Ever Have A Giant Splinter Through Your Hand?

[jonp]

We are putting up a new ceiling on the porch which is 1x6 pine and will be solid stained white or off white to go with the rest of the walls. While getting ready to lift up the 12ft pine board with my wife on the other end I managed to slide my hand along the edge and get a splinter. Ok, a big one that went entirely through my hand. That sucked

I went "owwwww" and dropped the board. My wife set her end down and looked at the 3 inch long splinter sticking out of both sides and said "that looks like it hurts". :-| You Figure??

She grabbed a pair of lineman pliers and pulled it out. That hurt worse than it going in, dumped 91% Alcohol on it then I pressed paper towels on it until the bleeding stopped. Smeared it with Bag Balm, put the tools away and called it a day.

Still kinda pinches a little. Ugh....

[Tom W.]

I can say that I had a 2x4 splinter through my "talking" finger once. That was very unpleasant, to say the least......

And believe it or not, the only splinters that I got from 22 years at a sawmill were metal splinters when I was a saw filer.....

[merlin101]

I have a friend that shot a nail thru the bone of a finger. He showed me one of the x-rays, that was freaky!

[NSB]

About fifty some odd years ago I was shooting my long bow and using Port Orford cedar arrows. I guess one had a crack in it and I didn't notice. When I released the arrow, the back half of the arrow went into my hand between the thumb and index finger and was sticking out both sides. I had to pull the arrow out myself and there was a very large hole completely through my hand. That was one of those "what did you do" moments when I showed my mother (I got blamed for everything no matter the cause). She poured alcohol on it and wrapped it with a lot of gauze. No emergency room visits for me. It took about two months to heal. Having a hole in your hand in that spot's a real problem. Every time you use your hand you open the wound up. I think stitches would have allowed it to heal in a few weeks if it had been treated right. I never shot another arrow without checking it out first.

[poppy42]

Not a splinter, but a 3/16 drill bit through my thumb. Does that count?

[Tom W.]

Years ago when my Dad worked at Western Printing & Publishing Co. in Poughkeepsie the guy that was working next to him was goofing around with an air hammer. He ended up nailing his foot to the floor.....
Not Dad, the other guy...

[bob208]

I was tearing down a house. stepped on a board that had a 16 penny nail sticking up. looked down saw the nail sticking out of the top of my boot. cut the doard off and walked into the doctors office.

[Winger Ed.]

Nothing so drastic has happened to me, but as a kid, one of my buddies stepped on a board and a nail went in and came out the top of his foot.

He ran inside to his Mom, who had been a Army nurse working for Gen. Patton, chasing Rommel across N. Africa.
She looked down, saw the problem, stepped down on the board and said, "Lift your foot up...… now go wash it".

[popper]

Hope you have your shots up to date. Yea, walked home with piece of 2x4 on the bottom of tennis shoe, asked Mom to pull it off. That was before nail buns and it was just a bare nail, no glue on it. Had to take my kid to ER afte a part of a splinter moved and got infected. 106F temp and the doc had to cut it out of his leg.

[mozeppa]

had a 9" one thru "MR. Happy" sideways....didn't want anyone to remove it but me.

when doing #1 i had to play it like a piccolo... then the infection ...then the healing ...dr. bills et al.

what don't kill ya....makes for good scars & stories.

[MrHarmless]

Pine is really bad for that, specially dimensioned boards from big box stores. I haven't gotten skewered through with something that large, but I've done it enough where now I just break the edges on them preemptively to save me some hand ache.

[MaryB]

When I worked at the cabinet plant I made a LOT of lazy Susan trays... the rim is a thin plywood and we got in a batch that was peeling apart and splintering. Ran a splinter completely thru my thumb, boss saw me stop and waked over just in time to see me yank it out and the blood spray. He fainted, I had to clean up the blood with bleach because he was squeamish and looking green LOL

[jsizemore]

No.1 rule when handling pine or cypress "DON'T SLIDE YOUR HAND ALONG THE WOOD". I went to grab a 2x12 to cut step stringers. Fella on the other end shoved just as I grabbed. Splinter went in on the palm side of my index finger knuckle and came out near the finger nail. Couldn't bend my finger. And it was treated. Put a fresh blade in the utility knife and got it out. Wrapped some napkins and duct tape around it and went back to work. Wearing gloves just gets more stuff stuck to your hands. Safety broke on a Bostich framing nailer and went auto while I was nailing floor joists above my head. Nail went through the meaty part of my hand between thumb and wrist. Pulled dykes out of my nail pouch, cut the head off the ring shank nail, and pulled my hand off the joist. Napkin and duct tape to the rescue and back to work.

