I’ve been down much of the week with a bad sinus infection. I was going cabin crazy yesterday so I got back into the taxidermy studio. I had a couple of small bucks to do European mounts on so I broke out a brand new German bird-beak knife to do the trick.

I had a client sitting nearby talking to me as I took the tissue off the skulls. Suddenly I made a mis-cut and hit the side of my thumb with the side of the blade. It left a tiny cut that barely bled. We both laughed about how lucky I was. Not one minute later I made the exact same mistake but this time it wasn’t the side of the blade. Instantly we both knew I had screwed up royally. One look at the cut showed it was to the bone deep.

I went to the sink, grabbed the Dawn dish detergent, and scrubbed both the deer and my blood off the best I could. We then wrapped it up so I could drive to the local ER.
The doctors there said I was extremely lucky it wasn’t an inch lower into the ball of my thumb.

5 stitches and a tetanus shot later and my day was over. We talked about taxidermy the whole time the Dr sewed me up while a Med student watched. The Dr did a great job of sewing with a stitch different from what I would use to sew up a critter.

I’ve warned folks dozens of times how dangerous the bird-beak knives are. I now will have the scar to prove it. Name: IMG_1513261273.807724.jpg Views: 744 Size: 45.8 KB

BTW, Rickie and I will be on the Ohio River Friday, sauger fishing with Justin, a member here. A latex glove over the bandage on the thumb should do the trick. I just hope I don't end up with a similar cut from a gill plate on a sauger.


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