Cut To The Quick

OK, so here's one I haven't seen. Given you guys are so into knives and sharpening knives you must all, at one time or another, cut yourselves. There's even a saying that a knife is not truly yours until it's tasted your blood. So my question to you all is what's the worst cut you ever inflicted on yourself, how often do you wind up cutting yourself and where is the most typical place you cut yourself (i.e. finger, knuckle, palm, etc.).

I chopped off fingernail a few times. Its quite annoying if the missing piece is lost and you cannot superglue it back on place.

Fingers are the bastards that get in the way for me, most of the time.

I usually wind up cutting the top of my left middle knuckle when i lift the blade a little too high while dicing. Also have a tendency to slit the pad of a finger when I'm drying off the blade.

I officially 'own' all my knives. Seems I cut myself on both hands equally, usually while drying my knife (right hand) or carelessness while cutting (left hand). :curse:

I actually cut myself very rarely despite having sharp knives, you get used to it very quickly. Worst time was when I was peeling a turnip and I was peeling it like it was a big potato if you can visualise that. The turnip was hard as hell and took a lot of force and I didn't see a big mushy bit in it, so the paring knife went straight into my thumb and left a cut about 3 inches long and I had to go to the treatment room. No stitches though, I was lucky

Fortunately, I don't do much damage to myself. When I do, it's usually a minor nick or something similar. The last significant one was when I shaved my knuckle. Took a lot of quik clot and superglue to keep that one sorted out until it healed.

I had to have the end of my thumb reattached a couple of years ago, I just taped it back on then went to the doctor a few days later, they wanted to do surgery the next day; oddly that was the start of this knife obsession for me. I was cleaning a knife once and ran my fingertip down the length of the edge; about a month ago I dropped a petty and tried to catch it out of reflex, I now have a good lumpy scar on my middle finger; I occasionally shave bits of fingernail off, but never go through. I don't really cut myself often, but when I do it can be bad.

I need to find a good tissue adhesive that can withstand hand washing and last for at least a day, I have tried NuSkin but that stuff is useless.

I was trying to get a gyuto "Salty Tomato Test" sharp. It was actually at the right level of tooth/sharpness. And while showing off to myself (fast dicing a tomato), my dog came crashing into my patio door, scaring the crap out of me and I took off my index and middle fingers' first knuckles. That sucked!

I also went through the pit of an avocado and sliced my whole palm with my Pettysuki. Other than that, though, In general, I'm pretty good. Oh, I buried the heel of my Marr gyuto into my thumb pad once, just placing it onto my board. It slipped, and I pushed the wrong part to get it back into place.

Do shaving injuries count? I was quickly shaving with my old Böker King Cutter and I don't really know what happened, but I ended up taking a mm chunk out of my earlobe. But, nah...I never cut myself.

I've had 28 stitches in both my thumbs(hand work mishaps), and my index finger is a "touch" shorter on my right hand compared to my left(onion slipped). I used to carry duck tape and super glue in my kit. BUT nothing in my opinion hurts worse than a burnt finger tip...

thats a good one Tom

Ow!!

tgraypots said:

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You guys don't do anything half assed. You even cut yourselves big time.

For quite a few years I worked in a high volume commercial bakery, a slow day was 70,000 loaves through our line. I put my hand into the slicer without looking. Not once but twice. Two years apart to the week. Uggh! Lost the finger tip pad on both my right and left index fingers.

Matching set.

Right side:


Left side:

The right side one looks like my left middle finger where I stuck it in a spinning table saw blade!

My worst cut happened not while cooking. I had ordered a Forschner bread knife several years ago and it was shipped in a thin plastic sleeve. Of course the sleeve provided almost no protection and I didn't use it, but when I moved houses I thought I would pack it back up again. So I slid it back in the sleeve, it cut right through the plastic, and just kept on cutting. It perfectly cut right underneath and along my whole thumbnail. It was deep and it bled like crazy. And because I was so surprised, I did some ridiculous jump around dance thing that thankfully no one saw.

k.

By far my worst cut happened this summer. I was sharpening a couple of knives as a way to procrastinate from working on my dissertation, and in my anxiety and stress was moving way too fast with no attention to form. The knife (I think it was a Cermax) flew right off the stone and cut the pinky of my left (guide) hand in half. Four stitches later and three months later, I have a nasty but impressive scar.

My worst "cut" was a screwdriver bit on my drill doing through my palm at the thumb pad, slid off the screw head I was holding and BAM!

My worst knife cut was tiny but wouldn't stop bleeding, the thinnest sliver off my left index finger, so not that impressive.

Way back when I was first apprenticing as a jeweler I was pushing a graver into a ring and one of the old guys snickered at me, saying that I was going to push that thing into mt hand. What I knew and he didn't know I knew was that if you hold the tool and work correctly if it slips it slips into air. I always assume that the tool is going to slip, and make sure that there is none of my meat where it will end up.

