# Stupidity.



## JGui

I stabbed my hand with a 270mm dexter while putting a cork on the tip while cleaning after rush. Hurts more knowing how stupid i was.

What's your worst one? I know im not the only one. Or am i... :cry:


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## pjotr

:needpics:


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## Chef_

I was ******* around with my knife after sharpening it, hacking away at pieces of paper , and i missed and sliced part of my knuckle off. just barely missed an artery.


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## spoiledbroth

had a sous who lost a pinky tossing his knife around and catching it. sliced the tendon by accident and about three years later had to have it amputated because the cut tendon was causing his hand to claw up permanently. -_-

worst I ever did was take my fingertip off on a meat slicer, sent blood splatter up on the 20 ft ceiling (ceiling may get higher every time I tell the story). One of the few scars I figure will probably never fully heal. maybe half a mm shy of the bone on the very tip. it got that god awful instant clotting powder they keep in professionally stocked first aid stations. never. again.


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## JGui

I have a shot with flesh kinda oozing out but... you get the picture


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## JGui

spoiledbroth said:


> had a sous who lost a pinky tossing his knife around and catching it. sliced the tendon by accident and about three years later had to have it amputated because the cut tendon was causing his hand to claw up permanently. -_-
> 
> worst I ever did was take my fingertip off on a meat slicer, sent blood splatter up on the 20 ft ceiling (ceiling may get higher every time I tell the story). One of the few scars I figure will probably never fully heal. maybe half a mm shy of the bone on the very tip. it got that god awful instant clotting powder they keep in professionally stocked first aid stations. never. again.



What a nightmare..


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## JGui

Chef_ said:


> I was ******* around with my knife after sharpening it, hacking away at pieces of paper , and i missed and sliced part of my knuckle off. just barely missed an artery.



Ooooohhhh. Classic. Did this once and joked around, "now thats how you know its sharp"


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## tgfencer

Its a classic but a good one. New guy in the kitchen who was working his way through cooking school at the time, on his 2nd day knocked a knife I loaned him off a tabletop during prep and tried to catch it rather than getting out of the way and letting it drop. Missed all the important things luckily but had a deep gash across all four of his fingers and bleed like a fountain. As I recall, this kid always seemed to be injuring himself- touching hot things, grating his fingertips, catching himself on the mandoline- but I dont think he ever cut himself on a knife again.


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## Evilsports

One of my better scars came from stupidity. Came home from a night of indulging in my younger years and grabbed a tin of smoked oysters for my pre-sleep snack. Laid my hand across the top and pulled the tab with the other hand. Managed to slice between my thumb and first finger open enough for a half dozen stitches. :O


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## zetieum

New year's eve 2015-2016: I opened oysters after drinking quite some champagne.... Stuck the oyster knife in my palm. I enjoyed the rest of the evening, but on the morning of january 1st, when I woke up, I had a hard a time moving a finger in regard to my palm injury.... So I ended in the emergency and later in surgery on the 01/01. We were three like me in this hospital in Paris to get surgery for the same problem on 01/01. In France, it is classical to eat oysters for new year's eve. I had touched the tendon. One month of recovery. Now it is fine, just a scar to remember not to drink before opening oysters... 

Side note about health insurance, public hospital, and european union: I arrived at the hospital around 10am. I was checked by a doctor 30 min after. I was getting surgery same day at 3pm. I was back home at 10pm. I did not payed a cent for all this, neither for the taxi who drove me home, neither for all the drugs I had to take, neither for the nurse who came to my place few times to change the bandages. All was taken care of by the mandatory national health insurance. I would have costed more than 6000 euros (~6400US$), if not... There are some nice things about EU.


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## alterwisser

zetieum said:


> New year's eve 2015-2016: I opened oysters after drinking quite some champagne.... Stuck the oyster knife in my palm. I enjoyed the rest of the evening, but on the morning of january 1st, when I woke up, I had a hard a time moving a finger in regard to my palm injury.... So I ended in the emergency and later in surgery on the 01/01. We were three like me in this hospital in Paris to get surgery for the same problem on 01/01. In France, it is classical to eat oysters for new year's eve. I had touched the tendon. One month of recovery. Now it is fine, just a scar to remember not to drink before opening oysters...
> 
> Side note about health insurance, public hospital, and european union: I arrived at the hospital around 10am. I was checked by a doctor 30 min after. I was getting surgery same day at 3pm. I was back home at 10pm. I did not payed a cent for all this, neither for the taxi who drove me home, neither for all the drugs I had to take, neither for the nurse who came to my place few times to change the bandages. All was taken care of by the mandatory national health insurance. I would have costed more than 6000 euros (~6400US$), if not... There are some nice things about EU.



