LeatherNerd Report post Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Ok guys, all this is but a scratch compared to the havoc one can reek with power tools; not to mention real limb removing machinery. Art I am happy, bordering on insufferably smug, to report that I have never cut myself doing leatherwork. Not once! And I've been doing it for moooonths! Heck, I've probably made a DOZEN different projects by now... don't worry, you'll get some experience under your belt someday... Um... so yeah. I've always been super paranoid around things that can hurt or kill me. When I drop a knife I instinctively jerk both hands back and then jump back a step if I think my feet are in danger. My father-in-law despairs of me ever getting anything done in the shop because I clamp pine boards down to the drill press. I have a tiny 2' x 6" wood lathe and my approach to it is beyond delicate and well into hilariously skittish. I've reground more than one chisel because I skipped it off a knot and dropped it onto the concrete while jumping six feet away. I am, in short, kind of a sissy. :D With leather, I know the cuts are coming, it's only a matter of time. (And if I'm honest, I have sawn open my pinkies from stitching with unwaxed sinew. I seriously need to make a set of pinkie socks.) For now I count myself very lucky that I cannot do the straightedge-plus-fingers-plus-knife thing without paying attention to my fingers first, and getting a straight cut second. I have to redo cuts frequently as a result. As I get used to it and calm down, I expect I'll get careless and join the "red splotch of courage" club. Specifically re: Art's post, part of the reason I am so skittish is because I've seen photographs of what's left of people who drop the lathe chuck and grab for it over the top of the spinning head, and last year a good friend of mine pinched the edge of his hand in the gears of his wood lathe. By the time he realized what was happening and slapped the kill switch, the quarter-inch wide gear had peeled a quarter-inch strip of skin off across his palm, around to the back of his hand, across the back of the hand and then down to the forearm. It was halfway up his arm when he got it stopped. So yeah. Not smug. If anything I am now doubly paranoid that I may have jinxed myself... Edited October 16, 2015 by LeatherNerd Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MM2CVS9 Report post Posted October 16, 2015 Don't worry, after you lose part or most of a finger, it'll never get cut again. EJ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HorseHerder Report post Posted October 24, 2015 I spent two months at Brian's Saddle Shop in southern B.C. to get some hands on experience with leather. Day one I get settled at my bench and Brian says; "First thing, Band-Aids are over there in the tin on the wall." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Equiplay Saddlery Report post Posted October 30, 2015 I spent two months at Brian's Saddle Shop in southern B.C. to get some hands on experience with leather. Day one I get settled at my bench and Brian says; "First thing, Band-Aids are over there in the tin on the wall." That's funny because my friend who has been teaching me to build saddles first instruction to me was "Band Aids and Neosporin are in the drawer over there." All I can say is he is a wise man....... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
