All About Pocket Knives

When you work in a knife making/repair shop, potentially all sorts of things can go awry when you are using equipment.

I have lost knives off a grinder/buffer. That is pretty scary! I lost a backspring once and had to clean my whole shop to find where it went. I finally found it on the other side of the shop in a box after it had ricocheted off the bench top, the rafters, a toolbox, the rafters again, and two or three other items that I could not follow.

I have managed to grind my knuckles on a belt sander several times. When it is 36-grit it is quite painful! I even managed to shorten my thumb once on a disc sander. All these are expected in a day’s work in a knife shop. I have a great first-aid kit in my shop so all I have to do is; turn off the machine, stop the bleeding, apply a bandage, cleanup the blood and go back to work. Piece of cake!

But this little mishap took me totally by surprise! I was grinding off some stainless steel pins and a burr on the pin apparently cut through the J-weight (thin and flexible) belt and split it right in half. I was using a 1” X 42” belt sander and that 1/2” wide piece of 320 grit Klingspor belt slapped my hand into next week! I thought it would flog me to death before I got the machine shut down! I am glad it wasn't my 2" X 72" sander!

Then the dust settled I had two or three red spots on my hand from getting slapped by a 42” long piece of sandpaper, 1/2" wide, moving like a whip around the track of the belt sander at about 1700 RPMs. It could have been a lot worse! It could have been 100 grit or larger and I would have been missing some chunks of skin!

I got off pretty easy, just a red welt on the back of my hand and a couple more welts on my fingers.

Always wear eye protection!
(That will teach me)!

Dale

YOW!

That was too close for comfort Dale. Glad you weren't seriously hurt.

Play safe.

Yep, you got slapped good! Glad it wasn't worse. Ain't knife work fun!

My goodness! Don't hurt yourself, at least not until you get my knife rehandled. Good thing it wasn't a Bee-Bee gun. Be careful out there.

Lucky man! Sometimes we sneak by with a slap on the hand.

Glad you got by with only a slap Dale. I've had a few belts come apart on me. One time I got a bad batch from my supplier, 5 belts in a row blew up on me, that was NOT fun and I was NOT happy when I called them up. Apparently thier glue was getting old and the bond at the seams was not strong enough. I think the worst time was when I was using a scoth brite belt and did a final run acorrs the belt edge up AFTER I had sharpened it, knife sliced the belt right it two and it whirled around my shoulder and past my head. Whew!

Keep'em safe!

well Dale, not laughing at you, but "with you" I hope....

In November I was drilling out a stick tang handle for a Mora with a 3/8" HSS bit. I was doing it "free hand" without a vise because, "I've done this 100 times before". For some crazy reason, I let go of the wood I was drilling so I could re-adjust something - WITH THE DRILL PRESS STILL RUNNING! That 6" peice of service berry started to spin at 6000 rpm, and because the bit was about 3" into the wood, the bit suddenly and spontaneously exploded.

I had enough time to say "oh Sh...." - couldn't even finish my word. That handle piece got fired across the shop, dented my tool chest 12 feet away and I still haven't found all the peices of the drill bit. One part about 3/4" long went thru the sheet rock wall behind the tool chest.

That's when I put my face shield back on.

Safety first, right?

Nice!!!!!! I was cleaning off some old kawasakii parts on the
wire wheel once, and the grinding wheel came apart on the other
end!!!!! grazed my shoulder barely, thankfully. the ceiling and wall
weren't so lucky

Years ago I worked for a bladesmith at a RenFest; he did demos and acted like an all-knowing blade-guru (and he'd love that description!), while I mostly sold swords and held the cash (he was rather absent-minded). One day he didn't get back in time to do a damascus demo, so I went ahead and started up. When he showed up I had the patter going pretty good and the billet forged out.

He walked in and grabbed the tongs in one hand, with the other he shoved my hand in the slack tub . . . I hadn't noticed my shirt was on fire. The folks watching thought it was all part of the show!

Glad you're all right man!

I think everyone that does this has stories like that.

I personally HATE titanium. I mean, I love it as a material, and in theory making stuff out of it is fantastic, but in practice it's the devil. I have some .05 sheet stock of 6-4 and every time I grind on it I end up injured. The first time I was putting a 1/4 inch hole through it with a HSS bit, I was not clamped in because, like Diligence, "I've done this 1000 times". Like titanium will do if you drill to slowly, it work hardened, caught the bit and spun the sheet around. Caught me on the left thumb just behind the nail, and damn near tore the nail off.

A project later, I was sanding an inside curve on a 40 grit drum, the liners I was holding slipped, and the middle knuckles on two fingers were gone in a flash.

While cleaning up some parts on my little 1x30, I made a decent pile of Ti dust, which a stray spark happened to land in. Lemme tell ya, that stuff burns HOT. burnt right through the belt that was passing over it, the belt broke and I nearly got the SLAP as well!

Oh the hazards of the knife makers shop..............

Keep a first aid kit, fire extinguisher and phone near by!

I have a great first aid kit or two, plus band-aids in several places, 3 or 4 fire extinguishers, 2 land lines and my cell phone.
Did I miss anything?

Dale

Maybe it's just me, but I always felt safer with a 2' piece of 550 paracord in my pocket, for an instant tourniquet.

That's a good idea CC, or have some real close to the buffers!

...if we are handing out tips, be sure to tell SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) that sneaking up behind you when you are focused on hogging off some extra materials and trying to grind right to the line and yelling, "...hey, ready to go yet or not?!"....and scaring the bejezus out of you is not a good idea. Damn near took my forehead off with my 60 grit. Thank god I shattered that drill bit back in October...cuz I've been wearing a full face shield for grinding since. The belt caught the top of the shield instead of my forehead. .

We now have a rule in my shop. If she can hear equipment running, she has to wait until it gets turned off before sneaking up on me....lol

J

As a time served engineering apprentice spending much of my apprenticeship working in and around Sheffield in various factories doing repair work, I can state that the one thing I remember most about my first few years was how many men were maimed during their work!
In the workforce of about 100 or so that I worked with on a regular basis there was a high proportion of injuries sustained during/because of their work, many had fingers missing, glass eyes were not uncommon, damaged hearing(I have this due to hitting thick steel plate with BIG hammers) vibration white finger etc, etc, etc.
I bet 70% of the guys I worked with over 50 had one or more of these ailments, cuts and bruises were an everyday thing and generaly you'd just stick a plaster on or wrap it in paper towel so you could finish your job off!
Steel splinters in the eye and welding flash another common occurence, this was in the early 1980's so H&S didn't count for much then,....however I enjoyed the work and still enjoy using the skills I gained then (I am just a bit more careful now!)....it was a godsend really when I got made redundant in the late 1990's and I consider myself lucky to have got off as light as I have.

Hi stefano34 to AAPK.

Did you work in a cutlery at Sheffield?

Dale

No, I was a pipefitter/welder but in the early days of my apprenticeship we often went out to the many steelworks, factories in and around Sheffield, one of my sadest days was going out as 'shotgun' with a driver to pick up some old machinery from a cutlers in the Atercliffe area, I don't remember exactly where as it was about 25 years ago...I do remember the dust, grime and steel particles being everywhere, you could taste it, I also seem to recallboxes of blanks and half finished blades stacked around..quite sad really, but perhaps not for the poor underpaid piece workers who often were injured or died young thanks to their trade.
I recently visited the Kelham Island museum which brought it all back along with a sense of pride to be a part albeit small of Britains engineering heritage.