Ouch!!

[celticleather]

I just suffered the eyewatering indignity of shoving a saddler's needle right up under my thumbnail! It was a bit messy, inconvenient and a tad painful, but not exactly life-threatening (my tetanus jabs are up-to-date!).

As a community of people who are constantly using sharp and spiky tools, I'll bet there have been some far more spectacular disasters in some of your workshops. So what's your worst leather-related, self-inflicted (or otherwise?) injury? Show us your scars . . !

[wildrose]

I almost took my finger tip (first finger, right hand) off with my head knife when the guiding ruler slipped (cork back and all!). That was the last time I used that knife, too.

[barra]

I have broken all the golden rules. I allowed the left hand to get in front of the plough guage. Enevitably I slipped and split my left thumb right up to the knuckle. In a seperate incident I pushed a seat awl (a large spike) right thru my, again left hand. It went completely thru the fleshy part of the palm from right to left.

I then miss used a boot makers knife and nearly severed the middle finger on (you guessed it, left hand). Funny conclusion to that saga. I was 2 days from attending an Army reserve exercise. I did not properly clean the wound. A few days into the exercise, all was not looking good, might have been the green puss. I went to the RAP (Medical) and they ended up putting this HUUUUUGE bandage on it. This produced great mearth from my mates. We then had to go to the range and fire 84mm anti tank weapons. I was the loader. I placed in a high explosive anti tank round, slammed closed the breach and tapped the firer on the back of the head. This is his signal all is ready to fire. It was then I realised the stupid bandage was caught in the closed breach of an about to be fired anti tank gun (bazooka in lay terms). This was followed by feversish helmet thumping and screams of STOP, STOP, STOP. For those not familiar with this weapon. It is equally dangerous from both ends as it has a back blast.

Barra

[Mike Craw]

I was re-covering aonther one of the twenty or so of those Billy Cook braided rawhide horn covers that had worn through. I had convinced the customer that it should be covered in leather this time, but she was really insistant that we had to save and re-use the engraved concho that was on the horncap. I got it off (along with the top layer of rawhide and a lightweight leather backer) and found it was clinched on with three copper wire posts. When I tried to straighten the first one, it snapped off, so I decided to cut the leather away from the other two and use them as they were. I was holding the concho (about the size of a 50 cent coin) in my left hand and cutting the leather away from the posts with a razor knife.

I looked right at the set-up and muttered, "If that knife slips, it's going to be ugly!" OK, I didn't get "ugly" competely out of my mouth when, all together now...

It went under my left thumb nail and half way down to the first knuckle. I don't know which was worse, the pain of the cut or the pain of knowing I could/should have stopped!!

Mike

[celticleather]

I'm not sure I should have started this . . . it's making me cringe already!

[hidepounder]

I'm not sure I should admit this................anyway, while using a draw knife to strip out a belt, I passed my palm thru the blade when the side of leather started to slip off the table......still don't understand how I did it....ended my tooling for a couple of weeks....

[celticleather]

I have broken all the golden rules. I allowed the left hand to get in front of the plough guage. Enevitably I slipped and split my left thumb right up to the knuckle.

I have four or five plough gauges in my tool collection, but I just daren't use them! The sight of that blade standing proud with no guarding scares me to death! I still use the simple little wooden strap-cutter (it's over thirty years old) for all my belt and strap cutting. Perhaps one day I'll pluck up courage to use a plough!

[calanneh]

Mine wasn't a bloody mess like above , but I tore the muscle that attaches the arm to the back of the shoulder blade in Feb while making 3 pair of moc boots in 10 days... Hand-stitched with was thread, not leather lacing.

My shoulder hurt like a mother and I couldn't raise my arm. The doc figured the repetitive back and up motion of stitching that much leather is what did it.

Had to get xrays, steroids and all this other crap. I wasn't allowed to do any leather work UNLESS I had my elbow tucked in down at my side while I did it.

William

[carr52]

I think this is a perfect topic for someone like me. New to the craft. I've been at this for about 8 months now. I've had the usual needle sticks and mallet hit to the nuckles. But I hope to learn from the mistakes of others. Keep posting.

Tom

[Crystal]

Thank heavens I haven't done anything serious, yet. Did get a major case of the "willies" a few months ago. Was using a head knife - would cut then lay it down, cut lay it down. Made another cut and put it in it's case and a couple minutes after that moved some leather and bumped it and it hit the floor. Concrete floor - bare feet. Don't work in bare feet anymore, and after every cut, I put it in it's case.

Crystal