That Tuesday last May almost made me quit forging for good

I was working on a set of fireplace tools for a client in Boulder and my 3/8 inch drift punch slipped on a hot piece of steel. It caught my glove and yanked my hand into the anvil horn, broke my pinky finger clean. Spent 4 hours in urgent care and had to scrap the whole job, lost about $700 in material and time. Has anyone else had a tool slip like that ruin your whole week?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_thompson531mo ago

My buddy Dave had a similar thing happen with a ball peen hammer at his shop in Denver. Said the head bounced off a chisel and nailed his thumb so bad it swelled up like a grapefruit. Had to cancel two jobs that week and still complains about it every time he works on cold steel.

anthonymurray1mo ago

Good thing he wasn't using a framing hammer or he'd have lost the whole hand. Sounds like Dave learned the hard way that cold steel has zero give when it comes to your thumb. Hope he at least got a good story out of it, even if the swelling took a week to go down.