Handsaw caution

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Greystoke

Tarzan
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
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Location
Western Montana
Have been trying to climb glove-less to toughen up my hands, and got a little carried away with my very sharp hand saw on a ponderosa pine deadwooding job. Just a good reminder to slow down and be a little more cautious. Not too bad of a cut, but painful because it pierced my knuckle, and every time I would bend it for the next 24 hours, joint fluid would come out. It was sore for 2 weeks. Be Careful;)

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Clear fluid, same consistency as the fluid encountered when you cut an animals leg off at the knee joint. This is the second time I have pierced a knuckle and had that fluid come out (first time was not by a saw, but rather a heavy limb that I was trying to muscle away from smashing an industrial smoker in alaska...the limb won when it smashed my hand on top of the smokers sharp corner). My whole life I have had to live by the motto: "If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough"...I would not suggest it though, as I am only 33, and have aches and pains a plenty :)
 
how long you been climbing, cody? if it isn't that long i promise you you going to get plenty more of them cuts..... you learn rather quick the kungfu type moves you can and cannot do wielding a handsaw. last one i did was the tip of my left thumb with a swing and miss on a dead dead twig above my next handsaw cut, which was the reason my hand was in that vicinity anyway.

be careful with that thing!

oh yeah. wait till you bury it into a bent knee or thigh going after more dead wood swings... lol.
 
I am happy to say I have never seen my own joint fluid. Phew. Use a sling on those branches and keep those hands from leaking anymore joint fluid.
 
I have had some knuckle boo boos that seemed to get infected, but maybe it was just that I busted open the joint. . .

I know the time I smushed my left hand, it became double the size with some kind of fluid hahahaha. . .

The saying goes if you wanna be tough, you gotta be dumb.

If you wanna be a logger, you gotta be a :yoyo:
 
I think you are more pat to get cut with a handsaw than a chainsaw. The damage isn't as bad but the frquency is higher.
 
how long you been climbing, cody? if it isn't that long i promise you you going to get plenty more of them cuts.....
A few years now...not the first cut, and like you say, definitely not the last...I just happened to have my cell phone with me in the tree this day.


oh yeah. wait till you bury it into a bent knee or thigh going after more dead wood swings... lol.

Don't ask how you know this right? LOL! I love talkin to old loggers about all the times they were gimped up...one of those jobs, where your gonna get hurt. My biggest enemy sometimes is my gyppo timber faller background. I used to run pretty hard to get lots of wood on the ground in as little amount of time as possible, and now that I climb I really have to slow myself down sometimes before I get myself in trouble.
 
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I'm down to doing that maybe once every other year. I used to do it every month until i was tipped off on the concept of body awareness. Where is the right hand in relation to the left and any consequent follow-through of said right hand...
 
I'm down to doing that maybe once every other year. I used to do it every month until i was tipped off on the concept of body awareness. Where is the right hand in relation to the left and any consequent follow-through of said right hand...

Don't feel too bad.

My big dummy move, is holding one Cane aside to get clearance for the hand saw, get to cutting, and then let loose of the cane under tension to grab the cull...WHAP! Only seems to happen while fighting Virginia creeper vines for ownership of the pruned out cane.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote
 
Don't feel too bad.

My big dummy move, is holding one Cane aside to get clearance for the hand saw, get to cutting, and then let loose of the cane under tension to grab the cull...WHAP! Only seems to happen while fighting Virginia creeper vines for ownership of the pruned out cane.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

When i used to do a lot of pick-pruning of shrubs, I would occasionally get a finger in the Felco's :eek: 15-20 years ago I took the tip of my right thumb off with Sthil hedge shears: cold winter day, and the idle was not set right on the shears....did not look where my hand was going while doing the last 20 ft tall hedge...
 
Were you were standing on a milk crate.....and slipped!:)

:laugh:

Last cut syndrome, was cold, the shear was cold, my crew was cold.....I reached into the top to pull the twiggies out, then reached down to grab the wrap-bar for a finish cut, sticking my thumb into the jerking blades...
 
:laugh:

Last cut syndrome, was cold, the shear was cold, my crew was cold.....I reached into the top to pull the twiggies out, then reached down to grab the wrap-bar for a finish cut, sticking my thumb into the jerking blades...

OUCH!!!
Sometimes it seems to hurt more when I get to watch someone else injure themselves, let alone myself. Oh well, when they find me dead I hope it's face down in the dirt heading uphill.
Steve W.
 
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