I Hate Splinters

I was pulling a 2x10x12 PT out of the garage to put the ledger on the house for a deck and ran my hand over the edge and got a couple of splinters in my palm. I pulled out the biggest one then got the wife to take a look. She got out the tweezers and pulled another smaller one out. Worked the rest of the day and my palm hurt like anything so I figured there was one deeper.

Wife got my Outdoor Edge Razor Lite out and sliced where the original splinter went in a little wider and pulled out another one. Doused it with alcohol and put some Bag Balm on it then went to bed.

Next morning still hurt and could feel a bump so out comes the Razor Lite again. Sliced the palm a little more lengthwise and with a magnifying glass pulled a 1/2in splinter out that was deep in there. More alcohol and more bag balm but I think we got it all this time. None the worse for wear except for the 1 1/2in slice in my hand but that will heal up fine.

That Outdoor Edge she gave me for Christmas a few years ago is scalpel sharp. Good thing to have on hand for stuff like this.

Did the same thing once, in the big muscle below my right thumb. Pulled the splinter out and didn't think much of it. Fast forward 6 months, palm is itching and got a little bump there. Sitting watching TV I'm picking at it and once the skin breaks this fuzzy looking thing is poking out a bit. Get tweezers and pull it out, lo and behold a 1" long splinter that I guess I missed and it never bothered me!

I hate metal slivers even more. Amazing how something practically invisible to the human eye can cause so much pain!

I hate splinters, too. I had one on my knee that I hadn't been able to pull out completely. After a couple of days, it no longer bothered me and I just forgot about it. Sometime later, I don't know how long, could have been a month, I felt a small bump on my knee that itched a bit. I just started scratching, and lo and behold the splinter almost oozed out. Apparently, it had gotten infected and the flesh had liquified and released the splinter. After, I put some peroxide on the wound and in a couple of days, it was good as new.

I feel for you!!! It SUCKS when they go in, hit the bone, and break, especially when they are cedar and covered with stain.

Pressure Treated and Redwood splinters are the worst ones. They will cause more pain, inflammation and infection then the regular pine or fir ones. As a teenager I was on a quail hunt when I slipped and fell on a steep rocky slope here in AZ. To cushion my fall, I instinctively put my hand out to catch myself. I wound up with a handful of prickly pear cactus needles, all broken off deep in my hand. While not really a splinter, they sort of act the same. I actually had a couple of them emerging from the top of my hand months later.

I Hate Splinters

I was pulling a 2x10x12 PT out of the garage


there you go flanting your wealth [smilie=1:

As a carpenter who’s had a stupid amount of splinters I can recommend two things. A new clean sharp utility knife and a 10x jewelers loupe. I’ve never found anything better.

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Originally Posted by labradigger1

As a carpenter who’s had a stupid amount of splinters I can recommend two things. A new clean sharp utility knife and a 10x jewelers loupe. I’ve never found anything better.

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I prefer an Xacto knife with a scapple type blade but rarely have one when it's needed so a new blade goes into the ever handy utility knife. I always keep a bottle of hydrogen peroxide handy to wash open wounds.

I just two weeks ago had a PT splinter imbedded in the palm of my hand, in the thick part below the thumb. I had to resort to my Havalon knife to cut myself open enough to get ahold of it. It was 3/8” in. It resembled a golf tee in shape. Little smaller. I didn’t feel it when it happened, I started to feel a burning sensation and looked to find I was bleeding. It took about 20 minutes to get it out. I had made quite the ugly hole in my hand to get it out. Whatever the chemicals in PT are, they burn bad.

I've had my share of them! I hate them too!

When I am working with any kind of wood I wear Leather gloves, for metal work I have heavier welding gloves

Creosote laced telephone pole splinter in the side of my knee. It surfaced a month later and was little fingernail size.
Don't climp a pole wearing shorts and sneakers with spikes. See above.[emoji849]

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

I feel your pain! I am a Yankee retired in Arizona. I discovered "glochids" - the little gold stickers on cactus that will go through leather gloves. They surface about a month later. Thing to do is soak prickly pear with a hose to keep the glochids from going airborne, kill the paddles with a long machete, box them with long pliers. Jumping cholla is not your friend. They all went to the dump in boxes, one more prickly pear to go. Everything around here has stickers. Even the weeds have stickers. Acacia, ocotillo, bouganvilla, mesquite, palo verde, roses, fishhook cactus, saguaros... That's my backyard. The cowboys wore thick leather chaps, but how on earth did they get the stickers out of the horses?

Good thing you already had the board.

I hear the new ones come with a financing plan and a payment coupon book.

