Elastoplasts and the bother thereof

Disabled Preppers

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Apr 3, 2023
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Does anyone else find that plasters are getting shorter nowadays? Struggle to get them all round a thumb, and no I don't have huge thumbs!

Toddy, have you tried haemostatic clotting powder on cuts? Supposed to stop bleeds in about a minute.

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Hi mike now you must be reading my mind the wife and i both said this the other day as i have a corn on my thumb and have been doing the age old treatment cider vinegar on a cotton wool ball small one on the plaster and over it and it draws it out , my wife went ot put the plaster on and said hmmm your thumb must be growing lol , i now use low tack plaster roll to go over it .
On to the powder i have a few types of this and in large and small amounts before it became easy to get in the uk on amazon and so on my friend in the States found it and sent me a few you get single use sachet and also a huge tub , i have a few well stocked now , i wonder if anyone has also like me throught ok in a **** world what about the animal clotting powder for nail cutting or should i say when they break a claw or nail , or when the groomer clips them , the vet gave me a as he called it nick stick for our german shepard but he never went back to the groomer as each time after the first time when they clipped him so bad we found 5 nicks near his under carriage area most people would not look there just my lad use to sleep with me when the wife went to workj he would hop on her side lol long story we think he sensed my illness and would lay beside me when i blacked out and was on the floor she came home to him crueled round me , he would get on the sofa with me lol and lay on me belly up for a fuss and i rubbed his belly and felt the scabs of the cuts so looked and found 5 and 2 were still weepy hence never again for him .
 
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Toddy

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Toddy, have you tried haemostatic clotting powder on cuts? Supposed to stop bleeds in about a minute.

I haven't, and I admit I hadn't even thought about it being useful for such a thing.
I do clot, just it runs rather a lot first. Then I heal very quickly and rarely scar. Even the scars I had faded and resolved very quickly to fine white, almost invisible, lines. I slipped with a knife when carving a distaff, and it sliced into my thumb at the first knuckle right down to the bone. Steri strips and it has healed to pretty much invisible.

Small nicks I have used alum sticks, but oh that nips and that hurts !
I had it in mind that the haemostatic stuff was for major damage.
 

John Fenna

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Oct 7, 2006
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I bleed very little, heal fast and my scars are faint - so I get away with a lot :)
My wife however is on "blood thinners" and we have spent nights in A&E with nothing worse than a nose bleed... I really do wish that she took more care and used safer technique with her knives when cooking! My nightmare is that I will have to miss a major meal due to having to run her to A&E for another all night session, just from a nick from a veggie peeling knife! Mind you - she lets her knives get so dull that you would be lucky to cut much of anything with them!
I should point out that healing fast is often a bit of a nuisance in itself .... a few times I have "surface" healed fast but left an unhealed void behing the surface healing. When this void has decided to go bad on me I have had to open the surface again to "deep clean" the wound. I prefer to scrub such a wound out using salt on an old toothbrush ... the harder you scrub the less it hurts :) It only really hurts when you stop scrubbing ...
Whisky is also good for such a wound - drink enough and you do not feel the pain of the scrubbing!
 
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mrmike

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Sep 22, 2010
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I haven't, and I admit I hadn't even thought about it being useful for such a thing.
I do clot, just it runs rather a lot first. Then I heal very quickly and rarely scar. Even the scars I had faded and resolved very quickly to fine white, almost invisible, lines. I slipped with a knife when carving a distaff, and it sliced into my thumb at the first knuckle right down to the bone. Steri strips and it has healed to pretty much invisible.

Small nicks I have used alum sticks, but oh that nips and that hurts !
I had it in mind that the haemostatic stuff was for major damage.
Yes, I remember the alum sticks when I cut myself shaving, need has rendered them redundant thankfully.

I keep a couple of these in my personal fak, not for major wounds (have a celotex gauze in the forestry kit for that) but good for minor wounds.

Biolife I00004929 Woundseal powder, 4 pieces https://amzn.eu/d/0iUImH6



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Toddy

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I think those have their place, but tbh, at that kind of price, I could use four kitchen towel rolls and two boxes of elastoplasts and still have change.

If I didn't clot, then I suspect I'd be more inclined to spend the money, but i do.

