Gave myself a nasty splinter in the middle of a big job last summer

I was rushing to finish a deck rebuild in a backyard in Raleigh before a thunderstorm hit, and I grabbed a pressure-treated board without double checking for rough edges. That board had a long splinter that jammed deep under my thumbnail, and I spent the next 20 minutes trying to fish it out with needle nose pliers while rain started pouring on my half-done work. Has anyone else had a little injury like that completely throw off their whole day on a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelrodriguez8d ago

Oh man, the "grabbing a board without checking" thing got me. I did that exact same move with a rough cedar 2x4 last fall, and a splinter went straight into my palm about an inch deep. I couldn't even close my hand right for the rest of the day. Had to wrap it in duct tape just to keep working, which is a terrible idea but I was already three hours behind schedule. The worst part is you know you should have looked first, but you're in a hurry and bam, now you're picking wood out of your skin instead of finishing the damn job.

betty1268d ago

Well I gotta say, I kind of disagree with you there, @michaelrodriguez. If you're in a hurry and grab a board without looking, that's on you for not taking the extra two seconds it takes to run your hand over it first. I mean, who's really to blame here? The wood or the person who didn't bother to check? Duct tape for a splinter? That's just asking for infection later on, isn't it? Sometimes you gotta slow down to speed up, you know?

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