Hey Guys,
I was having a discussion with some fellas at my local hobby hole. And we got into talking about our incidents with the famed #11 X-acto blade. And I thought that maybe here we can cringe our faces and say, “Ooh, That’s gotta hurt!”
My worst incident happened in July, 1993. I was working on a Monogram '78 Camaro. And I glued the worng manifold on the engine. It didn’t look as if it had too much glue on it and I decided to try to pry it off, with a #11 X-acto blade off course. The piece flew about six feet straight up and the blade sliced from my fingertip to the first knuckle of my index finger, and it also got me from the second knuckle against the bone, through the top of the same finger. I went to the ER and got 7 stitches on the tip, 3 stitches lower down, and 1 stitch on top. Worst of all, my girlfriend wouldn’t let me in my den for a few days. I think it was either the shock of seeing me with a hobby knife through my finger, or the fact that I got blood all over the house. It will remain a mystery. Plus, she made ME clean it up!
Now let’s hear about your War Wounds?
Bernie the K.
I can honestly say that my war wounds are nowhere near as serious as yours Bernie. Never had to visit the hospital for them anyways. I’ve had my fair share of knicks and cuts but nothing that a little dab of Zap-A-Gap wouldn’t cure. Speaking of Zap though…a modeller in a club I used to belong to had a most interesting experience with his glue of all glues. While working on some rather small parts he managed to get a little Zap on his fingertips, about the same time as he had to go to the washroom (nature calls at the most inopportune times). The end result was as painful and embarassing to him as it was humorous to the “friends” that he entrusted his most guarded secret to.
Bernie, you had a few more stitches that I had to get, but I had a similar ‘incident’. Nov. 30, 2001 I was working on a balsa wood biplane. I was trying to trim one of the braces between the upper and lower wings by taking off small amounts of wood from the top of the brace. About the time I thought “I’m not being real careful here”, the blade jumped through the wood and into my thumb, down to the bone. It was just like turning on a faucet in my thumb.
Since my wife was still at work, had to get my dad to come by and drive me to the hospital. While the doctor was placing the five stitches in my thumb, I realized that my wife didn’t even know what was happening. She came home to find me gone, all the lights on in the house, my truck still in the driveway, and blood all over the den and bathroom. Almost had a killing at my house when I got home.
Nothing ever that exciting happened to me (touch wood!), but I’ve had a number of close calls, mostly involving the circular saw attachment of my minidrill (dangerous stuff!) and x-acto knives rolling off the table and landing close to bare feet… I’ve since replaced my x-actos with scalpels.
I’ve had my fair share of bites from the x-acto knife, nothing that ever needed stitches.
The most painful moment for me was a small cut I had on a finger tip, I put a bandage on it and proceeded to put decals onto one of my planes. I’m not sure what goes into decal setting solutions but my bandage soaked up a bit of my Micro-sol right over the cut.
For as much as it stung, I may as well have stuck my finger into a bottle of vinegar. OUCH!
I had an xacto knife to roll from my workbench and spear the top of my foot before I could arrest it’s downward flight. Made more embarassing because the ER I went to was the one I worked in-caught a lot of flak from my coworkers over that one
My worst accident also involved the infamous exacto, I was foiling one of my cars, my 62 Belair to be exact, thinking how ggod it was going, all of a sudden the knife slipped, and stuck straight into the center of my thumb, about 1/3 the blade stuck in, no stitches, but bled like a stuck pig. Nothing like the feeling you get pulling that blade out!!
Lee
My worst involves the cat and my “trusty” #11 blade…I was shaving excess sprue off of a piece I had just snipped off with my cutters. The cat jumped up on the table, startling me, and the blade made a 1/2" long gash to the bone on my index finger. Still have the scar and the memories of the stitches (4 of them in this case).
I once scratched my eye ball with the nose cone of an F-15. While putting on decals I was sighting down the left side of the model. As I rotated it to view the right side, the nose cone dragged across my eye. Boy, what a indescribable expierence that was. I wore a patch for days after. The folks at the ER had a good laugh at my expense[:I].
I was using my Dremil tool with the flex shaft attached doing some cutting. I had the saw blade attached. I went to put it in the shaft holder I have attached to my work bench. It did not fully engage the holder and fell out onto my lap. As it did, I pressed harder on the foot speed control. Here it was in my lap, whipping around like a snake and me not able to grab it. I finally was able to get hold of the flex shaft and get it away from me. I had to go to the emergency room to get my leg stitched up. When the medic told me to remove my pants I couldn’t because the zipper was all chewed up from the blade. It could have been a lot worse. THANK YOU LEVI JEANS.
My (then) four-year old daughter once picked up my Dremel, turned it on and pretended it was a hair curler. I was concentrating on something else and her scream shocked the daylights out of me. I had to cut off a big lock of her hair to get it disentangled. The wife wasn’t too pleased. . . .
Hehe…while looking at my filling job, I was holding my model up to the sunlight. Have you ever noticed that when you look at a bright light or the sun you have a tendancy to sneeze. Anyway, I also have the habit of twirling my blade in my hand when I am thinking or inspecting. Well all the planets must have been aligned at that point and mama taught me too well. Looked at the model, bright sun right in the face, had twirled the blad so that it was resting between my thumb and forefinger, sneezed, covered my face (just as mama had taught me) and stabbed myself in the ear. Not too deep and not too long, but it hurt and could have been much worse. Ask me sometime how I stabbed my wife with my putty knife while wrestling over the remote control. Thats a good story also
Geez…I can’t top any of the last ones, but I did get a nice curved cut, like a smile, across the top of my left index finger between the second and third joint. It went clear to the bone and left a nice flap of skin that peeled up because of the angle of the cut. Seeing bone is not a welcome sight…just before all of that blood starts running! It only required four stitches though…I still have a nice scar from it and that was when I was 17…I am 34 now[:D].
too much to list… the most memorable was when i stepped on a model piece and it was sharp… then my knife sharpener fell on me, it was the dull kind. the end. another one was when i tried to “glide” my model and it hit the wall and a piece hit me in the face… another time was when i pressed down on a piece with a knife and it hit me in the face, almost on my eye! thank god i wear glasses
I’m just getting to read all of these stories now and I am almost peeing my pants laughing at them. My wife things I’m looney 'cuz I’m laughing at ‘modelling humour’…
Who says this isn’t bloodsport? I was working on a vacuformed something-or-other and the blade slipped and sliced through my left index finger near the tip and came out under the finger nail. It probably needed stiches, but being a male of the species, I did not seek medical attention. I have at least 15 x-acto scars on my left hand and that is the most prominent…
