As a young pie muncher
I was working on a building site as a trainee engineer and my given task for the day was bashing wooden stakes into the ground for use as a guide for levelling the surrounding area. It had been a long and hot summer (remember those?) and the earth i was tasked with penetrating (oooer) was harder than Stuart Hall in a nursery. As such I was having to make a hole in the ground with a steel peg first before hammering the wooden stakes in with a 14 pound sledge hammer.
Even with this technique the stakes were a bugger to get in firmly and as a result the tops of the stakes were taking a bit of a kicking.

I was merrily swinging the 14 pound hammer and being young and silly didn't realise that as you swing the hammer you are supposed to slide your leading hand down the shaft. This didn't really matter until suddenly one of the stakes decided to spilt open at a knothole from the top as i hit it. It split wierdly gaping open and as my swing continued downwards the hammer handle and also my hand entered this crevice which closed its vice like splintered jaws around my abused fingers.

There was a lot of swearing a lot of blood and a broken finger as a result but the disgusting thing was looking down and seeing my hand in a wooden sandwich with blood oozing like ketchup out the sides.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 12 Jul 2013, 10:56, Reply)