Tonight I cut a big chunk of skin off the tip of my right thumb, again, (it’s happened before) while cutting bell peppers for my spaghetti. This was the worst I’ve ever done, as it took over two hours for the blood to stop soaking the paper towels I had pressed against it.
I’ll be fine. This is just a reminder to keep your fingers pointed down and your thumb out of the way!
I should have BBQ’d ribs, instead.
JP
John, I’d hate to watch you chopping up ribs with a meat cleaver. 
Tony
It’s a known fact that musicians hurt their fingers mostly in stupid ways. Congrats JP, you qualify!!!
Julian Bream, the cl. guitarist mangled his arm in an auto accident because he had it resting on the door frame while he motored down the highway. Had to have similar surgery as Les Paul, resulting in having his arm “set” permanently at a playing-able position.
Most times i have hurt or cut myself have been downright embarrassing. Sliced a 1 3/4 gash into my wrist will CANING A CHAIR. With a chisel. Only problem is, you don’t really need a chisel to cane a chair. I was just using for “leverage”. Missed the controlling tendon by 1/16th of an inch, which would have ended my playing days.
Yup
Keep sharp and pointed objects away from fools and children
As for cutting your self Don’t do itit hurts :roll:
Django Reinhardt lost fingers in a stupid–booze induced–but dramatic fire.
He had to develop his own guitar technique to compensate for this handicap.
[quote=“CHIFF FIPPLE”]Yup
Keep sharp and pointed objects away from fools and children
Yep!
I’m only allowed chunky wooden spoons 
Don’t even talk about high speed power tools!! The things we go through to bring you folks nice whistles…
About every 6 weeks to 2 months I cut one of myself with a sharp object, usually in the kitchen. The latest one was last Saturday when I cut four relatively minor slices out of my hands with a new cheese knife my wife had bought. I’m staying away from it from now on.
Mike
Wow! Quite a week for fingers being cut badly!
Cut fingers are quite common in the piping world from those sharp tools they use to make reeds.
That is why they play with the pads of their fingers…
My first woodworking injury was six stitches in the left wrist from a woodcarving chisel at the age of six.
I had numerous cuts up until I was 12, when I severed the extensor tendon in my left index finger. After that, I developed a “no exceptions” attitude about never NEVER allowing myself to continue a task if I’m not sure my hands are safe. Nowadays, the only injuries I get are minor ones from a cutting tool slipping or cutting through the work and bumping my chisel hand into a piece of wood or something. Now that I’ve recognized that pattern, it’s almost completely stopped happening.
Knock on wood. So far so good. Ten fingers reasonably intact. I worry about my hands every day.
Please be careful, everyone.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I read a post in a pipe forum once where a guy said he just got his first set of uilleann pipes and he slipped into a ditch and cracked a rib. How do you explain these things? Higher powers are at work here, for better or worse. Ours is not to reason why.
Tony
OMG, Tony, that avatar is funny!
Well my point about the stupid aspect is that I have worked with a lot of power tools (was a rec. manager for a woodworking tool store once) and I have never hurt myself with em. Carried a pocket knife all my life too and cannot remember ever cutting myself with it. Because I am super careful and I have all these career-ending nightmares about any kind of power saw or especially, routers.
SO it leaves only the really weird injuries. I am super careful in the kitchen. The classic kitchen injury is around Thanksgiving and Christmas when you are REALLY having a good time and get distracted. Burns and cuts. I always say a little prayer that the other Weekender will make it thru the big family dinner without huge bandaids…
Trained chefs can verify this but I have observed that many knife cuts are because: knife is not sharp enough, preparer does not have food and cutting board at right height for their arms. Most often, the cutting board seems too high for correct leverage and pivots.. It’s like watching a learning musician who doesn’t have the right way to hold their instrument but with worse consequences. I still don’;t have the classic chefs way of cutting down perfectly (knuckles forward, tips in) so I DON’T try to speed whilst cutting like they do. Also, really pick out a knife you can hold becuase they do come in different handle shapes etc. What works for one person sure doesn’t always work for another. And avoid cheap knives for your own safety.
There can be no distraction with a chef’s knife. It’s awesome to watch real chefs cut up stuff.
Of course I’ ve never cut myself at all never done any thing silly with an angle grinder, lathe, milling machine, or any other power tool. :roll:
I say it’s the UFOs.
Quote from Weekenders
"Trained chefs can verify this but I have observed that many knife cuts are because: knife is not sharp enough, preparer does not have food and cutting board at right height for their arms. "
Well, I was a sous chef for a while and will definitely agree that a dull knife is far more dangerous than a well sharpened one. You have to let the knife do the work and basically guide it. If you have to force a knife to cut the knife is too dull or you are using the wrong knife for the job.
I routinely scare the crap out of my wife’s relatives near the holidays while helping to prepare food. It drives my mother-in-law nuts when I’m cutting up onions or mushrooms at blazing speeds without looking and talking to her. I tried to show a sister-in-law once how to cut up a chicken properly using a boning knife but by force of habit I did it in under a minute.
Do not buy cheap knives and never, ever, under any instances use the evil knife sharpener on the back of an electric can opener. If you cannot afford a simple set of Henckles or Wustolf trident then go to a resturaunt supply store (or online) and get a Russel, Mundial, or F. Dick (my fav) set.
A basic set should have a 8" chef knife, Paring knife, and boning knife. A good serrated bread slicer is handy and so is a good slicing\carving knife. A sharpening steel (F. Dick has been making excellent steels for hundreds of years) is a neccesity unless you don’t know how to use it then they are dangersous.
The only time I ever cut myself in the kitchen was when I cleaned up and re-edged a 100+ year old Sabatier chef knife. It was beautiful and took an amazing edge. I was dicing up some onions and shaved a slice of my fingernail off. not like clipping but parallel to the nail. the knife was so sharp I didn’t notice any resistance.
OK back to gory stories now PSA over.
Mark V.
I guess I’m the only one that thought “Be careful with knives” was a new lament…
John
Well, there’s always Liz Carroll’s “Not Safe with a Razor”…the new anthem of the phalangeally flayed?
OMG, Tony, that avatar is funny!
I hate to say it. That’s not an avatar. That’s really me. 
Tony