So I’m really accident and injury prone. I literally cut myself and bleed from somewhere at least once a day, I’m not exaggerating, I really have no idea how I’m not anemic. It’s a running joke in my family, “The day isn’t over until Dana gets hurt and bleeds.” So today I’m getting ready to cast, warmed up my crucible to speed things up, and I stupidly decide to twist the melted borax off the tip of my stir rod with my bare hand so of course I got borax glass slivers embedded in my thumb, and now it’s bleeding. What else is new, who cares, go back to work. So I blew it off, I’m getting the metal set up to be cast while I’m still bleeding, and I’m getting blood on the precious metal I intend to melt, I’m thinking whatever, it’s going to be molten metal here in a minute the blood won’t matter after that. And right at the very last moment where I was going to toss all the metal in there that had drops of my blood on it, it hit me. “Hey, Dumb@$$, blood has iron in it.” Followed by a string of cuss words, me shutting everything off, and taking the metal to be cleaned over to the sink while I go find a bandaid. So I missed a potential catastrophe. But then I wondered if this kind thing happens to others? Has anybody completely destroyed a whole casting because they accidentally got blood in the melt? Is that even a thing? Is the amount of iron in your blood really a threat to your melts? It’s an odd question, I will admit, but strange things tend to happen to me a lot, and I can’t be completely alone on this one. So has anyone ever gotten blood in your melt and it ruined your metal afterwards?
The amount of Iron in your blood is minute.
Most of the blood is diverse proteins for coagulation, immune responses and what not.
A grown up male has around 5 ish grams of Iron in the body, of which maybe around 3 ish in the blood.
So in the less than 0.1 ml that hit the metal it should not do much, but why take the chance.
If one easily can clean it up why not.
I have a bit of the same syndrome my self, so my kids scold me all the time 
It seems not possible to do anything involving tools, unless I make a sacrifice to the blood gods.
Sometimes even without tools 
I have no idea what the answer is to this question, but it’s a really good story!! Thanks for that!!
Jeff
I keep bandaids nearby too as I injure myself often. The best (actually worst) injury was when I opened a metal ingot mold, into which I had just poured melted silver, with my bare hands. What we do is not for the faint among us…Rob
It seems, one type of another , I have run a torch nearly every day of my working life. Whether I was torching 1" steel plate for a keel on a 90’ dragger or soldering posts on earrings the potential for burns have always been present. That said the worse burns I have ever gotten were from melted bobbing compound saturating my polishing gloves.
As my brother said what we do is not for the faint of heart.
Don Meixner
Learned a long time ago to keep a small bottle of super glue near where I work. It dries rapidly, seals the wound, and has a bit of antiseptic quality to it. When I had my knee replaced a decade ago, they didn’t do stiches of any kind. I was super glued closed. Strangest thing about that is the hair on my leg grew really well where the glue was, the the hair surrounding it didn’t grow half as well.
I have a hard time with saw blades. I’ve gotten so my hand holding the item I’m sawing, has a lot of tuck tape on them. I have my badge of honor for jewelers. The tattoo you cause when a saw blade cuts deep into a finger leaving a bit of metal in it.
Exactly, I make a lot of involuntarily sacrifices to the blood gods. I don’t really mind as long as nothing gets severed or cut off, I mean whatever, cuts and burns are no big deal, but ruining my metal with iron is another story! As long as the metal is ok I don’t care lol
I used to use superglue on wounds. Until I developed a deathly allergy to superglue. Like I can’t even be in the room anymore if someone uses superglue or opens a superglue bottle, my throat swells shut and my eyes are bloodshot sandpaper for the next three days. Superglue for me now means EpiPen and/or anaphylactic shock. I have really stupid problems lol. Could be worse!
I too have used super glue to close a cut. My doctor says that, other than not being sterile, it works. Pieces of saw blades stuck in my finger, I have had many. The really scary thing about saw blades is that they are under tension. I dropped a frame once on the floor and the blade broke sending one piece at high speed into my cheek near my eye. We should add danger pay to our pricing…Rob
A while ago we were discussing drawing wire and free drawing verses using some sort of assistance like a boat winch. Today I tried free drawing 14 Gauge to 16 gauge wire. Towards the end of the draw, the wire broke and I went sailing across my cellar into a bike that I had installed on a trainer. I did a fair amount of damage to my arm and thumb running them across the chain wheel. I also have a 5" wide gash on my back where I was skewered by a wheel bolt. I guess that I will not be doing any more free drawing across the cellar…Rob
Sorry to hear that, Rob.
The average person would not think that making jewelry can be dangerous. There are many ways.
Heal quickly.
Neil A
Holy crap!!! I hope you heal up quickly!! You’re lucky you didn’t break any bones. This thread is kind of reassuring in a weird way; I’m not clumsy, jewelry is just deadly lol
Thanks!..Rob
That’s crazy!! Who would have thought that could happen. I’m so sorry. What a freak accident.
I’m afraid to ask. How’s the bike?
