Last week I was trimming some wood with a pocket knife and slipped. Luckily, it wasn't too serious - happened in my house - and only a few blocks from the ER. Four stitches in my hand later here's my lessons learned...

1. Knife safety would have prevented it all. Although I've never had a knife accident before, I was entirely too careless. Whittling away and pulling the knife back towards me. Stupid. I should have spent as much time thinking about that as I did sharpening my knife before the accident.

2. Not much blood or damage, but it would have been a much bigger problem out in the wild. My first aid kits would be better off with bigger bandages and wraps. I didn't even have those in my house kit - although a clean towel/cloth wasn't too hard to dig up.

3. The wound could have been sewn up by me, but the value of doing that in the field would be negligible. More damage and I'd need a surgeon. Clean bandages would take care of it for the short term (2-3 days or so). Being short one hand would be the bigger problem.

4. Get a tetanus booster! Mine was out of date (more than 10 years old). That was the real value of the ER visit.

5. The value of a big scar is low unless you come up with a good story. The ER physician suggested that disarming a knife assailant would be a better bar line than I'm clumsy and cut myself.