Post #151162 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Tue, Apr 5, 2005 9:37 AM

Hi Ben,

Just checking to see if that pesky nail has come off yet.

I thought you might appreciate the similar problems I encountered while carving tikis in the Amazon Jungles of Peru.

Here I am getting ready to carve with my trusty CAIMAN-22B.

These beauties are great for making deep cuts in logs. They are surprisingly sharp as well and can do detail work in a pinch.

Unfortunately, they also have a lot of torque and can spin free if you don't hold them with an extremely firm grip. That's what happened to me with this one. I let it get away from me during an intense carving session:

Clean slice to the bone up to the first knuckle. Split the nail cleanly as well, right down to the bone. I was lucky. No major nerve or tendon damage. But I couldn't play volleyball for a few weeks.

Because the nail-bed itself was damaged, my fingernail now grows with a pronounced ridge down its length. Left me with a gnarly scar.

Here is my uncle with some of our finer carving tools, used for detail work. Mostly PIRANHA-5's and 6's.

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2005-04-05 09:39 ]