Shop Safety

[cmbostc]

I wanted to take some time to remind everyone about shop safety. Yesterday I was working on a new box call design. The sound boards where still too thick to get a good sounding turkey out of it. So, I was thinning the sound board down with a 3/4" chisel that I had just sharpened. I got a bigger bite on the wood than what I would recommend. I decided to push harder. Well, the chisel hit a thin spot and the chisel released from the wood and went straight into my left hand which was holding the opposite end of the call between my thumb and index finger. As soon as I saw it I new it was bad. I had a 1 inch laceration gushing blood. I grabbed the closest cleanest thing possible (a shirt) and put pressure on it. My kids called my wife who had to rush home and take me to the hospital. I ended up with five stitches. Luckily it didn't go very deep.

I've been assessing what went wrong and what I can do in the future to prevent this same accident. The most important safety measure that I have come up with is to place the call in a vise to keep your hand a little further away from the danger area. The second control measure is not move a blade toward a body part.

I probably won't be making calls for a week or two. I know that all of this sounds careless on my part and I have been beating myself up about it. But, the truth of the matter is accidents will happen.

Please be safe!

Chris

Gobble, Gobble... "BOOM"!

[Gobbler]

Dang man I'm glad you were not hurt any worse. Glad your OK now. That is a bad feeling when you realize what just happened.
Get well soon as I really enjoy seeing those calls you make.

Doug

[Hognutz]

Glad to hear that it wasn't worse. It could have been..

[cmbostc]

Glad to hear that it wasn't worse. It could have been..

I know! Kinda scarey!