I saw old Cuban ex-fisherman making lobster traps. They'd drink anejo and cut sticks with a radial arm saw. Sometimes there fingers were too close and they'd get parts of 1 or 2 cut off. They'd stick the finger in the bottle (didn't want to waste any), wrap it with their hankerchief and go back to work.

[redhawk0]

I once was using a phillips bit on my drill to drive screws when it slipped off the screw head and through my finger. That hurt a bit....took about 2 months to heal up.

redhawk

[osteodoc08]

Had a drunk guy come in the ER about a decade ago that had a 3-4” wide stick (log) pop up while he was riding his 4 wheeler and go between his calf and shin bone through and through. How it missed every major nerve and vessel I have no idea. Lots of reconstructive surgery to the skin and muscle.

2 years ago had a guy nail gun his junk to his leg with a framing nail gun. Urology handled that. Lots of nails through feet hands andnothwr parts of the limbs over the years.

[brass410]

as kids we often fooled around in our families salvage yard (9 blocks from the garage) one day while while mimicking some movie we had seen, I jumped from roof of 5 ton international truck to the ground (not noticeing a intake valve that was standing stem up on the ground) came right out the the top of my brand new goodyear high top running shoe, about halfway between toes and ankle mid point. That was the longest ride on my peddle bike I have ever taken to get home, it fit so tight I couldn't pull it back out, neither could mum, my uncle was at the shop so he yanked it out using a small cat bar and a pair of vise grips, still hurts when my foot gets cold.

[NyFirefighter357]

I did it lengthwise down my arm about 3" stuck in side, sliding old pressure treated boards off the rack of my van. The guy with me almost passed out when I took a Sheetrock knife out, changed the blade and cut it out. Smaller pressure treated splinters you can't get out will fester and usually push out with some help in a couple of days.

[tommag]

had a 9" one thru "MR. Happy" sideways....didn't want anyone to remove it but me.

when doing #1 i had to play it like a piccolo... then the infection ...then the healing ...dr. bills et al.

what don't kill ya....makes for good scars & stories.
Today, people do something like that intentionally and pay money for it.

[fiberoptik]

Back in the 4th grade the school bully used to thwap me in my ear [emoji101]. Warned him to quit. He didn’t listen. The next thump somehow was intercepted with my very sharp pencil transgressing his palm. Looked really even on both sides of his hand. He chased me around the entire school 4 times before he got tired. For some unknown reason he didn’t thunk my ears [emoji101] any more.


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[fiberoptik]

The n the Corps while going to comm school we had a guy fall on the telephone pole & bear hugged the whole way down. About a week later we were both taking a shower when he grabbed something from his chest and pull. Out came a foot long sliver the size of a pencil [emoji3579] from under his sternum. Nasty [emoji1785]!


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[Traffer]

My dad told me the story of when as a kid he jumped off the back porch. There was a chicken foot with the leg bone pointing straight up. Went right through his foot. Ugh. Dam chickens.

[crankycalico]

Had a drunk guy come in the ER about a decade ago that had a 3-4” wide stick (log) pop up while he was riding his 4 wheeler and go between his calf and shin bone through and through. How it missed every major nerve and vessel I have no idea. Lots of reconstructive surgery to the skin and muscle.

2 years ago had a guy nail gun his junk to his leg with a framing nail gun. Urology handled that. Lots of nails through feet hands andnothwr parts of the limbs over the years.

ill bet you 50 to 1 that the guys brand new EX gal pal did that for him.

