How not to sharpen a knife

[Soccerdad1995]

So I decided to sharpen my carry knife on Sunday. Grabbed the little mini sharpener and sat down to watch some TV. Second pull through and I experienced the sickening feeling of the knife sliding directly into the knuckle of my left pinkie finger. A lot of blood and 4 stitches later and I am struggling to type this while I have my finger splinted to keep me from pulling the stitches out inadvertently.

Doc gave me some pain meds but I'm trying not to take them to punish myself for being so dumb.

Fortunately I managed to not cut my tendon or do any serious nerve damage. And I was able to use this as a learning experience for my 7 year old son on the importance of being careful around knives. Hopefully seeing me getting stitched up will have an impact.

[Countryside]

My hand hurt from just reading that. Glad it wasn't any worse than it was.

[The Annoyed Man]

Idiot!

I kid, I kid!!!


One time, I was gutting a trout next to one of the tributary creeks to the Owens river on the eastern slope of the Sierras, and I was using a "Fisherman's Friend" knife like THIS ONE. I was trying to cut upwards between the gills to lay open the fish's throat and having to kind of apply a significant amount of pressure upwards to get through some cartilage, and the tip of my thumb was pretty close to where I was cutting. I remember thinking at the moment, "if that knife suddenly cuts through, it is going to slice the tip of my thumb right off". And before I could readjust, let off the pressure, and change my grip, that's exactly what happened.

No stitches were going to fix that. I had sliced off about a dime-sized circular patch of skin, full thickness right at the tip of my thumb, and there were no edges to suture together. I just had to cover the raw meat with a dressing until the skin grew back. Boy did that throb a lot at first.

Yeah, I'm an idiot too.

But the good news is, you'll only do this to yourself once. The hardest learned lessons are the ones that stick best.

[parabelum]

I'm glad you're ok. Could have been worse.

About 9 years ago I was trying to poke a hole into a belt with my folding knife (another reason to just diet, I learned since...).
I applied moderate downward force with the blade towards my thumb (bad move) and then, the folding mechanism gave away and my little gerber knife folded right into my thumb
Almost sliced my right thumb in half, but 15 stitches later I came away with a different point of view

Not gonna do that again!

[mcscanner]

Mistake are to be learned from.

"Doc gave me some pain meds but I'm trying not to take them to punish myself for being so dumb."

Don't compound the mistake. Reducing the pain will help with the healing process. Better living thru chemistry

Mike

[puma guy]

Ow! Hope it heals up nicely. I won't relay any of my oopses! Knife wounds were the least of them.

[dlh]

I guess none of you guys were in the Boy Scouts....

dlh

[jrs_diesel]

Soccerdad1995, I feel your pain.

Two stories:

About ten years ago when we were stationed on Guam, I received a nice titanium dive knife for fathers day. I commented that it looked really sharp. Don't know why but I lightly ran my finger down the edge. Boy was I right about it being sharp. Didn't go deep, but it sure didn't take much pressure to cut. My wife gave me that "what were you thinking" look.

Second story is more recent and involved my chainsaw. It was not running. I had just finished cleaning it and had just put the bar and chain back on. After tightening the bar nuts, I let go of the nose of the bar. It was perched on the edge of my tailgate and started to tip forward and fall off the tailgate. Without thinking I reached down to catch it. I caught it alright, two teeth went down my middle finger, starting bleeding pretty good. That chainsaw sharpening jig I bought is a real winner. Taught me to not forget my leather gloves.

I've had quite a few other cuts and scrapes over the years that I am surprised that I still have 10 fingers.

[Lynyrd]

All of my knives stay sharp. There is a table in my shop with various stones, steels, etc. on it. About 25 years ago I was unloading a new washer and dryer out of my pickup in my garage that were still in the shipping boxes. A neighbor had dropped by to help unload. I was cutting the thick cardboard boxes with my leatherman when the phone rang in the house. I set my leatherman on the box and went inside to answer the phone. When I came back out my neighbor was holding one hand over the other and there was blood on the floor.

"What did you do?", I asked.
He hollered back, "I didn't expect a utility knife to be sharp!"

He had almost cut his left thumb off. Cut went clean to the bone.

[Jusme]

I was/am in Boy Scouts Chaplin of my son's troop. I have cut myself while trying to demonstrate knife sharpening procedures to the troop after allowing myself to look away to answer a question. The other adult leaders awarded me the finger carving merit badge I wear it on my camping hat and show off my scar to the boys as how not to use a knife properly

[Scott in Houston]

Lots of idiots on this board. I would never do something like this…

Oh wait, about 10 years ago I cut my left pointer finger down to the bone (right through the middle of my finger print) with a BUTTER KNIFE in a Marriott Residence Inn while trying to open a plastic bag of pasta. How a dull blade like that made it to the bone, is hard to explain without visuals, but I can still feel the scar tissue in that finger.

I remember sitting at the ER and feeling completely emasculated as I complained about the pain a bit while they were stitching and two men came running in… one with his hand in a large wrap, the other with 4 of his fingers ready to be sowed back on. Yet, here I am with my pointer finger and an ouchy and whining about the stitches.

[justa2e2]

About 3 weeks ago I was cutting some 550 cord at the local range to tighten it up to I could hang my target up and like a dummy I was paying attention to the fact that I just sharpened it and wham right into the side of my index finger right below the knuckle. It bled for what seemed like eternity until I got back to my range bag and wrapped it to duct tape. I don't think mine was as bad as yours thankfully.

Don't get me started on putting a nail through my fingertip with a nailgun. (another example of a duct tape fix)

[twomillenium]

So much for half price Wed at Memorial. Hope it heals quickly.

Now for my story. My EDC, Kershaw Blur, had just been hand sharpened to the degree that your eye would bleed if you stared at it for more than a second. I had quickly withdrawn it from the right pocket, firmly grasping it my right hand and initiated the assisted opening knob. I then swung it about in the air. Luckily the head reacted to a backward duck, but the knife smoothly sliced the chin all the way to the chin bone. 911 was called, the police (thanks to witnesses) concluded that the attacker, who had ran away (squealing like a stuck pig((pun intended)) was lucky and I was the intended victim. He was later picked up at a ER getting sewed up.

J/k but I thought it was a good story.

[chuck j]

Hope you heal up fast Soccerdad , I was a slaughter butcher on a kill floor long ago , self inflicted knife wounds........BUMMER .

[aggie67]

I will withhold real names in this story because it might cause extreme kidding to the person involved or even keep him from being promoted in rank.
Years ago in a West Texas land the local Boy Scout camp had a young CIT working in the Pioneering area (knives, axes, lashing and knots) and he had successfully--maybe too well--learned to sharpen knives and axes. The first morning of camp when he pulled out his personal pocket knife to demonstrate some skill or task he cut his finger(s). What I mean is he cut two fingers on his right hand and two fingers and a thumb on his left hand. One finger on his left/non dominate hand required some stitches. He healed and later made a good staff member. The thing is that none of us could duplicate the motions he used to cut fingers/thumbs on both hands while closing the knife only once.
He later attended the Air Force Academy and has been listed for promotion to General Officer in the latest promotion lists. Do you think his peers would stoop to ridicule if they only knew his name and could rub it in a little. Some of us grow up in spite of ourselves.