It probably would've cost you 60,000 in the US....


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## daveb

Don't be going there.......

So I just caught up on THIS thread, then going to Korin's site to id a Suisin Takobiki I'm thinking about putting on bst. I set the knife down. I bump the coffee cup. I grab for the coffee and bump the knife. I grabbed for the knife. All completely unsuccessful. Spilled coffee everywhere, small cut from chin of knife. But I know which Takobiki I have. Hate Mondays.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts

So cut-proof gloves are actually meant for situations where you handle knives with divided attention?


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## zetieum

alterwisser said:


> It probably would've cost you 60,000 in the US....



Komm zurück in die Heimat


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## spoiledbroth

zetieum said:


> New year's eve 2015-2016: I opened oysters after drinking quite some champagne.... Stuck the oyster knife in my palm. I enjoyed the rest of the evening, but on the morning of january 1st, when I woke up, I had a hard a time moving a finger in regard to my palm injury.... So I ended in the emergency and later in surgery on the 01/01. We were three like me in this hospital in Paris to get surgery for the same problem on 01/01. In France, it is classical to eat oysters for new year's eve. I had touched the tendon. One month of recovery. Now it is fine, just a scar to remember not to drink before opening oysters...
> 
> Side note about health insurance, public hospital, and european union: I arrived at the hospital around 10am. I was checked by a doctor 30 min after. I was getting surgery same day at 3pm. I was back home at 10pm. I did not payed a cent for all this, neither for the taxi who drove me home, neither for all the drugs I had to take, neither for the nurse who came to my place few times to change the bandages. All was taken care of by the mandatory national health insurance. I would have costed more than 6000 euros (~6400US$), if not... There are some nice things about EU.


My man! The technique was to blame not the champagne, have seen many a shucker go awry...

oysters will not yield to force... well they will but so will the skin on your hand as you found out  

You must only situate the point of the oyster knife properly in the shell, only on occasion or with certain varieties is it necessary to apply force to do this (though a french style oyster knife or kakimuki is better, but requires more skill as it can cause serious damage), from there it is all a matter of twisting. Plus the importance of a folded cloth cannot be understated.

I hope it won't happen again


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## JGui

Have you guys heard of the saying that a knife is truly yours only when you get cut by it?


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## Nemo

JGui said:


> Have you guys heard of the saying that a knife is truly yours only when you get cut by it?



Yeah, but it doesn't mean you have to cut a finger OFF


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## jessf

I picked up a red ikea knife. Handle was red, blade was red and the plastic blade cover was red. All the same red. So anyway, i always sheath the knife for storage. I do this with all knives. One time I left the knife unsheathed and when i came back to pick it up i grabbed the handle with one hand and the blade with the other and attempted to pull the sheath off. Took half a second to realize i was gripping the blade and not the sheath. I also wasnt looking directly at the knife when i picked it up. Small cuts along my fingers, had the knife been sharp it could have been serious. Inattention in the kicthen is a sin we've all commited, but a monochromatic coloured knife is a terrible idea. Contrasting colours between the blade, handle and sheath for cheap knives just make sense.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts

"Have you guys heard of the saying that a knife is truly yours only when you get cut by it?"

Or after the first time you sharpened it yourself (well, you "cut" the knife ?


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## Evilsports

LifeByA1000Cuts said:


> "Have you guys heard of the saying that a knife is truly yours only when you get cut by it?"
> 
> Or after the first time you sharpened it yourself (well, you "cut" the knife ?



I'm just learning to sharpen so whenever I do I like to kill two birds with one stone and cut both the knife and myself. This way it's REALLY mine.


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## lumo

First Blood...inserting a brand new 270 mioroshi deba back into the shiny black paper sheath it was shipped in. Dopey tried to force it in holding the folded sides and of course the edge cut right through and all four finger tips got some shig love.