[Dieselhorses]

"Knock on wood" never had anything too serious happen in 34 years of construction besides an occasional nail in foot, gun nail through a finger, splinters and missing the nail with a 22 oz. Estwing. BUT, I went to visit my brother one day, no one home but it appeared he'd been working on something on front porch as his chop saw was set up and a few other tools. I noticed some blood sprayed on porch and front wall and a trail of ants. I followed the trail and several ants was carrying what looked part of a finger! Got in touch with him later at hospital and learned he had to have a skin graph to replace that part. He kept wanting to know why I didn't recover what the ants took and I replied that I didn't think it would have done any good considering the amount of time that went by! He recovered ok.

[Harter66]

22 yr in a wood shop . I never had a through and through sliver , I did have a couple that were very nearly full finger pads . Several that went quite deep under a finger nail , mostly from truck decks .
I've had 2 stuck nails both from board chips a 3rd could have been had it not just peeled most of my thumb nail off .
Bleed them a little , wash it off , band aid , move along .

I was out the day the guy stuck his arm in the 16" radial arm saw , just a nick only 300 stitches or so , no bone damage .

I was also out all 3 times guys got a gloved hand sucked up in a drill press . Not real pretty with a 2" cutter . Who the hell wears gloves anywhere near a drill press ?

Several occasions of nailed boots and feet to truck decks and at least 2 fingers to pallets .

My number one was getting my foot under a steer wheel of a 4000# electric fork lift . Did you know that will crush the oil out of a leather boot if it creases ? The toe cap didn't collapse and outside of a mild sprain and needing a new pair of boots (and shorts) no harm done . So forgive me if I push Red Wings . The second time it happened it was a drive wheel on a 4000# fork . No damage to me just needed new boots . Best math puts the load at 3400# . ANSI required 1100# crush . The Red Wing guy told me they pulled random boots off the line and out of stock and tested to 1700# chrush . If they failed they would pull the whole run . So twice I spot tested a safety shoe to twice it's tested rating and 3x it's Gov mandate . Thanks that it worked .

[nun2kute]

I knew at an early age that I like to work with my hands. So, drill bits, screw drivers, hammers and nails (guns), boards - beat up and new, and probably many other things I'n not thinking of rite now have all contributed to "leaks" along the way. My #2 son told his friend once that I had a "Highly Contagious, Incurable African Skin Disease" cause my hands always sported scabs and abrasions all over. Sadly, I miss those days cause they won't to anything near what they used to.

[lightman]

As a retired Lineman I'm familiar with splinters. I've had them in my forehead, chin, chest and arms. Poles in older neighborhoods are often badly chewed up from the telephone and cable guys going up and down them constantly. I always felt more comfortable once I got above the phone line.

Jon, watch carefully for infection.

[bob208]

when I was in the third grade I had to have a 1 inch long pice of wood floor cut out of my arm.

[MrWolf]

Plenty of them just never a through and through one. Did see my Father cut my brother's arm with a power saw. He kept the safety slide up with a wedge of wood. Almost cut the entire way around. Over 500 stitches. Good thing he was on the rescue squad. My brother was able to keep the arm and use it. Told folks he was bitten by a shark.

[waksupi]

Over the years, I have seen two ramrods broke and ran through the hand in speed events. That is why we don't generally have speed events at our shoots.

[Itzdapig]

In stocking feet shuffling across a white oak floor I had a sliver enter between my big toe and the one next to it and exit behind the ball of my foot. the only time my wife has seen me cry!

[richhodg66]

A neighbor friend of mine, who was a roofer, and I re-roofed my house a few years ago and he had a lot of stories. He related to me how many years ago while doing some repairing to a roof, so was using a big nail gun not one for nailing roofing nails for shingles, he got in a hurry and nailed a foot to the roof. I told him I bet that hurt and he said it did, but not near as bad as when he stopped cussing, assessed the situation to find no one was around within ear shot, and then had to take the claw hammer off his belt to free himself.

I've never had a day quite that bad. Glad I don't do roofing or construction for a living, seems if you do it long enough, you have a few stories like that.

[jsizemore]

That's why I carried the dykes!

[Hannibal]

I'll take a pine splinter of any size any day over one of these. Black Locust thorns. 6" ruler at the bottom for scale.

[Conditor22]

OK, my worst, not the biggest or longest, sliver.
I was helping a friend re-stain an old cedar fence, we were in a hurry -- crummy job, I had a piece of stain soaked cedar jamb into my thumb hitting the bone hard enough for part of it to break off. It took months to heal, it would fester up, I'd get drunk and try to carve it out. This went on for some time untill I got it all out.

