Got a battle wound today

[Coog]

Well I spent the afternoon today splitting wood and had a log kick on me and walloped me in the shin. Now I've got a crater raising the size of a milk cap. Man that hurt. Was fortunate though, I was a able to walk it off in ten minutes or so and finish the pile. That is what get for working on the sabbath; first thing I thought of when it happened.

Anyone else have a painful kick-back story? I cannot be the only person this has happened to.

 

[Applesister]

Pain is weakness leaving the body.

 

[Tom Wallace]

Pain is weakness leaving the body.

To quote Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse, "pain don't hurt".

 

[dafattkidd]

I once bought a cord of wood off a guy. Most of the cuts were way longer than he said they would be, so he sent two of his guys to cut them down. While cutting the splits, one guy had half a split kick back on him and whack him in the shin. He tried to walk it off.

I happened to see it from the window, so I went out to talk to him. He started talking nonsense and mumbling, so the other guy and I convinced him to sit down. Within two minutes of him sitting down he blacked out and fainted on my lawn. He was out. Like lights OUT, good night. The other guy and I were talking to him trying to get him to respond. After a minute he finally woke up and was pretty unaware of what had just happened. He said he thinks the pain was just so much that he passed out.

So, maybe "pain don't hurt," but apparently it will knock your ass out on my front lawn.

 

[HDRock]

Just keep processing that wood you won't feel the pain

 

[Keyless Chuck]

I had a piece kick back at me on Tuesday and hit me in the groin. Spent a minute on the ground then back to work. Only been doing this a year so I assume more groin shots are on their way.

 

[Soundchasm]

My electric splitter has a smooth, concave surface that pushes onto the wedge. My shins have been punished a bunch of times and it does smart. May as well admit the following...

I now know that each split with that thing has risk and there's a zone where I can safely stand (so far). I sensed I was being none too bright with a two inch cut of Osage that did not have perfect ends and some odd bends. Like an idiot, I watched it start to flex thinking it will give up the ghost in a second.

One split second before I give up and move on, that thing shoots past my cranium making the jump to hyperspace. Talk about a sobering experience. Whew.

 

[Coog]

Glad I am not alone on this. It was a piece of elm. No surprise, that stuff is the worst. Burns pretty good though. Like HDRock said, just keep splitting.

 

[velvetfoot]

When I got hit a couple times a few years ago, I thought of getting soccer-style shin guards. Never did though.

 

[TimJ]

Well, you all would think I was an idiot if I told you how many times I almost killed myself over the last 12 months with wood

 

[bmblank]

Lots of times we'll use one person running the splitter and chucking splits and another loading. This is always with family/people i trust with my life. Being that we're so close and work together all the time (read, "as close to being one mind as two people can get") we get into a groove and can hammer out the splits.
I'd hate to know how many times I've come THIS close to losing the tip of my finger. I'm pretty sure I've even had the top of my glove pinched in there. That's when it's time to slow down, take a breath, maybe switch up jobs... It's not worth getting half a dozen extra splits through.

 

[ScotO]

Years ago my wife's aunt was helping split wood (her aunt and uncle heat with wood too) with the splitter in the horizontal position, when a knarled-up split shot out and smashed her in the mouth....she lost several teeth out of the incident ......

Be careful out there fellas, a lot of stored energy lies in some of those knarlies!

 

[clemsonfor]

Whew I was hoping u were not gonna saw the saw got you!

 

[clemsonfor]

Is this from hand splitting or with splitter like the guy with Osage?

 

[Cold Is Dumb]

Like velvetfoot said, I too have considered soccer shin guards or catcher leg guards, but have never done it. As a hand-splitter, I have dents, scars, blood and bruises on my shins all the time. A smarter man than I would've figured out how to take more preventative measures.

Steel-toes are mandatory in my book though, and I've had a wedge bounce off the toe of my boot after blasting out of a round. Guess that could've easily been my shin... I think I'll go price some catcher's gear at the sporting goods store now.

 

[Reckless]

everytime I split a big round they tend to want to fall on my feet.... steel toe boots after the 2nd time it happened

 

[Flatbedford]

I took a split right in the forehead while hand splitting once. The funny thing is that I was demonstrating how easy splitting wood is to my, then, 12 year old stepson. For some reason I've never been able to get him to split with me since then.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well gee whiz. No steel toed shoes (wearing felt packs), no safety glasses, no chin guards and sitting while working. Notice he does wear ear protection though.



When splitting wood, you will learn what types of wood are most liable to fly when split. For example, I love making kindling from soft maple. However, I also know that soft maple is perhaps the most likely to snap and go flying. I also know that it is when you are splitting thin that the flying splits are likely to happen.

Sitting while splitting like this guy does makes a lot of sense even while splitting those pieces that are likely to go flying. The reason is that if they go flying, they will always go to one side or the other. Imagine what that guy in the picture would be like if a split came at him! He doesn't worry about that though because it is not going to happen.

Quite naturally over the years I have experienced the pain of dropping something on a toe and have also experienced the pain of pinching a finger between two heavy logs. Especially when it is cold, that tends to get one's attention rather quickly and sometimes one can even learn new dance steps, not to mention some new words that you won't use around mother.

 

[Locust Post]

For some odd reason it just seems like this kind of stuff happens to me when I am almost done for the day. Been cutting or splitting for hours and just think it's about time to quit and boom....pinch a finger,bang my shin,etc,etc.

 

[firefighterjake]

My wood splitting ended quicker than I expected yesterday due to a "war" injury . . . man-handling a large butt on to the splitter (in the vertical position by the way!) and my pinky got jammed in between the butt and wedge. It is/was borderline on whether I can get away with a bandage or if it needs stitches . . . right now I'm thinking a bandage should suffice. Oh well . . . just part and parcel of working with wood.

 

[Holzstapel]

When i was using the splitter this past June for the first time, I was sitting next to it like Backwoods does. When I would put a gnarly round into the splitter and knew it might snap or shoot out, i would crouch up on the round i was sitting on and get ready for the pop. Sometimes they popped and I was glad I was sitting there.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Jake, I hope you heal quickly!

 

[Shari]

I'd got hit a couple of times but nothing serious. Shagbark hickory likes to pinch you a lot. The worst thing that's happened to me was this Spring, moving overly large rounds of green maple, I seem to have over worked a tendon in my left forearm - I'm still paying for that April workout and the rounds are still laying here waiting for splitting. I've also got about 10 rounds that have to be noodled before splitting but I don't trust my arm to hold the saw. My physical therapist likes me. I've got to suck it up pretty soon because the rounds laying here are supposed to be split for 2014/15.

 

[HDRock]

Well , smashed my finger real good last winter ,finally grew back a new finger nail, in the spring cant hook slipped; handle went into rib and cracked it.
Many bruises a small lacerations , Get Er Done

 

[JOHN BOY]

Wear a cup and a football helmet