Winners #27 & #45 - Dumb Contest - Drawing 8/22

[Burl Source]

I haven't done a Give Away Contest Lately.
Prize for this contest is one of these sets of stabilized Koa scales.
There will be 2 winners.

How the contest works:

Make a post in this thread telling about something dumb you have done making knives, at a knife show or if you haven't done anything dumb you can tell about someone else. Like the time Danbo set himself on fire. (Just made that up, but I'd bet he has.)
Your post number will be your number for the drawing.

You can have one entry per dumb story.
If you know 3 dumb stories, make 3 separate posts with each story.
This way you have 3 entries into the contest.

On Monday 8/22 at about 5pm PST I will use the random number generator to pick 2 numbers.
Those 2 numbers will determine which 2 posts are the winners.
I will pay for the shipping worldwide.
These scales are 1/4" thick so they will need to go on a knife with a slim handle.

These are the prizes. Naturally Dark Brown Stabilized Koa with decent figure.

 

[G. Shahan]

I'll play,

Ten days ago I was rubbing ren wax on this knife when this happend.

 

[argel55]

Dumbest I remember is that I went to a gun show and set up. While laying my knives on the table discovered one knife hadn't been sharpened. Had to give some business to the local wheel sharpener.

 

[markv]

i don't have a photo of the knife wound
but i was opening a package of knife blanks with a Camillus Cuda II tanto version , you know the weird knife with the button on the side for opening the knife.
the blade slid right off the end of the package and stabbed me in the knee, i mean real hard, the stab wound did'nt hurt as much as how hard the knife hit me in
the leg .LOL.

so i wrapped some thumb tape around my leg to staunch the bleeding, i used a lot of Advil back then for back pain so my blood was really thin and ran out like
water. i laughed after i almost
cried. i've cut myself quit a few times over the years but .... well i will not forget stabbing myself in the knee, man did it hurt like h--l

there wasn't any knife making for a few weeks after

buzz

 

[bacustomknives]

Mark and his dumb threads,
Well i was drilling holes in a tang once with the drill press with out the knife being clamped,it slipped and was like a helicopter and sliced my hand open,only got 47 stitches ,pretty nasty and it was an ignorant move on my part!

 

[cckw]

I haven't done a lot of knives so don't have the number of episodes to draw from that some do. I have a 1/2 black thumbnail as I type this. It and all of my stories involve short cuts f course. I think I'll share this lesson although it doesn't actually quality as what Mark asked for but he is too nice to enforce the rules 100%

I have always just used my perspiration seeing glasses for eye protection. they are not even full rim, but have kept stuff out of my eyes. I know better but kept doing it. A few weeks go I got an e-mail that my brother in law, due to a freak accident had a piece of wire embed 1.5" into his eye. I don't know if there was some sticking out of it it was a small piece or what. My sister doesn't share the interesting details... But I decided it was time to change my ways.

I went to a buddies shop where I help out part time, and convinced him to pick up the Wiley X line of protective eye wear ( he had been thinking about it, I'm not that convincing) . When he got the opening order I tried them all and picked a pair and order with my prescription lenses. these are mil spec eye protection and I have not turned on a grinder etc since his incident while I wait for my new glasses. which will arrive next week.

Here is something gross, I went to the eye doc to get my prescription updated for this and told him the story. he said 1.5" is how deep you eye is. he said my b-i-l's eye was probably stuck as the wire locked the back of the eye to the tissue and even bone behind the eye. they live 45 miles out of town. he has had 2 surgeries so far. probably another 2 before all in done. still no guarantee either way on getting vision back in that eye. If there is a bright side to this whole thing, besides the lesson the rest of us take from it, his Halloween costume is probably pretty obvious already.

 

[Brian Ayres]

I was at Kershaw's factory sale here in Oregon several years ago and bought a Ken Onion designed flipper, I forget the model, and while playing with it flipping it open and closed sliced myself to the bone....I was SOOOOOOO embarrassed. The way the sale works is you come in one side of the warehouse and snake through the rack/shelves and pick out your knives as you go. It takes FOREVER to get through the line. It felt like an hour or more.....
I had stuck my hand in my pocket, wrapped it up in the actual pocket as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. I got through the sale, paid with my left hand, signed for the sale with my left hand and acted like nothing happened... Got to my truck, put a couple butterfly bandages on it and went home...
I sliced myself 2 more times on the way home playing with it.....

