Now, what do I do ?

[junksuph]

Well, I learned that sharp objects can ruin your day/week/month.

Besides building/playing mandolins, I upholster furniture and cars for my REAL job. Yesterday, while cutting a piece of door panel board with my utility knife, The blade rode up over my strait edge, and took of the end of my index finger on my left, (fretting) hand, (about 1/4" worth). It wasn't quite enough to reattach, so now, I have a cleanly cut flat end on my finger. Luckily, I can still function well enough to work and continue building the latest 2 "F" body mandolins in progress. Before I even attended to my wound, I looked at it and said to myself, "Oh $%@&, How am I going to play?

I got home from the emergency room, picked up my best mandolin and attempted to try to play. I was able to play most 2-finger chords and belt out a few tunes. Maybe this will turn out to be a benefit of some sick way, like the place kicker years ago that only had half a foot, and still owns the record for the longest field goal.

Doc says that it will be good as new in a month. Till then. I guess I'll just concentrate on finishing my latest creations.

Anyone else have a similar horror story? I have this continuous flash-back of seeing my finger tip roll away from the rest of my finger, and rock back and forth. It may be a while till I get that picture out of my head.

[Doug Edwards]

Bummer. That's my biggest fear with power tools. Hang in there and count your blessings. It could have been way worse. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Loren Bailey]

Be glad it'll be good as new in a month. Did something similar as a teen cutting lettuce for salads in my Dad's restaurant. To put it into perspective check out the b@njo picker from Mountain Heart, he has a thumb and about a 1/3 of his index finger on the fretting hand and that's all, nothing more. Where there is a will there is a way!

Loren

[PhilGE]

Bummer and OUCH! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

A friend of mine who makes his living playing music did something similar, except he was chopping carrots. Like you, he worked on playing around the injury until his finger healed. He's now more agile on the fretboard as a result. You might be able to play "up the neck" much better once your index finger is healed and can act as the "moveable nut" or capo.

Wishing you much patience and thorough healing. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

-Phil

[Fretbear]

Yeah, I took the whole tip clean off my index fretting finger once with a bread knife..it will come back, but you will have to be patient and don't push it before it is ready. You have to let it almost completely heal and regenerate before you even think about new callouses or anything like that. The nerves are exposed and you don't want to disrupt their complete healing.

[John Flynn]

You could try to see how well you can play with just the other three fingers for the next month. When your index finger comes back online, I'll bet you would have a whole new dimension to your playing abilities.

[woodwiz]

I split my left index finger, 1/8" wide and 1 1/4" deep, right up the (almost) middle of my finger, right through the joint and everything. It took a while - a few years actually - but now it's a little skinny but works fine on fiddle and mandolin. Even the feelng has returned.

You'll be fine. Just be a little patient. Fingers have a remarkable ability t regenerate.

By the way, I was back at work making furniture the next day. Rode my motorcycle home from the hospital. It's not like breaking a leg.

[sunburst]

OK, here's another one, not bad at all, but it relates to what has been written here.
I had a small piece fly from the table saw and hit the tip of my left hand index finger. It punctured the tip, (not bad), jammed the joints, and bruised the tip pretty deep.
A couple of bandaids, and back to work, but I was finishing up the set-up on a new mandolin and getting ready to take it to a festival, and planning on playing music (on banjo) as much as possible while I was there.

Anyway, I got to the festival late, got out of the car in the parking lot with my mandolin and banjo, feeling bad that my finger was hurt and I wasn't going to be able to play very well, and headed for the stage area.
When I was about 50 feet from the car, Mountain Heart kicked off their set. I heard Barry Abernathy's banjo, looked at my bandaged finger and thought "what am I complaining about?"

[fred d]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif power tools right I was building a 2 1/2 octive marimba for my wife and using my brad gun to install the stops in the resonators I shot one thru the end of my finger while holding the stop in place and was nailed to the marimba had to call my wife to get some pliers to pull out the nail so much for her christmas present now that she seen it

[357mag]

Yup! I did it too. Middle finger, left hand. Right above the first knuckle. So in order to save the first knuckle, they grafted skin from my forearm and created a new fingertip.Only problem is, the nerve endings are different in tissue from that part of your body. If I touch a well defined object, like a mandolin or guitar string, I get what feels like an electric shock. So I cant use that finger when playing. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[PhilGE]

Oh, and by the way, Django Rhinehart, the incredible swing jazz guitarist, could only use his index and middle finger to play guitar.

http://memory.loc.gov/music/gottlieb/07000/07300/07301v.jpg

[junksuph]

Great replys everyone. Very minor stuff on my part, that's for sure. I did the old "Doc, will I be able to play the piano after this?". She fell for it hook, line and sinker...Then laughed at my response. I'm an ultra-positive kind of person, so it will take much, much more than this to hold me back or make me complain. I worked on the two mando's in progress in my shop last night before going to bed.

