Or perhaps, "Because I've never..."

Not really. It dries to a film and is slightly tacky before it completely dries but it's nothing like super glue. It doesn't have any hold in it's fresh state & dries slowly.

The only wounds that really need closure are ones that are large enough and so poorly located that they gape open or are pulled open during movement. If the wound margins close naturally and stay closed automatically then there is no need for anything other than a covering to keep dirt out.

Size isn't a very good guide of what to close or not. A not very deep or wide cut over a joint may need stitching or closure if it won't stay closed. On the other hand a rather wide cut in another location may stay stable and closed all on its own.

The good news is that human skin is remarkably self-sealing. Even huge lacerations that should have been stitched will usually heal in time. It will take more time, hurt more and it increases the risk of outside infection but given time they usually knit. Often leaving a hell of an ugly scar but man spent the first hundred thousand years without stitches and we, for the most part, made it.

And, of course, if you have a paper cut there is no need to stitch or close anything. Mama's kiss and a Power Ranger band-aid will do it.

regarding the steri strips and super glue it is NOT a good idea to seal the top of a wound unless you can gurantee it is proper irrigated and disinfected other wise you just make a bigger problem. It is better to just let the wound hear from the inside out, i.e. granulate.
cheers

Doesnt super glue have cyanide or cyanate which is poisonous ?
Anyone here knows ?

I don't know about it having cyanide, but Dermabond is, from the package, " 2octyl cyanoacrylate." "Cyano" just means it has a Carbon-nitrogen bond, not that it's cyanide... besides, that's the sterile medical stuff.

As for using it, ideally (according to the product rep) it's applied like sutures: interrupted, with a "strip" of glue about every 1/4 inch. This allows drainage of the wound to help prevent abcess formation.

The wet-to-dry method mentioned by Art is actually shown to be detrimental, even though it's widely used. When pulling out the dried gauze, it pulls out whatever is stuck to it, including new granulation tissue. Usually the gauze is soaked only in saline.

Best 'generic' advice is to keep it clean and covered. Keeping it moist and frequent dressing changes (after the first 24 hours) helps keep scarring down. Triple antibiotic ointment is OK for this, but don't slather it on, just the bare amount needed to cover the wound. Don't forget, skin is an organ, just like the heart, and the more exposure it gets to something, the higher the chance of forming an allergy to it. Skin regrows at a rate of 1/2 - 1mm daily, so you can eyeball how fast it should cover up.

Then there was the time (oh wait - I meant "many times") when I cut myself sharpening a knife...

When I got my hand cut open dressing an elk (never give the knife to the old man with the shaky hands) it opened the skin up all the way down. I needed to seal that cut up, to get it to quit bleeding as well as so it wouldn't get caught on something and tear it more or contaminate it further. After thoroughly cleaning the opening, I glued it shut.

Now maybe I was lucky it didn't get infected. But from my way of thinking, getting that open gash closed up fairly ensured that nothing more would be able to get into it, and being reasonably sure that I'd removed everything foreign that I could from the cut before closing it I figured that closing it was better than not. I couldn't have just dressed it and left it open, as that would've fairly well immobilized my hand and that was not a practical alternative.

The bottom line is I didn't get an infection, the scar is nice and neat and tight, and I was able to continue doing what I had to do to run camp and take care of my kill. I didn't need to worry about contaminating the wound further, which was highly likely even with a dressing applied had I not closed it up.

I have another old scar from another cut a while back that I didn't close with glue. It is almost 1/4 inch wide, having filled with scar tissue, and looks ugly. It also took about twice as long to heal up, despite the use of antibiotics and sterile dressing. Given the choice between the two, I will glue small cuts like that from now on.

Now burns and blisters, that's a different matter.

I told my story right after it happened, but I'll recap here. I had just cut down a very small tree...approximately 3/4 of an inch in diameter, that was growing behind our gas meter. I had shredded my wire saw...first time it had seen action (made me rethink the practicality!) and finished up with a Gerber camp saw. I decided to trim it down to burn in the fire bowl, so I sat, criss cross applesauce, in my yard and proceeded to saw. Wet, green bark was the only thing connecting the parts I was cutting when the saw slipped and sliced neatly through my leg (was wearing shorts). Surprisingly little blood when you cut down through that much skin. I hobbled into the house, told my wife what happened, and she paused from her phone conversation, without breaking eye contact, said, "I have to go, I'll call you back". Stood up to get the kids from playing in the yard and mumbled something that contained the word "idiot" on her way out the door. She almost wouldn't drive me to the ER!
I too got 4 stitches and tetanus shot...and my story, when asked was, "I was stupid". Much cooler story when I broke my foot during a tae kwon do testing...although that was stupidity on my part too. The cool part of that story was that I finished the last half of my test with the broken foot.

Here's the kicker: Less than two weeks before, I had taught a lesson to a bunch of visually impaired kids on the safe use of kitchen knives! My mantra was, "Always think about where the knife could cut you if it slips!"

'...criss cross applesauce..."

Must be an east coast expression or something...