posted
The other day, I was in a hurry to cut a mask by hand with a straight edge, and I amputated a 1/8 inch sliver off the tip of my right thumb. Sliced that baby clean off, not quite to the bone, but bad enough to leave me hurtin' for a while and permanently deformed.
In times past I have had also stabbed sliced and cut myself in other various body parts, but never like this. Please tell me that there is somebody out there with a worse stupid xacto story than mine!!
posted
A couple of years ago when I moved shops I stuck a knife through the web of my left hand (the fleshy bit between the thumb and forefinger) right through from the palm side and out the other, now that made my eyes water, but not as much as the six stitches in the hospital because the nurse gave me numbing injections in the hand but by the time the butcher (doctor) arrived to sew me up the drugs had about worn off! OUCH!!!
-------------------- Steve Broughton Alpha Grafix Signs Lowfields Road Benington, Boston Lincolnshire, England Posts: 315 | From: Boston, Lincolnshire, England | Registered: Aug 2001
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no really I did the same thing last winter (of course I am always stabbing and slicing myself) but then I had my thumb too close to the straight edge and made a real fast hard cut through banner material and sliced right through my finger and a quarter of my nail. One of those where it does not even bleed for a few seconds then it starts pouring. Later, one of my kids was sweeping and found the "specimen" - thats how big it was. I had a flat spot for a very long time.
-------------------- Brian Stoddard Northwest Wholesale Signs
1) I was in Art school, and stepped back to view my project. I thoughtfully put the pencil to my lips - and realized it was a knife. Split my lip and (here's the funny part) immediately backed up not to bleed on the project. The lip was secondary to me.
2) Working on a window job, jammed a knife to the hilt into the the meaty side of my hand. OUCH!
-------------------- Best Regards, Mark Smith EstiMate Sign Pricing Software It's Not Luck. It's EstiMate.™ http://www.EstiMateSoftware.com 1-888-304-3300 Posts: 724 | From: Asheville, NC, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hi Heads. Once I was sitting Indian-style & dropped an X-Acto, which embedded itself in my inner thigh about a quarter inch or more and stood straight up, wobbling, till I pulled it out. Still have the scar. Every time I trim an Alumalite panel with Redi-Edge, I cut more of my fingers than the trim & bleed all over the damn sign. Love- JILL ps sometimes I get my boobs stuck in between stuff, or pinch one with the scissors whilst cutting, but that's a different subject all together.
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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sounds like a bunch of accidents hunting a place to happen.
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I was sitting at a table cutting rubber with an xacto when I made a comment the girl sitting across from me didn't like. She pushed a can of paint across the table hitting my hand and driving the xacto all the way through the end of my fingertip. I also one time was using an electric planer on some redwood when the wood started sliding on me, so I reached to catch it and planed the end off of my finger. Still got a flat spot. Had a belt sander run across the top of my bare foot. Accidentally sandblasted my foot while wearing sandals. This sign biz is dangerous.
-------------------- Dennis Goddard
Gibsonton Fl Posts: 1050 | From: Tampa Fl USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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We had a fellow who thought the exacto was a throwing knife. When he thought no one was looking he would toss it at a piece of 2x4 propped up on a shelf. One day he missed and punctured a spray can of primer paint. The can exploded and made a royal mess but fortunately no one was hurt.
-------------------- Victor Georgiou Danville, CA , USA Posts: 1746 | From: Danville, CA , USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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I'm the type o' guy that will spend 15 minutes piling everything into one trip rather than spending 5 minutes making two trips. Because of this habit, I put an X-Acto in my left pants pocket while bringing everything in after lettering a box truck. I put a squeegee between the blade and my leg so I wouldn't get stuck. Well....I forgot about that X-Acto and left to go home. When I rolled the window down in the car, my forarm rubbed right across the outside of that pocket (which the blade had apparently tried to escape through). Not very painful, it was a pretty new blade of course, but it bled like crazy. You shoulda seen my wife's face when I got home and woke her up banging on the window holding my bleeding arm. Yeah...that was fun
-------------------- Joe Endicott NEXCOM (Navy Exchange Service Command) Signing Programs Specialist Virginia Beach, VA jeendicott@msn.com
"I want to be Stereotyped....I want to be Classified." Posts: 681 | From: Virginia Beach, VA USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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My partner and I were applying vehicle window lettering, on site. He had placed an exacto on the roof, it started to roll, he tried to catch it, it proceeded into his stomach. He pulled the darn thing out and his T-shirt was a bloody mess. As we approched the building where the car owner was, everyone was outside, they were having a costume parade of sorts...Did I mention it was halloween? Ha! A couple of the 'nurses' took good care of him...
