So I was showing my father one of my swords the other day (Valiant Hedemark) when, due to careless handling he cut himself, though not badly. I've managed to avoid any self-inflicted sword injuries so far, but it got me to wondering - what's the worst injury everyone's received from their sword collections, and how did it happen? Could make for a useful guide on what not to do.

In my dad's case, it was tipping the scabbard upside-down and trying to catch the sword as it fell out.

I've sliced my thumb while drawing, cut my hand while cleaning, been stabbed while fencing, and broke fingers while fencing.

I have had 2 baddish ones. 1st was a broken bone in the base of my thumb from a friendly fire indecent with blunt steel in a group melee, was only wearing maille over rigging gloves, decided since to always use rigid protection on hands and elbows even when a-historic.

Second one I sliced my index finger from the tip almost 2/3 or the way to the first knuckle, front to back. I was using a file to re profile a blade and moved from working on the area near the c.o.p. to the tip. I started filing and even thought to myself "I should really re-clamp this before starting the tip, it isn't safe"
Three strokes later...
slip
slice
moment of looking at a third of the tip om my finger hanging off with what I assume was a stupefied look on my face
sudden geyser of blood (this might not be what *actually* happened , but how it goes in my memory)


Of course, the answer to this is that you should ALWAYS follow proper procedure when working with potentially dangerous implements, and the moment you have a concern you stop immediately and re-asses.

A friend of mine impaled my right hand between the ring and middle fingers while sparing. Or from his perspective I ran my hand onto the tip of his sword. The point of the sword went in almost an inch through my glove like it wasn't even there. It hurt like hell but I didn't think it was that serious at first, then the infection set in and I spent 2 weeks with the wound packed with gauze and almost 3 months with my fingers taped together because the wound would not close.
My hand still hurts almost 25 years later.
The great irony of this particular injury is that my friend was wielding my sword at the time.

Some minor stuff while packing from time to time (dozens of old swords without scabbards). Two silly more serious. One cut between two toes despite steel toe boots (good trick). The other reaching for a guitar and an A&A German bastard that lept off the wall and skated down the back of my right hand (no stitches but pretty deep 1/2" gash). The Bastard is no forever in a scabbard and the boot incident my most expensive cheap sword.

My best Darwin moment back in the 1960s was skeet splitting firewood with a Hudson Bay cruiser type axe and stopping it with my ankle.

Cheers

GC

Cut a chunk off my knee (was resting a diy sword on my knee to sharpen) about 2 mm in and 3-4 cm long

My worst actually came from a cross guard. One time while practicing with an Albion Liechtenauer, I struck a Zwerchhau with a badly sloppy strike. I managed to catch myself in the side of the head with the cross; it immediately put me on my knees in the grass. I split the skin enough to leave a little blood, but I did not need stitches. Embarrassingly, I did the same thing again about a year ago, although with less force.

All of my edged weapons have drawn my blood
I can't seem to make anything or sharpen anything without bleeding on it
All relatively minor lacerations that were treated with duct tape and Superglue

I've only had small cuts from handling sharp blades, usually while lubricating, sometimes when cleaning up after cutting pumpkins or some such. I seem to get them periodically, or several times a year. Usually the kind of thing that requires a band aide for a couple of days. Had one recently that healed up last week. They are almost always in the crease of a finger joint, and seem to take longer to heal than might be expected due to movement.
Nothing as exciting as some of the others here - I seem to reserve those kinds of accidents for sharp wood axes....

I used to have a Chinese-made folded steel tanto that was VERY sharp. Unfortunately, it was loose in its scabbard and fell out easily. I was putting it back on its stand on a shelf when it slid out of the scabbard and I instinctively grabbed for it to keep it from hitting the floor - unfortunately, grabbing the blade. It cut my palm long and deep - alomost bad enough to need stitches. As it was, because of where the cut was it kept breaking open and bleeding for a couple of days...

I cut my finger with a katana once while cleaning, and this side of the thumb is numb now. My current swords are only semi sharp because of this.

Injuries are quite normal if we mishandle swords. :cry:
For people like myself should be extra careful if I'm holding one.

I have a scar in my side where I stabbed myself while swinging around a wallhanger as a teenager. I was too embarrassed to go to hospital so I patched myself up and never told anyone.