Captain Obvious on Exacto Knives

I wouldn't ding you for this one because when it comes to mislaid X-Acto knives, you don't find them; they find you! I return mine back to the case immediately. I look like a dork doing that, but it doesn't attack me from the workbench.

 

When I worked for TRW (now Northrop-Grumman) back in the late 70's, the X-Acto injuries at the company were so numerous that the started posting safety banners all over the place. It was a cartoon drawing that illustrated the point with a huge army of knights armed with X-Acto's instead of lances. The title read "The Carnage Continues!" with the tag line "Treat X-Acto Knives with Respect." Every office in the Redondo Beach facility used those things -- right up to the executive offices. What I hated about cutting myself was that every time you cut yourself, you had to go to the nurse's office and fill out a three-page accident report to get a band-aid. Needless to say, I got my own first aid kit and watched where I laid my X-Acto.

My brother spent a few hours in the emergency room last week and 2 hours in surgery. He found that an exacto knife will indeed cut through a tendon like it was soft butter. He is doing well but it will take awhile till he has normal movement back if ever. He is ten years my senior and he always jokes he is my example of exactly what not to do. Last summer he managed to put his foot into a moving lawn mower blade.

 

All kidding aside safety should always be on the mind. Even a simple task of trying to reach that back part of the layout can be dangerous if you stand on something stupid instead of grabbing the ladder. I speak from experience.

I have an inch long scar on my left palm near my thumb from one of these.   From that I learned "Don't whittle with an Exacto knife" and "Don't always do what your Boy Scout leader says to."

While workingat my model desk in bare feet, my knife roled off the desk and stuck into my foot. Worse, it went through my foot into the floor so I had to wiggle it, to get it out. I now wear shoes at my desk !

  Ed

Stay away from razor blades!

X-Acto knives are scalpels almost.  Hard to believe a mental genius such as myself had two consecutive #11 blade incidents within an hour on the same day, a deep cut to the thumb, a not so bad (shallow) cut to the index finger.

 

I've noticed, through the years, that the older I am allowed to get,the slower I heal.  HOWever, when I apply "triple antibiotic" ointment to a wound I heal almost as quickly as a young dude again.

 

Pete

 

 

In other news, water is wet.

I nearly took the tip of my thumb off with a fresh #11 blade. Still have the scar and the respect 30 years later.

I managed to cut the "knuckle skin" off my left index finger three quarters off by trying to cut the tip off a dried bottle of super glue. Holding the bottle in my left hand, I drove the xacto through the tip of the bottle with my right and it kept right on going, almost completely across the top of my knuckle. I wrapped it in paper towels and secured it with duct tape and held pressure on it for an hour. Throbbed like a sonofamyexwife.  

Apparently our hobby is much more dangerous than a lay person would expect. They have no idea of the dangers we face on a daily basis! But still we push on.  Before you know it there will be a box to check on insurance applications asking if you play with trains. 

Knives scare me, so much so that the X-Acto knife that I had, I threw away so I would not cut myself.

I jammed an x acto into the webbing between my thumb and pointer. After two shots of rum and some super glue I was good to go.

Since I haven't cut myself with an X-Acto in over 20 years, this thread is telling me I'm due -- overdue!. Maybe I bought myself some time by falling off the club layout and landing on my "caboose" about 10 years ago. Let's be careful out there.

May I add that you should NEVER cut along a plastic ruler with an Exacto knife.  Fifty five years ago when I was about fourteen I was cutting some rather thick balsa with my Exacto using a plastic ruler for a guide.  The blade snagged on the edge of the ruler and popped up out of the balsa and neatly sliced about 1/32" off the side of my index finger. It was a hard lesson because I still have the scar.   Odd-d    

As long as we're on the subject of X-acto knives, is it just me or does it seem like their blades are being made out of a cheaper steel? They look the same but don't seem to last as long. About a year ago, I bought a marked pack of #11's from my friendly Ace H'ware store. When I opened them up, I noticed that the X-acto stamp wasn't on the blade. I looked thru the rest of them and none of them were marked. HMMM? 

 

"AND NOW HERE'S CHANNEL 5s WEATHERMAN OLLIE WILLIAMS

WITH A WARNING ABOUT MATCHES."

 

 

"THEY'RE FLAMMABLE !"

"THANKS OLLIE."

