Worst witnessed Bushcraft injury.

[TeeDee]

For safety reasons saws, secateurs and hedge trimmers are my preferred tool of choice over something like an axe, machete or other chopping style of tool when trimming hedges or doing the other 'adult' jobs that need to be done around the fields. Still, when it comes to 'playing' with knifes to start a fire or prepare food or whatever it never takes much of an excuse to unsheathe my Mora just for the fun of using it.

(I can do a passable impression of an sensible adult when required but it isn't the natural state of affairs for me)

Genuinely think Secateurs are a solid call. Bushcrafty? No. Safe to pinkies - Yes!!

 

[Astrochicken]

Perhaps a slight tangent to the thread, but how about very near misses?

My colleague was instructing a small group of children (~8-10 yrs old) with some basic whittling, and whilst he was checking with one child, the father of another kid came up behind his son, reached over and put a sandwich in his hand (yes, the hand holding the knife, and yes whilst the kid was still trying to whittle). As if that wasn't bad enough, my colleague just managed to intervene with a somewhat panicky "stop" following the realisation, as the kid went to stuff the sandwich in his mouth. And yes the kid was still holding the knife alongside said sandwich.... My colleague said the whole thing took 5-10 seconds, and left his heart racing as to what could have been. Could have been life changing for all the wrong reasons for everyone.

 

[warthog1981]

The worst bushcrafting injury I know of was caused when an axe didn't hit clearly and sort of bounced from the wood ( if he sees this thread, I'm sure he'll come and be precise ) and sliced through the man's muckboot and into his foot. It did slice tendons, so that was a major surgical repair and weeks on crutches. Very good recovery though; the axe was razor sharp.

That's a common strand in most of the injuries we hear of from using tools; they are very sharp. Thankfully those kind of owners keep their sharps clean too though, and I don't think I've ever heard of any of the wounds becoming infected.

That would be me ……..
I’m very used to using sharp tools and normally very safe even when doing slightly dodgy things like felling timber at night.
I was using a pack axe think 50cm helve length splitting some logs on a weird hight chopping block very low to the ground I took a swing and the axe suck in the log. And I went to loosen the axe and take another swing and it released itself quicker than I thought it would ………
One very gentle tap to the top of the foot / ankle and it cut a very nice hole ️ in my muck boots and my sock and me.

Shouted for a bit of help but I’m a very calm patient everyone else was panicking but I was fine. I wasn’t bleeding to death
Nice trip to Perth Royal infirmary.

Lots of fun questions like what did you do it with ?
And was it sharp ?
Has your axe been near dogs dirt ?
I had to ask the surgeon what he did with is axes lol

14 external stitches and a few to re attach a couple tendons

The things I will do to get a surgeon to compliment how sharp my axe was.
He didn’t believe me when I said it was shaving sharp , he even said that I had managed to cleanly cut a sliver of bone off along with the rest of the damage
And he had never seen an axe injury with no bruising and not crushing of the impact area.
It really was just a very gentle tap ….

Two months on crutches and by the time they wanted me to go for physio I had already got full movement back again so didn’t need any.

Cheers Russ

 

[warthog1981]

And I should say no real side affects just a little bit of numbness on the top of my foot.
But as always it could have been so much better or worse …….
A momentary lapse in concentration and sharp tools have a way of reminding you to pay more attention.
I’ve had a few people ask what would I have done if I was more remote and on my own
always used to have duct tape in my grab back so tape it up and walk out.
The same way I went to the hospital.

Cheers Russ

 

[warthog1981]

My friend had my little sickle in his hand, the one that was a copy of a Bronze Age one, but the handle was kind of y shape that the meat of the hand sat in to pull.
Going up a slight slope to cut bracken, the hook of the y caught in his thigh pocket and his hand slid forward into the sharp hook of the sickle.
One of the most capable men I have ever met, and this happened in a split second. He was fortunate that he didn't cut tendons, just really fleshy slices into his fingers.

A&E, and we'd to empty our pockets and belt carry twice into the glove box before we went into the hospital.
Lots of steristrips, superglue sort of stuff and wrapping.

He still made fire by friction the next day, one handed !

That would be me again and as always everyone else panics a lot more than me
I am a very good casualty I never panic of go into shock.

I had a few years that I was a bit accident prone had something decent injury wise for a few years.

I did rehandle that sickle after the finger injury

I’m sure someone had made the comment would I still be able to make fire by friction with my finger injury and I said I’m sure I could. It’s was a set that Toddy had it’s was a bit more awkward than when I had the use of all my fingers but as I proved still possible

Cheers Russ

 

[Toddy]

That would be me again and as always everyone else panics a lot more than me
I am a very good casualty I never panic of go into shock.

