injured sharpenng chain

[PGFMAN]

I sharpened one of my saws while milling. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The next few days my eye got more and more sensitive to light until I could not open it at all unless I wanted a severe head ache and a waterfall coming out of my eye. I went to the doctors and had no idea what was wrong. They said I have a shard of metal in my eye and a rust ring was forming on the eye around the metal. Next they took a hypodermic needle, and with no numbing, dug the piece of metal out of my eye while I held it open with my fingers. This was about 4 days after the sharpening. The next day I felt good as new. But it was close to infection. Point is... Don't mess around with eye injuries. It is very easy to loose them. And wear goggles from time to time. Oh and I was sharpening the chain by hand not grinder.

 

[PGFMAN]

While I was there the doctor told me of other cases he had. One was a homeowner leaf blowing by the curb infront of their house. And twig ricocheted and hit his eye. He lost the eye to infection. The doctor said branches and twigs are worse than metal bc they are organic and have a lot more bacteria.

 

[tree md]

Back many years ago, when I did landscaping, I got a metal fragment in my eye from using an edger without eye protection. It was one of those straight blade edgers that you use on an a stihl string trimmer type power head. By the end of that day I could really feel it. I went to the eye doctor and they numbed it and pulled the fragment out with an electromagnet. I never do anything without eye protection anymore.

Also had a wheel on my bench grinder blow up in my face onetime. Was wearing safety goggles that time.

 

[PGFMAN]

Damn they grinding wheel could have done some damage. Good thing you had eye protection.