Chisel Safety

[Gary Hodgin]

Hope this is not terribly off topic, but I just saw a story on MSNBC about a 3 year old boy who may have saved his dad's life by making a 911 call. His dad had accidentally (no suicide attempt) severed an artery with a wood chisel and apparently was in a lot of trouble.

I think one big advantage hand tools have over power tools is safety. I can stop when I see blood before much damage (maybe a few stitches but not much more). I guess we'd better watch out for where the business end of our chisels might go.

[Gary Hodgin]

If interested, here's a link to the story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...37107#41337107

[John Coloccia]

I chiseled myself into several stitches last year also. Now I'm better about keeping my fingers out of the line of fire!

[Russell Sansom]

I'm sure there will be dozens of stories here about how badly people have hurt themselves. After the 3rd or 4th multi-stich bad one early in my woodworking, I decided that it absolutely had to end. It was a firm conscious decision. Once in a while I get a nick from nowhere ( the rabbet plane got me ), and then I sit and think about it, giving it the heavy thoughtful weight it deserves.
And mine: I sharpened a top-quality large kitchen knife on the Tormek. In the kitchen, i gently bumped against it with the outside of the ball of my left thumb. Cost 18 stitches from a plastic surgeon ( my luck he was on rotation at the emergency ward ). I learned that I couldn't expose my family to this danger, so we no longer have straight razor knives in the kitchen.

[Chris Fournier]

Oddly enough its the handtools that have drawn almost all the blood in my shop aside from one glorified "paper cut" type injury on the bandsaw. Handtools likely won't kill you but they will certainly send you out for stitches if you aren't careful.

My worst cut was with a sharp carpet knife, I still cringe about those stitches, I mean with all those beautiful chisels in my bench - a carpet knife? Really?

The oddest cut I've had was with a plane blade that I was sharpening. It was from a LN 102. It was covered in slurry and I held it up to the light to take a peak and fumbled it. Naturally I tried to catch it as it headed for concrete. Well I almost caught it with both hands but I ended up driving it into my left wrist with my right hand. I buried one corner pretty deep and I had a pumper. My first thought was that they'd think it was suicide; that commission was going a bit poorly at the time and they would have been half right! I look at that scar to this day and remind myself that somethings are best left to fall. Lucky me.

[george wilson]

The chisel is the most dangerous hand tool. Its narrow cutting edge can go in deep,severing nerves and arteries. Keep your other hand away from the projected path of a chisel should it slip.

I've been good at shaving a potato chip off my thumb at times. Being a guitar maker,I have held small,odd shaped blocks of wood I couldn't clamp in a vise,and planed myself!!

[Jim Koepke]

I cringe when I see videos of people doing things in ways that are unsafe.

One recently was on the Woodwright's shop about holding your pin and tail boards with your elbow while clearing waste. YIKES! That is fraught with chances to cause problems.

Having trained myself to sharpen a blade to the level of being able to shave with it, it is also a necessity to train oneself to be careful when using such tools.

One can not allow the mind to drift when using such tools.

If the thought comes that "this should be clamped, but just this once… " Don't do it!

Sure, many times it will work fine. It is the one time that it doesn't that hurts.

Keep your mind constantly aware of what happens if something slips.

Keep safe,

jtk

[John Coloccia]

The chisel is the most dangerous hand tool. Its narrow cutting edge can go in deep,severing nerves and arteries. Keep your other hand away from the projected path of a chisel should it slip.

I've been good at shaving a potato chip off my thumb at times. Being a guitar maker,I have held small,odd shaped blocks of wood I couldn't clamp in a vise,and planed myself!!

The one that got me was when cleaning up a binding ledge on a headstock. The ledge gave way and and my finger ended up right in the path. There's something to the notion of "what would happen if the wood suddenly disappeared?" because that's exactly what happened. I was a good boy, though. The first thing I did was wrap a paper towel around it to keep from making a huge mess, and then I cleaned the blood off my chisel and oiled it. LOL. I know from experience that blood will cause a rust spot in the time it take to go upstairs and pop on a bandaid. THEN I cleaned it out, and then I went to the hospital.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Electricians learn to do work with their left hand in their pocket. That way they can't inadvertently make a circuit between hands that makes a path through the heart. After a couple of close calls with a chisel, which I think is easily the most dangerous thing in the shop, I never use a chisel unless both hands are behind the edge. Another simple/stupid thing is "Don't whittle *toward* you, son!"

Hammers are bad. Ask my thumb. Got a Cheney type hammer after that, which allows you to load a nail in the back portion, start the nail, swing the hammer around and finish pounding. Otherwise, you can use pliers for small stuff.

