Most painful tomahawk injury

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WOODS127

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Dec 6, 2020
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What is the most painful tomahawk or axe injury you have experienced? Mine was when I hit myself in the thigh by accident with my SOG Fasthawk in the woods.
 
Ouch, OP... glad to see you made it out of the woods. Stuff like that is a nightmare. An axe is the perfect tool to do a lot of accidental arterial damage to those important walking extremities; usually far from help.

About 10-15 years ago I carelessly let my axe touch my leather work boot while I was holding it upside down. It put a little cut in the leather. I hope that’s the worst “injury” I suffer from an axe.
 
EngrSorenson said:
Ouch, OP... glad to see you made it out of the woods. Stuff like that is a nightmare. An axe is the perfect tool to do a lot of accidental arterial damage to those important walking extremities; usually far from help.

About 10-15 years ago I carelessly let my axe touch my leather work boot while I was holding it upside down. It put a little cut in the leather. I hope that’s the worst “injury” I suffer from an axe.
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I hope so too. axe injuries are usually pretty damaging and painful. you can use superglue to fix the cut in the leather.
 
The cut on my thigh wasn't too deep. Just very painful, took about a week to heal the spike end of my tomahawk (SOG Fasthawk) hit me in my thigh. nothing a little duct tape and peroxide couldn't fix! lol
 
One time I was feeling mall-ninjaey and was swinging an axe around my head. Hit myself in the head (luckily with the handle) and got a concussion. My friends didn't let that one go for some time.
 
Hatchet injury very similar to contestant on Alone at about 1:10, right along base of my left thumb. Healed mine up w/out stitches luckily but it was pretty ugly, could see tendon. This was the only injury I've ever given myself with hatchet, axe, machete.
Was watching this episode when it aired and called it to my wife right before she cut herself. With a sharp bit, a light tap is all it takes.

 
Is this you in the video? or is this someone else? have a picture of your injury to share? Could see tendon?! OUCH! hope it healed okay.
 
WOODS127 said:
Is this you in the video? or is this someone else? have a picture of your injury to share?
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Not me, and the scar is pretty faded as it happened over 20 years ago. Visible scar is about 1/2" but it was over an inch when it happened, right on the base of the thumb.

I linked the video as the circumstances were almost identical and I remembered this from the show. Very stupid mistake, was a good sized round but the hatchet slipped along the grain and took out a wedge like it wasn't there, while my hand still was.
 
HeavyHanded said:
Not me, and the scar is pretty faded as it happened over 20 years ago. Visible scar is about 1/2" but it was over an inch when it happened, right on the base of the thumb.

I linked the video as the circumstances were almost identical and I remembered this from the show. Very stupid mistake, was a good sized round but the hatchet slipped along the grain and took out a wedge like it wasn't there, while my hand still was.
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I bet that hurt like hell! did you cut a vein or artery? or just skin?
 
WOODS127 said:
I bet that hurt like hell! did you cut a vein or artery? or just skin?
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Skin mostly. Hit a little at an angle, so it cut to the joint at the base and made a gaping crescent cut almost to the distal (last) joint. Didn't hurt so much as ache.

Should have gone to ER and have it sewn up but would have missed work, so betadine and electrical tape instead. Took a long time to heal.
 
I had the most painful knife injury with a $20 knife when I was using it to chop. I cut my index finger tip pretty much off. Had to superglue it together. hurt like hell and took almost 2 months to heal.
 
No serious injuries with axes or hatchets. I came very close to a serious injury with a chain saw, back in 1982, helping friends on the Texas coast clean up after a hurricane. The moving blade came within an inch of my head while I was up in a tree. I looked down at the ground crew, and they looked up at me with horrified expressions. For effect, I screamed and we all laughed. But it was a lesson I never forgot--never have an important body part under the weight of a chain saw.

Now in my 60's, I have a good imagination about injuries informed by terrible examples of same I have seen, and for that reason I treat axes in use with tremendous respect and attention. In my history, only motorcycle and overturned tractor accidents were more terrifying (fortunately, none involving me--but for that reason I'm not a motorcycle person at all). It's a reason I tend to use longer axes even while shorter handles are becoming more popular. And it's a reason I always look (as with that chain saw) at the direction of momentum, and make sure that is away from any of me. Not using them when tired and befuddled also helps, just as with woodworking tools (particularly power tools).

My friends think I'm careless with knives, but I think it just seems so. One reason I like my Kershaw Leek as an every-day carry is that the opening assist means there is some resistance to closing the blade. When I'm closing a blade one-handed, my thumb is across the path of the blade when releasing the liner lock, and the spring assist helps keep the blade from just flopping around and hitting my thumb.

My biggest issue recently has been while sharpening and messing with sheaths. I've had to up my game with sheath handling after cutting myself a couple of times dealing with axe sheaths. And I now wear chain-mail gloves when sharpening. Leather probably would have been good enough, but I'm subject to bifocal mistakes these days--if it's not in the lens I'm using at the moment, the extra correction of a different lens displaces the object relative to reality, and I run into things accidentally. I have to specifically look at whatever it is I need to avoid in order to see it where it actually is. Unfortunately, I'm not always aware of what I need to avoid. Hence the chain-mail gloves when sharpening. In the field, I just keep the axe head at the other end of the handle, and moving away from me.

Rick "whose skin isn't as tough as it used to be, either" Denney
 
I was trying to cut out a 3” diameter tree near the base in a confined space with a boy’s axe. I was in an odd, wide stance and hit myself with the corner of the head right in my shin hard enough to draw blood. It hurt like a bastard, and I was really happy that I didn’t hit myself directly in the tibia. I always think about where the bit is and where it will be, forgetting that 2 lbs of blunt steel on a stick was good enough to kill a man in plate armor. Learn history’s lessons or reenact them......
 
I'm careful with these tools, so the worst injuries I've gotten are blisters on my hands. You need to add a poll to this thread.
 
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