We always keep a roll of duct tape handy, it makes a great bandage!
Cher.
-------------------- Co-Host: SANDCASTLE Panel Jam 'a Dixie Letterhead Reunion' Fort Myers, Florida
Cheryl Lucas a/k/a "Shag" on mIRC Vital Signs & Graphics, Etc. Cape Coral, Florida 239-574-4713 VSignsNgraphics@aol.com Posts: 987 | From: Cape Coral, FL USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Neil D. Butler: I circumsized myself!
EOOOOOUCHHHHH ! ! ! ! Makes me want to cringe...
I have sliced both the index finger and my thumb (not at the same time)...
I was working at a table one time, and had one roll off the table and stab between my big toe and the next toe, but missed both completely...
Where do you keep them when ya'll are working? I developed a habit of sliding it behind my ear, but sometimes it will slide back and fall, and to keep from getting stabbed, I do a "full body funky chicken dance" or it gets tangled in my hair (I gotta get a hair cut ! ! !)
-------------------- Mark Kottwitz Kottwitz Graphics Ridgely, MD www.SeeMySignWork.com -------------------------- Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein Posts: 746 | From: Ridgely, MD | Registered: Oct 2000
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I do not even want to think about it, but I will tell you! I had a "bunch" of paper and release tape on my bench. To save space in the waste container, I grabed a bunch of it a wadded it up itno the size of a soccer ball! Tossed it into the container. Did it again.............this time an exacto knife got stuck to some tape.............two handed squash together......shoved the blade into my leftt palm!!! Pulled the knife out......the blade stayed there!!!!! Plyers!!!!! PAIN!!!!!! I check papers now!!!!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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Okay, agreed....xacto knives are WAY TO DANGEROUS!!!
But, what about the TOTALLY HAZARDOUS WOODEN YARDSTICK!!!
When working at a shop 22 years ago, I was in the habit of (why, I don't know???) holding a yardstick in my teeth when multitasking(unknown word back then), anyway ,dropped a pencil , forgot, leaned down to pick it up and WHAM!!!! drove the yardstick into the roof of my mouth. Pain beyond belief, gouge in roof of mouth! Painful healing
John, working safe, using a fabric tape.
I NEVER PUT A YARDSTICK in my Mouth.
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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So, you folks are the reason my insurance rates keep going up!
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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I sliced my index finger to the bone, that was in "58 building a model car. Since then I have been very, very careful around x-actos. I put the slicing down on the list of things to do ONCE in your life like placing a lacquer thinner soaked rag in your back pocket,zapping yourself with an electro pounce, eating liver, and sitting down on the toilet with the seat up.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
The only Workman's Compensation claim my company ever had occurred about 1981 when an employee sliced his hand with a box cutter opening boxes. We took him to the hospital, got him sewed up and then he went back to the office, where he proceeded to do it AGAIN thirty minutes later. I guess he liked the food at the hospital better than what we had in the break room.
Of course, I write this with a sliced finger. I was using a razor blade to scrape some glass today. It hung up on adhesive, did a 180 and got me. I keep telling myself to never hold a blade by hand, to always use a holder of some sort. Hey, if my employees don't listen to me, why should I?
[ September 24, 2002, 06:35 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have a habit of keeping the exacto in my hand while pulling paint mask. On an enlosed snowmobile trailer lettering job back in about 93, I sprayed a blend on the side, then proceeded to remove some mask while the blade was in my hand... once the mask ripped under all of the "pulling pressure", it jammed into my thigh and it stuck straight out! I had long underwear on and when I pulled my drawers down to check the wound, no doubt my white longies weren't white anymore. It still makes me cringe when I think of pulling out that exacto out of my leg. It left a "rectangular" scar because I buried it beyond the tip of course, right down to where it butts against the end of the tightening screw.
Did the wet thinner rag in the pocket the summer of 2001 and no baloney, I still had the burn scar there this spring! It takes awhile to figure out what's "burning", but boy it leaves a nasty burn!
