FYI Machete's can be dangerous

C Craft

Well-Known Member
Haven't hit a lick in the shop or on much of anything else since I stuck a machete in my ankle 5 weeks ago. I had some vines on the fence that my neighbor installed 20 yrs ago. The place has changed hands three times since I have lived here and the last one was bad about keeping the place cleaned up! A fence line in Florida that isn't cleaned regularly is just a brier vine and small tree haven! So one of the neighbors tree had fallen across the fence on my side and even though I had mentioned it to them six months later it is still there. The place just sold again and figuring the new owner shouldn't be responsible for what the last one was too lazy to take care of. So I decided to clean it up and while working on it the discovered that the vines were getting on my side.

So I went to get my machete and the plan was to cut the vines and pull the fence back up! The machete was not cutting well so I took it back to the shop and sharpened it. Came back and man it was going thru the vines like hot butter. I was standing parallel to the fence and swinging between the fence and my body in a downward motion!

Then I went thru a vine and hit the fence that was doubled under where the tree had pushed it down. The fence kicked the swing of the machete sideways. I was doing well to control the swing but at the bottom of the swing it slipped from my gloved hand. I felt a pain in my ankle and wasn't sure I wanted to look down or not!

When I did look down the machete was sticking in the ground along side of my foot! That is when I noticed the piece of flesh about the size of a 50 cent piece hanging from my leg. So I walked into the house and hollered at my wife to give me a hand. Well I take blood thinners for my heart and I was hot, so needless to say the place was bleeding. I had left the kind of blood trail you like to see when hunting but the kind the will freak out the wife.

After I got it sterilized I pushed the chunk of skin and flesh back into the ankle and bandaged it! With the wife's help and her telling me every few seconds that I needed to go to the emergency room!

It has been slow to heal as that is the leg they took the veins from when they did my quadruple bypass about 6 yrs ago now! That leg has never has as good of circulation since and and then it got a small infection and etc., etc.

The moral to this story is a sharp machete will cut you without hurting much, so be sure of what is beyond what you are swinging at!!! Also I have never been too much on the idea of thongs on a knife but when I get where I able to get in to the shop again there will be a thong put on that machete!!!

I will be so glad when this thing gets healed and hopefully my yard won't take over the house before I get where I can mow it again! LOL Sometime laughing is about all you got left!!:biggrin:
 
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Ouch! It's the little things that you don't think about that reach up and bite you. I carry a machete on my tractor when I'm brush hogging to whack low hanging limbs. Can't count how many times I've scared myself. Get well soon!
 
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Mr Craft - you're lucky it didn't cut worse than it did, just a glancing cut. Yea, those things are scary when whacking away on vines and stuff. I've pulled some dumb stunts in my life also. Those blood thinners are a hassle with just a small nick - a small "scratch" I'd never even looked years before are now a real hassle to get the bleeding stopped sometimes.

BTW, did the small piece you put back on grow and do the repair?

BE CAREFUL!!!! :)

Ken H>
 
The moral of the story should be, Throw away your machete and use lopping shears. Lopping shears are not as macho but are infinitely more efficient at cutting limbs and vines and infinitely safer! I threw away my machete years ago and have never regretted changing to lopping shears. Anthony,I carry my lopping shears with me on my tractor when I'm brush hogging my roads and fire lanes and have never cut myself with them. Because I spend a lot of time in the Florida woods which are more like jungle I keep a pair of lopping shears in the bed of my truck for when I have to cut a limb that is blocking my path. For bigger limbs I use a chain saw or pole saw.
:biggrin:
 
Dang, hope you heal up ok. but I'm sure you know it could have been a lot worse. I agree with Calvin, machete's have there place, but all I ever use is a chainsaw, pole saw, loppers and super strong herbicide. of course chainsaws have been known to have a vicious bite.
bad things happen in the woods, about all you can do is think things out, be real careful and have a super good home made - put together first aid kit, I even keep sutures in mine and have used them twice. I also have a medical grade staple gun, every time I look at that thing I think, dang, I hope if I need that it's for someone else. right now I'm getting over a spider bite to the foot, it's been swollen for 6 days now.
 
Steve if that spider bite ain't getting better you better see a doctor. My son was bitten by a spider, (they figured Brown Recluse) when he was little and his whole leg swelled I remember the doctor was glad we had brought him in before it developed into something far worse. It can cause problems like cellulitis, if not properly treated!

