Alexandr, Fantastic work as usual.  That Chandelier is being shipped to Georgia, U.S.A. right?  I have the perfect spot in my living room for it, or one like it. 

Nice work as usual, Alexandr!

While supervising open forge I got a bit more done on the door.  Just need to do the rest of the hinge, hopefully this week.

21 hours ago, Frosty said:

I remember seeing a lot of your projects in this office. It's nice to have satisfied customers isn't it?

Hi Jer!  Of course! I have a few clients like that, but I'd like to see more.

17 hours ago, billyO said:

Nice work as usual, Alexandr!

Thank you Biily !

19 hours ago, bluerooster said:

Alexandr, Fantastic work as usual.  That Chandelier is being shipped to Georgia, U.S.A. right?  I have the perfect spot in my living room for it, or one like it. 

Thank you! I don't mind))) It's a shame, of course, but America closed to us three years ago. At 23, with great difficulty, we managed to send several chandeliers to Alaska.

Absolutly not my style. But it does not matter, the craftmanship is high. Something to work to.

Here I made a small candleholder.

It's a bit hot

 

I don't see a candleholder; is it behind that poor soul escaping from hell?

No, he's not escaping from hell, that's a candle he's holding.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I finished the stocking hangers tonight. There's an injury story that comes with these but I'm tired. I do wish I had focused more on making them uniform but I also know that some people like them to look a bit different so I'll go ahead and bring them to my friend's shop to try and sell. 

 

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

No, he's not escaping from hell, that's a candle he's holding.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Definitely holds a candle.

Bummer Shaina, I hope the injury wasn't serious and wish you a speedy recovery.

Getting bends like that uniform takes practice and can get a little wonky on an anvil. This is where a vise with slips comes in handy. Lots of people want hand forged to be a little wonky, they'll sell.

If you make more you might try reversing some of the finial scrolls that lay on the mantle left and right so they make "sets". "Matched" doesn't mean identical or even the same, it means they go together even if they're across the room. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Shainaru, i feel ya. I am still laid up at the moment. Take care of it and hope you heal up nice. 

 

I had that same thought about the reverse finial scrolls today while looking at them all in a row like that! 

Sunday evening, I grabbed the angle grinder with polycarbonate abrasive disc (basically a super heavy duty plastic scrubby thing) to clean up the stocking hangers. I should have been wearing gloves. And always have before. I didn't that night. I even have myself all set up to not forget. I keep gloves, face shield, and ear muffs next to the tools that require them. But Sunday night, I grabbed the tool on impulse as I walked by it and carried it to a different location so all that careful set up went out the window, lol

Anyway, hook got closer to the wheel than I realized at which point the wheel caught the hook and threw it into the top knuckle of my thumb, which immediately started gushing blood. I ran it under cold water, and when the water was still running red a good 5 minutes later, I stopped and applied pressure. My hands were SUPER dirty but I couldn't get the wound area clean because it just kept gushing blood. 30 minutes later it hadn't stopped bleeding heavily so I went to urgent care. I thought I'd need stitches but apparently not? Dr had told me before (on other injuries that I chose *not* to go but apparently should have, lol) that if it is still bleeding heavily after 10 minutes of pressure that I likely need stitches and should go to urgent care/er/whatever. He also told me that ANY kind of puncture wound should be treated by a medical professional and not at home. He knows me well, lol

Anyway, urgent care doc had me soak the thumb in an antibacterial water solution and said they'd return in about 5 minutes but if I wanted to try to clean it out more, I could use the gauze. Every once in awhile, I'd use some gauze soaked in that solution to dig at the area and try to get it more clean. Over an hour later (from original impact) and it was still bleeding a lot so doc wrapped it to apply pressure and had me wait about 10 minutes. Then unwrapped, rinsed, and quickly wrapped again with antibiotic ointment and gauze. My thumb dressing leaving urgent care was comically large.

Monday morning, I washed it with soap & water and added new bandaging. The original bundle of gauze and first layer of bandage wrap was all soaked through. But the wound wasn't actively bleeding so I left the big thick gauze pad off when I rewrapped. Monday night, I noticed some red seepage (not light red but not dark red either) so I went to change the bandaging again. It had bled through the nonstick pad and 3 layers of the bandage wrap stuff. I still have a hard time believing this didn't need stitches, lol.

