Yup, it's sharp.

[JRedding]

Since everybody's confessing their dumb mishaps here's mine. After running a stitching machine nearly everyday for eighteen years I finally got bit, I lifted the foot, made a sweep under the lifted foot with the needle resting at the top of the stroke with my right hand to pick up the threads and brush the tails to one side so I didn't gather one up and suck it in the bobbin and at just the right time I bumped the throttle and drove a 180 needle in an Adler 205 machine right through the fingernail of my index finger on my right hand, dead center at the cuticle. I flinched , jumped off the throttle and it stopped at the bottom of the stroke with half a stitch tied through my finger, it's hard to reach over with your left hand and roll the flywheel to bring the needle back up while holding enough foot pressure on the tredle to release the coast brake without gasing it and sewing up to your third knuckle, (these old Adlers will sew a few stitches even after they're turned off unless you wait ) , it's a real game of Adler twister. I got it raised, cut myself out of it,and pulled the thread out of my finger,The strange part about this was it never bled, and it wasn't as sore as hitting one with a hammer.

[Clay]

This one did not happen to me but I watched it happen. When I was a trainee in the Alb. NM TLF I was watching my boss demonstrate a rotary cutter for a customer. He was really into it explaining how the cutter was great for thin leathers and made great cuts against a straight edge bla bla then he took it and started cuting a curvy line that went right over the end of his middle finger. Shortened that finger by a quarter of an inch. The customer saw the blood and did not stop till she was in her car in the parking lot. As far as I know she has never come back to the store. The doctors had to coterize the end of my bosses finger.

We stopped letting him use sharp things for a while because a while later he cut the end of his thumb of with a razor knife. (demoing for a customer)

ClayM.

[ryan]

Just before Christmas, I was cutting out some notebooks and watching TV at the same time (Open Range which is a great movie). I was running a utility knife down a steel ruler and my finger slipped off the ruler. When I looked down, the tip of my finger, fingernail and all, was laying on the other side of my knife. It took about 2 hours to stop the bleeding. It healed better than I thought and I am just now starting to get feeling back in the tip. None of my draw gauges have bit me but it's not a matter of if but when. I can see how easy it would be to split your thumb when starting a strap. To this day, barbed wire still gets credit for most of my scars followed closely by leather knives and a distant third would be a couple good ones from hoof knives.

Ryan

[barra]

OK I have a few but one is a doozy. I have split the thumb open with a plough guage blade. For those not familiar with the blade it is sort of meat cleaverish. I have speared myself with a seat awl/scratch awl right thru my hand but for your viewing pleasure the doozy.

I was in the Army and doing a bit of saddlery on the side. I was being an idiot with a sharp knife (we all know a blunt knife is more dangerous than a sharp one). Anyway major semi digit severing incident occurs. I just cleaned up the wound and stuck some sticking plaster on it. After a week out in the bush I thought I had better change the plaster. Well The now well developing pus matched my Army greens nicely. Off to the Doctor I am now forced to go to get it seen to properly. I come out with this bandage from hell that made using the hand at all rather difficult. That afternoon we were on the range firing 84mm anti tank weapons (bazooka in lay terms). This thing is a two person operated weapon that has a back blast danger area so it is equally dangerous from both ends. I fired a few rounds and then it was my turn to load. In goes high explosive anti tank round, back end is slammed shut and a slap on the firers helmet the split second you slam it shut lets him know it is ready to fire (remember back blast from bum end) As I tapped firer with right hand it took a second or two to work out why left hand would not come down.

That God forsaken bandage is stuck in the back of an about to be fired anti tank weapon. I near knocked off the firers head with numerous stop, stop, stop taps on the helmet. I have included this story because the initial wound was caused doing leatherwork.

Then there is the time Airforce buddy who caught his shirt sleeve in industrial sewing machine when learning to sew, panicked and put his foot down. This act then literally fed him into the machine.

I have Open Range on DVD and might have another viewing tonight.

Barra

Edited March 8, 2008 by barra

[gunfighter48]

Not leather caused but here goes:

Worst thing I ever did was cut my knee open with a chain saw. Cut down to the knee cap but not into it. Was tree farming, got hit in the head/shoulder with a big tree limb which caused my hand holding the front bar to open. The saw was at idle and dropped onto my left knee. Grabbed the bar and jerked the saw up but not in time to prevent cutting my leg open. Poured some gas/oil mix in it to clean out the wood chips, taped it shut and waited for my dad to come pick me up a couple hours later. There was no pain what so ever, the nerves were dead before they could send a pain impulse to the brain. Kept it taped shut and it healed just fine in about 6 weeks.

If you spot someone in shorts with a scar across the left knee they are right handed chain saw users!!!! If the scar is across the right knee they are left handed users. Many of the boys, and a few girls, I went to high school with had scars on their knees.

John

[Bob]

Hilly,

Nope never done anything like that except;

1) there was this one time I tried to feed a strap into the draw gauge instead on pulling the drawgauge into the strap. The blade stuck far enough into the bone to hang there. Not a recommended storage method for draw gauges. The "draw" in draw gauge has a double meaning, as in " to draw blood".

2) oh yes. Then there was the time I was wearing flipflops in the shop. You know that string bleeders have a round handle. When they roll off the bench, they will tip and end up point down, stuck in that large vein running across the top of your bare foot. It really doesn't bleed much until you pull it out. That is right before you flatten one side of the handle to keep it from rolling off the bench. I found the reason that tool is called a "bleeder".

This is way too funny Bruce, you crazy

[Bob]

This section is so dag funny, some of hte stories are so funny. Jim, I donno how one would pull their finger out of a sewing machine needle with your left hand... gosh

I've got a few wounds over the years, but nothing serious, touch wood......(touching my head)

[JRedding]

Bob, you think that's funny the rest of that story is my sister - in- law was in the shop at the time, I didn't yell or anything I've been cut and smashed so many times I don't really feel it like normal people, anyway I just ask her to come over and help me trying not to alarm her, because this gal pushes the panic button like she's playin' Jeopardy over everything, when she saw that needle resting right in the middle of my finger she quit the building like someone yelled fire, by the way she left the place I didn't think she'd be coming back anytime soon so that's when I started playing my little game of twister.

Edited March 8, 2008 by JRedding

[SCOUTER]

I have so many blunders that I should be called "lucky" One of my fondest is when I was a kid I was cleaning up a tool on an old electric motor with a large wire (wheel) brush... I was all proud of myself because I was wearing eye-protection. Well, almost in slow motion I saw the bottom of my flannel shirt that I was wearing outside my trousers, come up and just touch the bottom of the wheel... Well, the next thing I get sucked into the wire brush until the motor stopped and was just humming (or laughing) real loud. I could not move, but somehow got my hand on the power cord and yanked it from the outlet... The funny part was seeing me manually reversing the wheel so that I could get free... I was un-injured except for about 200 pinholes running up my stomach and chest and yes chin. All I could think about was how happy I was my father didn't see me.

"Who needs those safety guards anyway"

[rgerbitz]

I have an uncle that when in his teens was doing some quick draw practice with a .22 pistol. To make his shots quicker he wood have it cocked before he'd draw. Well he hit the trigger before clearing the holster and shot himself in the thigh. Some how the bullet exited just above the knee. The funny part is that about 8 years later he did it again. Same gun, same entrance and exit holes. Hasn't picked up a pistol since. We still call him "Quick Draw McGraw".