My most expensive knife cost $20 WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS

[Vonderek]

Knifecenter was having a sale on the Cold Steel Pocket Bushman. I thought it would be a decent cheap knife to keep with my car supplies or in the BOB. It came today and the pivot was a little stiff as was the "ram safe" lock. I put a couple drops of oil on the pivot and worked the blade a few times...couldn't seem to unlock it unless i put pressure on the blade with my finger while pulling the lock and....you may have guessed by now....the knife slipped in my hand and cut my index finger to the bone and gave my thumb a pretty good cut too. Got some stitches in the ER. Don't know if tendons or nerves are cut yet but this may be the end of my guitar playing days (unless I transition to slide guitar). Here are the gory pics. I didn't know a finger could bleed that much...soaked two towels even with constant pressure. Probably gonna cost me at least $1K in the ER...now gotta go to a plastic surgeon to check on tendons.

 

[hso]

Tragic!

 

[JShirley]

Ow.

 

[JShirley]

Aw, man.

 

[Yo Mama]

God speed to your recovery.

Also, you may want to let Cold Steel know. Knife sounds defective to me for sure!

 

[jhb]

they are tricky to close. i've seen many folks about slice a finger off trying to close one.

that looks painful. hope all comes out good and no loss of feeling etc.

 

[ivankerley]

ouch man! heres to a speedy and complete recovery. While ive never handled one there have been numerous threads over the years about the bushman on bladeforums and some of which if i remember had picts like yours. My last bite from a knife was bad but nothing like yours man.
Gene

 

[earlthegoat2]

I've had an unfortunate event like that with a utility knife. I was glad I had bones in my finger that day. Otherwise it would have just cut my finger off.

 

[jlr1962]

I hope you heal quickly. My wife had her pinky hanging by a flap of skin from a heavy door accident at work. They put it back together and it works fine. It took a month or two for the tingling to go away. She is fine now. "Do your physical therapy as directed" is what the doctors say got her's back to normal.

 

[Glock Doctor]

It's easy to be pessimistic right now; but I've seen a lot of wounds; and I suspect your guitar playing days are far from over. Relax, snuggle up tonight with a bottle of good bourbon; and, by this time next week, things will look better.

(Oh, yeah! A little further, 'down the road' you should look into doing regular finger exercises, and get yourself into somebody's hand therapy program if your able. I did; and, surprise, it did me a lot of good!)

 

[Vonderek]

Thanks Glock Doctor, snuggling up with a bottle of bourbon sounds good...injury or not

 

[Piraticalbob]

Don't worry too much about the guitar playing. Tony Iommi manages to play with missing fingertips, and as you already mentioned, playing slide or taking up dobro or lap-style playing is a good work-around.

 

[Valkman]

Yikes man, hope you heal up fast. A few years ago I caught my left finger and thumb in a table saw blade I had turned off but was still spinning. I posted pics like yours after they were stitched up, and the tendon that runs along the top of the index finger and keeps it straight was severed. I could've got surgery but it's just crooked and no big deal. I can play my guitar fine, if I could play to begin with.

 

[ironworkerwill]

Dang, that reminds me of when I cut the tip of my wife's finger off. It was my fault because I sharpened the knife she was using to cut her own finger.

I bet it heals fine. It may be numb for a while or feel like it has a cotton ball on the end for a few months. I know because I nearly cut mine off too. Hopefully you're not a guitarists for a living.

 

[50 Shooter]

OP, relax and give it time to heal as that's the best way for it to heal properly. Contact CS and ask them what they think is wrong with the design. DON'T send it to them until you take a lot of pics of the knife, the opening and closing design... Be sure to take pics of your fingers in case you have any further complications.

I'm not condoning suing CS unless it's clearly a design flaw and they refuse to talk to you about the knife. See what they have to say and what they plan to do about it first as a lawsuit will be a major PITA.

 

[Vonderek]

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone!
Kdoc1, do you work for CS?

 

[Riot Earp]

The same thing happened to me on February 6th, in the exact same location, but I did it with a multi-tool blade. It took me four hours to stop the bleeding. I waited too long to seek medical help, and so they couldn't stitch the wound. They did apply Steri-Strips, which didn't close the wide gap much. The end of my finger went numb - I cut a nerve. After a week I started applying Emu oil and wrapping my finger in gauze, to keep the oil on the wound. It is helping. The canyon in my finger is starting to fill in, and the numbness is leaving. I will need to keep applying the Emu oil for another four weeks (two months, in total).

 

[fgr39]

I just watched the CS video on that knife and I don't like the way you have to close it.... looks like a finger getter for sure.

 

[JohnKSa]

It looks like there might be a couple of ways to close it reasonably safely.

Looking at the design, I think I'd use one of the following techniques:

Grip the handle from the back with my strong hand, keeping fingers clear of the blade slot. Pull the lanyard attached to the lock and use a handy surface (ground, tree, table, etc.) to get the blade started closing.
-OR-
Grip the blade and blade joint area of the handle from the back with my strong hand, keeping fingers clear of the edge. Pull the lanyard attached to the lock and get the blade started closing. Demko uses this technique in the Cold Steel video of the Pocket Bushman.

In either case, if your strong hand slips, the open knife is now loose, swinging by the lanyard cord. Since you were just applying a significant pull to that cord before the knife came free, the next few seconds might be exciting.

 

[Blade First]

Had extensive hand surgery several years ago. Take the advice you've been given and treat rehab seriously. It's not pleasant, takes lots of time and won't be anywhere near as effective as you want it to be in the short run. But it will help...and don't be shy about getting opinions on follow-up surgery.

Tendon and nerve damage [nerve tissue regenerates @ only 0.10mm per day] are no joke, but you have an excellent chance of fixing that hand.

May your guitar-playing days be long and plentiful, sir.

 

[rszwieg]

Hope you heal up.

I considered a Pocket Bushman but when I found how it closed, I passed on it.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Prayers sent OUCH.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Let me guess what the first words the flashed through your mind were:

"That's gonna hurt..."



I've managed to cut myself a time or two and it always seems like some form or other of that comment always flashes though my mind!

Hopefully you'll heal up fine. I'm always amazed by how resilient the human body is when it comes to handling injuries.

Keep us posted...and good luck!

 

[Mp7]

With the rather big protruding piece of grip .... how did u manage to slip??

I have mine for 3+ years. And it is pretty stiff, yes.

Love that knife.
Good recovery to u!

 

[Gtscotty]

I thought about getting a Bushman years ago, but then started reading about many people cutting themselves with them on the internet. It seems that the knife is a known offender, the stories spooked me and I never got one. Best of luck getting your hand patched up and squared away, I'm sure you'll be doing plenty of guitar playing in the future.