Two Cents on Common Sense
This week is Internet Woodworkers Safety Week. If you wander the various woodworking blogs and websites you’ll find a bunch of very good advice on how to stay safe while working with the machines that are so much a part of modern woodworking.
Some might suggest that the best safety advice is not to use them. While those woodworkers who work only with handtools may cut their finger occasionally, they slap a band-aid on it and go back to work and have no fear of losing digits or worse.
The truth of the matter, however, is that all of the advice on how to do safe woodworking is useless if you don’t also bring into your shop a healthy dose of common sense. It used to be that by the time you became an adult you had acquired a considerable amount of common sense and this helped adults navigate their way through life. More and more, however, I’ve come to believe that something has changed.
Surf through the woodworking forums and you’ll see that a lack of common sense is the basis of many accidents. You find people saying things like “I had a kickback occur last night because my table saw fence isn’t aligned with the blade.” The other day, in one of the carving forums a guy said, “I don’t see much value in a carving glove. I don’t cut myself very often.” Sometimes accidents aren’t accidents at all. They are the result of people without common sense being trusted with sharp objects. Common sense would dictate that you don’t use a table saw whose fence isn’t lined up with the blade. Arguing against a safety glove while admitting that you’re cutting yourself sometimes demonstrates the same lack of common sense. Without common sense, you will hurt yourself if you go through life, whether it is in your shop, in your kitchen, or while driving your car while text messaging.
If the guy pictured below falls and breaks his neck, would it be an accident? I don’t think so.
So maybe the best safety advice is to think about what you’re doing, what could go wrong, and what would happen if it did? Use common sense. Realize that while true accidents can occur, many accidents are not accidents at all but rather a result of a lack of care – a lack of thought. It might help to put this sign on the machines in your shop.
Cheers — Larry
Full Chisel Blog
Logan Cabinet Shoppe
Renaissance Woodworker
Tom Fidgen's Made By Hand
Village Carpenter
Wood Whisperer
Fine Woodworking Magazine
Popular Woodworking Magazine
Wood’n Bits
Comments