I hope you are doing well Jhon. And are recovering oky.
And thanks for sharing, hopefully some-one else can learn from you sharing this and thus avoid cutting themselves.
if taught 30+ people how to graft. And i always spend 60+% of the time on safe cutting techniques.
Gloves are not as safe as you might think.
I have a pair of 4X43D gloves. But after looking up reviews online. And seeing multiple video’s online like this one
i searched further and looked at the standard.
The old standard looked at how many times a knife needed to pass to cut trough. At level 4 you need 10 passes with the knife. That seems very impressive. Until you read that it is at 5 newtons of applied force on the knife. 5 newtons is roughly a pound. And i think it would be safe to assume
a- our grafting knifes are probably sharper than the knives from the test.
b- we apply more than a pound of force on the knife. (especially in instances where you cut yourself)
hopeful the newer standard was harder (ANSI test (TDM-100).) i searched for that.
And cut resistance level D you cut trough at 15 newtons of force. Roughly 1.5kg or 3 pounds weight thus. (probably lower with a super sharp grafting knife) (and i know interchanging force and weight is wrong. But for most people newtons are hard to imagine)
My conclusion. Those gloves might protect you against small nicks. But don’t get overconfident with them.
Id rather focus time and money on a properly sharpened knife and the right technique. Than a false sense of security!
sources
(dutch)
I think having the right technique. And quitting when you get tired or your hands get cold are the best advice.
is excellent for looking at safer technique’s.
Rocking the blade sideways with little pressure and locking thumbs for the tongue cut is always valuable.
For chip budding and cutting the tongue part of W&T all the force should come from the muscle between your thumb and index finger of your knife hand. You should not use your arms to exert any force. And your thumbs should be locked.
i copied technique’s that professional grafters used. I think they find/learn technique’s that are safe and reliable. Since cutting themselves during grafting season would be a real problem. And they have to do 1000’s of grafts.
They stil tape their thumbs sometimes. Even with the right technique, you might want to protect your thumb. From buds/nodes rubbing against them when cutting the splice part of the W&T graft. Or from shallow cuts/nicks when chip budding/tongue cuts.
in the end you should do what you are comfortable with though.
always scares the crap out of me. When i see him cutting. But i think it’s safe to call him a grafting expert. Cutting technique’s i would never attempt seem to work fine for him.