Any experience of wood splinter gone into your finger? - How did you get it out?

[stuart little]

I use a new #11 or #16 scalpel blade.

 

[IanA]

Contrary to many posts whatever you do, don't ever attempt any amateur surgery with a blade on your hand. You'll be asking for the most dreadful consequences and in all likelihood you won't be able to find the splinter once you've opened up your finger. Instead you can easily sever tendons, nerves and blood vessels in addition to introducing infection to the bone and soft tissue . If the pain continues go and see your doctor who might refer you to a surgeon trained to carry out hand surgery. If it isn't painful then eventually the body will reject the splinter and it will come out through the skin by itself. IA

 

[Thingybob]

Ah now i know what a splinter group is lol

 

[Thingybob]

My kit:

Jewellers LED eyepiece, eyebrow tweezers, scalpel, tacking pin, alcohol and iodine swabs. But sometimes I just use a chisel, pliers or teeth.

Any room in your workshop for tools

 

[PhilBT]

I completely agree about the hypodermic needle, speaking as a retired GP. I have removed many splinters, both my own and my patients'. The hypodermic needle is quite different to other household needles because it is very, very sharp. The secret is to have a bright light and a magnifier (preferably with a built-in LED light like someone suggested) and then to spear the splinter at 90° (think of it as the angle you would fire a bullet into a standing tree trunk). Then move the point of the needle in the direction of the splinter away from the skin and it will come out. You can even do this if there is actually nothing projecting from the skin so long as you can see it just under the skin.
All the talk about disinfectants is a bit of a red herring. We all get small breaks and scratches to our skin and if we are generally in reasonable health without any underlying serious immune problems we don't get infections. I had a doctor friend who used to give himself his insulin injections through his trousers without any skin cleansing and never had a problem.
Don't take up valuable GP time with the splinter until you've tried to get it out yourself.
tweezers are also good but they need to be good quality ones which can get a firm grip on the splinter. No good pulling and the splinter just stays where it is and the tweezers slide off which is what happens with cheaper tweezers.

 

[Jameshow]

Your never going to get close to seeing a GP with a splinter!

 

[Roseland 2]

Mag sulphate paste and one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RXJ3PLK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1Andrew

 

[h-magic]

I use a safety pin, and start to lift the skin around it till I get to it and just lift it out.
you’ve got 8/10 layers of skin so just do it gently and you will get there.
Sometime you can try to get it out after a bath but it don’t always work.

 

[owen]

If I can't get them out with a stanley blade or pin, I just stick a plaster over it leave it a day or so and they normally come out on their own.

 

[John Hall]

Good eyebrow tweezers that have an angled flat end…fine sewing needle to dig them out…jewellers loupe to see them…tea trea oil an antiseptic…and a good light source.

 

[Davyc]

@Phil Pascoe ....my mistake.....sewing needle....was too early in morning....

 

[Lefley]

As a child, if I got a splinter, my mother would do the same, and she said wait for it to cool and not to touch it or you would get germs on it.

Amazing what I can remember from years ago, yesterday is a different matter.

Short term memory always goes first. Long term last a long time!

 

[Fergie 307]

Wow some scary home surgery going on in some households. I would upvote a very fine needle to just pick the skin apart to one side of it and roll it out sideways, or use good tweezers. I have a number of pairs of the cheap reading glasses that I use for watchmaking work, +4, +5 and +6. The bigger the magnification the closer you have to get, so with +6 you will be like Mr Magoo, with your finger practically in your eye! +4 is probably about right for this sort of thing. I find the artificial skin that comes in a little bottle and can be painted over the wound is quite useful to keep muck out of any holes you make, especially if it's in an awkward place which they usually are.

 

[Sandyn]

I don't have access to one now, but when I worked in electronics I could use the X20 stereo microscope in the lab. It was absolutely perfect for removing even the tiniest metal skelf .
Great magnification, great lighting, a supply of scalpels and some IPA to sterilise the area after the operation........OUCH!!!

 

[Awac]

I completely agree about the hypodermic needle, speaking as a retired GP. I have removed many splinters, both my own and my patients'. The hypodermic needle is quite different to other household needles because it is very, very sharp. The secret is to have a bright light and a magnifier (preferably with a built-in LED light like someone suggested) and then to spear the splinter at 90° (think of it as the angle you would fire a bullet into a standing tree trunk). Then move the point of the needle in the direction of the splinter away from the skin and it will come out. You can even do this if there is actually nothing projecting from the skin so long as you can see it just under the skin.
All the talk about disinfectants is a bit of a red herring. We all get small breaks and scratches to our skin and if we are generally in reasonable health without any underlying serious immune problems we don't get infections. I had a doctor friend who used to give himself his insulin injections through his trousers without any skin cleansing and never had a problem.
Don't take up valuable GP time with the splinter until you've tried to get it out yourself.
tweezers are also good but they need to be good quality ones which can get a firm grip on the splinter. No good pulling and the splinter just stays where it is and the tweezers slide off which is what happens with cheaper tweezers.

I remember being in a jungle for a few weeks and we was all issued with hypodermic needles to remove little guests with. One lad sat down for 10 mins and we pulled 25 ticks out of the back of his neck. Hypodermic needles are indeed very good, but I am left with lasting memory's of someone finding a tick in a very sensitive area, and the look in his face before he left for the toilet….

 

[DBC]

I remember being in a jungle for a few weeks and we was all issued with hypodermic needles to remove little guests with. One lad sat down for 10 mins and we pulled 25 ticks out of the back of his neck. Hypodermic needles are indeed very good, but I am left with lasting memory's of someone finding a tick in a very sensitive area, and the look in his face before he left for the toilet….

I was in the Okavango Delta in Botswana in 1996 and got a leech on me in a tender place that I couldn’t actually see. I had to ask this girl who I only sort of knew for help. So humbling and embarrassing. Anyway, we got married roughly a year later in New Zealand. Our 21 year old son is arriving home from uni on Saturday to spend Easter with us. Yay, can’t wait.

 

[thetyreman]

I've just had the worst splinter I've ever had, had to take anti biotics and couldn't get it out, I'd think twice about taking anti biotics again because of the side effects

 

[Bm101]

Magnesium sulfate paste. Haven't read last 4 pages because this is the answer. Costs a couple of quid. Lasts forever.

 

[Alwyn]

Swan Morton of course!

Other scalpels are available....

Mag sulphate always worked for me. My grandma used it on us when we were kids back in the 50's

 

[Suffolkboy]

Or Burberis.

or Iroko.