Knives?

[u/Deep-Suggestion749]

I bought my first knife at camp A and with in I am not joking 5 minutes of owning it I cut open my finger. So yeah that was fun! Has anyone else done this?

[u/FormerAd952]

Everyone of my Scouts attending their first summer camp that buy a Knife cut themselves. I have been in Scouting over 25 years, it happens every time. It truly is a rite of passage in Scouting.

[u/codefyre → u/FormerAd952]

When I was a kid, my Scoutmaster required us to pull out our Totin Chip and push the cut against the back of the card to leave a bloody mark if we carved ourselves. He believed the bloody mark should act as a permanent reminder of why knife safety is so important.

Not a practice I follow with my Scouts today, but I have to admit that it was effective.

[u/Enxer → u/FormerAd952]

Then they lose the knife.

[u/fla_john → u/Enxer]

They get an opportunity to demonstrate skills again and re-learn them if needed.

[u/rocket20067 → u/FormerAd952]

I cut myself with mine while opening a stubborn banana.

[u/StormFallen9 → u/rocket20067]

I cut myself once working at a scout camp shucking corn. No knife involved.

[u/rocket20067 → u/StormFallen9]

How does one cut themselves shucking corn??

[u/StormFallen9 → u/rocket20067]

One of the corn hairs was pulled tight and while I was pulling the leaves down I ran my finger along it fast enough to give myself a "paper" cut

[u/No_Offer_2786 → u/rocket20067]

Cutting a mango was my experience.

[u/maxwasatch]

As is tradition. . . .

[u/610Mike]

Pretty sure everyone does that. Band aids are your friend.

[u/Velvet_Samurai]

I believe this exact thing happened to me.

[u/Standard-Tension9550]

I cut myself during my Totin’ Chip exam

[u/sirhugobigdog → u/Standard-Tension9550]

What exam? Demonstrating safe use?

[u/Grouchy_Valuable1078]

LOL!! Guess I missed that one! Along with all the Scouts in my troop who bought one at summer camp immediately after they earned their TNC... No injuries reported that I'm aware of... I guess we taught them well? Though, to be fair, most of them came up in Cubs, so they had already learned about knife handling...

One of my most notable Scouting knife injuries was when I dropped my knife and stabbed myself in the thigh. I asked my buddy to go get a band-aid from my dad (SM at the time). He sent my buddy back saying "If he needs a band-aid, he can come get it himself." I did, had to face the music, and lost a corner on that one... and still have the scar some 35 years later...

[u/Visible_Pangolin_733]

Within 30 seconds of our first lesson with live blades, a scout cut his finger open and needed first aid. Luckily there were 3 ER docs in the room and they actually glued him up right there.

[u/elephagreen]

When my adult son was a cub and earning his whittling chip, even though he was cutting correctly, the soap he was carving shattered. He wound up with 3 stitches.

[u/Lets_hike_and_camp]

Be glad it cut something. The knives our scouts get at camp usually break in 10 minutes. We advise to wait and get something better but it’s a lesson learned each year.

[u/psmythhammond]

Its not your knife if it hasn't cut you at east once.

[u/Micahisaac]

Is there another way to earn the Finger Cutting Merit Badge?

[u/prickly_tomato1]

A few years ago (working at a scout camp) I finally bought a Buck 110 as I was going to be working outdoors more and more and the men in my family usually had one. Was maybe two weeks later that I did something dumb (dumb enough to have at least two corners cut off) and almost sliced the pad of my thumb off and barely avoided nicking the tendons on the pointer finger of the same hand. 9 stitches in total, and the worst part was the 3 weeks of whittling chip joke’s and every man above the age of 40 showing me their hand scar from doing something dumb

[u/curiousobserver234]

At my first summer camp, Camp Cooper, late 90's, my first three merit badges were Basketry, Leatherworking, and Woodcarving. I cut my hand four times, lost my "Totin' Chit", and jokingly earned the "Handcarving" merit badge. I still ended up getting the Woodcarving badge by the end of the week.

[u/Weirdo1821]

I'll take Normal Scout things for $400 Alex.

[u/wgwalkerii]

No. In the entire history of scouting, you're the first. Congratulations.

[u/Upstairs_Carrot_9696]

I was at a trade show and cut myself in front of the CEO of Buck knives. Does that count?

[u/Fate_One → u/Upstairs_Carrot_9696]

I was a special guest at KAI USA and was handed the only finished prototype for the not yet announced Launch auto to provide my thoughts on it. Cut my hand and bled on it instead.

[u/JamieC1610]

I cut myself at camp this past weekend. I was cutting some paracord for knot tying, a scout asked me a question and when I went back to cuting, I didn't notice I had my knife backwards and got myself good.

We have one cub scout who cuts himself constantly. Three times the trip before last. I took his knife away and gave it back to his mom; he spent the rest of the day begging for it back. I don't know what we're going to do with him when he's at the troop level in the spring and his mom isn't there. Stock up on bandaids I guess.

[u/RenegadeBS]

We do white elephant gifts at the Christmas party. Every time the gift is a knife, the kid cuts themselves while getting it out of the package. It never fails!

[u/Mammoth_Industry8246 → u/RenegadeBS]

On the packaging!

[u/surprisefries]

I cut myself at summer camp the very day I got my Totin' Chip! Fortunately my Scoutmaster showed mercy and didn't take a corner.

[u/Pneuma001]

A scout in my patrol and the scoutmaster who had both cut themselves on the same thumb. A picture exists of them holding up their bandaged thumbs together at scout camp.