I had a few years that I was a bit accident prone had something decent injury wise for a few years.

I did rehandle that sickle after the finger injury

I’m sure someone had made the comment would I still be able to make fire by friction with my finger injury and I said I’m sure I could. It’s was a set that Toddy had it’s was a bit more awkward than when I had the use of all my fingers but as I proved still possible

Cheers Russ

I ought to have said that; you did indeed rehandle it for me. Made it so that such an accident could never happen again. It feels much more secure in use too

 

[Laurentius]

I don't know about bushcraft but when you have been on the allotment and trod on a nail that came out through the top of your foot, that hurts.

 

[MrEd]

You're OWN unsheathed crook knife or someone else's?

Embarrassingly, mine. It fell out of my tool
roll from my lap as I stood up and I didn’t notice, took a step forward and bang. I knew instantly what had done.
Didn’t have boots on as they were drying by a fire from a ‘small stream excursion’ earlier that day.
This was about 3pm ish on n the afternoon, I was on my own on a wildcamp, and about 40mins walk from the car.
Packing up and then walking out was a chore let me tell you. Thank god I had a cut kit, I put a bandage and a big bunch of gauze one, sock over the top, boot back on and walked with my toes curled. Redressed it when I got back to the car and drove to minor injuries where they glued it. It was actually not as bad as it looked, but it had ‘scooped’ into the flesh behind my big toe and the one next to it (in the direction of my heel) so it was a deep flap. Cleaned, glued and a tetanus and it was okay. My god it bled though. Took about an hour to slow it down enough to bandage - laying on my back in the woods with my leg in the air lol

 

[MrEd]

I learnt a lot that day, I am not ashamed to admit. This was a long time ago, will see if I can find photos? But it was when I moved from my flat to my first house 14 years ago

 

[BigMonster]

At the campsite day before climbing Snowdon my non bushcrafty friend asked to borrow my knife (Fallkniven S1) at the barbecue. I told him to be carefull as I'm a knife guy and my knives are sharp. Of course bad normie habits won and he decided to slice a bun open which he was holding in his open hand. He sliced that bun and the palm of his hand wide open and we ended up at E&E with stitches.

At bushmoot during flint knapping workshop my hnd slipped and I sliced the back of my hand with a scalpel sharp piece of flint. A&E and stitches.

Also as a teenage scout I tried to split kindling with my hatchet, learned not to hold it with my hand (cut to the back of my hand).

Various minor burns to my fingers and hands with coals and pine resin.

Also withessed coulpe of falls resulting in broken arms.

 

[slaine_23]

Some horrible things here so on a lighter note, I’d recount the tale of a mate who tried to swing from one branch to another à la Tarzan, didn’t quite make it, his hand slipped and the buck eejit fell and broke his arze bone. Probably hurt his dignity more than anything and we onlookers had two connected cases of split-side-itus.

 

[ONE]

Finger amputation via machete. Actually at a cadet "initiative" exercise way back in the early Eighties. Building a bridge over carnivorous tadpole infested waters. I'll never forget it -

"ONE, I've cut my ****** finger off"
"There's a wee yellow pouch on the top of my bergan, has pads and plasters and tape, help yourself"
"Eh, no... I've cut my finger OFF!"

At which point I actually looked and the first thing I saw was said finger, indeed separated from its hand. Cue much kerfuffle as first aid applied, adults alerted and the lad was dispatched to A&E with his finger in a lunchbox IIRC.

 

[TeeDee]

Finger amputation via machete. Actually at a cadet "initiative" exercise way back in the early Eighties. Building a bridge over carnivorous tadpole infested waters. I'll never forget it -

"ONE, I've cut my ****** finger off"
"There's a wee yellow pouch on the top of my bergan, has pads and plasters and tape, help yourself"
"Eh, no... I've cut my finger OFF!"

At which point I actually looked and the first thing I saw was said finger, indeed separated from its hand. Cue much kerfuffle as first aid applied, adults alerted and the lad was dispatched to A&E with his finger in a lunchbox IIRC.

So , cliffhanger...... Did it get reattached ? And more importantly did it stay on ????

 

[ONE]

So , cliffhanger...... Did it get reattached ? And more importantly did it stay on ????

Yes & yes. There was little good to be said about growing up in NI at that time, but one thing that you could say was that if you had accident or incident that resulted in burns, GSW or traumatic amputation you had the most practiced and skilled medical staff in those specialties at hand. He actually visited the camp with his parents before it ended, I recall a comically large "cage" like a metal and foam sandwich surrounding the affected digit. He was known thereafter as Fingerbobs.