Hello everyone,
so I’ll now continue on with the tree cutting story , and ill be starting off  with the basic description to you and for mostly for the uneducated readers , the main options one has available to split firewood.

Back in the day ,
When I first started cutting fire wood ,
There were a few different methods available for me to split the pieces of wood I had in my pile that were too big for my firebox.

You could use a steal  splitting wedge or an old  axe  head and then strike it hard with a sledgehammer to hit and drive the wedge deep into the guts of the log to break it apart.

You can also choose to use a job specific log splitting axe , and you use it just by swinging the block splitter over your head to strike the end of the log and hopefully split it into pieces.

Both of these methods are proven effective over time but they take a great deal of physical effort ,sweat and a long time to get to the end required result.
But it’s great exercise.

The third and simple way is to use a mechanical method and a job specific splitting machine to split your logs , that also greatly reduces  the required physical effort needed to split , but it increases the actual personal danger. 

I must warn everyone now that is reading this story that some of the following descriptions and the photos accompanying them a bit later in this story , will contain graphic detail and images and some of you may find this disturbing.

So a few years ago for some reason I think I was just tired physically of manually splitting wood and I spoilt myself and I brought myself a 50 tonne hydraulic log splitter.
I bought it mostly to make life a bit easier, and to speed up the wood splitting process.
I purchased a bigger capacity machine than standard and I spent the extra money on it ,to buy one that comes with a hydraulic lifting table ,
so instead of struggling to lift up big heavy rounds onto the splitting bed , you simply roll them onto the table base at ground level and then engage the lifting leaver and the table rises lifting the log round easily for you and the log then lands at  the right level at the ram working area and its also giving you a practical working table.

Then you place the timber round against the foot plate of the bed and with the engine running you engage  the hand leaver that controls the hydraulic ram, to move it forward and back and you then can begin splitting.

The ram has a dangerous semi sharp metal splitting wedge attached to its working end.
There are no machinery guards available for this type of machine.

This splitter machine has so much power that you can cut through a log with a log thats laying across the foot and bed sideways instead of facing the ram , its totally against the timber grain ,
so it’s no toy. 

So it’s supposed to be hands clear , split and then prepare for the next piece .

So it’s all good in theory.

So now we are back at the property on the job at the last clean up and finish stage ,
there was just a few small piles of wood logs left to split.
So I got stuck right into it , and at one stage right near the very end ,a big chunk of wood became stuck on the sharp end of the splitting wedge and I was just then putting a bigger log in place to break it off , when Boat walked passed me and he said something,
My left hand was on the back of the log and my other on the control leaver.
I turned my head to look at him and I must have then inadvertently engaged the ram leaver and the machine pushed out the ram as I turned .

Out of the blue,  I felt hard pressure on a few of my fingers .
In a split second
I quickly released the leaver , and  then I quickly reversed it .
I took out my hand and I looked at my fingers and the damage.

I swore a bit .

The instant pain I felt was quite intense.
I wrapped up my bleeding fingers tight in my handkerchief and just continued to split the wood that was left .

Once I finished ,
we got out my first aid kit and Boat  tried to dress my fingers and apply first aid as best he could.
I said that ill smother them with bedadine and redress them myself when I get home .

Being a panel beater,  in my past I was so used to cutting my fingers and sometimes really badly that back then I would just wrap them up in masking tape instead of going to the doctors.
This in the past for me has been a good method and worked often quite well.

So I drove home with blood weeping fast out of the dressing ,
I was gritting my teeth from the pain and accidentally knocking my sore fingers on the gearshift on the drive home .

Once I got home and unwrapped my fingers to assess the damage, I washed them in the laundry sink with running water and hell , did that sting.
So on closer inspection my ring finger had been squashed enough to burst meat through the fingertip and also through the fingerprint.
My little finger had fared much worse and it had burst and split down the side to the middle knuckle.
It was moving freely when i wiggled it and it obviously,certainly this job was way beyond masking tape.

Hmm
I rang the Wonthaggi medical clinic to see if I go there or straight up to the hospital?
Hospital was the decision.
So off I go to Bass Coast Health Hospital emergency department.
I like everyone else don’t really like visiting there as It sometimes can take a long time to be seen to.
I walked in and the place was packed .
I did the check in requirement and took a seat .
To my surprise about half an hour later they called me.

A nurse took off the dressings and prepped my fingers for assessment with a saline solution and she was actually scrubbing them both and inside the wounds reasonably hard with a gauze cloth .
She was apologetic for giving  the extra pain and asked me how it was ?
And if I needed pain relief?
I told her it was intense but Im ok.
Not long after a doctor came and got me.

We went to a medical room and he took a close look .
He said that maybe I needed a plastic surgeon.
And some xrays on my fingers.
Maybe , I was a bit too  cheeky and I refused to have the x-rays as I have had broken fingers before in my past and  there is no real treatment anyway , and mine are not broken and the bones are fine.

With the depth of the split  on my little finger there were concerns about the condition of the visible tendon .
I had checked out my fingers at home and they had full movement and feeling in them .
So I asked the Dr to do me a favor and just sew me up , and he agreed.

Funny thing when he prept the equipment and he held up the needle of local anaesthetic he was about to warn me about what was to come.
I laughed and said if you look at my record I’ve probably had over a hundred sets of stitchers over the years , so I know exactly , what to expect.

Something was completely different this time,
It was not the pain of the needle , or the sting of its contents ,
but once I was injected the Dr then strangely started cutting up rubber gloves into strips,
He then used the strips to tourniquet each of my fingers, explaining to me that it helps keep the anaesthetic  working in the area for longer .

So away he went , sewing me up magnificently and chatting occasionally and in no time we were done.

The thing is with stitches even with the numbing of your wound you are bound to feel the needle pierce your skin and the meat just below it , and the sewing thread pinch down hard on everything when the knot is drawn tight.

To top it off I also had a really bad toothache and a problem molar.
So I made an appointment for the dentist the next morning to have it extracted.
Once that job was done I was like a real hospital basket case ,

Once again I have to take it easy , im not allowed to wet  my hand or get it wet at all for over a week , and  the fantastic nurse at the Wonthaggi medical clinic is keeping an eye on the wound , dressing it periodically during the healing process.

I forgot to count the sutures , but I guess about seven in my pinkie and two in my ringfinger.

Next pain ,
was a tetanus needle in the arm .
So I now have sore fingers , tooth and arm lol
It wasn’t turning out the greatest day .

In all honesty for the  whole weekend I was felling the tree, in my mind  I had consciously thought about my mate Brendon and his nasty accident with a log splinter often and I was so determined to be careful and not to meet the same fate .
So I guess its just a combination of a bit of physical fatigue and a bit of complacency on my behalf , as you only need to loose concentration for a split second to invite disaster to join you .

So now there is a new danger for me and thats infection .
So Im on Course of antibiotics for five days .

My pain threshold seems to be quite solid , as I havent had any pain relief though this whole ordeal.
I was hoping at this age that my painful accidents and incident’s  were a thing of the past , but unfortunately it looks like they are not.

Ive been accident prone for all of my life , maybe I’m just clumsy or still rushing things sometimes a bit too much .

So hopefully you readers of this story might take extra care with everything while doing what seems a quite simple task of collecting firewood .

And in Australia, have a warm and safe Winter .

Ps a big heartfelt thankyou to the caring staff at BCH and its busy emergency department.
Doctors and nurses and staff .

Cheers xxx
Curlyg