My first real injury

At 8:15 am on Saturday July the 10th, I sustained my first serious woodworking injury. Actually - my first serious injury of any kind. I have never broken a bone, and other than this injury - had not needed hospital care other than to be born.

I was home by myself for the week - Jill and the boys were at a week long children’s camp and I was using the time to log some serious shop hours. Everything was going great until Saturday morning - the day they were to return home. I was fitting the rear infill of an A5 - something I have done dozens of times when something new happened - total wood failure. I was holding a chisel in my left hand and taking a very small paring cut on the shoulder of the rear infill when the wood blew out. Suddenly there was no wood between the chisel and the tip of my right index finger - so it proceeded to drive in all the way to the first knuckle. It was a rather shocking experience. My first three thoughts were,

“it is still attached, I can still wiggle my finger and how am I going to get to the hospital?”

I ran down the stairs (turned the lights off on my way down) and out into the front yard (drip, drip, drip) to see if any of our neighbours were home. The van was in the drive across the street, so I ran over. Thankfully they were home. I then realized I did not have my health card with me.

Run back home (drip, drip, drip).

And run back again ((drip, drip, drip).

We arrived at the hospital in great time, were checked in very quickly and took a seat to wait. When they unwrapped and washed my had, I felt a bit woozie - so they put me on a gurney just to be safe. This was the point at which everything started to register and the waiting became a serious mental exercise in keeping it all together. I was hopeful that I had not severed any tendons, but I did not really know what my finger looked like or if anything was broken or if the bone had been damaged.

Finally they called my name to see a doctor. They took a look at it and asked what I had cut myself with - “it was an incredibly clean cut”. I told them a very good chisel (I am sure there must have been a bit of a smile on my face at the time). I had cut my finger from the very tip down to the first knuckle - the chisel was wide enough that it had cut through the top and bottom and I was left with a very large “flap”. They decided they should X-ray it just to be safe. I waited a few minutes and then Scott showed up, a young guy with a friendly smile - he immediately put me at ease. On my ride to the x-ray room he asked;

S - “so how did you cut your finger?”

K - “A chisel”

S - “oh, are you a woodworker?”

K - “yes - kinda. I make woodworking hand planes”

S - “cool. I just bought one from Lee Valley. It was really expensive - but works great”

K - “Yeah - they make great stuff. What type of work did you buy the plane for?”

S - “I make guitars and I needed a good tool to smooth and shape the fingerboards”

K - “Oh. Do you have a hard time finding Rosewood for the fingerboards?”

I swear the gurney stopped and his face slowly appeared upside down above my own.

S - “pardon?”

I repeated the question which resulted in a great distracting conversation for the rest of the ride to and from the x-ray room. Scott - feel free to call anytime.

A little while later the nurse practitioner came back to confirm that the tendons were fine and there was no damage to the bone. Needless to say - I was incredibly relived. At this time, I felt I should divulge that this was my first injury (ever) and that I was a bit squeamish. Her bedside manner was incredible and she put me at ease and helped keep my very calm throughout the entire process.

The pair of freezing needles in my finger hurt the most and the actual stitching went very well. She explained everything as she went and did an exceptional job of keeping me engaged in distracting conversation.

I was home by 12 noon.

While I was in the hospital waiting - one of the many fears that creeped in was the condition of the rear infill of the A5 I had been fitting. I honestly had no idea what had happened and if it was totally destroyed or it if would be repairable. The handle had been fully shaped and the adjuster slot had been fit - so it was quite far along. One of the first things I did when I got home was check to see what it looked like;



I found that big chip 5' away from where it happened. Miraculously - the only damage to the handle was a small chip out of the corner and a small scratch on the inside. Both of which are easily repairable... so the handle is still usable. I will need to sand out the blood spatter too.



Here is the chisel and a few drips.



And my bandaging from the hospital. I should also mention that the injury was to my right hand - thankfully I am a lefty.

Here are a few photos of the finger on day 3;








And day 10 right after the stitches were removed.







The doctor who removed the stitches was shocked at how quickly and how well everything had healed up. She told me to keep it covered but I could return to work as long as I keep it clean and used any discomfort and pain as indicators of what I could and could not do.

I have been writing this entry over the last few days - now that I have a bit of perspective on everything, and to be quite frank - now that I feel like I am out of the woods.

Looking back on the last 12 days - there are a few things that stand out and really are the reason for this post.

For all the complaining about our health care system I have to say - I was completely impressed with the care during my emergency experience. I realize that while this was a crisis for me, the ER staff experience stuff like this each and every day. What was so incredible to me was their capacity to treat me like a person, spend a few minutes getting to know me, to put me at ease and care for me as if I were a member of their family. It takes a very special person to have those gifts, and I felt like I was surrounded by them. My deepest thanks and gratitude to Corina, Scott and the rest of the amazing people at Grand River Hospital.

There have been quite a few other people who helped out over the last 12 days. To Rod and Lisa for getting me to and from the hospital, Dr. Dietrich (aka Voodoo) and Joanne for all the care, insight, and laser treatments, to Mrs. Hare - the other witchdoctor in my life for keeping the whole system running smoothly and to Maria for enjoying lacerations even when she is on maternity leave, to my parents and our friends who stepped in to help keep me distracted. And to Jill, Riley and Lucas. Who helped keep me calm, helped wash my back, and knew just when I needed a hug.