[mozeppa]

Today, people do something like that intentionally and pay money for it.


yeah...:veryconfu that costs extra in the florida keys.

[owejia]

I'll take a pine splinter of any size any day over one of these. Black Locust thorns. 6" ruler at the bottom for scale.

These thorns from the locust trees cause the wound to be infected, had one to go through the top of a leather boot when a limb fell on it like to have never healed. Hard on tractor tires also.

[Echo]

Years ago when my Dad worked at Western Printing & Publishing Co. in Poughkeepsie the guy that was working next to him was goofing around with an air hammer. He ended up nailing his foot to the floor.....
Not Dad, the other guy...

Just like in the movie "The Girl That Played With Fire"...

[lightman]

I worked at a service station in high school. The local soil conservation office traded with us. They would come in with thorns in their tires occasionally. I hated working on them. 16 inch 8 ply tube type tires on split rims. Usually really muddy! Its about impossible to get the thorn out without leaving a sliver.

[Shingle]

Funny this topic came up my wife just pulled a toothpick size splinter out of the web of my left hand.

[OldBearHair]

And the list goes on! 1.Had a chicken stuck under the fence. As I was getting her loose she squawked and the big white rooster ran in and spurred me through the back of my hand. Could feel the nerves under the palm hurting. Major pain. Healed ok. 2. Dad slid along the top board of the chute trying to put a saddle on the horse, got a splinter in the belly. A year later he asked my uncle to look at it. There was a soft bump that he scraped with a sharp knife. Week later he looked again and put some pressure on it and a long splinter squirted out. 3.
My oldest son was 3 to 4 years old and got in my lap and touched his leg mid quad and told me hoit (hurt) . Under pressure it would peak, scraped it as I had seen my uncle do and later a cactus thorn came out smashed on both ends looking like a wood stake beaten on.
4. Had the boys at the Boys Ranch washing and polishing the J.D. haybailer. I looked back and saw the boy dancing on the top of it. Started over to get him down from it just as he slipped, one foot landed on the six inch x 5/16 hay pick up rod. Went through the heel and past the ankle bone and pushing the skin out. He tried to pull his foot off it. I got my hand between the steel and his foot and pulled it off. Then we dealt with shock and took him to the Dr. Some antibiotics and he was OK.
5. Worked in Mobile on the F105. Had a substitute new nurse. We were all ragged out from working overtime. Lots of stress. Got my thumb caught behind a spot face where you place the cutter on the stem protruding from the hole with your fingers and your partner spins the cutter with the airdrill motor. Mixed signal thumb nail cut three time 1/16th apart. Go to infirmery. I am sitting on a chair. Guy # two passed out on the floor , nurse nervously reviving him when guy # three comes in that had drilled a 3/32 hole in his finger with blue looking twisted ligaments hanging out slowly unwinding and going back in the hole, the blue coming from the aluminum on the drill.. She got up quickly and pulled a drinking cup from the stack, filled it with Hydragen Peroxide , handed it to him, came to me with a small scissor and attempted to cut the flaps of nail off, I went limp and slid off the chair. The nurse looked at #3 in time to see him finish drinking the last of the HP and headed toward the poision chart then hurried out the door carrying her purse. Wasn't long and she was back with a pint of milk and told #3 to drink it. #1 was in a sitting position as well as I and the poor girl was about ready to cry.. ..Could go on through number 15 but I will sign off and give someone else a chance.

[OldBearHair]

