Did something dumb today.

[doc henderson]

oops sorry Tom.

[WV Sawmiller]

I am not sure whether to be proud (doctor in me) or sorry (forumite in me), but message received.  I have sewn up my own knee, face is hard. It is usually ripped open by something outside so the whole sterile thing is over played.  we use vinyl clean gloves now not sterile.  I still use sterile caause they fit better.  enter at your own risk.  It is not hard, but there are obviously some tricks to the trade.

not trying to be smart, but the young man's fingers have made a full recovery, and he lives to be more careful in the future.

Doc,

  That reminds me of the joke about the guy who came home late and drunk and fell on the steps and landed on a flask of liquor in his hip pocket. He sneaked in the house and eased into the bathroom and closed the door to the bathroom before turning the light on to doctor his injuries. He backed up to the big mirror and bandaged himself as best he could, put away the disinfectant and bandages, cleaned up the area, turned off the light, opened the door and sneaked into bed without awaking his wife.

  All was good till he was awakened by an angry wife a few hours later. She yelled at him "You promised no more excessive drinking but you lied." The husband apologized and asked how she found out. She opened the bathroom door and pointed to taped up bathroom mirror.

Tom,

  Sorry to see the picture. I hope there is no permanent damage.

  As a fashion comment you should have asked for a black patch so you could at least tell Inga and the grandkids you are practicing to be a pirate.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, it's not a big deal but very annoying. I think I may have scratched the cornea but I don't have that itchy burn that I think is normal with that. However the vision is blurry and my depth perception was way off so picking my footsteps on sloped ground was a lot like stumbling in the dark after a 12 pack. Not the safest thing. I was just going to let it ride, but put the patch on to give the eye a chance to rest. It sounded good at a the time.   I only had (formerly) sterile eye patches in my trauma kit. I have a bit of a headache from it. But that led me to learn that most of my visual acuity is in my right eye and trying to read anything with the left eye really requires glasses. Nothing is very comfortable. I just got off the phone with Bill and between the cold temps, the wind, and my blinky  stumbling condition we decided not to go back out this afternoon and rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I suspect the eyeball will be fine after a full night of sleep.... or not.
 Yes, I will have to look for a black patch for the next time it happens. My GS was here when I came out of the bathroom with the patch on and it scared him a little, but he's OK with it now.

[doc henderson]

Tom, I too have read about people who drink twelve packs and stumble around after dark...

[JD Guy]

Wow, I certainly hope that there is no damage to your eyesight! Also hope the recovery is quick for you 

[Resonator]

Many years ago I was high up in a white pine tree cutting branches, holding the chainsaw at full reach over my head when it blew some chips into my eye. To be safe I got it checked by the doctor, luckily the cornea healed naturally on its own. Hopefully it all heals good for you.

[Nebraska]

Shoot Tom my finger boo boo is nothing compared to that.  Hope everything is ok.

Oh and if anyone wonders those orange handled diamond knife sharpeners that Bass Pro/Cabelas have on the shelf work real well,  especially on old Chicago cutlery posting knives that bounce around in the back of an old vet truck.

[Old Greenhorn]

Even with glasses that nearly set on my cheeks and still I get chips up under the. But at least I didn't have to self inflict some stiches because I suck at that with no training or practice, let alone knowledge. That would be very ugly, like the last time.
 But really this wasn't bad. I put the patch on because the depth perception issues were driving me cray and I did have a bit of a headache. It helped with both of those and I tried working in the shop. The beer goggle effect was still there, because with only one eye it was hard to align screws with the actual hole, or match a screw size to a hole size. I was re-assembling a set of sewing machine legs with the treadle. It took me a lot longer than it should, but it was a real learning experience, one might say it was an 'eye opener'. Working with one eye is no fun at all. I took the patch off around 8pm and the sore spot was no longer, and the depth perception is back, but things are still a tad fuzzy in that eye. SO it will be fine in a few days I expect. Too bad we don't have an eye doc on the FF staff.  Maybe Lurk can whip up an AI one?
 For sure it was a freak thing, but I probably should have had glasses on... I guess......maybe.

 Resonator, I hate cutting overhead, even with glasses for just that reason, I a try to upcut whenever I can overhead, but that is hard if you're one-handing the saw overhead, for sure. I don't have those muscles anymore, I mislaid them someplace in the past years.

[doc henderson]

"wink wink"

[Southside]

How dumb is it to stitch yourself up? What kind of trouble, beyond obvious infection, could I get in?

Well if you decide to use LA 200 as an antibiotic it really, really, stings - or so I have heard. 

[Peter Drouin]

The branch went up under the face shield of the helmet.

[Old Greenhorn]

No, not this time. I wear a full brim helmet with no shield. Maybe I should put that back on? But yes I have had branches and chip come up under the shield in the past. One time I had a spring loaded branch come right through the screen. Today I had glasses on, and helmet, and chaps.

[Nebraska]

Stings hah, burns like heck!!!

[Southside]

Well that's more warning than I was given. 

[NE Woodburner]

My turn. I was cutting up some firewood and the saw ran out of gas. I gassed it up and topped off the bar and chain oil ready to get back to work. The saw was still warm and normally starts great but it popped and stopped and a pulled a few more times with no luck. I smelled gas and thought I must have flooded it but I didn't choke it being warm. Then I thought the gas smell was pretty strong and looked down to see my chaps soaked and the fuel cap dangling loose...dumped the entire tank of gas out on my chaps and boots.

[Bert]

At least the oil cap was on! I waterproof my boots with bar oil every month or so.

My dumb only dumb move for the day was dumping my western omelet and sausage links on the floor while trying to get a coffee in a Hampton Inn today.

[WV Sawmiller]

...dumped the entire tank of gas out on my chaps and boots.

NEW,

  At the Paul Bunyan show in October I stopped at a chainsaw demo and the guys showed how the chaps work by stopping up the chain if you cut into them. He also warned if you dump gas or oil or such on the chaps it causes the threads in the chaps to dissolve or clump or whatever but the bottom line is they no longer work as designed after that if you happen to hit that spot. I'd check it out. When you need those chaps to work - you will really need them, FWIW.

[barbender]

Overfilling your gas and oil tanks will cause the caps to back off and pop open, especially on Stihls. I thought I was mindlessly forgetting to put my caps back on until I figured that out.

[doc henderson]

I still prefer the screw on type and not the cam type.  I guess they thought they needed a new idea.  too bad it is not as good as the original.

[cutterboy]

I'm with you on that Doc. I don't like those new caps. Not at all!

[Nebraska]

Those caps are part of the reason I don't run Stihl saws, servicing dealer is the other. 

[Magicman]

I only have Stihl chainsaws, but I am not a fan of the flippy caps.  They have never caused me a problem, but they are still a .

[NE Woodburner]

they no longer work as designed after that if you happen to hit that spot.

Well, that "spot" for me is the entire front part of the chaps on both legs. I put them in the sun to let the gas flash off since I wasn't sure washing them was a good idea. I guess I should consider a new pair. Too bad as these are not that old.

[beenthere]

Oddball out, I guess. I like the flip caps, better than the threaded ones. Never, yet, had one come out. 

[mudfarmer]

NE Woodburner: UV exposure is probably pretty bad for them too unfortunately 😕 I never thought about degrading the fibers with gas/oil!