Watch the edge of edge tools!

[timf67]

Thought I would share a safety lesson I learned the other night. Sorry for the length of the story!

I (like many others here) took advantage of the Hartville Tool turning tool sale and got me a new Sorby 3/8" beading and parting tool. It is like a bedan tool but has a double bevel like a skew. Anyway, upon getting the tool I was itchin' to use it so I mounted some scrap between centers turned it round with a roughing gouge and grabbed the B&P tool to try it out. I barely got it to the wood before a sharp pain in left index finger made me stop and have a look. I saw a small glint of metal in my finger about 1/16" long. After finding some tweezers, I slowly extracted a 1/2"+ steel "splinter" from my finger. I decided to look the tool over (a little late for that!) and saw that the 4 sides had swirl marks from machining and that the 4 corners all had burrs - some larger than others. It appears as though one of the burrs was big enough and loose enough to become a steel splinter. I took my carbide deburring tool and ran it along the edges to clean them up and then did the same with some of my other tools. I found my Sorby mortise chisels, which have similar construction to B&P tool needed deburring as well.

I informed Sorby of my incident and they asked that I return the tool - TO ENGLAND! - so that they could inspect it to determine the problem. They promised to reimburse me for shipping costs and to send me a new tool as well, so I packed it up and got a shipping quote from FedEx for $75 which is more than the tool costs! I informed them of the shipping costs and they promptly told me to keep the tool and they would send me a new one as well. So assuming that they deliver on their promise, I may have a 3/8" beading and parting tool for sale in the near future...

Long story short, inspect your tools - especially new ones - before use!

[PChristy]

Tim thanks for the heads up - we take for granted (I think that is the right word) that everything is perfect when we get our tools- Sorry that you got that splinter - Those metal splinters are a real pain - at least the wood splinters will fester up and pop out if you can't get them out -

[CarvedTones]

One summer in my college years, I worked in a window screen factory and my first assignment was sticking frames. That's taking 4 pieces of aluminum that are miter cut and sliding Ls inside the corner to stick them together. There were often slivers on the pieces, but gloves were too clumsy to work with (slowed your piece rate too much). I was told horror stories about people ending up having surgery to get pieces removed if they didn't stop at the first pin prick of pain or sight of blood; apparantly they can keep getting pulled further and further in by muscle motion. Glad you spotted it right away.

That is very surprising for a Sorby tool (the condition it came in, not their response).