Slicing My Finger With an Axe at the Worst Possible Time

Blood dripped from my right index finger as six students and one of the directors stared at me.

This was the first class I was teaching.

I started the class with an intro to the workshop and what we would be doing – carving a wooden cooking spoon. This was the bit of the class I was most nervous about. Standing and talking for around 10 minutes. Public speaking isn’t a strength of mine.

So I was relieved when it was over, as it went OK. This was supposed to be the hard bit of the class.

Now I could move the students to the next part of the class, using the axes.

In the middle of the outdoor workshop, there was a circle of 8 axe blocks. Each one was made from a 3-5 inch slice of tree trunk, which was about a foot in diameter, held up at waist height by 3 wooden carved legs. The legs all sit on the outdoor workshop floor, which is now made up of 6 inches of wood shavings from previous people’s work.

I showed the students how to take the axe out of its sheath and started to show them how to hold the axe.

But in the process, nick my middle finger.

I wasn’t certain if I had. I couldn’t see a cut. So I was about to continue with the class but I then started to feel my finger throbbing. From experience, I knew this meant I had almost certainly cut myself.

But I wasn’t certain. And I didn’t want to say “I’ve cut myself” and then find out I had.

So instead waited, staring at my finger.

I could feel throbbing across the top section of my finger so I still didn’t know where exactly I had cut my finger.

I stared at my finger for a few more seconds.

I could feel the students staring at me. They didn’t know what had happened. All they knew was the man who was supposed to be teaching them stopped mid-sentence and just started staring at his finger.

The blood started to seep out of the cut, which I could now see.

I was annoyed. I had never cut myself with an axe before. The first time it happened was in front of my students. And in my first ever class.

The seeping blood quickly became a trickle of blood.

I had to say to “I’ve cut myself” in a slightly higher pitched voice.

I went into the metal container, which is where all the tools and equipment are kept, including one of the first aid kits.

I came out of the container feeling a bit panicked.

I stumbled my way to the first break, just over an hour into the class. I took the opportunity to go into the container again, away from the students, and compose myself.

The rest of the lesson went well.

I was expecting to learn a lot from my first class and I did.

I just didn’t expect one of those lessons was to not cut myself on an axe.