husband into helping me with carving and punching holes. Okay, enough ranting from me for now. Thanks for reading.

[Opagon]

It has been a very fustrating thing for me to come to grips that I have the carpal tunnel. I am just getting started with my craft and dont want to have to stop. I am lucky to have a good friend who is a physical therapist, so I asked some advice on what to do. She told me to do what she calls "the hot cold soak" before and after braiding. I place my hands in hot water (as hot as I can handle) up to the middle of my forearms and wait for 3 to 4 minutes then switch to the ice cold for the same amount of time. I do this five times and find my kitchen sink to work the best. (Sometimes I actually wash the dishes too...) According to her it helps the blood flow and opens things up. She also sent me to this site for excersies - www.carpaltunnelexercises.net I also found this site to be helpful - www.will-harris.com/yoga/rsi.html

Heather

[gtwister09]

Johanna,

Sorry to hear about that. I spent many years as an Industrial Engineer and one of my functions was performing ergonomic evaluations, correcting designs and such. I was working in a large manufacturing shop that had lots of machining operations that included hand operations such as deburring. It also had many engineers who performed computer aided manufacuring and design. They generally spent more than 10 hours a day performing operations on the computer. These evaluations were done on people with CTS, RMI and other things like back problems and such. A major aspect of the evaluations also included finding out what things they did at home and hobby as well. This was to see what other things could have contributed to the ergonmic issue. Many of them would pick up grandkids, do crotchet work, gardening, woodworking, golf, tennis or any number of things after work.

Every thing we do to twist, pronate or anything else unnaturally to the wrist contributes to it. Any amount of weight any distance out from your torso will create a moment arm that essentially increases the weight as it goes out from the torso. With that said you should try to keep your wrist in as neutral as a position as possible and with as little weight as possible. Stretching is also good but don't overdo it. Likewise the best thing that I can say about ergonomics is that it is about reduction of these factors. RARELY can we elimiate all of them. This was the reason for gathering the additional information so that we could identify actions that we could eliminate or help them reduce these contributors.

Now to your maul versus mallet question. From an ergonomics standpoint the maul when properly used is better designed to reduce the forces and twisting associated with your wrist. The mallet will make you more tired over the same amount of time and it will start to create sore shoulders and elbows. Many state that mallets make them start to get tennis elbow.

I personally stopped using mallets and started using mauls when I started doing ergonomics over 16-17 years ago.

Regards,

Ben

[unicornwoman]

I've had a whiplash injury that produced many carpel tunnel like symptoms, pushed my bad jaw alignment into full-blow TMJ, left my right arm numb, and other pains.

For my issues, the best thing that every happened to me was Physical Therapy. I've been through two series: one for the numb arm; one for the TMJ. It hurts bad--there were days I literally sobbed in the parking lot before I could face the drive home--but it does wonders. The exercises keep the numbness in the arm gone. I do have to be FAITHFUL. Cheating on the at-home exercises usually produces very quick and unpleasant results.

With my TMJ, the doctors talked me into surgery finally. Now that I've done it, I wish I had tried 6-8 months of PT BEFORE surgery, instead of after. ANY surgery is an INJURY. You're being cut with a knife. It has risks. You have to heal again. Always. For me, yeah, okay, some of the neck problems are better, but I also now have a muscle problem in my face that, if ignored when flaring up, interferes with my vision. I'm not sure the trade off was worth it.

I have had to change the way I do things. Mousing with my right hand the way the ergonomic gurus say to HURTS. I can cross mouse with my right (i.e. mouse on the left, but using right hand with forearm resting on the desk) or I can mouse left handed. (I'm mainly right-handed with mild leanings to ambidextrousness that have been reinforced by PAIN.) Dual hand mousing means I have to purchase a flat mouse, not one of those tilted right or left handed things. (BTW, switching to an optic mouse, if you haven't already, really reduces the strain of mousing.)

As for mallets vs mauls: DEFINITELY the mauls for me. The mallets required me to lift my shoulder and put the swing in from the elbow down. That caused pain. The maul that I purchased is very nicely balanced for my hand and only has to be tapped with the wrist, allowing the shoulder not to be lifted.

[anne newkold]

I have carpal tunnel in both wrist. In order to avoid surgery I changed jobs (was working in a factory) and wear wrist braces on both arm at night to sleep in for the rest of my life. I have to wear them even for things such as driving for 30 minutes or more. Just typing on the keyboard for extended periods can cause pain. So I wear them then too when I have a lot to type.

A maul or mallet? all depends on what position "you" are putting your arm in. I am still trying to get use to wearing my braces when I am tooling. Works for that so far but not while using the swivel knife.

One thing most people do not know or think about when you do have the surgery is the "% of loss of use." To me that was not worth the surgery yet. So I wear my braces and do the stretching exercises every day just like the said to do in therapy.

[Jordan]

Well, I don't feel so all alone, two dead nerves in the neck and shoulder, damaged nerves in the elbow and wrist, they diagnosed it as repetative nerve damage, carpal tunnel and drivers elbow. I think they missed it though, due to sudden onset 3 years ago, I think it is diabetic neuropathy and the steroid treatment brought out type 2 and now it's type 1. And the battle for disability rages on and on and on. It seems true that all the bumps and lumps when your 10 feet tall and bullet proof comes back to bite you after 50 LOL. I know that in woodworking mauls have been a tool of choice for a long time, ergonomics probably play a big part, so pounding leather is probably not that different. I will be giving one a try one of these days. Jordan