Lastly - there is a safety side to all this. I have always had a very healthy fear of power tools, but have always been very comfortable with hand tools. I am always telling Riley and Lucas to be aware of where their hands are when they are working and to anticipate what would happen if something went wrong. I spent the first several days playing this event back in my head, looking for what I did wrong. Part of it really was a bit of a freak accident - but I also need to take responsibility for it and alter the way I work to avoid something like this again. I was also very lucky that my neighbours were home - I do not know what I would have done otherwise. When Joe and I started making planes we would often work into the wee hours of the night - something I do not do very often, but again - if something serious were to happen, no one would find me until it was too late. So please - enjoy your woodworking, have a plan in case something happens and do not work during or after you have enjoyed a pint.

My friend Raney reminded me of a warning posted by Lie Nielsen;

“Warning: Sharp chisels are dangerous and should be handled with care. Dull chisels are even more dangerous and should be sharpened.”

I think that about sums it up.

up & down - bevels that it

A few weeks ago, I was doing some site work - some inlay in a Mahogany staircase. I had to inlay twelve flame Birch panels into the stair treads. They were left a little over-sized in thickness and then planed flush with the treads once they were installed. For anyone who has ever worked with flame birch - you are likely cringing right now because you know what kind of nightmare flame birch can be to work with. Lots and lots of honing.

There were three planes in my line-up that were suited to this work; the XSNo.4 smoother, the SNo.4 smoother and my LN block plane. They are all narrow and nimble planes and were able to follow and maintain the gentle curvature of the solid treads.

The reason for this post is not to start a war - but to show the different wear on working tools. I used the SNo.4 and the block plane to do the lions share of the work, and then finished up with the XSNo.4 set to take a very fine shaving. The XS is the smallest and most nimble in the bunch. All three planes performed their task wonderfully, but this experience reminded me of why I developed the XSNo.4 in the first place. I wanted a one handed (and very small) smoother that was in a bevel down (BD), high bed angle configuration. I was frustrated with the location of the wear on my bevel up (BU) block plane. Before I get too far into it - here are a few photos of the blade of the SNo.4 smoother (BD) and the block plane (BU).

Oh, - I should also explain a bit of how I sharpen. Both blades are hollow ground to about a 34 degree angle, the backs are flat, and there are no micro bevels or “ruler trick” back bevels.

(click on any of the images for a larger view)

The BD smoother blade on the left and the BU block plane blade on the right. Notice the amount of wear to the back side of the cutting edge on the BU blade.




Here is the bevel side of the BU block plane blade. Notice there is significantly less “wear” to the cutting edge.




The “back” of the iron of the BD blade.



And the bevel side of the BD blade.

So here is my observation based on using these two planes - they both required frequent re- honing, but the blade of the BU block plane required a lot more work to get it to a freshly honed state. I had to re-grind before each honing in order to get rid of the wear to the “back” (the flat side) of the iron which saw more wear than the bevel side. The bevel down blade seemed to have a similar amount of wear to each side and was less effort to re-hone because of it.

If anyone has any insight into what I might be able to do to reduce the amount of wear to the “back” of the BU iron - I would love to hear it. Or if people have had similar experiences with any BU vs BD planes I would love to hear from you as well.

Myth-busting

A few months ago - while attending a Lie Nielsen sponsored hand-tool show, I think I formally busted a myth. The event was held at Exotic Woods in Burlington and we were surrounded by wood, glorious wood. I was talking with a gentleman who was very interested in infill planes and wanted to review some of their features and to get my opinion on why they work the way they do. He rattled off the usuals; they are heavy - requiring less downward pressure, have a really thick iron which reduced chatter, few moving parts - fewer “tolerances” that can add up to movement (chatter), dense woods that dampens vibration, a closed tote which gives a much more responsive feedback than an open tote. As I was standing there - with a clear view of the instrument parts room over his shoulder, I blurted out;

“well... I am not really convinced that dense woods like rosewood are absorbing vibration. In actual fact, they are the worst choice for reducing vibration... they are tone woods, and highly prized for their ability to vibrate.”

There was a very long, awkward silence, and as I stood there pondering what I might have let out of the bag, I realized I had been thinking about this for some time, but had never articulated it that clearly before. And certainly not in public. The conversation continued for at least another 40 minutes and ended after he had happily tried every plane on the bench. So there it was - out in the open. And lightning did not strike me down and the earths axis appears to be unaltered.

In hindsight - it felt pretty good to toss the monkey wrench... but it did get me thinking more seriously about why infills work the way they do.

Another often quoted advantage of an infill is their weight. I am not entirely sure about this one either. I think there is some confusion between “weight” and how solid the plane feels in use. One of the true advantages of an infill plane is the lack of moving parts as they relate to the blade. The blade is fixed (crushed actually) against a wooden bed that is permanently, mechanically fastened to the frame of the plane - the metal body. The lever cap exerts an incredible amount of pressure against the blade leaving it with only once choice - to cut wood. Contrast this with planes where the blade can be moved by way of a mechanical mechanism to move it up and down, and left and right while the lever cap is deployed. Then factor in the frog being able to move forward and back at the same time. These are all great features - but they do add up to “tolerances or gaps” that reduce how rigidly the blade is held when it is presented with challenging timber. I think people experience how solid an infill feels more than the actual weight. This weight vs solid issue also explains why a Clark & Williams plane feels so great to use. Like an infill - they have no moving parts. The blade is held firmly against the bed and the iron does not have a choice but to take a shaving. The first time I tried a C&W smoother - I nearly tossed it across the room because it was so much lighter... but I very quickly adapted to it, and while it is very different from an infill plane - it does “feel” quite similar - like pushing a rock that spits out shavings.

Those of you that use or have tried both - I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.