Jeff
Good question, it’s fine and ready to ride again. If that wasn’t the case, I have two more ready to go…Rob
hi Rob,
ouchy!! always startling to fall like that! hope you feel better soon.
julie
Did you have to take a trip to the ER to get stitches for any of it? Like how bad is it, are you down for the count for awhile or doing ok getting around and still working? I’m really sorry. Most of the time when I get hurt, my first thought is, “How am I going to explain this one at the ER?”
Thanks for asking. My wife and son patched me up. Sore with lots of bandages but good, and the question of free drawing heavier gauge wire has been answered. Normally, when the draw gets longer than my bench, I wrap it around a pulley between the draw plate and winch to shorten it enough to do another draw. This way the wire doesn’t have to be cut and there aren’t plier marks on it every time the draw gets as long as the bench. I was just trying to speed up the process and it backfired on me…Rob
That’s good, I’m glad you’re not laid up in a cast or something. Actually that’s a good way to keep drawing wire. I’m annoyed with the length of the bench defining how long the wire can be. Since we’re on the subject, I have a question for you. What is the name of the hydraulic system that they use to make industrial wire that can be as long as you want it? I read somewhere that smiths use a draw bench, but in a factory they drag the wire through a plate that actually cuts it down to whatever gauge and shape you want using some kind of hydraulic disc cutting system? But I’ve googled “wire hydraulic disc cutter,” and it’s not popping up for me so I’m assuming it’s actually called something else and the guy I heard this from was mistaken about it’s correct name or terminology.
Julie,
I would imagine that the Foundries/Factories use a Wire Pulling Machine that Spools the Wire as they’re pulling it, so the length of the wire is never an issue and then if it needs to go smaller, they could turn the spool around and pull it through again and re-spool it…
Rob,
I’m glad that you’re doing OK, Pulling Thicker Gauge Wire isn’t for the faint of heart and I too have had my share of injuries from doing so, though most of mine have been burns, scratches and punctures… Never an acrobatic tumbling routine! Hang in there and heal quickly!
Now, as far as injuries go, like the rest of you, I have had some “fun times” with Saw Blades, the worst being slicing all the way to the bone on a finish cut that finished quicker than I was expecting or a blade breaking and the top piece still mounted in the Saw Frame going all the way through my finger - I had to get one of my fellow Jewellers to remove the blade from the frame, so that I could then pull it out - NOT FUN AT ALL! Still gives me the shivers when I think about it… I’ve had lots of burns by various means and materials; somehow set my fingers, hand, apron and bench on fire at different times with some errant Boric Acid; had hot Gold, Platinum, Silver, Brass, Copper, etc. drop onto my clothes or apron and burn through to my skin; drilled into my fingers; Graver cuts and punctures; Chains being ripped out of my hands and slapping and slicing them up on the Buffing Machine; etc.; etc.; etc… But, by far the worst injury that I’ve ever had was when I was at the end of my Apprenticeship and it was during Christmas rush and we were really busy: I was working on White Gold Band and was in the process of Annealing so that I could stretch it up a size and it Popped, sending a piece of burning hot gold directly under my Optivisor and onto my wide-open Eye - I immediately jumped back, knocking my chair over, brushed my hand across my eye, burning my fingers, but still managed to get the Gold off of my eye, which also burned my arm as it fell, my eyes started watering profusely and I couldn’t see anything! The Master Jeweller jumped up, turned my Torch off, which was burning the floor and then came to me immediately and got me to our sink and started washing my eye out with cold water, needless to say, it didn’t help any, so my Uncle rushed me to the Emergency Room and after quite a while, I was Looked by several Doctors and an Eye Surgeon and they told me that I had burn spots on my Pupil (almost dead-centre) and (2-4) other burn spots on my Iris, Sclera and Eye-Lid, from when I brushed the Gold off, so they put some nasty goop in my eye, bandaged me up like a Pirate and sent me “home” with pain pills… I of course did not go “home”, because we were incredibly busy with Christmas rush, so I talked my Uncle into taking me back to the store and I went back to work for a few more hours until closing time - I’m sure that I don’t have to tell any of you this, but Depth Perception is very important to Jewellers, I somehow managed, but I really had to concentrate to get my work compleated and I was compleatly exhausted and couldn’t keep my one good eye open for very long after work. I had to wear the bandage over my eye for (4-5) days, so my productivity went way down, but I still worked and got as much done as I could and when the bandage finally came off, the Doctors said that my eye had healed up nicely…
I still think about that day every time I Anneal or Work on a Band or any Ring that may have had a piece Soldered into it -
A Request To All My Fellow Jewellers, from a former Bench Jeweller: Please FUSE when you Size Rings, Up or Down, Don’t Solder a Piece in unless it Absolutely the Only Way that you can Size the Ring - Fusing makes a more Solid and Stronger Bond than Soldering Ever Will… Over my (20-25) years as a Bench Jeweller, I have Repaired Several Hundreds if not over a Thousand Rings and Bands that have had Pieces Soldered into them and they were almost Always a Problem to Work on, not to mention that they often Break in the Exact Area that they were Soldered within a year of the customer wearing it… Not a very good track record…
Jonathan
Omg i tbought i was the only one that has happened to lol