And the list goes on! 1.Had a chicken stuck under the fence. As I was getting her loose she squawked and the big white rooster ran in and spurred me through the back of my hand. Could feel the nerves under the palm hurting. Major pain. Healed ok. 2. Dad slid along the top board of the chute trying to put a saddle on the horse, got a splinter in the belly. A year later he asked my uncle to look at it. There was a soft bump that he scraped with a sharp knife. Week later he looked again and put some pressure on it and a long splinter squirted out. 3.
My oldest son was 3 to 4 years old and got in my lap and touched his leg mid quad and told me hoit (hurt) . Under pressure it would peak, scraped it as I had seen my uncle do and later a cactus thorn came out smashed on both ends looking like a wood stake beaten on.
4. Had the boys at the Boys Ranch washing and polishing the J.D. haybailer. I looked back and saw the boy dancing on the top of it. Started over to get him down from it just as he slipped, one foot landed on the six inch x 5/16 hay pick up rod. Went through the heel and past the ankle bone and pushing the skin out. He tried to pull his foot off it. I got my hand between the steel and his foot and pulled it off. Then we dealt with shock and took him to the Dr. Some antibiotics and he was OK.
5. Worked in Mobile on the F105. Had a substitute new nurse. We were all ragged out from working overtime. Lots of stress. Got my thumb caught behind a spot face where you place the cutter on the stem protruding from the hole with your fingers and your partner spins the cutter with the airdrill motor. Mixed signal thumb nail cut three time 1/16th apart. Go to infirmery. I am sitting on a chair. Guy # two passed out on the floor , nurse nervously reviving him when guy # three comes in that had drilled a 3/32 hole in his finger with blue looking twisted ligaments hanging out slowly unwinding and going back in the hole, the blue coming from the aluminum on the drill.. She got up quickly and pulled a drinking cup from the stack, filled it with Hydragen Peroxide , handed it to him, came to me with a small scissor and attempted to cut the flaps of nail off with shaking hands and after a few attempts shoved the scissor under the nail. I went limp and slid off the chair. The nurse looked at #3 in time to see him finish drinking the last of the HP and headed toward the poision chart then hurried out the door carrying her purse. Wasn't long and she was back with a pint of milk and told #3 to drink it. #1 was in a sitting position as well as I and the poor girl was about ready to cry.. ..Could go on through number 15 but I will sign off and give someone else a chance.

[pertnear]

234767:popcorn:

[mozeppa]

you really don't want to see mine...besides....i'd get banned for sure.

[pertnear]

....what don't kill ya....makes for good scars & stories.

Yes, mozeppa, you're excused from show & tell!....LOL

[Gewehr-Guy]

A neighbor of mine was a carpenter and slid off a roof, fell onto his scaffold and ran a 1/4 inch bolt through the center of his hand. He hung there till his helper could climb the scaffold and lift him off the bolt. He was an alcoholic and probably only weighed 110 pounds, so it didn't tear through between his fingers. No permanent damage and he healed up fast, tough SOB !

[crankycalico]

Just like in the movie "The Girl That Played With Fire"...

gotta love a movie about a girl with spunk..

At least they solved the splinter problem in toilet paper. Read an article on when they finally got the splinters solved.

[rockrat]

Mine was like bob208, but the splinter was in my foot. Had to get a local and cut open my foot to get the splinter out.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I had been splitting 18" lengths of 20" logs to feed my woodburning stoves @ my Vermont home in Jeffersonville when I stopped the splitting to move some logs around. I used to cast iron hooks with sharp points and a D ring wooden handle with two pieces of sheet steel from the ends of the handle down about 4 inches and then folding into the shaft of the iron hook. I was using two of them when I apparently hit a frozen limb inside the log and the hook bounced wildly. Shure enuf one point from the left hand hook went through the open D handle on the right hook and then buried itself in the 3rd (biggest) bone of my right pinky finger. I let out a few howls and my wife trotted out to find me kneeling on the ground with the obscene hook stuck in my pinky. She gave me Lortab for the pain and she drove me 18 miles of iced and snowy Vermont back roads to Morrisville and it's hospital. After some effort the folks there removed the hook and sent me home with not even an Asprin for the pain. A few months later during the services at a local church an elderly lady shook my hand and broke a bone in my right hand. I knew it was broken because I heard it snap and now I had a new and large protruding lump in it. It is insane that all this was to my right side. I am a lefty so I was able to get by with a dinged up finger or hand.

[mattw]

Through and through damage really stinks. I have run a splinter thru a hand while cutting a tree down, have run a large nail thru my boots and foot and a decapping pin thru my thumb. The worst was having to pull my foot and boot off the nail while dad held the board down. The nail was sticking out of the top of my boot a good 2 inches. That got me a trip to the hospital, the nail was somewhere near 75 years old and very rusty.