Jerry

Reminds me of the time many years ago when I was overseas with the Foreign Service and I had just gotten a new Gerber lockback folder from the mail order PX. I showed it to a co-worker who was an ex-cop from DC, so you'd think he knew something about knives! This character says "Ah, this ain't all that sharp" - and proceeded to test the blade by running his thumb on it the long way rather than across like anybody with any sense does. The Gerber was, of course, way sharper than razor sharp, and the papers on his desk turned bright red, as did his thumb. His comment: "Oops, I guess it is sharp." 

quote:

About a year ago, I bought a marked pack of #11's from my friendly Ace H'ware store.

 

I expect that Xacto has moved their manufacturing offshore.

There are several companies making Xacto knockoffs, including #11 blades.

Was the package marked Xacto?

The blades on the Xacto knives are now made of a mushy metal that the tip bends when pressed down to cut something.The poor quality of the blades happened when Xacto was bought out and the production was moved to China.I only use Excel blades now.The blades are strong and high quality and are made in the USA.

Dan 

Sounds like you really needed the super glue then!

I've been lucky, never done more than prick my finger, etc.

 

 

I've used X-Acto knives since I was 13 and convinced my dad to let me have a set for my modeling.  Now, I buy Number 11 blades by the hundred pack.  For some reason, I find the loose blades, as when taking several out of a box of 100 to set aside for use, more dangerous/more in need of extra attention than a blade fitted to the knife.

I cut the tip of my right index finger off with a brand new Exacto blade some 30 years ago. Drove myself to a clinic to get it sewed back on. The doctor first had to give me a shot of anesthetic, and he somehow broke the needle in my finger. That was the day I became a left-handed nose picker.

...Yes, many of us have taken 'baby steps' in the competition for the Darwin Award!  Some of us have the scars to prove it! 

 

Some of us have even begun to race towards the award!  Tim Allen probably isn't the only one known on a firs-name basis in the Emergency Room!

 

No wonder that labels are slapped on everything to give us 'fair warning'.

 

Like the Swedish chainsaw mfr's...."Do not hold the equipment between your legs when starting."

 

KD

I figured you guys would step up with some gruesome stories, and you didn't disappoint!  Punctures, cuts, impalements ... nice.    

 

Me too!  For the same reasons, and the added advantage that when I accidentally slash myself the cuts are cleaner and less painful.

 

Pete

Jeff,

I feel your pain! <G> When I was about fourteen I was sitting on the living room floor working on a plastic model, when one of my sisters came flying through the front door and fell over me knocking the xacto knife in the air and right in to my right knee. Mom was sitting on the couch, and the first thing she does is go to see if my sister was ok, not bothering to mention anything about the knife sticking out of my leg as she goes by. I sat up and saw the knife in my (wasn't hurting yet) leg, pulled it out, and started bleeding like a stuck pig. I got up hobbled to the bathroom, poured alcohol (more pain) on the hole, bandaged my leg, and went to find my sister to nail her with mom for committing a grounding offense in our house of running indoors. Just when I think I have finally nailed one of my pesky sisters, dad walks in from work. Dad was a old time Navy, and Douglas Aircraft guy who espoused terms like "the right tool for the right job in the right place." By the time I got there, my sister had stated her case, and blamed me for being in the living room (not bad for a ten year old) working on the model. Soooooo, you guessed it, I got the blame and the four days of confinement to my room, which I spent happily working on my model. Being the oldest and only boy with three younger sisters really sucked!!!!

 

As for the quality of the current Xacto line I can say their quality has really gone down hill since the Elmers glue people took over the company. They are dropping items from the line every quarter. I prefer Excel products which have much better quality over Xacto products. I rep both lines and my Excel sales have risen to ten to one over Xacto. By the way Excel has a #11 "super sharp" blade that is even better than the standard #11. Although from what I have read here, most of us should stick to the standard blade.

 

By the way as I sit here I can still see the scar after forty years!

 

Regards,

Randall

Hi guy's I also learned how sharp an Exacto knife is this past week.

Two nice pretty deep cuts, one on my thumb and one on the index finger.

Learned my lesson.

 

Alex

Well.....they are kinda sharp!

I have been a model builder for 50 years. Of late the X-acto #11 blades seemed to be not as sharp as they once were. I complained to a friend and he sent me some blades that looked like X-acto #11 but each blade was packed in foam in an individual box. I got one out and put it in a handle. They looked really sharp. They worked very well. I was happy....SHARP hobby knife once again.

