Thread: How do you remove a splinter?

30 years in engneering on a milling machine, amongst others, and steel splinters were a regular thing.
I used a round needle file that I kept to a very sharp point as a splinter probe.
It was, and still is, so sharp I could stick it half way through my finger before really feeling it.
I often used a small pair of dividors as tweasers as they were sharp and pointed.
I have always found wood splinter far more trouble to remove as they get soft in the body juices (blood etc) and often need pulling out with tweasers once you have dug deep enough to catch hold of the splinter.

I once passed the back of my hand under my nose to stop an itch.
A splinter went in that I hadnt seen loose on my hand.
I couldnt find it so left it.
Couple of months later I could feel and see it as it worked out the bottom centre of my nose.
Every time I tried to probe for it I had to stop when my eyes watered so much I couldnt see.
Every probe made it bleed and a small scab formed.
That splinter took another month of regular probing to remove the scab before the scab itself finally attached to the splinter.
That bit of steel was only 4-5mm long but had curved and was knobbly from 3 months rusting.

The big splinters aren't a problem. Like Al B, I just bite those suckers out. The PROMLEM is those tiny ones, that go in quick and deep. (Ipe has given me some real annoying ones.) A needle is my method, but I second Brudda - the key to getting it out and me back to my project is headvisor magnifiers, which I use for fine close work. Even long ago when I had excellent close vision, tiny splinters were so time consuming to remove that I tended to just ignore them. With the splinter magnified 10x, the whole process takes about a minute.

I use anything near at the time of discovery. Chisels, stanley knives, marking guage, tinsnips for the big ones...... Worst splinter I ever had was cypress pine. Piece shot out of the buzzer and hit me in the knuckle. I pulled a piece out and thought no more of it till a week later when I realised it still hurt. To cut a long story short I pulled a second piece out about 12mm long and 1mm thick. No wonder it still hurt.

Argh you guys are girls, try having 1/2 a litre or so of hydraulic fluid injected under high pressure into your thumb....THATS A SPLINTER (of sorts)..... :eek:

Naaaa thats just a sore thumb.

I don't have any problem with probing with a needle, or any sharp pointed thingy, to get them out but I did have a problem with an infected cut once. :mad:
Since then I hold the weapon in a flame for a while before I use it. I figure that will kill off most bugs.

Originally Posted by Shane Watson

Argh you guys are girls, try having 1/2 a litre or so of hydraulic fluid injected under high pressure into your thumb....THATS A SPLINTER (of sorts)..... :eek:

Ah thats nuthin, try getting a finger traped under a 1ton block of zinc... and then trying to rip your finger out from under it because no one was around to help!

Originally Posted by Harry72

Ah thats nuthin, try getting a finger traped under a 1ton block of zinc... and then trying to rip your finger out from under it because no one was around to help!

Kid stuff...try gnawing your arm off at the shoulder so you can sneak away without waking her.

another finger problem

I was using a power washer and my hands were a bit grubby (splashed with muddy water) so I thought I would just throw my hand across the water spray of the pressure washer :eek: :eek:

DON'T DO IT.

(however it did bring back a flash back of my old school days, that teacher had a cane that was around 1" diameter (3.1" something circumference) :eek: )

I am another one for using whatever I can find. Usually a pocket knife or stanley knife. Although I have been known to search for a surgical scalple.

There is one other method I forgot to mention. When sitting in the WC taking care of other business I find that nail clippers work really well on the really small annoying splinters. I use the cutting action to open up the wound and a little less pressure allows them to be used as tweesers to grab the bastard.

Cheers
Tom

I'm surprised no one has suggested crystals and chanting mantra's.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pop, it's out.
Apart from that, I use whatever is on hand from fine pliers to a chemically sharpened fish hook.

As an adjunct to the "slit above the splinter" method with the sharpest implement available (Ross's description does nicely), Magana Plasm plastered liberally over the wound and secured under a sticking plaster for a few days helps with the recalcitrant timber fragments that are hard to grab.

Hahaha Harry! I remember doing that while I was at work with my old man, 'cept the block was a 15 ton 2" plate and the zinc was stainless steel.

**** did I dance after getting them out. 4 ablated fingernails on one hand that didnt grow back for a year or longer. **** the things you do when your a kid out to help yer dad. Stupid thing was is that I was crowbarring the plate off another and sliding in wood to allow the gantry to get under and lift it - and not thinking I swapped hands (ie swapped the crowbar for a hand) so that I could reach a block of wood that I hadnt put down close enough to where I was kneeling. Shudder.

Back to the splinters, I usually chew them out or get a stanley blade and trim/shave/scrape what ever. Those that I cant get the misses does. She likes doing that kinda stuff, diggin and squeezing.

J!

failing all the above a sharp axe(dark side stuff) and splinter is gone
9 fingered Pete