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## JGui

During rush with a chef yelling at him, a friend of mine training, grabbed his veal millanese in the fryer with his bare hands. We all tried not to laugh seeing as he fried his hand :lol2:


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## krx927

I am cutting my self pretty often  It never happens when cutting, its always when I am working on the knife. 

I had this one 2 months ago when rounding spine with sanding paper doing shoe shine motion. I was not careful a nicked 1mm om my finger off. It was not that bad but I was bleeding as a pig. I went to ER to have it properly bandaged. Next day when I woke up the whole bandage was completely red on the finger. After that luckily the bleeding stopped and it healed pretty fast:


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## Chef_

After paying hospital bills for finger lacerations, i dont think ill ever go back to the ER for cuts, unless i cut an artery.


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## Nemo

Sure, if its a superficial cut. But be careful, there's lots of fragile structures (tendons, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments, flexor pulleys, extensor retinaculae....) in a hand that are easy to injure and are immediately under the skin. Also, the last thing you want is to get septic arthritis or tennosynovitis. I would not advise "seeing how it goes" with very deep cuts.
I guess it's easy for me to say living in a country with readily available publicly funded health care, but yikes! these are your hands we are talking about.


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## skewed

Chef_ said:


> After paying hospital bills for finger lacerations, i dont think ill ever go back to the ER for cuts, unless i cut an artery.



Yup- I am pretty good at knowing if I can take care of it or not. CA works well and I couldn't care less about a little scar. The only stitches I have had are when I paid for the cut.


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## Nemo

skewed said:


> Yup- I am pretty good at knowing if I can take care of it or not. CA works well and I couldn't care less about a little scar. The only stitches I have had are when I paid for the cut.



What is CA?


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## zetieum

Nemo said:


> Sure, if its a superficial cut. But be careful, there's lots of fragile structures (tendons, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments, flexor pulleys, extensor retinaculae....) in a hand that are easy to injure and are immediately under the skin. Also, the last thing you want is to get septic arthritis or tennosynovitis. I would not advise "seeing how it goes" with very deep cuts.
> I guess it's easy for me to say living in a country with readily available publicly funded health care, but yikes! these are your hands we are talking about.



I would also be very careful: with my oyster accident, I could have lost a tendon, although the cut seemed to me superficial. But same thing here: I do not pay hospital's bill thanks to universal health care.


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## skewed

Nemo said:


> What is CA?



Cyanoacrylate. It has a really interesting development history. Check out the wiki page for it. Most people know it as 'super glue'.


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## Nemo

Ah yes, super glue. The one used in hospitals is dyed blue. I don't know if it's otherwise the same as the stuff that comes from the hardware store.


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## skewed

Nemo said:


> Ah yes, super glue. The one used in hospitals is dyed blue. I don't know if it's otherwise the same as the stuff that comes from the hardware store.



Most likely it is the same thing. The rare times I sustain a cut, I keep a tube of it in my pocket. Usually have to use it a few times through a shift to keep a weepy cut closed.


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## Nemo

Interesting. I always wondered whether you could do that.


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## skewed

Nemo said:


> Interesting. I always wondered whether you could do that.



Oh yes, it works very well. It cures very quickly (1-2 minutes if that) and will hold for a few hours even on a highly used articulating joint.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts

There might be whatever additives in hardware store CA glues. However, there ARE NSF grade CA glues, maybe these would be the most reasonable choice around food...


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## Nemo

Ok, I've gotta ask, what's NSF?


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## LifeByA1000Cuts

Food safety certification... doesn't mean it's an ingredient though


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## Nemo

LifeByA1000Cuts said:


> Food safety certification... doesn't mean it's an ingredient though



Well, I guess it would 'hold the dish together' :big grin:

(Wow, that joke was so bad that I almost didn't post it).


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## krx927

Chef_ said:


> After paying hospital bills for finger lacerations, i dont think ill ever go back to the ER for cuts, unless i cut an artery.





