First Woodsplitting Injury

[jlow]

Yep, two weeks ago I crushed my middle finger tip with a sledgehammer while holding a wobbly log. I was tapping the final blows to the split wedge in some mighty cold temps and glanced off the wedge and blasted my finger. Off to emergency for some stitches and x-rays. I have been wearing a splint and it makes it tough to split my remaining logs. I know you all have had something happen to you while in training for this job. What are your stories?

In a totally separate direction, I had an issue back in my first week of burning of what I thought was liquid creosote leaking out of the adapter. Upon further review it turned out to be a leaking chimney cap. It leaked exactly the same when I wasn't burning when the weather was warm. I replaced it and looked at the chimney, it was a little dusty but no build up. I have had no leaking since. Makes me feel better about how I have been burning.

 

[rdust]

I had to get 4 stitches in my arm last May when the head of the sledge hammer decided to break off a piece into my arm. I wasn't planning on even going to the doctors until I noticed the metal was still in my arm.

 

[LLigetfa]

I often manage to pinch my finger tips while stacking. Once, on my hydraulic splitter, I stuck my fingers in the crack formed by the wedge that I was retracting and the wood hadn't split all the way through so the crack closed back up. DOH! Never drew blood or blackened a nail but the throbbing pain taught me real quick never to do that again.

 

[LLigetfa]

We were out ice fishing on a remote island that we had a trapline on and some friends from town came out to visit. I was in the shack while my friend's wife was out splitting some firewood when she rushed in totally panicked and dancing around saying that she cut her foot with the axe. It saw all I could do to get her to sit down so I could tend to her injury. She was screaming for me to hurry up, saying that she could feel her boot filling up with blood. I'm looking at both of her boots trying to figure out which one she sliced open but there was not a mark on either boot. I'm guessing the axe was dull enough not to cut her boot and only bruised her ego.

Funny how the mind can send you into a panic when you are a 30 mile skidoo ride back to civilization.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Work at it long enough and you'll get pinched fingers, blackened fingernails and occasionally even draw some blood. But I've never had anything serious. Hurt like the dickens but nothing serious.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I get mostly bruised/cut shins splitting in the summer whilst wearing shorts.

Someone will say "blah blah safety, blah blah shorts". That person can... umm... do what they will

 

[TreePapa]

My most "serious" splitting injury came from being hit in the shin by a chunk of euculyptus shooting off a hortizontal splitter under pressure. No breaks or anything, but I was on crutches for two weeks or so and used a cane for several weeks. Then there was fracking up my back earlier this year from picking up (with a helper) some big pine rounds and loading them into an old p/u bed trailer (about 28" off ground).

The "stupid award" injury, tho', came from cutting firewood with a wormdrive (circ saw), about 10 years ago, not long after buying the house. nearly took the top of my left thumb off. Thank God for good insurance and a good hand surgeon.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[Corey]

Came very close last summer - splitting some old dried up oak and some pieces would split with a 'boom' and occasionally jump out of the splitter a couple of feet. I set on an old stump to feed the vertical splitter and the logs were jumping out the sides so I wasn't too concerned. Of course, one log popped and shot right between my legs. Luckily it hit the stump and not the jewels, but it really made me think about bolting a cast iron cup to that stump for a little added protection. Luckily I'm done with that scrounged wood and nothing else I've ever split has popped apart with such energy. Usually it's a mess of stringy wood which still needs to be pried apart.

 

[wendell]

Splits shooting out of the splitter have made me wonder as I'm sitting there with my legs straddling the round as the wedge comes down and things start popping and snapping. I wonder if Bailey's carries a padded milk crate with an attached cup?

 

[pulldownclaw]

I threw out my back in January '08 picking up a red oak log incorrectly, being stupid and trying to rush while I had my kids with me. I've never been incapacitated like that before, could barely crawl to the bathroom. Now I try to take my time and pay attention to what I'm doing, and try not to over do it. Something to keep in mind this weekend when I'll be getting a bunch of red oak out of my neighbors yard....

 

[andybaker]

Three or four years ago I was splitting some Oak with my son and my dad and it started to rain a little. So we hurried up and tried to get the trailer full before it got too bad. The wood we had cut up was right along a main road, if we left it, it wouldn't be there long before someone else would snatch it. We were near the end of it, I was loading the splitter and my dad was running the wedge. I was holding a piece and didn't get my hand out of way quick enough and the tip of my left thumb got caught between the log and the back plate - ouch! First I tried to ice it. It swelled up pretty good and started turning black under the nail. The pressure was so intense that I drilled a hole, eventually two holes, through the nail to relieve some of the pressure. That helped, but after a couple days and the pain wasn't letting up and I had a friend take some x-rays and sure enough, it was broke into about eight little pieces. Since I'm a baker and use my hands a lot, the next couple of weeks was a %$tch trying to work.

The year before that my dad and I were bucking up another Oak we were given and he was cutting and I was moving the pieces out of the way. He turned with the chainsaw running near the log I was moving and just nicked the same thumb I smashed the next year and it ripped the side of my thumb and nail off - ouch!!

The moral of this story. I've often noticed things happen in threes. I don't cut wood with my dad anymore. I just tell him I'm fine, I'm not gettin' much or something like that. Lord knows what number three would have been like ?

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I nicked my thigh once with the chainsaw (no I don't wear chaps), but never hurt myself otherwise wood cutting or splitting.
However I once had a close call falling a snag once that I still get shivers thinking about. It wasn't a particularly big tree, maybe about 16" in diameter at the cut line, but it was in the thick of some other trees with branches touching all around. It was hard to tell if it had any lean on it, but I planned to wedge it in any case. I don't know if it was because it was leaning the wrong way or the branches where holding it, but it didn't want to fall. I cut out my wedge the way I wanted it to fall and did my back cut, and as soon as there was room I started pounding the wedge in from the back. I cut a little and pounded the wedge in a little, cut and pound, cut and pound. Soon there was almost no hinge left so I turned off the saw and just started pounding a metal splitter wedge in beside the plastic wedge to get it to go over. It still didn't want to budge, but I had no choice, I couldn't cut any more with out risking cutting all the way through the hinge, so I just kept pounding and pounding, until SNAP!. That friggin hinge snapped and in and instant the tree popped off the stump slid back and planted itself inches from my foot, and then it finally fell in basically the right direction.
I tell you I was freaked, that was the only time I have ever had, or seen, a hinge pop like that and boy did it happen quick. A few inches to the left and my foot would have been crushed like twig under the weight of that tree.
I always give my back cuts a good down angle now so that can't happen

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Andy, I can just picture you kneading dough with that thumb. lol Sadly though, that has to hurt. Hope it heals fast.