Burns..

[Frosty]

Unfortunately have to wear safety gear now?

What would've been unfortunate is if he'd seriously injured himself or someone else because the museum failed to implement and enforce BASIC safety rules, got sued as it should have and had to shut down.

Only a FOOL doesn't wear basic safety gear. It's so much easier to explain to the audience why you're wearing safety glasses, ear plugs and leather boots in an 18th C. setting than try to explain to a mother why her daughter is blind and has a permanent scar. Forget explaining it to the judge, just get out the check book cause you're screwed.

Frosty

[TASMITH]

I have had innumerable burns over the years. It kind of comes with the territory if you work with hot metal every day. One of the worst I got though was while wearing a heavy insulated welding glove. They were trying out the line-up of the dies in one of the hammers in the shop and didn't have the furnace up to heat yet. They were forging contact pins for the aluminum industry and the stock used for each pin was 3 inch round by 27 inches long.They way about 56# each.They brought a billet over to my work area to heat in my furnace to try the hammer out. We heated it to 2350 deg and to take it back to the hammer was about fifty feet away.The hammerman brought his tongs over and pulled the billet part way out of the furnace and I used a bar to support the othe end to carry it back to the hammer, We were most of the way back to the hammer when the billet slipped sideways on my support bar to within about six inches from my thumb! needless to say at that heat it didn't take long to work it's way through the glove. It literally baked the back of my thumb to just about a third degree burn. Blistered it from the base of the thumbnail to the back of the hand. Took about three months to fully heal but there is no permanent damage to the joints and very little scarring.

The second worst was a dumb move on my part. Welding under a vehichle in the overhead position without a leather apron on. Nice little blob of hot metal in the navel! that one hurt a long time!

[Dave Budd]

Gortunately I've not gained any big scars from burning (they've come from abrasives, cuts adn horses), but I've managed a few close calls already (only been forging for 5 years).

When I was first learning I volunteered at our local national trust forge, Finches Foundry, where I was basically picking it up as I went along but not letting the public know that I decided to have a go at a toasting fork and all was going well until I went to twist the square bar. I'm sure everyone who has demonstrated has done this, I would put the bar into the fire to heat up and somebody would ask a question. So I would take it out to answer (rather than burn my nice fork) and when done I put it back in to heat properly. Did that a few times so that when I finally got it into the vice and fitted the wrench to the bar, the end where I was going ot support it with my hand (to keep the length straight while twisting) was rather hotter than I thought! I grabbed it too fast andf let go even faster! Ended up witha perfect 10mm square bar line right across my right palm. Ouch! It blistered badly and was yellow and nasty, but with the good old lavender oil it was completely gone in a few weeks. not even a scar.

I've got a nice little burn from hitting a freshly welded joint, that was deep and only hurt afterwards.

Also had hammer scale weld to my forehead and all over my hands/arms (normally when firewelding of course)

[highlander]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Unfortunately have to wear safety gear now?

What would've been unfortunate is if he'd seriously injured himself or someone else because the museum failed to implement and enforce BASIC safety rules, got sued as it should have and had to shut down.

Only a FOOL doesn't wear basic safety gear. It's so much easier to explain to the audience why you're wearing safety glasses, ear plugs and leather boots in an 18th C. setting than try to explain to a mother why her daughter is blind and has a permanent scar. Forget explaining it to the judge, just get out the check book cause you're screwed.

Frosty

sorry joseph, I have to agree with frosty. try going to your eye doctor and try to get safety lenses in a frame that looks a little more period correct than the modern $3 safety glasses.

[Hammered]

Worst burn I ever got was when I was flippin burgers back in my high school days. Had a pair of tongs slip into the fryer and I instinctively reached in to grab them. Luckily I'd turned it off about a half hour prior so I could drain and clean it. Sat at the sink with my hand in cold water for the next half hour. I remember that I hurt for a long time after that and had that "stretched skin" feeling longer still. Came away scarless and no longterm adverse effects. I was lucky.
Had a near miss in the forge not too long ago. I was forging a piece of stock using tongs. At one point I put the stock back into the fire and set my tongs on the anvil to get something. As I turned back around I bumped the tongs and they fell to the floor. I didn't pay them any mind for a moment as I had my hands full. I noticed that the top of my right foot was getting rather warm and noticed that the hot jaw end of my tongs was lightly resting on top of my running shoe and was slowly melting its way through. Luckily I'd read about the trick about a foot fitting into a 5 gallon bucket of water a while ago and I stuck my foot in as fast as I could. Didn't get burned at the time, but now I now ALWAYS wear my leather work boots in the forge area in addition to my gloves, apron and glasses.

[bruce wilcock]

carron oil ,is a mix of linseed oil and lime water ,it was used at the Carron iron works in Scotland ,for burns ,i think thats all they had plenty of at the foundry lime and linseed oil , we used it .

[R.C.Edmondson]

My worst burn came from wearing tennis shoes while welding, I didnt know the piece was burning into my shoe until it was to late and if you could have caught me on camera running around trying to get my shoe off you might have won one of those funniest video contest. It burned the top of my foot BAD!!! Taught me a good lesson and it wont happen again!!! Be SAFE. Godbless,Charlie

[Lysdexik]

Warning to Frosty if the cooking oil story gave you the heaves you might not want to read this. When I was a teenager, back last century. I inherited a motorcycle from my uncle, it was a British bike, made by a company called airel, it had a square four engine configuration and was 1000cc capacity. Because of the square four engine the back two cylinders ran real hot. I was riding home from Oxford down the A40, when the sump plug came loose and filled my riding boot with 50wt oil, the A40 is a twisty road and trafic is running at a fair lick. By the time I got to the side of the road and took off my boot,the foot looked like the contents of a can of red salmon. They gave me a tube of a salve called Percolium Picarate, ( any pharmacist or doctor will now know why my handle is Dyslexic-ish) stained like the devil, it's a sort of dayglo yellow, but it took the pain right out of the thing, and 28 years later you would never know! Oh by the way, does anyone know what colour adreniline is - It's brown and at high speed with a boot full of boiling oil it flows out of your pants cuff.
Paul.
Don't confuse activity, with accomplishment. And as always...
it's not over... Untill we Win!!!

[Frosty]

Owe! Ariel Square Fours had a rep for shortening the rider's lives. Sounds like you got off lucky.

Frosty

[divermike]

out here, at this time of year, the quench bucket, if not frozen over, is the first and fastest first aid available, remove the heat as fast as you can to slow the spread of injured tissue, saved a bad burn from getting worse the other day when I picked up a piece of metal I had just told myself not to, I was getting to riveting the cross to the backplate, and really needed three hands, and while I was hurrying, yup 2 fingers smokin, but only 1 blistered, and not to bad, cause the tub was close.