You wanna know what HURTS?

[admin]

I was in the shop today doing some turning as I normally do. And I end up trying to hollow out END GRAIN dried red oak. Bad idea, as it's probably the hardest stuff to work with. Lotsa vibration, just no easy way to do it.

So I'm turnin. And I know it's gonna take a while, so I settle into the task. And THEN I get a HUGE catch. For some odd reason, it pushed the tool sideways and gave me a secondary catch on the other side of the form.

Now, let's talk vessel turnin' physics for a second. When the near side is going down, which way is that FAR side goin'? Up! And the problem with UP, is that my left hand was blocking it from going UP.

And, guess what. You know that little flute on a bowl gouge. Well, apparently on my gouge, is sharp as a frickin RAZOR.

Because, as I sat here, chatting in the WoW chatroom (cheap plug) and I got a little shot of ouch in my left hand pinky. I look and there is a quarter inch long cut there. And the only thing that's hit it was my bowl gouge.

So that little flute must have a supersharp top edge there, because it sliced my finger pretty good. It hurt when it happened, but I didn't think it'd sliced me, lol.

Ouchie.

I guess I could very softly knock that edge over with some sandpaper? If I'm gonna get cut when I get a stupidity catch, I'll need to either figure out how to prevent catches (it's not like I *try* to get 'em in the first place) or soften that razor edge a bit, lol.

TJ.

[TDHofstetter]

Whatever you do... DON'T knock that edge off. Otherwise, when you regrind back to it, it won't be there for ya.

That's an uncommon thing to happen - but sometimes that sharp flute edge CAN get a little uncomfortable - if it's really rough on the hand, a decent way to deal with it is to wear a bicycle glove on that hand - with the thick palm & no fingers. Bowling glove'd work, but it'd be the wrong hand. It's important to keep the fingers ungloved so you can still feel the work, but it's fine to pad the palm. They've GOTTA' be close-fitting, though, so ya can't catch 'em on a turning!

[admin]

Ah, there's a good reason not to knock that edge down. I was sorta wonderin' why it had to be so dang sharp, lol.

I'd not considered bicycle gloves. For that matter, I could just wad up a paper towel and let it take the bite, and if it were to get entwined with the turning, just let go of the towel and let it be whirled, lol.

Some days, I just don't think it's a good day to be in the shop. Yesterday was one of those days.

[TDHofstetter]

Yep, paper towel'd work nice. So would a short stick of dowel, if you could find a really good way to keep it in place without gikking it up with, like, hot glue.