Log splitter injury (no pics)

check · Feb 7, 2016

Another one you have to watch out for, is when a tough piece of wood let's go, and then the two smaller pieces go flying! I always turn my back at the very last second, in order to avoid any injuries to my face.

And how many of us wear safety glasses?

murphy1244 · Feb 7, 2016

Glad your alright! Darn Deer

The Deerslayer · Feb 7, 2016

Sorry to hear of your mishap and thanks for sharing with the rest of us. Glad it was not worse. Impressive that you were able to type the post. :laughing:
You need some payback come next deer season....just sayin.

JRobyn · Feb 7, 2016

Very sorry to hear. Hope it heals fast. I can sure identify! Wife did almost the same thing a few weeks ago with her brand new splitter. Got just the tip of her pointer finger, but nowhere near as much damage as you. Nail is all black, but looks like it might not even fall off. I was proud of her that she didn't even scream.

mrmikey · Feb 7, 2016

....and then the two smaller pieces go flying!

Caught a piece in the boys a few weeks back, does not feel good. Mind you I was singing tenor fo awhile....ten-or twenty octaves higher....Mike

ultrarunner · Feb 7, 2016

Thank you for posting because safety cannot be overemphasized... especially went working with powerful equipment.

My grandfather in his 80's lost three fingers on his right hand with a splitter... the ones between his pinky and thumb.

He was working alone and went to a neighbor who rushed him to the Hospital.

I find when I'm rushed or rushed and tired is when I get sloppy...

Hoping for the best outcome for you.

I've been using my vertical with Mom at the control... this way my hands are always on the side and never near the top.

LD1 · Feb 7, 2016

Yea, I think them deer really need some payback:thumbsup:

Hope the tip can be saved. But look on the bright side, if the tip cant be saved, and you have a shortened finger, maybe it wont get in the way next time:laughing:

s219 · Feb 7, 2016

It's good I have always been a lousy typist, as this won't slow me down too bad. Right now the gauze dressing has a big metal splint on the tip and that is hitting everything, so I have to be careful -- the splint may be as much of a liability as a help. On the drive home last night, I was just trying to keep my left hand rested on the steering wheel while the right did the work, and the dang splint kept hooking the turn signal/wiper stalk. Then I was still numbed up so it at least didn't hurt.

Interesting that the pain, albeit dulled by 800mg ibuprofen, is about the same as when I'd hit my finger with a hammer or similar (only then I don't take ibuprofen). Lord knows what's happening under all the gauze, but at least the pain is bearable. Does feel like it's swollen inside the gauze, so I am icing a couple times an hour.

s219 · Feb 7, 2016

LD1 said:
Yea, I think them deer really need some payback:thumbsup:

Hope the tip can be saved. But look on the bright side, if the tip cant be saved, and you have a shortened finger, maybe it wont get in the way next time:laughing:

That occurred to me as well -- I may avoid the problem next time. After a few more years I may be so well adapted to this splitter that all the risk will be gone. Will have some big wood paws and no fingers.

The dang deer and I were in real solid eye contact right as my finger got pinched. They were really messing with my head. They must know I am working on setting harvest limits for our property association hunt club next year, and were trying to take out my trigger finger or something.

ruffdog · Feb 7, 2016

Did it look like this ring finger?

s219 · Feb 7, 2016

Hard to say. I had a 4cm laceration from the tip around to the side, open to the bone, then a smaller laceration on the pad. Nail stayed attached to bed. Be interesting to hear what the surgeon thinks tomorrow. I don't even want to look at it -- had enough the other night.

ruffdog · Feb 7, 2016

With mine the bone in the tip was crushed, the nail was mostly off, and tissue blew out the side. The hand surgeon removed the nail, sewed up the open nail bed with dissolving sutures, sewed up the blown out side, trimmed the nail and used 4 stitches to temporally hold it on for protection.

PS...good luck!

troutsqueezer · Feb 7, 2016

After thirty years of splitting wood, I split my last piece this last summer. When I shut the splitter down it was not lost on me how lucky I was never to have had any kind of accident over all that time. I'm glad it's over.

ultrarunner · Feb 8, 2016

I won't let people use my splitter... if they are a friend... I do it.

Splitter travels with me... last thing I want to hear is the kids wanted to help and had an accident.

I do encourage them to do a lot of things... age appropriate.

All I need to do is tell them about the accident their great grandfather had and that's enough to dissuade them.

PhysAssist · Feb 8, 2016

ultrarunner said:
I won't let people use my splitter... if they are a friend... I do it.

Splitter travels with me... last thing I want to hear is the kids wanted to help and had an accident.

I do encourage them to do a lot of things... age appropriate.

All I need to do is tell them about the accident their great grandfather had and that's enough to dissuade them.

We have been heating with woodsince we bought our house in 8/1994, and used a combo platter of rented, borrowed, and finally our own splitter, as well as a whole bunch of hand splitting [which I have been doing off and on since my teens], and aside from minor dings and scratches, neither ofcus got hurt except once I got my left ring finger caught between a twisted piece of wood and the splitter table, causing a tiny, but stable crush fracture of my bone, the only effect of which was that I could no longer wear my wedding ring.

So I got one tattooed on instead.

The last October, I dropped an 16" diameter x 18" long ash log on my left big toe.

Now it's well healed, but 8 weeks limping around in a cast shoe put my back out, and I have been going to the chiropractor once a week since then trying to get it back to rights.

All it takes is a moment of inattention or relaxation of the safety rules, and potentially a lifetime of regrets can follow.

God bless and watch over us all, and the OP will be in our prayers for a complete recovery.

Thokas

LD1 · Feb 8, 2016

PhysAssist said:
I could no longer wear my wedding ring.

So I got one tattooed on instead.

Got one of those as well. Only mine was not due to injury, rather to prevent injury. The work that I do, and places that I work, do not allow rings. Either getting caught in moving machinery or working in electrical panels are good reasons not to wear one. So the wife and I got them tattooed. Seems to be a popular thing now a days

PhysAssist · Feb 8, 2016

LD1 said:
Got one of those as well. Only mine was not due to injury, rather to prevent injury. The work that I do, and places that I work, do not allow rings. Either getting caught in moving machinery or working in electrical panels are good reasons not to wear one. So the wife and I got them tattooed. Seems to be a popular thing now a days

I also considered my work in getting mine, but mine was because of scrubbing for surgeries- I had to take it off a lot and frequently forgot to grab it off of or out of my surgical scrubs until hours later, leading to having to sort/search through a hamper filled with others' sweaty used scrubs- that alone would have been enough, but the finger fracture was the last straw.

Does your SWMBO have tattoo too?

Mine got hers with me [10 years into our currently 24 yr marriage] because she has a medical issue that made her have to take hers off too.

Back to thread for this:
Having had the toe injury, and spending way too much time explaining dings and divots out of my hands and arms from log handling, I have finally committed to wearing my steel-toed shoes and bought some kevlar gloves and arm sleeves, and they have done a lot toward reducing the incidental/collateral damage to the skin of my arms and hands.