sam_underhill - Member
that was may last year. got about 3mm of black stilll to grow out from my thumb nail!
The more you cut it, the quicker it grows... 
In an effort to not scratch my forks when trying to remove a zip-tie from the brake cable routing jobby, so intent was I to not damage the fork, that I decided the knife angle directly in to my thumb was better than towards the fork. Needless to say, I regretted the knife in to thumb nail job, when it prevented my applying any pressure with that thumb later on in the bike build.
5 months later the saw I was using to cut a bit of rail for some fencing jumped out from the cut and into my other thumb, sawing from the tip of the nail right down and out of the base. Fortunatley the angle meant I didn't cut much flesh, but with constant trimming I managed to grow out the damage before a family wedding, so an entirely new nail in under 3 months compared to the knife cut that took some 8 months!
Back to bikes and as a boy I had no idea how to get the forks sperated from my first Raleigh. An hour after I began, having removed the quill stem, got no less then 3 of my dad's favoured flat-heads wedged around the fork and then attempting to use a hammer to create play and vibration enough to work the screwdrivers out. Multiple dents in the top and downtube later (it was already due for scrap, I was just trying to gain an understanding) and I gave up. My dad was neither capable of understanding my idiocy or impressed when he went to take it out of the garage to get rid of it.
Plenty more attempts from my youth I'm sure.
needed a new cog too and took ages longer . Bugger
