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Nice vice there, Ben!
Alot of this sillyness is not driven by H&S but by lawyers. They've got to feather their nests somehow.
Bollocks.
Is that a legal term ?
I worked on a major construction site where a joiner cut his finger whilst sharpening a pencil.
What did you think the client did?
Did they insist on a toolbox talk on knives?
No, they banned all knives. On a 35 million pound scheme.
Edit: it was however a very safe place to be and the HSE would bring others there to show how a construction site should be run
Quite right to ban knifes. Most places I've worked banned them years ago. Why anyone would sharpen a pencil with a knife rather than say a pencil sharpener is beyond me.
Carpenters tend to use Stanly knives rather than pencil sharpeners, standard pencil sharpeners don't work on carpenters pencils.
Nice vice there, Ben!
Cheers 😉 It's a 1942 Wilton, special import from the US. I also have a couple of Swindens, they're lovely...
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Most places I've worked banned them years ago
Yes of course they did.
Knives have been banned offshore for a very long time. The only exception being the galley.
A standard pencil sharpener might not work but as they retail at about £2 for a carpenters sharpener there really isn't any reason to use a knife.
A standard pencil sharpener might not work but as they retail at about £2 for a carpenters sharpener there really isn't any reason to use a knife.
Except that a sharpener specifically for carpenters pencils actually undermines some of the advantage a carpenters pencil has over ordinary pencils.
The main advantage a carpenters pencil has over an ordinary pencil is that a much greater surface of lead makes contact. If you use a pencil sharpener on them it will round off the lead and dramatically reduce surface of lead that makes contact.
A stanly knife is required to get the maximum advantage out of a carpenters pencil.
Maybe things haven't really changed that much.....
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So the guy having a seat is roped in, but what about the photog?
Real carpenters use their chisels, sharper than a Stanley any day.
So can pencil sharpners cut floor coverings and the likes etc?Just think of all aspects of construction where a knife is needed.
Hang about, are you seriously telling me no-ones been able to design a sharpener for a Carpenter's pencil that does the job??! *Sets-off to make fortune*
The thin blade of a stanly knife gives you far more control to correctly scallop the end of the pencil than a chisel ever will. The secret is to expose the maximum amount of lead whilst maintaining the integrity of the pencil. Careful scalloping will achieve this.
My first thought about the photo was that it looked like a band's album photo...
We had exactly this recently... Production worker using automatic retracting blade Stanley managed to slip as he cut some packaging.
Cue managers call for total ban on open blades (including maintenance staff), maintenance team already have a good choice of 'safety' tools, but unfortunately the majority are simply shite - I don't actually know of a single one that makes the job easier/better, and I have known people injured more by some such as the poly pipe cutters...
Completely ignored was the fact that the blade in the operators knife was as sharp as the managers who decided blades should be banned and that the packaging only needed cutting because it was incompatible with our machine (ain't central procurement great!) or that the blunt knife was used in a very amateur fashion.
Two weeks later, the receptionist cuts herself - how? - cutting a doughnut with a 10" carving knife she has in her drawer, just in case!
Much the same as the usual hearing protection issue - here's some ear plugs... Never will the first suggestion be anything but.
My favourite comment H&S wise is that PPE is designed for contractors - they are unable to change their working environment so must use PPE to lower the consequences of the hazards present. Permanent employees should not need PPE on a regular basis because the hazard should be able to be controlled at source.