-------------------- Kurt Gaber Chippewa Falls, WI Thank You Letterheads for being a part of both Brush Bashes in '02 & '06!
posted
Back in the spring, I was a cuttin some vinyl and taping it up. Man, I had that x-acto blade going at full speed. Swish, swish, swish, was the sound coming from my bright yellow favorite blade. Whilst cutting like a flying fool, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something took flight, but I was too busy working to stop. Swish, swish,swish. It was then that I noticed the color red on my nice blue vinyl. Now that's funny. How did that red get on there? One look at my left index finger and I knew. Where my index finger was once perfectly round, was a flat spot about as big as as a fat beetle, just gushing out pretty red one shot! Yeah, I wish. Well, Im bleeding I thought. But where is the pain? Ohhhhhh...there it is. Yep, bleedin and hurtin I was, and lookin for my index finger cap. Haven't found it to this day. Don't think I want to now. Being serious now, that was one of the most painful injuries I have ever had. My finger was untouchable for a couple weeks. Every time I bumped it, it hurt so bad I would just about pass out. I am so much careful with my blade now. No more swish, swish, swish. Just slow swishes.
-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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real quickly, take that big hunka flesh without touching the red part and stick it right back on the other red part and wrap up semi-tightly. The next day, remove wrap and apply first aid cream. It will live and heal up pretty well. After a few times, you will loose some thickness to that one area.
((( please don't ask me how I know this )))
-------------------- John Smith Kings Bay Signs (Retired) Kissimmee, Florida Posts: 816 | From: Central Florida - The Sunshine State | Registered: Jan 2000
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When I was a shop super at a shop in Denver we did almost everything using "cut and mask" one of the girls working on the floor was pulling mask and it gave way driving the x-acto into the corner of her eye...luckily it hit just ouside the eye socket ans grazed off her skull making a nasty gash that took some stitches.the blood was the orst part...scared the hell out of everyone...she was actually the one least concerned. At first she was afraid to open her eye ...but when she did and found she could see she nearly fainted but survived quite well we thought.
My self I have trimmed most of my fingers over the years but the one that disturbd me most was dropping one and having it stick in the top of my foot...just can't get it out fast enough.
[ September 24, 2002, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Monte Jumper ]
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
My husband is an executive chef for a big hotel. You know those great big, scary looking chef's knives they use? Yup - he's gotten himself plenty of times. One day when we were first dating, I walked in the back door and was flirting with him while he was chopping something...WHACK!!!!...took the top of his finger off. We laugh about it now but it was a real drag right in the middle of the busy Christmas season.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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Ouch Barry! I see that I am not the only klutz!! I have a one inch scar on my left hand due to trying to slice too many decals down to size. Had to have a cast for 8 weeks because I sliced the tendon too. Hope your owie feels better soon.
Posts: 3729 | From: Seattle | Registered: Sep 1999
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we have a habit of taking loose blades and using em to pop air bubbles, then just keep em back end between your teeth... well we were working on a large box truck and i stuck mine, point end into the roll of masking tape.... forgot it was there, started rolling the tape out, the BACK end sliced into the meaty part of my hand, between the thumb and forefinger.... later that afternoon, i sat down on the scaffold, and slid off onto the ground... yeh not a smart idea... there was a few loose blades on the plank, and as i slid off, one slid into my left cheek... beat that.
Please tell us all, now, that you are only joking. The way you wrote that made it seem like you did it on purpose, just for fun.
ND GRAPHICS sells a couple of neat little steel safety rulers or t-squares (at least I think we still do) that are designed to protect your fingertips from X-ACTO cuts. Check with your local supplier - maybe they have something to offer you too.
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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When my partner and I were doing a Trucking event out of state about 25 years ago, he would draw and cut the designs and I would do the sand blasting of the windows. Some of the more detailed designs required stage etching and I would have to remove the 2nd or 3rd stage of stencils with an exacto knife to achieve the desired effects.
My mistake was putting the knife in my breast pocket while sand blasting the design. After getting the vehicle completed, I attempted to brush the sand off my white cover-alls and sliced my right thumb to the bone.
I knew immediately what I had done and grabbed my thumb with my left hand and told my partner that I needed to go to the hospital. When he asked why, I told him that I had cut my hand. Not seeing any blood, he thought I was kidding. I had grabbed my thumb so fast I had stopped the bleeding.
When we got to the hospital, the doctor wanted to see how bad I had cut my thumb and asked me to let loose. That's when the bleeding started.
