Yup, it's sharp.

[steveb]

We still call him "Quick Draw McGraw".

he must love that.....lol

love it

[TwinOaks]

While managing the burn barrel in my back yard, I decided to toss in a steel leaf spring and try to get it to forging temp. To aide in combustion, I fed a piece of fence pole (metal) in through one of the holes in the barrel. The theory was that it would pipe in air to the center of the fire, kinda like a tuyere.

My son was outside with me, and being ever vigilant, I decided to warn him about the pipe, and that it was HOT. Now my son is only six, and when he started asking questions about it, I explained that the fire would heat up the pipe, and he shouldn't touch it. He asked how far down the pipe would be hot, and I said 'till about here........ One second degree burn later, he decided I was probably right about the pipe.

Edited March 8, 2008 by TwinOaks

[robert]

great topic... i have laughed until my side hurt!

my favorite "oops" story goes like this... i was about 16 and I was sure that I was approaching genius status, and forever wondered how all the stupid adults around me had managed to survive all those years.

i had an old international scout with a leaky heater core. i was cruising town one day and saw an euipment yard with several junked peices of international equipment ... so i stopped and asked the old guy if i could look around for a heater core... I found one, still attached to a backhoe, and made a deal to buy it. The last thing he said as i walked out the door was "Son, be careful... old hose is the worst thing in the world to make you cut yourself..."

But I was 16 and way smarter than him, right? He just shook his head as I walked back in, holding a greasy rag on a gash in my left hand...

A trip to the doc and about 6 stitches later, and I started to realize just how quickly some of those adults were getting smarter....

To paraphrase Mark Twain.. "When I was seventeen, my old man was so stupid I could hardly stand to have him around... When I was 27, I was amazed at how much he had learned in just 10 short years..."

[howardb]

Laughed until the tears flowed! I get to because I have either done these or done similar. I still have all my fingers & toes, but I have a bunch of scars to prove my mettle. So, I am laughing with you all and not at you all!

I've committed the cardinal knife sin of cutting towards my body (and unfortunately, my thumb). Drove the knife to the bone. 8 stitches.

I've also trimmed off the end of a finger with a utility knife while cutting a mat for a friend.

I've got a dozen on my hands and forearms from working on cars with hot engine parts. Those are usually at least two for one. Your hand bumps the exhaust manifold, and before your ears hear the sizzling meat, you find your forearm ripped open by a neighboring sharp metal bracket as the automatic defense system kicks in and moves your hand away from the burn source. You'd think I'd learn after the first time...

I very carefully backed the edge of a finger into a rotary cutter just the other day. A small cut, but I put that to my vast experience with sharp/hot objects. At least if I'm going to slice something, I plan ahead to minimize the damage...

I have not yet drilled, nailed, or sawn anything yet (knock wood), but I came VERY close in my youth to losing body parts both on a lathe and radial arm saw. The gods smiled upon me those days and kept me from injury. I gained immediate respect for BOTH implements of doom.

These days, I only feed my fingers into the grinder on occasion, and whack my digits with a hammer when my attention wanders. Nothing major...

Brent