Outside of knives completely, I had to go to the emergency room after a vintage tennis racket accident that left a 2.5 inch laceration in my palm. They glued it up.

I actually like that scar the best.

k.

I keep waiting for my first big cut but it never happens. Even when working in a hectic pro-kitchen - albeit pretty briefly - it didn't happen, aside from a few nicks (bandaid to stop bleeding, then carry on).

Maybe the knife-gods have spared me remembering that time I smashed through a window as a kid.

mr drinky said:

And because I was so surprised, I did some ridiculous jump around dance thing that thankfully no one saw.
K.

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You think so? It was all over youtube. Something about neighbors, hidden cameras..........

I hope I did not run out a deal with the knife guys by posting on this forom! I used to cut myself reverently twice a year, and I am way overdue! My worst cuts have always been from wiping my knives, I did a 12 stitcher wiping off a Wustof chefs knife in 1982. And a chicken breast roll on me and cause him really need one on my left index finger just above the joint. In fact, since I have been doing most of my work cleavers, I have not cut myself-will probably make up for lost time now!

Hax the Cook CLEAVERS Rule!

lost a pinky at first knuckle and years later lost middle finger at first knuckle. Both reattached by same gorgeous doctor, both caused by front of the house idiots.

tip of index finger reattached by hand surgeon....ouch......

i noticed that no one mentioned using sharp knives while drinking ALCOHOL.....i've had a few stitches doing that.....

Dang Tom, there had better be a good story behind that one.

When I worked at a small cafe in high scool we used a commercial slicer for all our meat and cheese. One night I had the blade guard off and liked to turn it on and just hold a sani towel to it to clean it. When holding the towel on, the most beautiful girl,with a very low cut blouse walked in and I forgot where I was. I sliped and cut into my left wrist about 1/4 through, luckily no tendons, but lots of blood. She freaked out and left, bunch of stitches later the high school guidance counsellor would not leave me alone.

And I cut myself fairly regularly trying to hand sand mirror finishes on my knives, but seldom while actually cutting.

I cut myself doing home renos, etc, way more so than with knives. Actually, I cut my left hand knuckles two days before my Wedding Day, reaching into a box, and meeting up with old trophies. Talk about bad timing....

I was using a Miracle Blade III serrated slicer as a wood saw one night to cut up a chair in an apartment I lived in. I slipped and it cut my finger(not very badly at all given how intense the attack on my finger was), and still have a tiny scar from the food saw eating my skin.

Other than that, just nicks here and there. I had a cut on my thumb-fold from doing Katsura-Muki with a borrowed knife that magically refused to heal for almost 10 days. No scar though.

I cut myself worse on those cling-wrap boxes.

I had some lock failures on folding knives years ago that where pretty bad: one in particular cut right down the center of my thumb and stopped on the bone. However, nothing that ever got stitches (super-glue and tape all the way!!).

The only cut that actually worried me was a couple years ago cutting mango. I was cutting around the pit and I had the mango on it's side and knife horizontal. With my left hand I was rotating the mango against the knife and, my grip on the mango slipped a bit. Like a fool, I was in a hurry, rushing and gripping the mango too low (below the plane of the blade). So, when I slipped, the right (outside) side of my left index finger smacked against the edge of my knife. -fast but not hard. Barely even felt it. It was a weird diagonal cut along the side from the crease of my first knuckle almost up to the tip, and clear down to the bone. Bled like crazy... so much that I had trouble getting the glue to set. I gave up and for the first 48 hrs I just flushed with alcohol, packed it with neosporin, and wrapped it with gauze and electrical tape. The thing that concerned me though was that I had weird nerve and tendon pain. Even a week after it would hurt if I raised my arm past a certain point or moved my forearm or wrist in a certain way. But, it eventually did heal very cleanly, with no permanent damage aside from a scar that's only visible under the right light and if you know just where too look.

That's the thing about all of my bad cuts: done with very sharp knifes and kept very clean, so no cool scars.

I very rarely cut myself, but my most common cut is actually more of a "poke" when rotating to a new knife or learning a new blade where my brain has not yet programmed in a longer length, my left hand occasionally gets a couple mm of tip that it didn't account for stuck into it, but a drop of super glue and 30 seconds of pressure and it's like it never happened.

kalaeb said:

Dang Tom, there had better be a good story behind that one.

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Less than a week after knife school last summer.....I was honing the edge of the knife I had made in school on an extremely fine scotch-brite belt (2 x 48 grinder) loaded with alumina oxide. The belt broke, slapping the tip of the knife rearwards, through about 1/4" of the base of my thumb. Blood thinners, shock, ambulance ride, that's pretty much it. Plus, 5 weeks before I could make pots again. No feeling on the tip or face of my thumb and it has been 13 months since.