Nemo said:


> Sure, if its a superficial cut. But be careful, there's lots of fragile structures (tendons, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments, flexor pulleys, extensor retinaculae....) in a hand that are easy to injure and are immediately under the skin. Also, the last thing you want is to get septic arthritis or tennosynovitis. I would not advise "seeing how it goes" with very deep cuts.
> I guess it's easy for me to say living in a country with readily available publicly funded health care, but yikes! these are your hands we are talking about.





zetieum said:


> I would also be very careful: with my oyster accident, I could have lost a tendon, although the cut seemed to me superficial. But same thing here: I do not pay hospital's bill thanks to universal health care.



Must say that in Belgium this is not an issue. I received an invoice for 19 eur afterwards.


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## JGui

I thought my chef was crazy when he offered me super glue. Thats interesting


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## Marek07

Decades ago I bought a 6.5 inch (~160mm) Wusthof chef knife as a birthday present to myself. Thinking the edge wasn't all that great, I sharpened it immediately. Birthday morning consisted of a chicken and champagne breakfast. (back then we were allowed to call our sparkling wines champagne). Needless to say, several glasses of bubbly were consumed. The new Wustie was used to carve the chook but the last time I did this I left the knife blade leaning against the cutting board with the handle on the counter top. Could have been the oiliness, could have been the alcohol but stupidity was definitely involved. 

The knife slipped and fell towards the floor. Can't recall if I put my foot out to stop its descent or not - a silly reflex many here have mentioned - but it landed horizontally across my big toe. I was barefoot and very quickly learnt that there's an artery in the big toe when I saw blood gushing to knee height. Bleeding was stemmed and off to the doctor who put in a few stitches. Unfortunately, the tendon was cut as well which resulted in a very floppy big toe. Was told I'd need a graft but months later, just as surgery was scheduled, it magically seemed to regrow itself. 

sharp object + alcohol + stupidity = nothing good


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## Mucho Bocho

Marek, Your story is both funny and terrifying at the same time. Its almost like a Greek tragedy. The GODS have resurrected your toe. You know you could be a King someday?

Sincerely, Hope your toe heals properly. 




Marek07 said:


> Decades ago I bought a 6.5 inch (~160mm) Wusthof chef knife as a birthday present to myself. Thinking the edge wasn't all that great, I sharpened it immediately. Birthday morning consisted of a chicken and champagne breakfast. (back then we were allowed to call our sparkling wines champagne). Needless to say, several glasses of bubbly were consumed. The new Wustie was used to carve the chook but the last time I did this I left the knife blade leaning against the cutting board with the handle on the counter top. Could have been the oiliness, could have been the alcohol but stupidity was definitely involved.
> 
> The knife slipped and fell towards the floor. Can't recall if I put my foot out to stop its descent or not - a silly reflex many here have mentioned - but it landed horizontally across my big toe. I was barefoot and very quickly learnt that there's an artery in the big toe when I saw blood gushing to knee height. Bleeding was stemmed and off to the doctor who put in a few stitches. Unfortunately, the tendon was cut as well which resulted in a very floppy big toe. Was told I'd need a graft but months later, just as surgery was scheduled, it magically seemed to regrow itself.
> 
> sharp object + alcohol + stupidity = nothing good


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## alterwisser

zetieum said:


> Komm zurück in die Heimat



We have German health insurance [emoji12]


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## Marek07

Mucho Bocho said:


> Marek, Your story is both funny and terrifying at the same time. Its almost like a Greek tragedy. The GODS have resurrected your toe. You know you could be a King someday?
> 
> Sincerely, Hope your toe heals properly.


Thanks MB. This happened a long time ago and the toe has fully healed. 
Funny story? Not from my perspective. Greek tragedy? Definitely not. Happy to have walked normally ever since the tendon managed to mend. Surgeon couldn't understand how 3 inches of tendon managed to regrow itself. I'm just thankful that it did.

But despite such a powerful lesson, my foot still shoots out when something falls. A strop fell on my foot just this week resulting in a massive bruise. Guess I'm just a slow learner! :O


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## Cashn

The dumbest thing I've done is jam the flat "tip" of a tanto blade into my left pointer finger. A day on the river and splitting chicken wings with a pocket knife at my buddy's house afterwards was the reason for this. Nice scar that almost half circles my finger and some odd twitching that occasionally happens was the result. I really hate when you slice a bit of your knuckle off going too fast and it takes forever to heal because the wound is swollen and you keep knicking it. Even though I have gloves on I still manage to agitate it so that it takes forever for a little scallop out of your finger to heal. And superglue/duct tape are always in my bag. Between the two, with some paper towels, most injurys in the kitchen aren't an excuse hehe.