[Greenmando]

Hurts like the devil, but it should regrow.

[glauber]

Great replys everyone. Very minor stuff on my part, that's for sure. I did the old "Doc, will I be able to play the piano after this?". She fell for it hook, line and sinker...Then laughed at my response. I'm an ultra-positive kind of person, so it will take much, much more than this to hold me back or make me complain. I worked on the two mando's in progress in my shop last night before going to bed.
Gosh, i thought nobody fell for that... never worked for me. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif This is our worse fear, for all of us... I'm glad it wasn't worth, and hopefully you'll be playing just like before, soon. Meanwhile, take it easy and do what the doctor says.

[groveland]

Quite a long time ago - Trimming bushes with clippers. Got the index finger of my left hand mixed in with the bush. Took off about as much as you, perhaps a tad less, I recall the missing piece was trimmed back past the end of the fingernail. Played 3 fingered for a while. Great for the pinky. I can still see the scar, nice little tough spot on the end of my finger, but it grew back pretty quickly and as good as new. You'll be fine, as all above have concurred.

[junksuph]

My ER doc was a lady , born in India, and a very, very nice woman if I may say so, and I figured that she probably never heard that old joke before. I'm sure the next guy won't be able to pull it off.

She told me her teen age son plays in a local symphony and was in need of a good Violin. I gave her the name of a local Fiddle maker with a well known reputation, but told her I wasn't sure if he built violins......You should have seen the look that one got...

[badly-bent]

I was 18 and working a Summer job cutting grass. Mower was horrible and the deck would come out of the support that held it. The procedure to fix it was 1) jump off the mower, 2) disengage the blade 3) manhandle the deck back into the support 4) ride another five feet 6) repeat. As you can guess, the process eventually broke down in step 2. Took off the tip/side of my left hand (fretting) ring finger. I couldn't play for a few months but don't have a problem now. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say my playing still has a lot of problems but my 9 3/4 fingers isn't the cause.

Here's my tip (pun intended): When they give you the pain medication you'll be tempted not to take it. When the first Dr's appointment comes you'll go in for her to change the bandage. She'll rip off the dressing and you will be re-thinking your decisions to go sans-meds.

Wasn't Jerry Garcia also missing part of a finger?

[JD Cowles]

bummer. did the same thing to my left ring finger with my jointer last year. best advice is to let it heal properly. a month seems like a mighty long time but it goes by all too fast.

be careful everyone!

[junksuph]

Whew! Boy, what a difference a couple of days make. I am going to get my dressing changed today. (finally). when it hurts, it hurts, and I mean bad. Then it goes away as quickly as it came on. Believe me, I keep the Vicodin handy at all times. I can't wait till the doc pulls the gauze off the end of my finger for the first time.

[357mag]

I remember that part too. Like I said, mine was the MIDDLE finger on my left hand. All wrapped up in this big white bandage and trying to keep it elevated as much as possible to reduce the pain. Got some strange looks. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[TeleMark]

Wasn't Jerry Garcia also missing part of a finger?
Yup, middle finger on the picking hand. His older brother accidentally lopped it off chopping wood when Jerry was about 5. Didn't bother flatpicking, but he had a "different" banjo technique.

Other than Django, I think the most famous example of this is Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath. On the DAY he was quitting his job in a machine shop (to pursue music as a career) he cut off the first joint of his index and middle fingers of his fretting hand.

He now wears prosthetic fingertips. The first ones he made himself with leather finger pads. He credits this handicap for leading him to tune the guitar lower (slacker strings, easier to play), changing the world of heavy music.

[Jack Roberts]

I had the end of my left hand pinky bitten off by the little girl next door when I was 2. I can't play like Django, though... I use my pinky a lot, but I'm sure I could play better if I had that extra little bit.

[twaaang]

Glad to find I'm not the only one who had to deal with the social awkwardness of a bandaged left middle finger. I took the tip most-of-the-way off (at just a millisecond after the moment that I realized the way I was holding the carrot, to make carrot curls for a salad, was probably Not Quite Right). So the tip healed back on okay, but with a fair amount of scar tissue, so this has always been my preferred digit for slides and hammer-ons. As John Cameron Swayze used to say, "Takes a licking, keeps on picking!" I hope it works out as well for you. -- Paul