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.