Doc said I could resume normal activity - even hammering - if I wanted to. Basically, if it didn't bother me to do it, then go for it. I've decided though that I'd rather wait until it's no longer bleeding through the bandaging before I go back to forging. Tonight I'll just be cutting some metal to length for the gate project.

Strange. I have sometimes a wound that is hard to stop bleeding because i cannot keep ik closed long enough, but this is extrem.

You are not on bloodthinners or something?

I have glued a wound close while sailing (closed hospital was 6hours away) but the seawater was preventing anything to stick and close it (we had those straps on board). Would not recommend as standard procedure. 

16 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

I don't see a candleholder; is it behind that poor soul escaping from hell?

 

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

No, he's not escaping from hell, that's a candle he's holding.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

A bit. A piece of scale has kissed me on the lip.

I knew from previous injuries not to glue if I couldn't ensure it was clean. It was obviously not clean so definitely didn't want to glue. I am not on blood thinners. When you mentioned not being able to keep it closed long enough, it hit me that's probably what this is. Since it's on the knuckle, every time my thumb bends, it's probably reopening the wound. 

I keep a tube of super glue in my tool box at work for cuts. I know it aint great but the oils and stuff i work in are not very good for keeping a bandage on. When i did need a bandage a piece of paper towel soaked in peroxide and held on with electrical tape was the best option. Heck, i even put a finger back on using that method. A truck frame fell on my hand at the first knuckle of my pinky, dislocated the knuckle and was dangling by the skin on the bottom. I popped it back in socket, wrapped it and finished pulling the trans out of the truck. 

You can buy liquid bandage like they use at the doctors. I would suggest that as it is more flexible and will hold the skin together almost as well as stiches. That way as it bends it will not reopen. 

OW!!! How about this next timed. Keep the disk grinders UNDER the PPE or in a cabinet you can't open without taking the PPE off the latch? 

Have you tried "butterfly" bandages to hold the wound closed? What you describe is exactly what they're for. As you can see in the pic the adhesive sections are way larger than the wound crossing strip so they are very resistant to being stripped off by bending a joint. It also allows you to monitor, clean and apply antiseptics without removing the butterfly. Once cleaned and medicated put a fresh butterfly on BEFORE removing the old one(s).

You'll know they're working because you'll probably have trouble bending that joint. 

They come in different sizes and are everywhere, even the local Mom & Pop quicky marts have them.

I was putting these things on Dad when I was 8 or 9.

Your wound will seep serum and hopefully nothing worse while it starts healing. Try to avoid greasy antiseptics like Neosporin if you can, you want it to breath. There are silver sulfadiazine ointments available, Silvadene being one of the major players. They're usually used to treat burns 2nd and less though it's falling out of favor for 2nd degree burns. 

There are liquid versions that do not close off air flow and the real benefit is being a strong disinfectant, silver and sulfa destroy germs on contact.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, I am very familiar with butterfly closures and have used them on previous self-guided wound care. I honestly figured the doc knew what he was talking about and figured I'd follow his instructions - which includes applying the antibiotic ointment for 5 days just in case it wasn't cleaned out well enough. However, if the pad is bled through again tonight then I will definitely grab some butterflies to help it along. I'm also familiar with the expected seepage and its various color stages - which is why I specified the color I noticed. A light red-to-pink would have been standard healing seepage. A dark red would have been concerning as it's too much bleeding. But a 'regular' red indicates less bleeding but still some active bleeding.

Once it's mostly closed up, I will be switching over to the hydrocolloid bandage. Once I switch to those, the wound gets zero added ointments. I use those often and they really do speed up healing and leave less of a scar behind. 

