The OMG Razors are Sharp and Restoration is Dangerous Thread !!!

Hi folks,

well a narrowly missed horror story today !

I have good safety habits in my workshop, As I work with large knife blades I always wear a leather apron, safety glasses and always wear strong shoes or boots .

today after years of work and no accidents I was caught in what could have been a very nasty accident.

I was happily polishing the back of a straight razor blade on my bench polisher with some jewellers rouge, when the razor whipped out of my hands, heading downwards the back spine bounced of the edge of the workbench sending it pin wheeling horizontaly out towards me, hitting me in apron over my groin where it seemed to lose momentum and drop, landing on my boot and sliding off onto the floor.

what happened? :shrug:
a small loop of cotton from the mop had unwound and whipped itself around the shank of the razor, causeing it to whip off like a spinning top , when it hit my apron it cut a 2 inch slice down the front .

if I hadn't been wearing the leather apron I'd now be talking soprano!

I'd also like to point out this was not a honed razor, it was 'blunt' - be careful folks, even with every precaution dangers are lurking.

No, actually, what happened was, I had finished regrinding a big Wade&Butcher. I took it to the buffer to polish it up. Sometime during that process, the buffing wheel caught the blade and snatched it away. Took the tip off my index finger, and cut to the bone all the way around the middle finger of my right hand (thank God I'm left handed. :D) Right through the glove, too. Thankfully, it was pretty sharp, so it was a nice clean cut, and it's healing nicely. Didn't hurt the blade any, either (which was the best news). Haven't had a major accident in 6 years of making knives...had to happen sometime, and could've been much worse. I didn't sever any tendons or anything, so everything'll still work when it's all said and done. Without doubt, though, the buffer is the most dangerous machine in the shop.

I start this thread out of interest. I am currently in the process of restoring a wedge but i'm a newbie to restoration and as such have ended up having an accident. The razor slipped from my grasp and cut my index finger about an inch long. Wouldn't stop bleeding for 15 mins. Will post photo when I get my camera.

But thing is, I surely cant be the only one to have hurt myself in the pursuit of restoration. Am I?

Come on, post your pics and show us your injuries.... :o

Razor restauration related oopsies:

-1 shard in the thigh from a full hollow with a hidden crack that exploded on the buffer.

-Burns and blisters: a dozen or so. Mostly from friction related heat.

-Psychosis: love for all things shiney. Incurable

I was handsanding very hard and very fast and my left hand lost grip of the razor but for a moment and my other hand was of course still going hard at it and slammed the razor's edge into my thumb under the joint. I was lucky that it jammed me in a perpendicular motion. It looked like it should have been very nasty, but it wasn't deep at all and only bled for about 45 seconds. An inch long cut

That was about two months ago, there is no scar

:gth

Now on the rare occasion that I sand, I use gloves

So here it is...

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/k.../fingercut.jpg

Its been a day now, so some of the cut has healed. This pic also only shows some of the cut as the cut did extend further. It has since healed. The coin is in the picture for perspective, it is a UK £1 coin, and the cut itself was when first made about 3cm (1 inch-ish) long.

Its now only 2cm long.

But you guys must have better cuts than this to show me.

So some of you heard about my razor accident while POLISHING a razor by hand a few weeks ago after I finished cleaning it up. Basically I was buffing the blade with a cloth after applying renaissance wax as the final finish and in one quick moment of carelessness the unhoned blade cut straight through the cloth and deep through my right thumb. I mean after cleaning out the cut I could see bone. Deep. It was strange cause I could almost feel an accident coming on lol. Anyway, I ran out of the workshop and straight to my camera phone after grabbing paper towel to absorb some bleeding lol. Stupid I know, but it was RIGHT after someone had posted an accident thread and wanted photos! The cut wrapped around the outside of the thumb really. I didn't get photos of the blood trail from the workroom to the bedroom and then on the bedsheets and floor as I took photos.

Afterwards, I didn't want to go to the hospital for stitches or anything because of what it would have cost me. Bleeding finally stopped after maybe 2 days thankfully lol. It was very painful because any thumb movement would sting and open the cut right back up. It wasn't done healing for maybe three weeks. It's now a definite scar.

Anyway, check out the pics. First three are after it happened. The blood was actually a lot more than these pics show. I just replacing the paper towel! Second two are after about 10 days and this sucker was still bad! Enjoy!!! lol

P.S.- My fiancé wouldn't let me CA it shut. She thought it would get infected!

You know I consider myself rather safety conscious, I have a hook right on the inside of the doorway to my shop, on it hangs a respirator and safety glasses next to that is a heavy apron...
The stuff goes on every single time I go in the shop, I don't miss, I don't say "oh this will just take a second"...

Regardless I just spent since Tuesday night dealing with a wood chip in the eye, finally today it feels normal agian...

