Adventures of an X-Acto Knife

Was about 8 and cutting a part loose from the sprue....still can't figute out how I managed to slice up along my left ring finger with the pocket knife I was using (the wisdom of youth).  Nail still has a square side to this day 60 years later.  Dad told me...lesson learned??? cut away from yourself from now on!

Sliced through my left thumb, through the nail to the cuticle as a boy.  Balsa airplane model said split the dowel down the middle....you can guess how I was holding the dowel and which way the blade was pointing.  For some reason I was afraid to tell my parents so I ran to the bathroom and rinsed under tap water.  The sight of all that blood made me a bit woozy.   I pinched it together and wrapped a bandaid around it and it healed up nicely. Didnt even lose the nail.  Good lesson I suppose.  

Bakster, been there and done that. Still have the mark. Just happy that it missed something else.  Since then I use a carpenters apron with the end velcroed under the edge of the workbench. Cheats the carpet monster too.

Jim  

Stay Safe.

So did you all cut yourselves only a few times? I not only cut myself about a dozen times, I cut the kitchen table too. Moms and Dads often have no sense of humor.

The most fun I had was a B-17...came out great. Till my brother set it on fire and threw it out of our upstairs bedroom window to see if it would fly. He's an attorney now. 

Egads. Bad horror stories.

Had a few but one I remember with a knife was when it rolled off the table and stuck into my leg standing straight up. That was a fine how do you do.

Bill;

    My Parents ( They were adoptive Parents after Fostering me for two years), Didn't believe that a child should be exempt from the consequences of his or her actions. Dad, was a Tool and Die Maker for Houdialle Hershey industries.

   Very pragmatic little Irishman from the auld Country. Very loving folks though. Dad and Mum always wanted me to be responsible and self sufficient. They taught me well. They would go on vacations and leave me in charge of the Apartment house and Grounds. They were always pleased I did so well.

   So, X-Acto Knives, Table Saws, Band Saws and Lathes, as well as Drill Presses were used by me early on. Oh, and ,  Shapers and Planers,  such as were available back then. By the time I enlisted I knew a fair amount about most Power and Hand tools. Plus, Dad taught me how to work on cars too!

Geez:

  That sure looks familiar. Did you work in my building? We had Architects building Model Buildings that were always coming to my Studio, looking for a first aid kit! I employed six modelers on a regular basis, besides getting in there myself. ( No one could ever find me in the office).

  The standing joke was make sure we have a kit at the receptionists desk. Our Neighbors would need it! I asked one ,why do you guys get cut so much? His  answer," well, we don't use knives as much as Pens and Pencils. Shoot, I still have My Koh-I-Noor technical Pencils and Pens. Got stabbed in the thigh a few times by them too!

yes sir, I remember it well just a couple years ago... to the bone. Had no feeling in half of my thumb for about a year.Not the first but hopefully the last. It is hard to tie your shoes with this kind of cut too. I'm sure Don could agree to that with his expliots...

Perhaps it is a right of passage for modelers or wood workers (?)

Ben

I remember as a kid (had never heard of an X-acto knife) I sliced the very tip of finger off.  Nol hospital, bandaids fixed it.  Did it again with an X-acto knife about thirty years later.

Sunday I did it again- this time with a 10 inch table saw, but I was really lucky!  Again, though it took part of my nail off it to only a tiny section of tip.  This morning I am able to type with that finger again.  Learned, however that it is not a good idea to trim your nails with a table saw.  It least X-acto cuts are pretty clean and heal rapidly.  I will have to learn how to put the blade guard back on my saw!

goldhammer

Haven't we all....as well as have one roll off the bench or slip out of the fingers and play mumbly peg wiith the toes or thigh.

 

John

Haven't we all....as well as have one roll off the bench or slip out of the fingers and play mumbly peg wiith the toes or thigh.

Been there and done that too. 

Jim  

Yep sliced my thumb, swore, put on hydrogen peroxide and a band aid and resumed building! 

He had tolerant parents. The kid I know, not so much. He twisted the parts off the sprues and cut off the most offending nubs with his SAK. 

Later in life, while in architecture school, he'd occasionally lift his elbow to find his knife hanging from it. His project team mate used surgical scalpels for model making, but he didn't trust himself.

But he's probably got several dozen #11 blade handles now, after building structure models out of foam core, illustration board and whatever was on hand.

Rubber handled ones, ones with the tightening knob on the back end, cross collets, single slot collets.

Thanks for the memories.

Bill