 

[thegeek574]

I put a knife in a pocket that was already full of other stuff. unclipped. with the flipper toward the seam. needless to say, i cut myself. the dumb part was that i was so shocked that i put the other hand in to try and close the knife. you guess it. i cut both hands. and several friends will NEVER let me forget it.

 

[turk.919]

Dumbest thing I've done?

Hmm, last Sat. we had a gun show here and I picked up a Kershaw Blackout. (One of Kershaw's only Auto's) I fired it with my left hand behind the blade so if it slipped out of my right hand from hitting so hard it wouldn't fall on the floor. It kicked and stuck into my left hand between my fingers. Short story, I willingly bought said knife as my DNA was ALL over it. I walked around with my hand in my pocket bleeding all over as well, I was wearing white shorts though.

 

[BenR.T.]

Wow finally I contest I am good at! So about 2 weeks ago I was cutting blades out of stock on my metal bandsaw, the blade is kinda old and I was pushing pretty hard.........ooops! well thats not exactly what I said, but anyway. It only cut about a 1/4" into my thumb, and in the spirit of dumbness, I didn't go get any stitches!!

 

[BonhamBlades]

Wasn't during the making of a knife, but shortly after. testing out a chief knife i was preping for a large dinner. While chopping cilantro of all things. I lopped off the tip of my thumb. the sell of the knife didn't even come close to paying off the hospital bill. S30v is some sharp stuff.

 

[MKwaffles]

When you mentioned fire I remembered a very special moment that happened to me last year. I was at a party with some friends and I had some matches to go light the fire. So I was going up to it, I struck the match, and then everything went orange lol. What my friends had forgot (or at least I hope they just forgot) to tell me is that gasoline was poured on the fire 30 minutes earlier. Well after that I jumped in the kiddy pool and chilled for a little bit. I got out just to realize I didn't have facial hair, including most of my eyebrows, and my right arm that was holding the match was singed. No serious injury just a good old moment I thought I would share.

 

[markv]

Mark and his dumb threads,
Well i was drilling holes in a tang once with the drill press with out the knife being clamped,it slipped and was like a helicopter and sliced my hand open,only got 47 stitches ,pretty nasty and it was an ignorant move on my part!

i've helicoptered a few blades myself
you'd think ? oh this is gonna really be fun when it starts spinning*&^%$!@#$

 

[wolffbite]

Well... my first time working with stabilized wood I had no idea how toxic the resins contained within it were! I ground, sanded and polished it without a respirator or mask of any sort, I figure oh hey it must be the same as working with normal wood (which should really require a mask anyways... DOH!). That "interesting" smell I kept thinking about was just a bountiful amount of carcinogens being breathed in... ahhhh to be young and foolish

 

[Kunklec]

About 4 years ago I retired (I was a psychologist) and looked around for a new activity. Knife making seemed like a good idea and I felt that I could make a few bucks also.
Anybody got anything dumber than that?
Chip Kunkle

 

[Kunklec]

Sorry, double post
Chip Kunkle

 

[unky_gumbi]

Mine is the same as G. Shahan, but I made the mistake of sharpening the knife before I made the sheath. I wet formed the sheath and set it down with the knife still in it, forgot about it till the next day. Unfortunately I didn't realize that I had set it down near the heater and the leather shrunk a bit locking the knife in hard. After about an hour of trying to get the knife out I decided to give it one last good hard pull. It came out, and right across my finger. Fortunately the knife was really sharp and it was a clean cut that healed fast and left almost no scar.

I have yet to set myself or anything else on fire, but I draw blood on every knife I make. You would think I would have figured out how to stay away from the sharp bits

 

[Mark Behnke]

I took a pattern off the net for a Loveless hunter, made the blade and thought , this sure is a small knife, but I have big hands. Later found out the printer didn't size 100%. Yeah that's it. It was the dumb printer.

 

[Danbo]

I still haven't figured out that a person should clamp stuff down when drilling holes. I've been twirlybirded more times than I can count.

 

[rwn2000]

About a year ago, I was fitting handle scales to a full tang knife I was making. The tang had 8 holes for 1/16" pins. When drilling the holes and dry fitting the scales, I never used all eight pins. I had cut six pins and didn't figure it out until I've got the epoxy mixed, 6 pins in and 2 extra holes, so I'm running around the shop trying to cut and fit 2 more pins before the epoxy sets up. Pretty dumb, but at least I didn't cut myself. this time anyway.