Tendonitis and knife making ?

B

Black cat

Well-Known Member
About a year ago I developed a severe case of tendonitis (tennis elbow) in both arms.
It took most of the year and many trips to physio to heal my arms. Now any time spent in my shop making knives causes the tendonitis to flare up quite badly. It also seems to beat the life out of my hands as well. Swelling blisters and locked up joints after one day in the shop. Its all from the repetitive motion of hand sanding and filing.
I have no idea what to do about this. I have stretches from the physio but they seem to do very little for my arms. How does one sand and file without actually going through the motion ? How do you guys avoid and manage all the impact of this sort of work on the body/arms/hands over time ?
 
A TENS unit will help a great deal. Apply the contact pads directly on your tendon at the top of your forearm and the other pad up around the inside of the biceps.

The key to treating tendonitis is increased blood flow. Your tendons get very little blood, and blood exchange is what's needed to carry nutrients and oxygen into the tendon to decrease inflammation.

I have been a competitive armwrestler for 20 years. Elbow tendon inflammation is the story of my life.

If you have a good chiropractor or therapist you go to, request E-STIM and ultrasound on your elbows.

A TENS unit is a home unit for E-Stim. You can buy one on Amazon. You don't need an expensive fancy one for elbows.



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Are you filing your bevels or do you have a belt grinder? If you're filing them, your doomed to those symptoms, that's hard work. If you have a belt grinder, maybe you're not taking them close enough to finish before switching to hand work. I have that problem sometimes, the closer I get to being done on the grinder, the more scared I get that I'm about to mess up. I have a tendency to switch to hand work a little too soon sometimes. I too have been plagued with elbow problems, tendinitis and bursitis. I've had to have fluid drained off both elbows in the past. But, that was before knife making, and so far making knives hasn't been that problematic to me.
 
Self Made Knives said:
Are you filing your bevels or do you have a belt grinder? If you're filing them, your doomed to those symptoms, that's hard work. If you have a belt grinder, maybe you're not taking them close enough to finish before switching to hand work. I have that problem sometimes, the closer I get to being done on the grinder, the more scared I get that I'm about to mess up. I have a tendency to switch to hand work a little too soon sometimes. I too have been plagued with elbow problems, tendinitis and bursitis. I've had to have fluid drained off both elbows in the past. But, that was before knife making, and so far making knives hasn't been that problematic to me.
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That pretty much sums up my process as well. On the grinder I tend to overdue it too fast so I get paranoid and go to files and hand sanding too soon. Thats an adjustment im trying to make in my technique. Im also trying to remember not to use a death grip on everything and change up my motions from time to time.
also my woek area is too high im going to have to make a platform to get the equipment closer to waist level so the arms arent always bent, reducing circulation.

My father has a decent tens machine ill have to borrow that !
 
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I feel your pain, when I first started I was filling all my bevels by hand followed by hours of hand sanding. It got bad, I had to take a break and get one of those straps like John is talking about. Also my boss had tennis elbow bad once and let me borrow this little ultra sound hand wond thing and I think it helped a bunch you use it twice a day and it does some magic vodo that increases the blood flow. You might check into one of those.
 
Ive seen those ultrasound devices. I think something like that would help. Atm im using one of the tennis elbow straps that immobilizes the muscle. I think im just going to have to get my grinder game on and avoid the 16 hours of filing and sanding lol.
 
Sounds to me, as I understand it will continue to get worse knife making or not if you don't have the operation on your wrists to clear the pressure around the nerves. Many years ago I had both wrists done and after a couple of weeks recovery, I never had any more problems. Now that was for tendonitis. Isn't tennis elbow something else?
Frank
 
As a practicing Physician Assistant that treats this condition (lateral epicondylitis) on a regular basis, I will advise skipping TENS, ultrasound and Iontophoresis. The condition is difficult at best to effectively treat. The best outcomes seen in occupational medicine are from direct steroid injection at point of maximal tenderness. This deposits the steroid right where it needs to be. See your health care provider to discuss further and lock in the diagnosis. The other key to handling condition is to modify your behaviors. The stress is placed on the lateral epicondyle when you extend wrist or fingers - By simply supinating (palms up) your hands, you switch stressor to medial epicondyle.
 
Frank Niro said:
Sounds to me, as I understand it will continue to get worse knife making or not if you don't have the operation on your wrists to clear the pressure around the nerves. Many years ago I had both wrists done and after a couple of weeks recovery, I never had any more problems. Now that was for tendonitis. Isn't tennis elbow something else?
Frank
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Frank, was it carpel tunnel syndrome surgery? I'm have more trouble with the tops of my wrists. The carpel surgeries I've seen are done on the underside not on top
 
The OP is referencing elbow, not wrist condition. Top of wrist pain is often associated with arthritis or ligament instability/tears in the wrist causing dorsal wrist pain Ref TFCC tear.
 
Hi Bruce.
Hmmm. Mine was a situation where my hands would get a "sleepy" feeling. They were done, I've heard it called drilled from the inside. I left the hospital the next day without any pain or pills. I guess it doesn't go that easy.
Frank
 
That's my typical symptom as well, my hands going to sleep. I can usually feel it coming on when I haven't been treated in a while. It starts with my pinky and ring finger getting tingles and if I don't address it, the numbness will start affecting the outer half of my hand, and eventually work its way down my forearm. When my forearms are constantly going to sleep I know I have waited to long to get therapy. I've been dealing with this for about fifteen years now. It's a universal condition for people in my sport.

Kayaker Steve makes a great point. If your biggest concern is alleviating the pain, then it's hard to beat direct injection of a corticosteroid directly into the area. Nothing's going to be faster than that.

Personally, my problem isn't the pain and tingling so much as decreased strength. I've been using E-Stim and Ultrasound for about fifteen years, as needed, and for me it works wonders. Another treatment that guys like me use a lot these days is cold laser. Again, none of this is going to give immediate relief. So from Steve's perspective, these therapies wouldn't seem to be all that useful. But if this is a chronic condition, corticosteroids bring their own baggage over time. Granted, we're talking apples and oranges here. My approach works for me. I'm not in constant pain, though. Medial and lateral epichondylitis is a given in my sport, and we treat it with therapy. If you are beyond the point where you can reverse the inflammation, if the nerves are damaged, then nothing I'm telling you is going to do a lot for you. But if it's not that bad, I'm here to tell you from first hand experience that E-Stim and Ultrasound do in fact work very well as maintenance therapies for this condition.
 
Thanks for all the advice on this :D
Yes its mostly in my elbows but ive had surgery on my hands.
Poor circulation and some sort of systemic inflammatory condition seems to make me prone to this sort of thing.
When my hands were fixed a few years ago the fingers were almost cmpletely numb. since then they have been getting worse again but it comes and goes.
 
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