I feel it is my civic duty to share my stoopidity in hopes that it helps someone else avoid my pain 
.
Two nights ago I suffered the worst WW accident I have had. I managed to plow my freshly sharpened 1/2" chisel into my hand! The short story is 5 stitches between my thumb and my first finger. No tendon or nerve damage. The stitches come out in 7 days. So I was lucky. But man I bled like a stuck pig!
It happened in the obvious way. I slipped and had my hand in the wrong place. I am usually quite careful about this. I think I was just trying to go too fast.
I was removing the waste from some dovetails on a 25" long board. Most of the time I brace the board against the wall or my bench hook and then alternate chopping and paring back into the end grain. This board is too long to brace in my typical way so I did it differently. I removed most of the waste with the bandsaw. Got about ~1/16th from the baseline by chopping and was going to clean that last bit. I struck the line lightly and then went to pare back to the line. This first cut has to be light or you ruin your baseline. I must have grabbed the board with my right hand and when I pared back to the line with my left I slipped jamming the chisel into my right hand. This should be such a light controlled cut that even a slip should only leave the tip of the chisel a fraction of an inch past the baseline. This of course is not a good excuse to hold the work with your hand. But I honestly don't know how I generated the force to end up ~4" past the baseline.
The obvious error is holding the work with my hand. And I know not to do this. I hope in the future when I have an awkward piece I take the time to secure it properly.
Be safe out there!
Salem
.Two nights ago I suffered the worst WW accident I have had. I managed to plow my freshly sharpened 1/2" chisel into my hand! The short story is 5 stitches between my thumb and my first finger. No tendon or nerve damage. The stitches come out in 7 days. So I was lucky. But man I bled like a stuck pig!
It happened in the obvious way. I slipped and had my hand in the wrong place. I am usually quite careful about this. I think I was just trying to go too fast.
I was removing the waste from some dovetails on a 25" long board. Most of the time I brace the board against the wall or my bench hook and then alternate chopping and paring back into the end grain. This board is too long to brace in my typical way so I did it differently. I removed most of the waste with the bandsaw. Got about ~1/16th from the baseline by chopping and was going to clean that last bit. I struck the line lightly and then went to pare back to the line. This first cut has to be light or you ruin your baseline. I must have grabbed the board with my right hand and when I pared back to the line with my left I slipped jamming the chisel into my right hand. This should be such a light controlled cut that even a slip should only leave the tip of the chisel a fraction of an inch past the baseline. This of course is not a good excuse to hold the work with your hand. But I honestly don't know how I generated the force to end up ~4" past the baseline.
The obvious error is holding the work with my hand. And I know not to do this. I hope in the future when I have an awkward piece I take the time to secure it properly.
Be safe out there!
Salem
