How do you draw a thorn out?

Miyagi

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 6, 2008
2,298
5
South Queensferry
Och, easily sorted.

Make a poltice from either Ralgex or Fiery Jack and cover with a tight fabric plaster.

You won't notice the mild discomfort when you go all Yakuza on your thumb.

On second thoughts, ALL the other posts on this thread offer far better advice than mine... :D


Liam
 

HillBill

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 1, 2008
8,165
159
W. Yorkshire
I strop the tip of my small opinel, and cut a small slit in the skin at the side of the splinter then just pry it out. It doesnt draw blood from the cut, no pain, and sorts it in seconds.
 

No Idea

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 18, 2010
2,420
0
Dorset
I think all the methods sound much better than letting Little Idea near it with his pigging pliers.

The blood blister hasnt gone yet, and Im not sure if I should have gone and got it stitched after his help.

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AndyJDickson

Full Member
Sep 29, 2011
191
0
Northern Ireland
I have found that magnesium sulphate paste will draw out almost anything (boils/pimples/splinters etc). It can be found in most chemists as a paste. Slap it on liberally and cover and see what happens in the morning.
 

JAG009

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 20, 2010
2,407
2
Under your floor
Dont know about the poltise thing Gill but here how i do it
1.. get sharp stanley knife
2..wipe on sleeve to sterilise
3.. cut as deep as you can at side of said thorn or splinter
4.. dig out thorn or splinter with stanley knife
5 ... wipe cut clean with sleeve to sterilise
6 ...and last of all tape up with electrical or gaffer tape to stop bleeding and keep the cut sterile


Jason
 

swright81076

Tinkerer
Apr 7, 2012
1,702
1
Castleford, West Yorkshire
There's an old trick, with an empty, dry glass bottle and a couple of matches.

Strike the matches, drop into bottom of bottle.

Put affected area over top of bottle.

The match will go out, creating a vacuum that will suck the bad boy out.

Personally, I've always used the sharp knife approach too.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 

Biker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Some of the worst ones are the tiny slivers of metal I get from plasterboard screws, hard to see and sometimes take a bit of digging out.

Yup those metal splinter from plasterboard screws are demons to get out, yet you can feel them everytime to run your hand over something. No hard and fast solution yet to avoid getting these, unless it's get someone else to do the plasterboarding.


I have found that magnesium sulphate paste will draw out almost anything (boils/pimples/splinters etc). It can be found in most chemists as a paste. Slap it on liberally and cover and see what happens in the morning.

This is my preferred choice if the digging it out with a pin doesn't work. I managed to get a glass splinters in my hands on two seperate occasions Both times I used this gel and both times it worked fine. Can't say I ever saw the glass splinter in the sticking plaster afterwards but the pain went away by the next day. In the base of my right thumb I have a splinter in there that nothing short of a boring tool could get out and trust me I did try digging that thing out. Time went along and it healed over. I suppose it's still in there but now covered in scar tissue or whatever defence the human body provides for dealing with foreign matter under the skin.

One thing I can highly recommend not doing is drilling from the other side and pushing it out. :lmao:

Not too far off the subject but I had a metal splinter got into my left eye. I felt it there whenever I blinked, so I was sent off site to the local emergency dept of Maidstone hospital which had a specialiased eye clinic there. They put in some eye drops with enlarged the pupil of my eye (my eyes resembeled David Bowie's for about 6 hours) and they put my head in a sort of opticians head frame and pulled the splinter out using an electro magnet. Instant relief. I was impressed with that.

Hope the thumb's better by the time you're reading this.
 
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