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## spoiledbroth

Marek07 said:


> Thanks MB. This happened a long time ago and the toe has fully healed.
> Funny story? Not from my perspective. Greek tragedy? Definitely not. Happy to have walked normally ever since the tendon managed to mend. Surgeon couldn't understand how 3 inches of tendon managed to regrow itself. I'm just thankful that it did.
> 
> But despite such a powerful lesson, my foot still shoots out when something falls. A strop fell on my foot just this week resulting in a massive bruise. Guess I'm just a slow learner! :O



or maybe you've got magic feet.

I have magic eyes in that, any time I'm working with something that could become airborne in a kitchen, it's going in my eyes. Slice some peppers, juice directly in the eye. Lemon? Same. Split lobster tails? Cool brb gotta go to hospital and have them flush some shell out of my eye socket.


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## WingKKF

Maybe it's time to consider safety glasses in the kitchen. Could help with onions too.


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## Marek07

To enshrine my stupidity, here's a photo of my "magic" left foot. It's the same one that stopped a Wustie from hitting the floor many moons ago. 
Injuries from knives happen all the time but it takes a monumental amount of stupidity to be injured by something as innocuous as a strop.
:O

View attachment 34362


For the record, it looks worse than it really is but it will take another couple of days to get it into a shoe.



Added by Angie


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## Nemo

Ouch. You sure you haven't busted something?


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## Marek07

Nothing apart from capillaries and pride. Apart from an initially uttered expletive, I didn't even realise the extent of the damage till I tried to put shoes on 5 hours later. No pain remains. ))


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## shownomarci

Trial shift 5 years ago. Sliced some leeks and a fingertip. 
Ended up at a local ER. Had my thumb properly dressed. 
Went back to work and finished my shift.
Had another trial shift then stayed there for a good 3 years.


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## mhpr262

My most memorable knife injuries were neither work- nor kitchen knife related ...

When I was around ten or twelve I was fooling around with my Swiss Army knife and tried to dig out a chunk of a solid chocolate Santa Claus by forcing the tip of the knife into the chocolate ... the blade promptly folded without warning and cut open the back of my middle finger. I can still see the edge embedded into my finger before my eyes, 30 years later. It is the most noticeable knife scar on my hands (the overall most noticeable scar is motorcycle crash related ...)

My other accident could have been a lot more serious - I had just gifted myself a new Fairbairn-Aplegate commando dagger and was lying in bed, on my back, and playing around with it while holding it in front of my face when it suddenly slipped from my fingers. I was just barely able to stop it with the fingers of my left hand before the ******* thing - heavy, razor sharp, needle pointed and double edged - would have hit me in the face. Put a really deep gash in the side od one finger, but I didn't complain. My idiocy could easily have cost me an eye, no idea what I had been thinking. Nothing, most likely.


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## Badgertooth

Wanted to do a cutting vid, 3 beers in, my daughter decides play with the camera. I take my attention from the spring onions to tell her off. I cut to near the bone of my finger with a 270 Toyama with a fresh Karasu edge. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for you guys, in messing with the camera she manages to pause the recording otherwise it'd be recorded for posterity


"muuuuuum!! Daddy's got blood!"


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## valgard

@Badgertooth That's how you got that recent injury I saw posted in your IG?


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## Badgertooth

valgard said:


> @Badgertooth That's how you got that recent injury I saw posted in your IG?



That's the one!


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## valgard

Badgertooth said:


> That's the one!



Ouch, hope you get better soon.


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## TheCaptain

Dude! Alcohol and sharp pointy things don't mix!!!


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## Mucho Bocho

TheCaptain said:


> Dude! Alcohol and sharp pointy things don't mix!!!



Guess your never seen Maxim or Drinky's party's. I'd clarify, knives drinking and sharpening don't go together.


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## Keith Sinclair

Another going back in time. When I was a paper boy at around 13 hit a curb with a loaded basket of papers. The end of the handle bar went into my palm. Severed an artery spurting blood. Lucky was at a Doctors house. Remember him putting something under my nose because I was passing out. Think I can see part of that circle scar almost 60 years later.


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