Great idea on keeping PPE on top of the things. Drill press has goggles hanging from the knob. Chop saw has ear muffs  & goggles laying next to the blade. Gloves draped over the blade of portaband saw. But since the angle grinders just kind of lay about in a general area, and I don't have a separate set of PPE for each of the 6 grinders (lol), the ear muffs, goggles & gloves are just hanging in that same general area. I so very rarely pick up a grinder and carry it somewhere else so it's always worked. Sunday was just a weird thing that I can't explain. It will be more effort to get the grinder out & put away but keeping them in a drawer would definitely increase the odds of remembering the PPE - and probably help the shop look a bit less chaotic, lol

I'll have to look for hydrocolloid bandages, it's a new one on me but I've been out of current on first aid for some times. It sure sounds like you're more current than I am.

Do you actually have a doctor at your local urgent care? You're lucky it's getting really hard to find more than nurse practitioners and similar around here. Heck, if I need a doctor my general has to call one in or refer me. Deb and I have been using the same office for 28 years now.

About all I can say is take care and get well quick.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

The receptionist at urgent care said, "the doctor can see you now" so I assumed he was a doctor.

I do have a primary care physician at the regular clinic.  I am required to get a physical twice a year for meds I'm on so my primary doc tends to see leftovers of my injuries and asks about them or sometimes I just volunteer the info because I'm curious if I did it right, lol

The last time I was in the office was soon after I had punctured my thumb pad with a 1/4" drill bit. Didn't go all the way through the hand but did go into muscle. I didn't go in for that but he wanted to look at it anyway. He got the special qtips out and started digging around. He was pretty impressed at how clean I got it. That's when he told me to always go in if I get a puncture - even if I think I've cleaned it good enough - because if I'm wrong then the resulting infection would be even worse than the recovery of a clean wound. Okay, doc. I just hate having to fork over the copay for something I can do myself at home.

First make sure your tetanus shot is up to date. I need to do that at my next appointment!

One thing we have in the medicine cabinet is a powder named BLEEDSTOP. Most pharmacies and Walmart carries it. It is in individual packets and it really works on bleeding that refuses to stop.

Another home remedy to stop bleeding is granulated sugar. It usually works also. I'm prone to bleeding whenever I'm in the shop or mowing or working on the equipment or playing with the dogs, I come in bleeding and nurse Debi patches me up.

My pharmacy notifies me if my tetanus or other shots are due. 

I remembered a common kitchen item that was a top notch blood stopper but it escaped what's left of my memory so I looked it up. AND the stuff is Cornstarch as is flour of all kinds but reading on (yeah I know but I can't help myself) Turmeric is supposed to be one of, if not the best home bleed stopper but evidently almost any non-toxic powder will stop bleeding simply by blocking or slowing the flow helping it coagulate. Alum is a good one and Cayenne pepper not only stops bleeding it's a very effective disinfectant.

Spider web works really well and is a disinfectant as well. I remember spider web from a number of sources starting with Boy Scouts first aid, reading history, woods lore, etc. The mental image I've always had regarding spider web first aid is a bunch of my buddies grabbing me and dragging me under a house if I cut myself.

Maybe it was all those "Primitive Pete," how not to survive doing things, safety cartoons we watched in school. The one below is from 1943, "Primitive Pete and the ABCs of Hand Tools." The ones I saw through school were animations but seeing as Pete is a Disney creation. . . 

And yes, you guessed it, I picked this one because it pertains to today's topic of discussion. . . Sort of.

Frosty The Lucky.

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

Alum is a good one

Alum is an astringent, which causes the surrounding tissues (including blood vessels) to contract, slowing or stopping the bleeding. 

They used to make styptic pencils out of alum. Sugar absorbs blood but can make it hard to clot. It's one of those that's recommended not to use anymore, like chewing tobacco - tobacco stops the bleeding, but also makes it hurt worse and takes longer to heal.  The chemical cauterizing powder made from shellfish works well, but it usually hurts more than the wound. Learned about that the fun way on one of my big Iraq "war wounds" - some yahoo put a huge metal fan blowing right over me while I was sleeping and it being Iraq, guard was tore up when I went to move it.

To stir an old argument a bit, I generally avoid gloves with any rotary power equipment, including grinders. I get injured sometimes, but I've seen (and a few times had) bad experiences with gloves that are worse than the occasional gouge, burn, cut, or piece of wire. I figure anything bad enough for me to care the glove wouldn't stop anyways.

