# Another member of the Order of The Crimson Blade



## gamygeezer (Jan 22, 2014)

I was ripping some 3/4 stock for plywood edging, so I had the blade guard off to allow room for the push stick. I completed the cut, turned the saw off, took off and racked my ear protectors, and reached over to pick up the waste piece.

The blade was still coasting and just nicked my right index finger.










Two and a half hours at the local Doc-in-a-Box, lost most of the nail, but no stitches. Turns out he is a woodworker, too, and had to show me the scar on his left index finger. I bought my first big saw, a 10-inch Craftsman RAS, in 1965. This is the first time I have even nicked myself on a saw blade. Now chisels…!

On the plus side, The Warden has let me off KP for the next few weeks.


----------



## bbc557ci (Sep 20, 2012)

*OUCH !!*

I've had the mis-pleasure of tangling with a table saw, many years ago. And of course the saw won. Since then I'm allot more careful with all my power tools. Would like to keep all my digits for as long as possible. You'll heal up, and another lesson learned.


----------



## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

Anybody any time! Now it's real and you'll always remember! I never forget my accident.


----------



## reedwood (Jan 27, 2011)

can't tell you enough how lucky you were, the way it was cut. 
Looks like you'll still have feeling in your finger tip and you didn't hit the bone….TG!

I cut mine in the same spot with a skill saw only worse. It's been 3 months for me. The bone is half gone, the nail is 25% regrown, I still wear 2 band aids and will never get the feeling back.

big sigh for you, bud


----------



## whitebeast88 (May 27, 2012)

thank god it was not worse.all it takes is a second.thanks for the painfull reminder.


----------



## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

Glad that you were not injured any worse. I hope that it heals without any problems so take care of it and keep it clean and all that other stuff. An infection could make it much worse.

It is amazing to see that there were two posts with similar injuries.

I think that his is a reminder to all of us who have done this for years without an accident. It does not mean that it can not happen to the experienced woodworker.


----------



## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

Welcome to the knucklehead club. Did you learn nothing from TZH?


----------



## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Dang! That's 2 of these in one week!

Hey! "Lets be careful out there"


----------



## TZH (Oct 20, 2009)

Still gotta make the bed and do the laundry, though…..right? Glad it wasn't any worse.


----------



## Armandhammer (Dec 12, 2013)

Ouch…get better soon.

I don't want to turn this into a SawStop thread…this is completely out of curiosity…but in this case with the saw turned off but the blade still rotating, would a SawStop have made a difference? I mean would it still stop the blade with the power turned off like in this situation? Again, just curious.


----------



## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

Arm, that is a very good question. A lot of folks cut themselves when reaching for wood after shutting off the power. Does SawStop still work?


----------



## widdle (Mar 10, 2010)

glad it wasn't worse..heal up..


----------



## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I've seen enough of these that I've made it a rule to inspect exactly 5 teeth on the saw after it comes to a stop before even coming close to the blade. Most times with my hands behind my back to further distance my digits from potential injury. This is time consuming and sometimes seems a bit ridiculous to me, but it keeps me from becoming complacent. The saw doesn't coast for too long, if it did I would have figured out another method. Twice I have actually noticed slightly chipped carbide on the teeth that would have otherwise almost certainly gone unnoticed until the blade was showing obvious signs of needing to be sharpened.


----------



## jbald (Dec 11, 2011)

Saw Stop and other "flesh sensing devises" will soon be required on everything from the table saw to your finger nail clippers. Lawsuits and lawyers will see to that. Each year there are about 30,000 table saw injuries in the U.S. alone and most of them serious.

Any business with employees, whether large or small, will be forced to buy or retrofit equipment. Liability insurance will mandate these changes along with state or federal law. Indeed it's already happening. Manufacturers are buying the "Saw-Stop" table saw even though it's notoriously underpowered and installing it in their shops and factories. The fact that the old saw is still operating in the shop too and still the "machine of choice", is a choice which the workers are making on their own (at least that's business owners' current line of defense).

Time will tell how all this turns out but in the meantime, more work and more jobs will continue the exodus south of the border and elsewhere. The technology is here and proving itself but the cost is a job killer. The cost however of a single serious injury is almost without limits.

The whole woodworking industry is changing as more 'hands on work' is reassigned to CNC and robotics. Handwork and hand-skills will become a thing of the past and obsolete along with the workers themselves. There won't be anymore blood on the factory floor but no people either.

It's all good (and bad) just like everything else.


----------



## bowedcurly (Aug 31, 2013)

I heard SAWSTOP is coming out with a handplane and chisel set with flesh sensing attire, just kiddin had to get that in before SAWSTOPPERS hop in, that looks bad Im in the club also but SAWSTOP don't make A ROUTER, you know that ol router will get ya too!!! mine didn't really hurt till I went to Jewish Hospital and the pulled my nail all the way out, will until the numbness from the meds left and it was downhill for a month but hell I was right back out in the shop in 2 days routing away almost done it again, glad it just nicked ya take care of it and rest a couple days, and don't be working when your tired and in a hurry PLEASE, have a good day and make some dust


----------



## macatlin1 (May 5, 2010)

I got a surprise the other day when ripping an 18 inch piece of 2×4 down to 3 inches. I had the guard off as I had been using the saw as an assembly table. The saw was set to just having the gullets of the blade showing above the workpiece and I had just turned it on. The 2×4 slipped from my hand and dropped onto the blade. BANG! The piece caught me in the stomach and sent the finger board across the shop. Good lesson! Even though I avoid having my fingers near the blade an accident happened. Have the guard over the blade. Since then I have added a blade guard to my sled to keep things dropped from hitting a spinning blade.


----------



## endgrainy (Mar 25, 2013)

To answer Armandhammer's question, yes the SawStop blade brake will activate while the blade is coasting down until it stops. Haven't tried it myself, but according to the manual:

"Coasting Down - this code indicates that the blade is coasting down and that the safety system is ready to activate the brake if contact is detected. The safety system monitors the rotation of the blade while it is coasting down. If you touch the blade while this code is flashing, the brake will activate.
ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE BLADE HAS COME TO A COMPLETE STOP AND THE COAST DOWN STATUS CODE HAS CLEARED BEFORE TOUCHING THE BLADE!"


----------



## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

30,000 TS accidents? The AMA has gone on record that doctor's mistakes cause 100,000 deaths each year. Hmmmmmm?!?


----------



## SpartyOn (Jul 10, 2012)

I can personally attest to the fact that the SawStop brake will activate. I too had turned off the saw, turned to do something else and then turned back to reach for my cutoff. I BARELY touched the coasting blade but still activated the brake. The brake activated so quickly it took me a few moments to figure out what had happened since I barely felt a thing.


----------



## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

Man that looks painful and in the nail area, ah what fun. I bet washing your hands will be fun huh? It happens, sadly we would rather it did not.

Until we make a official Order of the Crimson Blade award this will have to do. Oddly I have made about 20 of these for people that paid me so they could hammer away at someone. ROFL


----------



## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

Mine was not quite as bad as yours, but I did the same thing, thinking the blade had stopped. It was on it final three inches of travel-just traveled through the fleshy part of my thumb-no stitches. It feels like it takes forever for the blade to stop (although I'm sure it's actually not long at all), but I force myself to wait each time now.


----------



## gamygeezer (Jan 22, 2014)

Just a word of advice to other recent members: mineral spirits dissolves the adhesive in bandages.

Ken


----------