[mold maker]

In high school, while hurrying across wet wooden bleachers, I lost my footing. The results was a long fir splinter went through jean pocket, cheek, and cntr seam of jeans. Had to find a sharp knife to get loose from the seat for the Hospital trip on my stomach. Talk about a PIA!!!!!!

[Markopolo]

Had a drunk guy come in the ER about a decade ago that had a 3-4” wide stick (log) pop up while he was riding his 4 wheeler and go between his calf and shin bone through and through. How it missed every major nerve and vessel I have no idea. Lots of reconstructive surgery to the skin and muscle.

2 years ago had a guy nail gun his junk to his leg with a framing nail gun. Urology handled that. Lots of nails through feet hands andnothwr parts of the limbs over the years.

YIKES... I can’t help but let out a giggle about that one... It turned my stomach and made me lag at the same time.

[cwlongshot]

Youza!!

I was roofing a shed... I was on top and man below was sliding sheets up to me. I grabbed a sheet but didn't get a good grip... As it slid out of my hand, a BIG 3" sliver, went in the glove, near my palm, entered above the knuckle on the side of my pinki... slid all the way down the inside of the pinki and out the tip where it broke off.

The leather glove was stuck on my hand, wood exited the tip of my finger but not the glove and the strangest sensation of hot cold while not being able to bend that finger. (Hot and cold was glove filling with blood)

I was pulling pieces of wood out of that finger for over two years. NO I was not "smart enough" to go to the doctor. We where hours away from any hospitals or cavitation. Besides we THOUGHT we got it all out and pretty easily stopped bleeding.

Hope it doesn't pain ya much, speed healing! Like my dad always said, its a good thing your tough,(me) cause when you do stupid things, its best your at least tough. I think it was a John Wayne quote as well...

CW

[OldBearHair]

Working at the mill or lathe, filing or drilling, you get those small two ended sharp slivers in your hand. Just lightly rub a fingertip over it to feel which way it went in, then rub it the smooth way with 320 grit sandpaper and it will grab the sliver sliding it out. An old machinist told me. Worked in aircraft and would get aluminum chips in the eye, get them out with a smooth end lead pencil. The pencil will not cause the eye to blink and the chip is easy to get out before it has time to imbed while you are waiting in the infirmary.

[MaryB]

I repaired electronics for a living and was always cutting off wire. I started having this sharp pain in my foot but couldn't find a sliver or entrance hole... after 4 days it festered a bit and I could find the entry by squeezing... I saw a tiny end of wire stick out so I grabbed it with a needle nose and pulled. 3 inch long piece of wire must have got into my shoe and embedded in my foot. It was in the heel so every step hurt like heck!

[fiberoptik]

Stepdad from hell was using table saw, ripping boards carelessly. Told him in high school we used a push board. “I don’t need no stinking push board. I’ve been doing this for 30 years …” at which point he sawed off 1/2” of thumb. “Nope! You don’t need no stinking push board!”


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[Arisaka99]

Never had one through anything, but about 2 weeks ago, slid my foot along the grain of the wood flooring in the living room. Got about a 1/2"-3/4" splinter embedded into my heel.

That was fun having the wife pull out.

[OldBearHair]

Working at the mill or lathe, filing or drilling, you get those small two ended sharp slivers in your hand. Just lightly rub a fingertip over it to feel which way it went in, then rub it the smooth way with 320 grit sandpaper and it will grab the sliver sliding it out. An old machinist told me. Worked in aircraft and would get aluminum chips in the eye, get them out with a smooth end lead pencil. The pencil will not cause the eye to blink and the chip is easy to get out before it has time to imbed while you are waiting in the infirmary.

[Winger Ed.]

In a biography of the actor David Niven, there's a story about him, and his buddy Erol Flynn.

One of them had one of those big wooden motor yachts, and would go to Catalina Island on occasion.
Those old boats had a real ice box. You'd get a block of ice, put it in one compartment, and it would cool the other.
If you wanted ice for a drink, you'd take the block out, and chip some off with a old fashioned ice pick.

David Niven was doing that in the cabin, when the boat heaved or rolled, and he stabbed it through his hand.
Before he could pull it out, Erol Flynn told him, "Don't pull it out yet, let's go show the girls".