Thread: Blood, Sweat, and Tears Series...a Saga

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I believe it was two weeks before Thanksgiving a friend who I attend Bible study with approached me requesting a custom knife for Christmas. My little motto of: "If you want a knife to use, I can help you. If you want a pretty knife to wear around, look in the catalog." is spreading around here locally. Folks just know that I take my time on them. We talked about it a bit and roughed out the design. After bible study he dropped a bomb on me. He wanted 7 of them before Christmas. I first turned him down, but had the following day off (they just didn't call me in to work...I'm on call 24/5) and happened to have 5-36" sticks of 1/8" O-1 in the shop/shed. I roughed out the design & called Bob to come to the house at lunch. He liked it, so I told him I would accept the order & do everything I could to get them done by Christmas. Now the kicker is that I don't do leather & the leather guy needs time too.

The Eye
I go out in the shop and rough out the other blades. During this, somehow a piece of steel gets around my safety glasses into my right eye. It feels like it is in the outside iris area, so I wipe a little bit on the eyeball with a cotton swab...done it many times. Thinking I got it, but scratched my eye, I trudge on. Next day my eye is killing me, keep on working on the knives. Third day...gotta go to the ER, something is still in the eye & I can't get it. I get the wife to take me to Silas Minor Emergency. The PA gets the sliver out of my pupil, not out of the iris like it felt like. She worked on me for quite some time afterwards, rubbing this "tool" up and down my eye "too make sure she got it all". Seemed a bit excess, but I'm just a dumb ole working guy. I asked about keeping the numbing drops and she had no problem with it as they set me up a appointment with a optimologist the following (Monday) day. My eye was very, very irritated after all that working on it and I would hit my with a drop of the numbing drops about every 30 minutes. I ended up staying up all night as I was hurting pretty bad, thank God for those numbing drops.

I see the eye Dr. at 1pm and he immediately numbs my eye and puts in some sort of dye in my eye. As we talk about what all went on, he brings in this light and I see my wifes eyes bug out. The dye shows what is going on and I had a "lot" going on in my eye. The sliver of steel had started a "rust ring" in the pupil of my eye, the eye numbing drops are only meant to be used a few times, and the PA at the emergency room had scratched the poop out of my eye. Keep in mind that I was blessed with most excellent vision. So now I have a rusty & severly scratched pupil and a blistered eye. Yes, prolonged use of eye numbing drops will blister your eye. So after really looking over my eye well, he takes this dremel like tool and "polishes" on the eye. I had to make him stop three times...prolonged use of eye numbing drops also effects how well it works. Imagine someone coming at you with a dremel and you have to let them take it to your eye...not fun. As I write this, it has been two weeks and I still have somewhere around 70% of my vision back in my right eye. Doc said it would take a couple of weeks for it to return, but it "should".

The Thumb
Sunday after church I get home and decide to cut down the blocks of wood that I had ordered for the batch of knives since they are at the heat treaters. I normally use my band saw, but it doesn't cut too straight on larger blocks of wood. I drag out the table saw, get it set up and on the second block wouldn't you know it, I get tagged. I'm pushing that last cut through with a push block with my right hand and grabbing the cut ends (the blocks of wood are about 8" long) with my left. Normal proceedure for me, but this ONE time I get my thumb in the way...some how. I still can't tell you exactly how, but that singing 10" blade got me. I felt the "bite" and knowing what that feeling is I shut down the saw by reflex and look. It tore more than cut, a large chunk of the pad to the tip. I'm a do it yourselfer, the wife was shopping, so I go and rinse the thumb to really see what is going on. Trying to see thru the blood to see how bad it was, I decide to hold it closed and use the old superglue. Guys, I tell you the truth, that stuff is an absolute must have in the First Aid kit. Applying it was a challenge: holding the finger closed, wiping blood, and applying super glue...but I got it. I went out and finished cutting the blanks with the table saw and rough sanded them flat. I'll try and get a pic of the thumb when I change the dressing this morning. Could be worse...I still have a thumb thank God!

Every power tool that I have used on this project has gotten me in some way. I normally use the band saw on rough cutting the scales to shape, but I really am thinking about it now. In all honesty I haven't been "rushing" it and being reckless...but I'm off my game somehow in the safety department. I've really got to do some evaluating. For those who have taken their time to read this, please use goggles instead of safety glasses when grinding steel and use caution when using any power tool. Don't get too relaxed just because you have done something a thousand times...it's a power tool with no mind and it doesn't care what it is cutting.