Don't try to catch falling tools, and if they're falling get your foot out of the way. Put foamy stuff on the floor around the workbench so you don't care if a chisel gets chipped. Also saves cast iron plane bodies. Once had a freshly sharpened rip saw fall and hit my hand--pretty gruesome. Another good habit to get into is to wear eye protection, even if any particular operation isn't going to require it. Inevitably, you'll soon perform an unforeseen operation that does require it, and you'll do that without even thinking about putting eye protection on. Ever had hot solder splatter on your eyeball? Not that I would know . . . .

[Adam Cherubini]

The chisel is the most dangerous hand tool.

Maybe in YOUR shop it is, George. In my shop I fear my ship adz most and my hewing hatchet second. Everything else pales in comparison to something that's as sharp as a kitchen knife that you swing toward yourself! I've seen injuries from broad hatchets and the word "medieval" is what comes to mind.

When people talk about shop safety and say things like "I've cut myself with my hand tools far more frequently than my machines" I think they are misleading folks (unknowingly I'm sure). Machine tools cripple thousands and thousands of people every year. The injuries they cause aren't even in the same league as the worst hand tool accidents. Even in home shops, the eye and hand injuries caused by machines are crazy. The numbers have been debated elsewhere, but I think table saws alone cause 3000 amputations in the USA every year. The same source estimates 30,000 trips to the emergency room each year due to TS accidents alone. I hate to think about chop saw accidents. I had a friend that tried cutting some tiny piece and did a number on his thumb. He said it looked like a butterflied shrimp. I saw it stitched. Can't see how you could do anything like that with a chisel.

Adam

[george wilson]

Most of the woodworkers don't have ship adzes or hatchets as common tools in their shops. I do,but I got well into traditional woodworking methods for many years being in Williamsburg. I used my lipped adze to hew the bottom plate for the large cider press,and the top jaw. Every one has chisels,though.

In the 18th.C.,adze men used their bare toes as chip breakers when they worked. How's that for dangerous? I nipped the soles of my shoes several times making the cider press,on the lips of my adz,but it is the only one I had. Still have it. If you want to get into early woodworking,broad axes or goose wing axes used for hewing logs square can be pretty threatening to the knees,too.

I'm having trouble keeping words straight. I think its my eye surgery bothering me. Keep getting dizzy if I get around too much.

[John Sanford]

I saw one similar to that on Rough Cut yesterday, I think it was while they were making the octagonal lazy susan. Hold a square of wood up, holding the top edge with one hand and trapping the other top corner against the shoulder, and then drill into it using the other hand. Gee, drill bit comes through the wood and you now have a risk of either drilling into your own arm, or snagging a sleeve. It was one of those things that looks cool, and looks dumb at the same time.

[george wilson]

Well,old Roy usually has a bandaid or some red looking areas on his fingers,doesn't he?

[Niels Cosman]

It's funny the timing of this thread. Last night I decided to make a little wooden sheath for my 1/2 paring chisel. Also ironic that in the process of making the sheath I knicked my forearm on a cranked neck paring gouge that was hanging on the wall right next next to the paring chisel.

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The worst hand tool injury I have had was when i was 8-9 years old widdling a little wooden knife. I remember very clearly making a cut toward myself as my father's words of warning echoed in my head. I remember thinking, "this is probably dangerous" just as the blade slipped and cut into my left thumb. I was sitting there holding the injured finger applying as much pressure as i could muster, thinking: "i hope this isn't bad, and i hope my parents dont take away my tools". As I release the pressure from the pressure to inspect the damage two things struck me: 1. it's an odd sensation feeling your skin separate 2. bone really is white.
I was incredibly lucky, I missed anything that of any importance, muscles, tendons, veins there was barely any blood. The amazing thing was that in spite of just having seen my bone for the first time, I remember being more concerned about losing my carving tools. I was home alone at the time so I cleaned the cut, closed it with steri-strips, wrapped it up with some gauze and covered it all with some bandaids. The cut healed surprisingly quickly, probably due to the cleanliness of the cut. I gained a healthy respect for edged tools that day.

[john brenton]

Got myself a nice gouge on two fingers a few months ago, but nothing compared to close calls I've had. Could have lost an eye or severely gouged my head when a fly landed on face while I was holding an edged tool. Just barely missed my wrist while I was scooping out some waste with a curved gouge on hardwood. It doesn't take much.

Carpet knife guy, don't feel bad, a friend of mine who was a very good tile guy severed a tendon witha trowel.

Thanks for the story, I can't imagine what that would have been like to have your boy find you bleeding to death.