The boat that wouldn't get built

[Dave Gray]

With apologies to Farley Mowatt..

So, the wife is at a high school reunion and I take time off so the kid isn' home alone. Perfect time to get the final stuff done so I can paint and varnish. I mill the oarlock pads and start chiselling out for the sockets. First one, great. The second, damn! pounded too hard with the mallet, split it. Oh well. Third one goes good. On the fourth, the chisel slips and slices the palm of my left hand, which was conveniently placed for just this purpose.

A trip to the doctor's and four stitches later, my dreams on getting the last bit of woodworking done today or tomorrow are just that: dreams.

@#$%^! It's a pain typing with just one hand!

[ 08-12-2004, 04:51 PM: Message edited by: Dave Gray ]

[dmede]

d'oh!

[Dave Fleming]

This should make you feel better.

I had just started at Nelson Hanson on my first newbuild. About 3rd day on the job I was given the task of chiseling out the rabbet on the Red Gum Stem piece.
I got out my 'virgin' Greenlee Bevel Edged Firmer Chisel set and selected a nice razor sharp 1 1/4 inch one. I was happily working away when Les Nelson called me. I turned around and replied, then swung back to continue and in swinging back I plunged the chisel into the palm of my left hand!
Off to the MD's office and back an hour or so later with 5 stitches in the heel of my left palm.

I don't think I have to describe what the next week or so was like for me around those two old Norvegian bachelors do I?

[Donn]

:eek: Remind me not to let you chiselers get your tools out around my hands! :eek:

[TimH]

At least flesh doesnt dullen chisels :D

[Donn]

Lessn you hit bone! ;)

[paladin]

I musta been doing it all wrong for these years as I dunno had that experience yet...hammers on hand...and thumbs...but no chisels.....but then again I izz chikkin'' can't stand the sight of blood..'specially my own..

[Donn]

Hey, Chuck! How's that back?

[Dale R. Hamilton]

well I had a habit of opening paint cans with a chisel..... say had, because I gouged my left hand only twice before I learned.

[Dave Gray]

Thanks, Dave, I feel somewhat better. At least I don't have anyone deriding me - yet.

So frustrating - I threw the 'honey do' list out the window, time is my own, and then abject stupidity strikes. At least, not to be deterred, I went and bought a slab of ash for my oars. Now that was fun, especially loading it in the van!

[kpenokie]

Dave,

Don't feel to bad, its not a very exclusive club you just joined. Several years ago I sliced my left hand from the base of the thumb all the way to heal of the palm on the other side WHILE CARVING A )(&(*^(*&% marionette. Not even while pursuing a worthwhile task like building a boat.

The two funny things about were A) I had to drive myself to the hospital because SWMBO was too upset, and 2)The emergency room MD got a squirt of blood right in the eye right after he had harumphed at a nurse who told him to be carefull because it was a squirter :D . The down side was when the MD stuck that needle into that bundle of nerves in the center of the base of the palm. :eek:

[Paul Scheuer]

Halloween, about 1975, as I checked into the emergency room with a deep stab wound in my left wrist, I was slightly embarrased. The nurse said, "don't worry, you're the third one today, we get about six every year".

[rbgarr]

I once stuck myself in the thumb with a knife, saw the blood, passed out, hit my head on the wall-mounted can opener on the way down and needed more stitches over my eyebrow than I did in my hand! :rolleyes:

[TimH]

Well I have not stabbed myself with anything yet, but I did fall off the deck of a sport fisherman onto the concrete floor of the storage building and knocked myself and my front teeth out. I landed on my hands, but they cuoldnt support my weight after falling about 10 feet. :rolleyes:

[Sailing-Randy]

Does cutting the tip of my thumb off with a nice razor sharp hatchet while camping count? Funny thing is it didn't hurt a bit until they started to treat it at the ER. Sigh. Now it looks a little funny and I can't pick up dimes so easy with that hand.

[ 08-13-2004, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: Sailing-Randy ]

[Paul Pless]

Does cutting the tip of my thumb off with a nice razor sharp hatchet I did the exact same thing when I was eight years old. Dumbass me playing with a hatchet. The one memory I have thoroughly engrained in my mind was sitting in the kitchen with my hand bleeding in the sink and looking out the window at my mom in a full on panic running around the yard looking for the end of my thumb. :D I never did find it, one of my dogs probably ate it.

BTW, I'm using this is my excuse for typos from now on.

[imported_Daniel]

I was too lazy to bring the piece of wood over to the vice, so I laid it on the table and used my chest as a backer to keep it from sliding and proceeded to draw the chisel towards me, of course it slipped. Good thing for ribs or it would have gone deep into my chest. The scar is still a reminder. :eek:

[Keith G.]

While we're all sharing gory stories....

When I was about 8 I was cutting a little piece of mohagany on my dad's bandsaw (don't remember the project; nothing so glamourous as boat building). My finger slipped off right into the blade. No real damage, just a scar and a scare. Now the scares come from watching my 4 and 2 year old sons flip on the bandsaw. Oh, and reach for the table saw blade. :eek: :eek:

And the other, none-boat story is...
What Paul P. said about remembering his mom running around; I have a memory imprinted on my brain too. (well, more than one, actually). As a teenager, I came flying down a hill on my bicycle, T-boned a small dog, flew over the handlebars, rolled and bounced often enough to evenly distribute rashes and gouges, and finally slid to a stop. I got up - and here's the memory - limped around on the road looking across the lake we live beside and told myself, "Take a good look, this is the last time you'll ever see this town." :D