Important Safety tip:

Chris Railey

Chris Railey

Well-Known Member
There I were sewing the final stitches on Opaul's sheath when my son came in the room and stated "Do you know how many times I would stab myself with that needle if I were doing that"? At the time, I was using a scrap piece of leather to force the needle through my final backstitch hole when I heard a popping noise and felt searing pain in my thumb as the eye of the needle broke through the scrap leather and went entirely through my thumb and came out the other side under my thumbnail. I pulled the needle back through my thumb and as I sat there bleeding my son says "yeah, that was my fault" and he walked out. In the picture below you can see the entry wound and then the exit wound under my thumb nail. IMG_0322.jpgIMG_0323.jpg
 
It was pretty stupid for me to push that hard on the back of a needle in the first place. It's been a long time since I have done leather work so I will not soon forget that lesson.
 
That sucks, I've done that before as well, but not that bad! Needlenose pliers man...I can't do stitching without them anymore, my fingers start cramping after a few minutes.
 
Dang Chris! I know that hurt. I’ve punctured my fingers before but nothing like that. You might need to see a doctor for some antibiotics. A deep puncture wound like that under your nail can lead to a nasty infection.
 
opaul said:
Dang Chris! I know that hurt. I’ve punctured my fingers before but nothing like that. You might need to see a doctor for some antibiotics. A deep puncture wound like that under your nail can lead to a nasty infection.
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That is a good point. I bled it good but not from that side.
 
Those pictures make me cringe, dude. Maybe you can locate a large thimble at a sewing store or a stitching glove from a leather working shop. Also, I like to start the needle through with my right hand and then finish by pulling the needle the rest of the way with my left hand. As mentioned above, needle nosed pliers can come in handy if the stitch is a little tight.

Just as a parting thought, when was your last tetanus shot?

Doug
 
Doug Lester said:
Those pictures make me cringe, dude. Maybe you can locate a large thimble at a sewing store or a stitching glove from a leather working shop. Also, I like to start the needle through with my right hand and then finish by pulling the needle the rest of the way with my left hand. As mentioned above, needle nosed pliers can come in handy if the stitch is a little tight.

Just as a parting thought, when was your last tetanus shot?

Doug
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I’ve been through worse. A stupid shark once put a hook deep into my left ring finger then was nice enough to snatch it back out quickly. I bled it and went back to fishing. Two weeks later my finger swelled up and turned red with a big white spot in the middle. Man it hurt. I was working nights when I had enough so I lanced it and out came a two week old piece of squid that was on the hook when it went in. I had to go get a shot then. The smell was horrible.
 
Yeah, soak that thing in peroxide and neosporin.

If I have to push through a final stitch hole I'll use the flat part on my pliers or something similar that has a little texture to it. Let that do the work. If I break a needle, no biggie. Better than the alternative that I'm looking at here!
 
I always use an awl to enlarge the stitch hole and use small flat jaw pliers to do the rest.
 
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