Ken I laid the piece back in but it only somewhat lived. The chunk of meat under the skin took off but there was not enough blood flow to keep the whole chunk alive. That is what really caused the infection I got! They put me on antibiotics and I had to start debridement of the wound!
They use to call it proud flesh or more to the point dead. Wet saline dressing, let the gauze dry on the wound and then,................snatch it off and do it again every 4 hours! They say it won't hurt but they are full of $^&*#!! When that gauze dries and sticks, well it takes dead flesh but it also takes its toll on the good around it, some too! The new blood flow established by the debridement keeps it healing. It is getting where it hurts less and less but man those first few times I said some bad words when it cam off!:what!:

I agree it could have been a lot worse and the machete and I just scowl at one another as we pass in the shop!! So don't think we will ever have a great relation ship any more!!:lol:

At present I figure another 2-3 weeks should have it healed up!! Everytime I look at the wound I think, "well that was a bone headed move"! :52:
 
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We'll, after seven days of walking around like an injured zombie limping on one leg thinking I got bit by a spider, I reluctantly went to a foot doctor on the advice of the wife and co workers. after x rays, turns out I had a fractured bone in my foot.
one of the toe bones connected to the ankle bone, that's what it sounded like he told me..it got wrapped in what they called a soft cast and bandages over it, then sent me away with a prescription and wearing what looks a Herman Munster snow ski boot. as goofy as it looks, I haven't felt any pain since I left so I guess they knew what they were doing. I hope this works fast, my shop is so small I don't even have room for my left foot in there now.
 
A fractured bone:what!:! See I told you, them spider bites could develop in something far worse! :les: :34::biggrin:
 
It was ridiculous, all I did was hop out of my truck at work, took about five steps and felt a crack but it wasn't much, kind of like when you crack your knuckles. and both my ankle knuckles or whatever they are crack every once in a while but it started hurting about two minuets later and got a lot worse as the day went on. I thought it was a spider because I just got back from five days in the woods and that morning was the first time I put those boots on. and that's exactly what happened to me over twenty years ago, a spider got me, and even though my foot swelled up and hurt it wasn't as much as this.

guess I got to start drinking more milk.
 
Well, I got out of the Herman Munster snow ski boot, my foot's still swelled some but the xrays show it's petty much healed. still hurts to walk a little and one toes crooked, oh well, still on the green side of the grass so no complaining here. I did tell a lot of people who asked what happened to my foot that it was a gator bite and others I said it was a chainsaw accident so I had a little fun with that.
how are doing C Craft ? are you about healed up and back in the game ?
 
I am back up and running, well truth be told I haven't ran in a long time! Failed back fusion in "98"! LOL The wound is all but finally healed but it has been a very slow process. Now I got to start catching up all the stuff that went by the wayside while I was sidelined. My son came over the other day and said, "Dad your front yard is looking a little ragged"! I laughed and said if you think the front is bad you need to see the back!! He looked out one of the windows in the back and said, I am coming over to mow tomorrow. I told him I hadn't never been one to run of someone who wants to help. So him and my grandson show up while they mowed everything else I tackled the back. Which I could have used a bush hog on as tall as it was, only about 1 1/2'. Things sure can get away fast when you are laid up!! Glad to hear your doing better. You sound like you need some more calcium! Wishing you the best of luck!
 
A good friend of mine just got operated on this morning for a 'failed back fusion' from about seven years ago, said they were going in from both of his sides and putting some kind of cage in. he was actually looking forward to it he was hurting so bad. he used to ride shotgun with me in a ford F450 utility truck, we were sitting at a red light and someone talking on a phone rear ended us going 40 mph. I heard the surgery was a success and I'm going to see if I can visit him tomorrow.
 
Glucosamine and calcium are a foot joints best friend Bladegrinder.
C Craft I can empathise with the not feeling a sharp blade cut you, I made the wife a paring knife and sharpened it as well. I was pulling the blade twards me when slicing a tater like I'd done thousands of times before, felt the blade touch my thumb and a split second later it stung a lil. 3 butterfly strips later and a lil super glue it stopped bleeding. Glad to hear both you gents are mending quickly.
 
wall e, a sharp knife will cut you without hurting but it usually cuts deep. You ever watch those professional chiefs when they are slicing something with the curled back fingers. It seems to be a weird way of doing it but every time I accidentally drag a knife across my fingers slicing I think there may be something to that! LOL

Glad you didn't take it too the bone! Super glue is a wonderful thing. The body will heal and push the superglue out of the cut as it heals!!!
 
The sting was the tater juice in the cut. I actually have started the wife an kids on cutting like that since your less likely to cut a flat backside of your finger vs a finger tip sticking out there.
 
Wow guy I hope you feel better.I use a sling blade and I have to watch guys with me beacuse they always get too close.
 
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