JEEP
19-01-2011, 08:29 PM
I got me first real knife at the age of ten, I have carried and used knives on a regular basis for more than 18 years. I have been practicing and teaching weapons based martial arts (wma) for a period of 6 years, I have been collecting knives and bladed weapons for 10 years. I have never had a serious accident with a knife - untill today...
I was teaching my scouts (aged 10-13) how to make a one-stick fire and how to split wood with a baton and a knife.
I had just sharpened my usual carbon steel Eräpuu puukko, it is wicked sharp!
I had a long business meeting yesterday evening, causing me to be a lot more tired after todays work than usual.
While demonstrating the splitting technique, two of my scouts started fooling around with their knives, distracting my attention from my blade.
My blade slipped, cutting upwards diagonally, halfway through the ring finger on my left hand aswell as slicing off a small piece of the side of the finger. Had the cut been angled just a wee bit sharper I would have cut a big chunk of my finger clean off.
Luckily it was dark, so none of my scouts saw how bad it was. I stuck the finger in my mouth, went inside and discretly got hold of my fiancee (she is a scout leader aswell). Luckily we are usually three leaders at any time, making it possible for my fiancee to drive me to the emergence room, without leaving the scouts on their own.
I had grabbed a handfull of napkins, though I still managed bleed everywhere; on the floor of our car, on my Fjällräven jacket and on my brand new Haglöfs shoes (goddamnit!)
Arriving at the emergency room I was looked at by a nurse as soon as i arrived, I guess they were not all that fond of me bleeding all over the counter and waiting room floor :)
To cut a long story short I ended up with three stitches (it should have been more, but a large piece of skin was missing, leaving nothing to stitch).
Both the nurse and the doctor who stitched me up, had a good laugh about the fact that I was wearing a scouts uniform and - as the nurse discovered as he prepared my for a tetanus shot - a WileyX t-shirt with the text "Who says safety isn't cool?!" on the back. We all had a good laugh about that.
It only took 40 minutes, from arriving at the hospital, to clean the cut, stitch me up, give me a tetanus shot and inform me how to treat and take care of the cut. Normally there are 2-6 houers waiting time at the emergency room. I was quite lucky.
Having finished I called my fiancee an asked her to pick me up by car, walking to meet her. After picking me up we proceeded back to the scout's cabin, letting our scouts know that I was allright.
I managed to find the missing piece of my finger, but it was way too small to be stitched back on anyway.
At the end of the meeting, I took the opportunity to repeat some of the classic knife safety advice to my scouts. Of course using myself as a really bad example :zombie-fighting:
Now I have to keep the finger at rest for ten days, untill I can get the stitches removed. The keeping still part us the worst about this.
It is a tradition here to name a blade once it has tasted blood, I think I will name this one Bider, Danish for biter.
I have never figured myself to be an expert knife user, but I have always prided myself of having good and safe knife routines. From now on I will definitely be more humble and aware - especially when having a nasty scar to remind me.
I was teaching my scouts (aged 10-13) how to make a one-stick fire and how to split wood with a baton and a knife.
I had just sharpened my usual carbon steel Eräpuu puukko, it is wicked sharp!
I had a long business meeting yesterday evening, causing me to be a lot more tired after todays work than usual.
While demonstrating the splitting technique, two of my scouts started fooling around with their knives, distracting my attention from my blade.
My blade slipped, cutting upwards diagonally, halfway through the ring finger on my left hand aswell as slicing off a small piece of the side of the finger. Had the cut been angled just a wee bit sharper I would have cut a big chunk of my finger clean off.
Luckily it was dark, so none of my scouts saw how bad it was. I stuck the finger in my mouth, went inside and discretly got hold of my fiancee (she is a scout leader aswell). Luckily we are usually three leaders at any time, making it possible for my fiancee to drive me to the emergence room, without leaving the scouts on their own.
I had grabbed a handfull of napkins, though I still managed bleed everywhere; on the floor of our car, on my Fjällräven jacket and on my brand new Haglöfs shoes (goddamnit!)
Arriving at the emergency room I was looked at by a nurse as soon as i arrived, I guess they were not all that fond of me bleeding all over the counter and waiting room floor :)
To cut a long story short I ended up with three stitches (it should have been more, but a large piece of skin was missing, leaving nothing to stitch).
Both the nurse and the doctor who stitched me up, had a good laugh about the fact that I was wearing a scouts uniform and - as the nurse discovered as he prepared my for a tetanus shot - a WileyX t-shirt with the text "Who says safety isn't cool?!" on the back. We all had a good laugh about that.
It only took 40 minutes, from arriving at the hospital, to clean the cut, stitch me up, give me a tetanus shot and inform me how to treat and take care of the cut. Normally there are 2-6 houers waiting time at the emergency room. I was quite lucky.
Having finished I called my fiancee an asked her to pick me up by car, walking to meet her. After picking me up we proceeded back to the scout's cabin, letting our scouts know that I was allright.
I managed to find the missing piece of my finger, but it was way too small to be stitched back on anyway.
At the end of the meeting, I took the opportunity to repeat some of the classic knife safety advice to my scouts. Of course using myself as a really bad example :zombie-fighting:
Now I have to keep the finger at rest for ten days, untill I can get the stitches removed. The keeping still part us the worst about this.
It is a tradition here to name a blade once it has tasted blood, I think I will name this one Bider, Danish for biter.
I have never figured myself to be an expert knife user, but I have always prided myself of having good and safe knife routines. From now on I will definitely be more humble and aware - especially when having a nasty scar to remind me.