 

But I got stupid in my happiness and my knife got away from me and went into my hand near my wrist and continued half way up my thumb. Cut all the way to the bone....needless to say lots of blood. It might sound bad but it was just a cut. My issue was I was home alone, and it was early in the day and I had not put on my prosthetic leg yet!! So I pulled off my T shirt wrapped it around my hand and tied it tight. Got myself the 10 miles to the hospital and got sown up! The ER DR was impressed with the cut as 99% of cuts he sees are chain saw cuts, ragged and filled with dirt and wood!

 

So no matter how sharp.....keep your mind right!! I didn't keep mine!

From Wikipedia (for what it's worth) a bit of background on the X-Acto knife:

 

The original knife was invented in the 1930s by Sundel Doniger, a Polish immigrant to the United States. He had planned to sell it to surgeons as a scapel but it was not acceptable, because it could not be cleaned. His brother-in-law, Daniel Glück (father of poet Louise Gluck), suggested that it might be a good craft tool.

 

Personally, I've always preferred the Zona blades over X-Acto. I find it's easier to put an edge on them with a hard Arkansas stone when they get a little dull.

 

I've never figured out how to get an accurate cutting in a direction away from myself.

My biggest sin with these thus far (knock on wood!) is not replacing the dull blades and trying to cut with them.  That is asking for a major slip and problem.  Have to remind myself to get replacements next time at the local hobby shop.

By reading through this thread it seems the most effective way to sharpen an x acto blade is with human flesh.

A great prank in the EB engineering depsrtment where I used to work was to cut out a copy of an Exacto blade fron a file folder, wrap it in silver foil from a stick of gum and put it in some guy's Exacto knife.  The look on his face when the fake blade collapses is pretty funny.   Odd-d

When I was much younger and not very bright I was trimming a piece of balsa which I had sitting in my lap, it slipped and I cut right thru my jeans to my inner thigh. Only inches from some important equipment. After a couple of stitches everything was fine. Now any trimming from then on  is done on a table or hard surface.  Never cut my fingers or hands though!!!   

David, that story just made my toes curl up to my ankles! I never cut myself badly with an Exacto but I did manage run a 1/4" wood chisel into the back of my hand resulting in a 1 1/2" gash down to the bone. I was trying to remove a small amount of wood in a tunnel for clearance issues and the wood kept moving so I held it with my left hand and hit the chisel that was stuck in the wood with a hammer. It worked too well, the chisel knocked the piece of wood out and continued into my hand. I think we look at how dangerous our tools are based on size and power and tend to look at the smaller ones as safer, it's the little ones that will alway get you!

 

Jerry

My job requires me to use an x-acto knife quite a bit. At one point I thought it would be cool to carry one up one my ear, like a cigarette. But I quickly discovered that every time I bent my head over at my work table, the knife would fall out and stick me in the hand. So much for looking cool.

 

Bruce

 

quote:

Hi guy's I also learned how sharp an Exacto knife is this past week.

Looks to me like the X-Acto knives are reaping their revenge on those who can not spell its name correctly! Wooooooo...that's eerie!

Since I haven't cut myself with an X-Acto in over 20 years, this thread is telling me I'm due -- overdue!. Maybe I bought myself some time by falling off the club layout and landing on my "caboose" about 10 years ago.

Matt,  It is a good thing that you had not already switched to an end-of-train device.  Pat B.

Reading these horror stories is making me feel queasy   I don't like the sight of blood, especially when its my own

 

I've had an Xacto roll off a table and almost stick in my foot, but the knee-jerk reaction trying to get out of its way caused more damage.

 

Another thing to watch for are small slivers of metal when drilling or cutting.  Sometimes I bring my Dremel into the house and drill a hole or two.  If I don't gather up all the filings, shavings. etc, I always seem to pick them up in my socks or feet.

 

My ex-mother-in-law stepped on a toothpick once and couldn't pull it out (it got stuck in the joint of her big toe).  Her son took her to the Naval Hospital and by the time they got around to her it had already gotten infected so bad they thought they would have to amputate.

 

If any of you are diabetics PLEASE be careful around all this stuff

Guys,

 

Common! Enough is enough! Can we cut this discussion? Didn't you get the point by now?

 

Mike