I'll try and get some pics up here later.

Seriously ... Thank you for this post. It is good to hear others regail on their woes. This helps those of us that have yet to have this happen to us. Now we know not to use those drops too much, thank you for the advice on the goggles rather than glasses ... I will be going to get some of those.

I consider myself to be very safety conscious, but after reading this I feel that could have happened to me, and I bet others feel the same way. I sincerely hope you get back to 100%!!!

GOOD LUCK!!

EDIT:: Just a little friendly advice ... infection is something to be VERY VERY wary of. IT can grip even the most healthy guy. If I were you I would definitely get a hold of some antibiotics, and if you haven't had your tetanus ... well that would be a good idea too. Hope I am not teaching grandma to suck those lovely eggs here.

I am glad I could offer some assistance Carl and yes, it could happen to anyone of us. I will say that this journey has kept caution in the front of my mind first time getting back to the power tools. Thank you for your healing wishes.

I keep antibiotics on hand for such an instance, even antibiotic eye drops. I only take them to ward off infection though, viral stuff I just ride out. I feel that people taking antibiotics for any ailment is part of the reason for the super-strains of infection. I minored in Biology because of my interest in infection and virology, fascinating and scary stuff. The human body is both amazingly resilient and fragile at the same time. Once cell or spore can kill us, but we can recover from car crashes and other accidents.

Very unique blade shape indeed & thanks for the positive comments. If you look at it closely, it will resemble a blade on the Case trapper...just as he wanted it. I want one myself now...

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I am glad I could offer some assistance Carl and yes, it could happen to anyone of us. I will say that this journey has kept caution in the front of my mind first time getting back to the power tools. Thank you for your healing wishes.

I keep antibiotics on hand for such an instance, even antibiotic eye drops. I only take them to ward off infection though, viral stuff I just ride out. I feel that people taking antibiotics for any ailment is part of the reason for the super-strains of infection. I minored in Biology because of my interest in infection and virology, fascinating and scary stuff. The human body is both amazingly resilient and fragile at the same time. Once cell or spore can kill us, but we can recover from car crashes and other accidents.

Another good idea is to have some iodine tincture on hand too . I tried superglue once and ended up with a horrific infection on my foot because the brand I used formed a non-porous barrier. The right brand is great for sealing wounds, I just haven't ever found the one for me.
OFF TOPIC: Human biology is most interesting, I find my nose the best diagnostic tool in my armory lol.

Glad to hear your on the mend. Been there, Done that as they say.
+1 on the super glue.....! FWIW, they do make a medical version, and one for the eye. Yup, I found that out the hard way, while the Doctor was stitching the white of my eye closed....(Good Ole numbing drops)

It's a long story.

Often wondered if a real strong magnet could help remove steel shavings from the eye.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Often wondered if a real strong magnet could help remove steel shavings from the eye.

You would have to have good control of the direction that the magnet pulled. I have been around MRI machines and the thought of steel in your eye can be real scary. What direction would it pull it. The wrong way and you can go blind. We have a 3 Tesla machine at work that is a very strong magnet. I can't remember what a Tesla is off hand but it is strong. I have been told in layman's terms that your cells have magnetic poles and the machine lines them up and then releases them. Somehow it then takes pictures! Very sensitive, the walls of the room are lined with lead not like an Xray room to keep things from getting out but to keep interference from getting in. I digress and could continue but from my experience I would not want a strong magnet near my eye that i knew had steel in it!

I do believe that use of magnet is one of the techniques used in opthalmology exactly for that reason

I had a ophthalmologist use a variable strength electro-magnet with a tiny tip to find the imbedded steel chunk in my eye and then he used a scalpel to make a tiny incision, in the white, to remove it. The "don't move" takes on real significance! I is not fun to see what is happening even with local anesthetic. Better to wear eye protection and a mask over that. The piece came in over my industrial safety glasses with side shields. He said they also use the magnet to remove burned in iron from surface of the eye also.
~Richard

Sounds worse than my LASIK when the left eye didn't numb out.

Eye injury sucks.