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I Forge Iron

Personal injuries while smithing..


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My earliest scar is on my back; I was nicked by the surgeon during my cesarean birth---I blame my fascination with blades on that!   My wife says it has been fading and it's hard to see nowadays. 

I'm much less disturbed by blood now; after donating regularly for the Red Cross, a few ounces doesn't phase me anymore. Of course out here in NM most of the plants, bushes, trees, etc, have thorns or spines or stickers or combinations thereof; so just working in the yard can make it seem like you have been doing blood glucose testing over a lot of your epidermis. 

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If we move outside the realm of forge scars and injuries the list is endless..  Fallen on my head 4 or 5 times from height.  Have gotten hit in the head directly on top 2X at 2 different places by objects weighing over the 400lbs mark. (2" shorter now). .  Have gotten stabbed 2x on purpose by someone else.  

Burns both calfs from motorcycle.  Scar outside leg from sword cut, both knees are pretty much scarred over the knee caps.. Last one was when i ran into the water shut off valve on the new shop and pulled all the skin off the knee cap up 3 inches starting on the shin,  then there are several on the feet. One bad one from flip flops and smithing, the other from an ax in the toe.  then there is the time I crushed my thumb, and then there was the time I sliced the tip of the thumb off,  Oh, and the time the sand blaster hose came off and exploded on my finger. 

Oh and the time the pinky went into the table saw. And the time I sliced across all three main finger, and the time I cutoff my middle finger (this happened when I was a leelittle one). 

Oh, and I have a scar on the top of my head running from the front nearly to the back. 

Or the time there was a broken bottle butt on in the trash no one told me about and pushed the trash down.. left hand was numb for about 3 years.  

This list is literally endless.. I have a scar on my forehead from a 30footer onto a rock. broke both elbows..  Back surgery.  

here is one from 3 weeks ago that was up the outside of the forearm nearly top to bottom.  You can see the 2 wonderful lines. 

Thomas. I used to go to meeting and count scars too.. On the back of my left hand I had reached the 280 count when I was interrupted.  I've got scars in places no one should. 

It's part of leading a life of high adventure and pushing the envelope far from what most would consider normal. 

Funny thing is I remember where they all came from except the smaller burn ones and it is amazing how many really bad ones have faded. 

I burned off a good portion of the skin on my right bicep 2.3X3" area, hitting a piece at welding temps, the skin just vaporized and the shop smelled like a steak eatery for about a month. I finished the job.. Not much you can do for 3rd degree burns other than ointment and loose breathable wrap.. now it's barely see-able.  Even the part of the finger that got blown off by the sand blaster looks pretty normal.  

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I also have many scars. Since I have a high tolerance for pain and my memory and attention span are the same length, I don't remember where a lot of them came from!

There are some exceptional ones that I do remember though.

I have a scar that looks like a bullet wound on my left thigh. Not a gun shot !

There is a welding process know as Carbon Arc Gouging. This process involves a rod holder which conducts electricity which also blows compressed air out parallel to the rod which is made of carbon . The electric arc causes the carbon rod to glow white hot while it is arcing against the metal. The arc melts the metal and the compressed air blows the liquid metal away from the area. It is noisy obnoxious hot and very sparky work. On this particular day I was gouging out welds that were holding 1" thick steel wear plates onto the floor of a 300 ton dump truck used at a copper mine. I was dressed for the work with leather bib overalls and a leather jacket. I was kneeling on the floor plate doing my work when a hot piece of metal started burning the knee i was kneeling on. Not a big problem just move a little bit away from the slag. When I moved I slipped and lost balance.

I plunged a 1/2 inch diameter  White Hot glowing piece of carbon 3" deep into the meaty part of my thigh. almost through !  I was running close to 500 amps

When I got to the hospital they gave a local pain killer and cleaned it up somewhat. The wound was cauterized and was over an inch in diameter and deeeeep. They could not stitch it up and said the wound needed to hear from the bottom up. They sent me home with a prescription for pain killers and antibiotic cream. I had to clean the hole in my leg ever day with cotton swabs and then pack it with antibiotic for months as it slowly healed from the bottom up.

I limped for months

I have several other scars burned into my memory which I may share if this thread continues 

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Those deep hole burns are tough.. You must have some good meat on your leg where it went in..  did you have to have it debreeded too?   I have never had that kind of arc gouge wound. have had a mig wire hole a leg a time or 2..   Those are tough for sure. 