The one that settled it for me was when I worked for ATI Wah Chang in Huntsville at a metal plant and they enforced a gloves for everything rule - guy had a bad experience with a lathe and walked into a safety meeting dripping and holding two fingers in the wrong hand. At the least, wear a close fighting enough glove to avoid getting tangled up.

Hope you're better soon. I'm lame myself for at least a couple more weeks from a procedure for my bad ankle and I cut myself doing tree surgery today. Also, also - if you're making enough of those stocking holders, you could make a jig if you want them bent more consistently. It's cheating, but it's good cheating.

Edited October 1, 2025Oct 1 by Nobody Special

One thing not often mentioned is to watch the hair as well. If you, like me, wear your hair long keep it tied back and i tuck mine into the back of my shirt when working on fast moving spinny things. Twice now i have gotten my hair caught, once in a hand drill and once in a circular saw. 

Also watch out for it on a creeper. If you know, you know. 

Long loose ANYTHING around rotating machinery is a safety issue. Do any of you remember "Fatalgram" posters? Both light and heavy duty equipment shops at Anchorage DOT Highways had them on the bulletin board you passed entering the shop area. They could be really gruesome even if they were black and white. One that had to be taken down within 2 days showed a man who'd gotten wrapped up on a large cable drum. Another got taped to the wall behind the big drill press, it showed a man with long hair literally wrapped around a drill bit between the table, head and post. Another showed a woman who'd been scalped by a drill press, her hair and scalp wrapped around a drill bit and people administering first aid to her bare skull. I don't think she was conscious but it was a horrific photo.

There was one almost fatalgram from a state shop in the interior where a mechanic got caught in the driveline under a truck and almost got taken for a spin around the shaft. Fortunately the spotter stopped the operator before much injury was done. I think he got away with a dislocated elbow and shoulder and some bad bruising. 

Dad was death on loose anything in his shop, not even wrist watches, no unbuttoned cuffs or untucked shirts. He supplied work uniforms that had elastic cuffs, didn't have belt loops and something else he talked about being really dangerous that I can not recall.  

No loose A N Y T H I N G running or even close to rotating machinery!

Frosty The Lucky.

On 9/30/2025 at 5:39 PM, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

make sure your tetanus shot is up to date

Yup, I definitely stay on top of that!

On 9/30/2025 at 7:06 PM, Frosty said:

common kitchen item

We used to keep a small shallow jar of cornstarch specifically for stopping bleeding if we clipped the quick of our dog's nails. My brain didn't cross-apply the info to my finger, lol. And all the other kitchen powders as use for slowing bleeding are interesting. I generally don't use most of the old kitchen remedies - as most of them have been shown to either be worse for the injury or not as effective as a cheap OTC med/ointment. There are a few outliers, of course, but I'm generally just skeptical of most of them.

Sounds like it might be a good idea for me to get some alum sticks on hand, lol

On 9/30/2025 at 11:24 PM, Nobody Special said:

avoid gloves with any rotary power equipment, including grinders

I never wear gloves with wire wheels or drills for that same reason. If the finger gets too close, it's getting sucked into the wheel/bit rather than the burn or gouge I'd get otherwise. I don't go as far as you though. If/when I get nicked by an abrasive wheel, the glove gets burned/scuffed rather than my finger. I'm pretty good about keeping my fingers away and always have a guard when it fits around the disc. Some discs are too thick for a guard. The gloves I wear are tight fitting and even have that velcro band around the wrist so none of that fluted elastic material around the wrist. I have a welding glove I keep handy for the occasional forging use. I hardly ever use wire wheels anymore since finding these polycarbonate wheels though. They just clean SO much faster and cleaner - plus no wires getting stuck in my skin and clothing! And these hooks should have gotten dropped into the homemade evaporust solution (which they did AFTER injury). I should have been able to look at those hooks and realized I wouldn't have been able to get the insides cleaned up anyway so why even start with the wheel? Anyway...

On 9/30/2025 at 11:24 PM, Nobody Special said:

make a jig

Definitely. I don't have plans to make any more this year, but next time I do I will definitely be making a jig!