It was the whole comedy of errors yesterday. It was so blooming frustrating, nothing went easily. All those layers of wrapping just did not want to peel off at all.
If I hadn't been so busy, I'd have been better wrapping the fingers up in paper towels and just sitting at peace for five minutes until the blood clotted. Then used the plasters.
 

grainweevil

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Feb 18, 2023
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Plasters have their place, generally for keeping small cuts clean and covered,

But! They are probably unlikely to stick to an actively bleeding wound. It’s generally best to apply direct pressure, applied with a clean cloth or dressing. A Jay cloth is fine. Get the bleeding under control then look to dress.
Makes sense to me, and how I view plaster use. If it's still bucketing the haemoglobin, really not the time to try a tiny bit of gauze 'n' tape to stem the tide.

Then you embark on the Plaster Wrestling with Associated Swearing, only to find the thing dropping off ten minutes later and the only part of it left hanging around is one of the peel off bits that simply Will Not Stay In The Bin. I miss the days of old school plasters ruthlessly applied to scraped knees where you were still trying to pick the adhesive residue off three weeks later.
 
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Paul_B

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Jul 14, 2008
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I've had a part batch of boots fabric plasters with a defect. Each individual plaster packet came with a standard plaster but with a double length on one side. It looks like a plaster with pad as normal but a second length without pad was folded over in the same packet. Great for fingers and staying on for longer. This was less them half of the plasters I the box so they weren't a different type of plaster but some were a bit different.
 

gg012

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I've had a part batch of boots fabric plasters with a defect. Each individual plaster packet came with a standard plaster but with a double length on one side. It looks like a plaster with pad as normal but a second length without pad was folded over in the same packet. Great for fingers and staying on for longer. This was less them half of the plasters I the box so they weren't a different type of plaster but some were a bit different.
I can't remember what make it is but you can buy finger plasters exactly like this. As you say, really used for fingers

Sent from underground
 

Toddy

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I can't remember what make it is but you can buy finger plasters exactly like this. As you say, really used for fingers

Sent from underground

I was just about to write the same thing. Indeed I'm sure I still have a couple of those plasters in the box.
Useful if you mind and use the short end first ! :shameful:
 
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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
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I can't remember what make it is but you can buy finger plasters exactly like this. As you say, really used for fingers

Sent from underground
Perhaps boots mixed fabric plasters box out a few of these in. Although they had the backing paper perforated at half the full length like it was meant to be in two pieces. It has lasted well so I might look for the real longer finger plasters for this shirt of use. I bet a fair few finger cuts that they work well with. Good to learn there's such plasters ..
 
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Disabled Preppers

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Apr 3, 2023
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west midlands
Well on the powders to stop bleeding i have a fair few mainly as a prepper but i have been known to cut myself chisel through palm top off thumb lol to name a couple , i always use to repair myself these days as i take a anti clotting drug i have to take more care hence the powders , i get mine sent from a friend in the ststes who buy large batches when they go on special at her local store .
But to the person saying about salt in a wound i can say your right about pain , when i had a major seieve i hit the side of a bath and put my teeht through my lower lip in hsopital the nurse tricked me said i must wash for the surgeo nto look and she found the snapped off teeth in the cut and had to pull them out with small pliers lol yup i never knew , but the surgeon came in and my mate was there holding my hand i kid you not ex para the doc said to me look i have numbed it now but once i start sewing if you feel it raise your hand i stop and re numb lol i just said look doc once you start do not stop until your done because the pain can get no worse than the first stitch can it , but on a light hearted note my mate looked at the doc and said now doc you look a nice guy your not going to hurt him are you and smiled like a menacing smile .
I do believe the wound powders have a place in any outward bound first aid kit , this brings me to another story of us as kids playing war and throwing stones at each other in the woods and one lad was down the bottom of a deep dell and one of the germans as they were popped his head up up top but the person at the bootom had alreayd thrown a stone and before he could shout duck it hit the kid i nthe forehead and i mean split his head open now if these powders had been aroudnthen well we used 3 t shirts pushed hard on his head to slow the bleeding until we all managed to carry him home and his mum took him to the docs to get stitched .
 

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