I was re-sawing wood for scales on the table saw, did about 15 different woods and somewhere in all that cutting a small piece went around my glasses and ended up in my left eye...

I figured it would work it's way out, at least I am not dumb enough to rub it.. BTW want your left eye to tear up??? rub your right one...

I tried water flushes I tried drops no luck....

Wed morning still had it in there, and by the time I finished paper work at the office, my eye was really red, and I was getting stuffed up sinuses...
Now with all the exotics I was cutting including some spalted woods, I figured I better get to the doctor before I ended up with an infection...

Sure enough the little bugger had lodged on the edge of my cornea and they had to get it out, not too bad, once they gave me some stinging drops to numb my eye...

Needless to say you can never be to careful and I now have actual goggles, since the safety glasses let me down !!!!
BTW I had good safety glasses, I bought those wrap around DeWalt ones....

Stay Safe !!!!

I pretty much say the same in many of my posts when it's about power tools. Safety first.

We should made a sticky note of the dangers involved, what precautions to take and what gear to wear to at least be safe to a certain degree.

The G-Man actually jinxed me, cause when we talked a few days ago he told me what had happened. The next day while I was buffing on my wheels the tinniest compound particle ejected against my safety glasses and made it's way underneath the glasses into my eye.

It just got sucked in. I'm sure Gugi will be able to give a more scientific reason to why :D but it did surprise me. A combination of pressure and the air flow of the buffing wheel against my glasses I presume.

It just stung, and I consider myself lucky, but it shows that even by wearing some kind of safety gear the unexpected can always happen.

Dan, the G and many other of the pros know exactly what they are talking about. Even Alex cut his thumb up really bad a long time ago and it wasn't a pretty sight either. It can happen to the best off us so who says it won't happen to you.

One word of advise. Don't get over confident and think you're invincible. You're not. Never let your guard down and get to comfortable either when working with power tools.

As some of you heard in chat last night I ended up in the ER getting stitches... Yes I am fine, just put a nice slice through the top of my thumb, down to the bone... BTW for what it's worth that damn razor was "TOO SHARP" :)
One half a second of inattention and bam it got me..

But anyway what I started the thread about was the fact I was almost not going to go in for the stitches because I had controlled the blood loss so good.... BTW if you have to go through all this "YOU NEED STITCHES"

In my hunting stuff I keep a fully stocked First Aid Kit when I am not hunting this stays in the house... I always have what are normally called Trauma Powders, or Blood Clotters, Homeostasis Powders etc: etc:

QuikClot is one of the brand names, these are available now to the common man, expensive but available...
They save blood and yer Butt if your Wife is like mine when it comes to dripping blood all over the house :)

Anyway they work fast, some burn like the dickens, but they will seal off wounds and give you time to apply a pressure bandage and get the bleeding under control so you can drive yourself the the ER like I had to LOL...
Not a bad idea to have some of at least the smaller packs, laying around...

Just Google "Blood Clotting Powder"

here is one link

Hemostasis LLC | Rapid Blood Clotting Products | Trauma, OTC, Surgical, Dental | BleedArrest™

You, too, can cut your fingers :)
I was handsanding a blade, and perhaps a little too careless. I had been sanding for most of the afternoon so my attention had wavered.
As I was sanding back and forth along the length of the blade, my sandpaper slipped from the blade in the 'forth' motion.

In the 'back' motion, my thumb slid alongside the edge.
I didn't feel any pain, just a short 'sting', and I thought 'WTF just happened'?
Luckily, the slice was mostly along the blade and not in an angle so it did not dig in deep. The cut is mostly superficial and the part above my nail is the tail end of the cut and barely deeper than a scratch.

I did some checks and it seems no important bits are hit. I desinfected it and as soon as it dried up, the wound had already closed itself. I guess that is the advantage of cutting yourself with something really sharp. I've noticed that during handsanding, blades become very sharp.

Anyway, I daresay I am experienced at handsanding, and as you can see, that is no guarantee. In this case I was extremely lucky that no tendons or nerves were hit, but the same cut half an inch higher would have cut my tendon or dug into the joint.

Be careful boys and girls. :)

Just hours after reading this thread, I opened a razor to strop it, dropped it, then with the reflexes of a ninja caught it, by the sharp bit...
You will also notice the band aid on my ring finger, that was from a hand sanding adventure this morning. I rarely cut myself with razors but 2 in 1 day??? I decided not to shave tonight, I'm likely to cut my throat

You guys call those cuts? "YOU AINT SEEN NUTHIN' YET" I got this baby after honing my sheffield on a Naniwa. When I hone a razor even the stone is afraid of the edge I get. I swear I can almost see my Naniwa's tremble while I hone.

Max and I are adding Posts to this sticky as we find them...

Please feel free to pm Max or myself with good links if know where they are at...