Severed a tendon, and required 10 internal and 16 external stiches to close. Full recovery and movement of thumb, however the 2 inch scar reminds me of my bad judgement. Now make it a habit to but a cover over the blade before laying it down, and never in a pocket.
The white cover-alls survived with out a single blood stain!
SC
LOGIN Name Formerly: atog254
-------------------- Steve Carter {:{) a Touch of Glass 254 Lexington Mill Rd. Magnolia, DE, 19962 PH: 302-335-3170 Posts: 181 | From: Magnolia, De, USA - Center of the Universe | Registered: Jan 1999
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My worst one was when I was using an x-acto wood carving v-blade, it slipped and went though my left index finger and into my middle finger. Cut the tendon and had to have micro surgery and a cast for 6 weeks. $3,000 mistake.
Table saws are really dangerous, one of the carpenters where I used to work cut off four fingers of his left hand. Ouch!
-------------------- Rob Thomas 3410 Ketcham Ct Beautiful Springs FL 34134 Posts: 965 | From: Bonita Springs, Florida USA | Registered: Feb 2000
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I used to build R/C airplanes so I got a bunch of try-to-cut-my-fingers-off stories, never did it buildin signs yet though.
Last May, I had my gall-bladder removed and when I got back to work I was pulling some transfer tape off of a banner when it gave way and I punched myself in the gut. That hurt like a SOB!!
-------------------- "B0LT" on the chat room thing.
posted
I loved the story Mike Jackson once told about talking with someone in the shop with an x-acto in his hand. He turned around and removed the blade without letting this action be seen, and then threw the knife at his friends chest!
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6718 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Had a #11 blade stuck in my shoe sole, climbed in the truck and didn't feel it slice my calf on the other foot, but I felt the squishy insole of my shoe as it filled with blood... that was fun, especially since I had no clue as to how I just got cut, the doctor really thought I was on drugs that day....
-------------------- Eric Patzer A.S.A.P. Design Lafayette, CO epatzer@earthlink.net Posts: 208 | From: Lafayette, CO USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have cut myself pretty bad- I used a hacksaw as a hammer once, broke the blade, and it jabbed right through my thumbnail halfway into my thumb.
My brother had an employee go in at night (ripping him off obviously) and cutting picture frames to sell to his buddies. He cut 2 fingers off of his hand with a table saw, and Workman's Comp. told my brother it was HIS fault his employee was going in at night without his knowledge and stealing... Can you believe that? And then he was told he can't fire the guy because of his accident, and if he wants to lay him off he had to pay for retraining...typical gov't, eh?
-------------------- Steve Burke Cascades Inc NS Canada
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you Posts: 359 | From: NS Canada | Registered: Jan 2002
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The first time I ever saw an Exacto knife it was laying on the ground and I didn't know what it was, but it looked cool so I picked it up and put it - blade up, of course - in the ashtray of my '47 Ford, which is on top of the dashboard. Then I forgot all about it. One morning the inside of the windshield was all fogged up and I went to wipe it off - like wax on/wax off - and all of a sudden sprayed red all over. "What the f... ???". OH! All across the palm of my right hand.
I worked in a typesetting shop back when it was done with hand set type and got in the habit of catching dropped items with the toe of my shoe. Then one fine day I dropped my Exacto...
Lenny was famous for (among other things) laying razor blades on the lip of the easels, blade out. Several of the guys working there got their fingers sliced pulling lines. Lenny did it often. He used masking tape for bandages - and could always be seen wearing a big gob of the stuff somewhere on his person.
I've run a pounce stylus over my thumb a few times overhanging a yardstick. But my best (worst?) puncture story was getting nailed in the eyebrow with an arrow when I was 10. It made that Robin Hood 'Doioioioioingg' sound as it stuck in my skull and wobbled. Boy, was THAT one funny! My mother sure appreciated it. Sure.
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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I'm right handed, so I have about 10 good scars on my left hand (straight-edge holder) that weren't there when I started in the business 10 years ago. Yes, some fleshy bits and stitches, but the best was sticking the OLFA in my back pocket and it wasn't quite closed.....couldn't sit comfortably for about 5 days
posted
Robert...actually a skill saw doesn't hurt when it cuts you! I did it to my right knee in 1954! It hurt when the Novacaine started wearing off while the doctor was finally stitching it up!
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
si.allen on Skype
siallen@dslextreme.com
"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!
Brushasaurus on Chat Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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