If I had to mention the worst  top 3..   It would be DCS, Getting squished by that 400lbs log, and the back disks letting go..  These 3 things plague me everyday..     I don't let them bother me and I have gained much mobility back (doesn't slow me down in the least but now I have to think about things to move properly),  but they always linger in the back ground  like someone knocking on the door in a scary movie..   

The DCS has much of my left side numb split right down the middle.. Especially when tired.. The log in the head compressed my neck enough that it's a problem with sleep.  The back keeps my left leg and hip in constant flux of the nerve damage. 

The others that play in are breaking off the funny bones in both elbows.. This keeps me from being able to pull my arms up tight without my hands going numb.. LOL..  

it's funny because I'm literally a miracle..  

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15 hours ago, pnut said:

Ouch. Is that recent? Welshj and Jen. 

Bout a year or so now since... been really trying to be alot more careful since then. Well, other than high siding a four wheeler and hitting the ground flat on my back from flying superman style.... broke two ribs there bout a month back.

Imagine the surprise on the sheriff's face when I went in to renew my CHL. I asked him what I should do if my fingerprints had changed? He gave me the "you moron" look, as he said- "nothing, they don't change."  Oh really? He lost a bet that day.

 

Not healing as fast as I used to tends to make me work a little smarter. Lol...

I worked for metalloy foundry in Hudson mi. in '93-'94. One of the things we made were intake manifolds for a military contract.

Jump forward several years to me joining the army, and lo and behold... the humvee I'm driving has a manifold I made on it. 

Was kinda cool.

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Light wounds are soundly cussed in several languages; bad ones---are dead silent with perhaps a "Could you drive me to the ER?" Or with the insulin crashes: no sound, just waking up to the EMTs standing over you and a lot of foul glucose stuff smeared over my beard. (And a highly annoyed wife!)

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9 hours ago, Welshj said:

Imagine the surprise on the sheriff's face when I went in to renew my CHL. I asked him what I should do if my fingerprints had changed? He gave me the "you moron" look, as he said- "nothing, they don't change."  Oh really? He lost a bet that day.

Since losing my ring finger in 2013, I have a lot of fun when a nurse wants to do a finger prick.  The always seem to ask "Ring or middle finger?".  I just answer "either".  You see, my wedding ring is on my middle finger now.  Always gets a laugh after they get over the initial shock. :D

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I've gotten to where I don't even mention little injuries to my wife.  She says my immune system can never catch up because my body is ALWAYS trying to heal something!  She's all the time screaming at me over cuts, burns, bangs, bruises and scrapes.  I've got a 4" burn down the inside of my arm from when I was trying to change the shape of the jaws on my only pair of tongs.  The heat was traveling up the reigns and I was having to work around that.  If I took the time to wrap a wet rag around the reigns to cool them off, then the jaws cooled too quickly to work on.  One time one of the hot reigns hit my arm and gave me a blacksmith's tattoo.  She was none too happy about it.  She keeps asking why all of my hobbies are so dangerous. :lol:

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We did have an interesting discussion on how to photograph it for the grandkids.  I think we are going with the large pyrex baking pan. (And wondering if Scorpions have problems with statin dust...) You my remember that my wife LIKES spiders as "fellow" spinners/spinsters. I'm very happy that she is willing for black widows to be relocated outside.

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Now that you mention it I do, Deb is downright phobic about spiders. I'm happy we almost never have dangerously venomous spiders here. The only spider Deb doesn't make me get far far way are Globe spiders IF they're outside. While not crazy about spiders I like scorpions, there are some really large ones in the Mojave. I could maybe set up a terrarium and get a couple but not while Deb and I are living together. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

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Jer,

One way to keep the number of spiders down is to dehumidify the house.

High interior humidity is generally not good for a house nor its contents.

Building inspectors are well aware of the spider abundance in buildings that are too humid. Where there a lot of those critters, they start looking for sources of water. Like water pipe leaks,  etc.

SLAG.

Who is in self isolation with the Marvelous  Marg.

P.S.  Spiders and scorpions belong to the Arachnids, family of insects and have eight legs.

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I love nearly all creatures..  spiders, centpedes etc, etc.  Don't both me in the least.. I love to watch them.. 

We actually have blackwidows up here which weird.. I stumbled on them one summer while out walking around.. 

The things that leave me with creeping skin are":    Ticks, leeches and lice..    

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22 hours ago, SLAG said:

P.S.  Spiders and scorpions belong to the Arachnids, family of insects and have eight legs.

Along with crawfish, lobsters and crabs. Mmmmmmm.  Those are bugs deserving of love and a little butter. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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