[TheForge] Re: Protective gear

[Andy Vida]

Charle B Vincent wrote:

> The worst burn I have had doing blacksmithing was when a chisel I was
> carving the edge of a piece of red hot iron slipped, my chisel hand of
> course followed the arc and the meat on the outside of my hand made
> contact.  Sounded just like steak being dropped on the grill. 

	I did this.  I was splitting stock in the vise at bright yellow
	heat.  The chisel bounced out of the groove and the heel of my
	left hand went right into the hot iron.  It was one nasty burn.
	The really strange thing about it was that two weeks later you
	could hardly tell I'd been burned and today there is absolutely
	no hint of it, and the flesh had been charred black.

	Far worse was two years ago when I grabbed a bar at about 900*,
	and grabbed it hard.  Marshall watched me do the dance around the
	slack tub swearing like you don't want to know. one thing I 
	discovered that day was putting the burn on ice for about 8 hours
	will work a minor miracle for the pain.  I was seriously hurting
	and went home and prepared and ice pack, then crashed on the
	couch for about 8 hours - dead out - awoke to find my hand did
	not hurt and almost felt unburned.  It also healed rapidly in
	comparison to what I would have otherwise expected.