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Originally Posted by rancher1913

I Hate Splinters

I was pulling a 2x10x12 PT out of the garage


there you go flanting your wealth [smilie=1:

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At least I didn't tell you about the 6 sheets of PT plywood I had to move to get it

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Originally Posted by labradigger1

As a carpenter who’s had a stupid amount of splinters I can recommend two things. A new clean sharp utility knife and a 10x jewelers loupe. I’ve never found anything better.

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And this thing, I think they call them “gloves” or some such.

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Originally Posted by ShooterAZ

Pressure Treated and Redwood splinters are the worst ones. They will cause more pain, inflammation and infection then the regular pine or fir ones. As a teenager I was on a quail hunt when I slipped and fell on a steep rocky slope here in AZ. To cushion my fall, I instinctively put my hand out to catch myself. I wound up with a handful of prickly pear cactus needles, all broken off deep in my hand. While not really a splinter, they sort of act the same. I actually had a couple of them emerging from the top of my hand months later.

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as a kid in West Virginia, Grandma had a cactus bed. We were playing army in just shorts and shoes, and I was "shot" and fell over dead backwards into that cactus bed. Needless to say, the women folk were busy that night with tweezers..

Two splinter sources that hurt horribly, and, for whatever reason, are more prone than other woods, osage and bamboo! I work with both because of bow building. Love the material, hate the splinter!

When I was kid about 10 years old I picked up an old piece of wood and threw it I got 1/8” X3” splinter in my left palm just at the thumb. Didn’t really hurt all that much and showed my Dad, he tried to pull it with tweezers and couldn’t get it. He says “we will get it in the morning” he knew it would fester over night and be sore.First thing in the morning he had a basin full of hot water and epsom salt soaked my hand for about 5 min. Gently stating at the far end of the splinter he starts to massage my thumb very little pain and in a few minutes the splinter works it way out enough to grab it with tweezers. I get splinters pretty regular and sometimes you have to let them fester and massage them out because they are deep.

When I was a lad, I was playing monkey in the middle indoors in the local church basement. I fell and put a nice triangular 4 inch spike of hardwood into the meat of my palm. We pulled it out, bandaged it up and went on with life as folks did in those days.

4 or 5 days later it was swollen and red streaks were running up my arm so Mom decided that maybe a trip to the doc was in order. Doc took a look, set me on the table with my hand palm up on my thigh. He set his thumb on my arm just above the red streaks, lanced the scab with a scalpel, pressed hard and ran his thumb down to my palm.

My hand was suddenly filled with about a 1/4 cup of stinking brown puss and a short chunk of hardwood. Next thing I knew I woke up coughing from the ammonia inhalant.

Worst infection I ever had.

Last summer ran a pine splinter into ball of my right hand. I got lucky as it didnt break off and pulled right out. But I bleed out hard for few minutes. Actually I think this is good for the cleaning and flushing of the wound.

The worst slivers were when I was hand fitting those fine small scrapper chips were almost invisible and impossible to pull

with lumber prices the way they are, you might wanna hang on to them splinters.. prolly worth 30 bucks!!

at 72, I am still pulling out splinters, mostly from handling my firewood now, but as a kid, I really got into it. we had built a ladder out of rough cut crates from the tombstone dealer in town. on going up the ladder, a rung broke, I slid to the bottom with both hands on the ladder trying to stop the fall. anyhow I ended up with splinters completely thru all of my fingers. some were massive and easy. my friends sister got most of them out, but I was still getting rid of some months later, when I would squeeze the wounds and pull out a stub. some of them were the entire width of the finger. this was quite painful, as you know lots of nerve ends in the fingertips. still have all those scars too.
Barry

Agreed on the evil metal splinters. If you can’t dig them out, try the age, old method of icthamol salve. Looks and smells like tar, but draws out slivers, pus and anything else you want out.

Keep Uncle Bills Sliver Gripper on your keychain. I buy them in bulk and hand them out as happies.

best I found for those fine scraper slivers was 600 grit sand paper, if you can see direction they went in.

Splinters are annoying. Splinters from treated lumber even worse. Feel you pain.

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Originally Posted by alfadan

I hate metal slivers even more. Amazing how something practically invisible to the human eye can cause so much pain!

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This! When I had my lathe and mill I constantly got steel slivers that were invisible but anything that brushed across them was painful. I sold the machines when I moved but sure do miss them.

Another of my vices is dabbling in woodworking and the import birch veneered plywood has needle-like splinters. I think the worst splinter I’ve ever had, though, was from a hardwood floor. I was barefoot and picked up a splinter while walking across the floor in full stride. It was about 1-1/2” long and 1/4” wide at the big end. Coming out was much worse than going in and going in wasn’t pleasant.

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Originally Posted by 2A-Jay

When I am working with any kind of wood I wear Leather gloves, for metal work I have heavier welding gloves

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older and wiser now i do the same

My wife had one in her heal the other day. Just a little one. It was hard to get out. She said it was there a few days. I told her next time don't wait so long.