Monday of this week I started back to work at an after-hours family care clinic. After working in a collection law office for 5 years, it feels great to be back in healthcare. Putting my scrubs back on I broke out my old knife I use to carry at the Urgent Care clinic - a fully Serrated ZDP-189 Delica. It's light enough so it doesn't drag the pocket of the scrubs down, yet big enough for any of my cutting needs.
The clinic I am working at is in a very rural area and open Mon-Sun till 8pm. Yesterday around 7pm an elderly lady came in who had hurt her right knee & lower leg when she fell. The x-ray we took showed a possible break so the Nurse Practitioner ordered up to cast & splint it. The cast material we use harden up after you soak it in water. Once wet you can't waste time cutting & shaping it or it hardens up and sets in shape. As the other Med Tech was showing me she was having a very hard time trimming it to shape with the large scissors the cast material began to harden. I took over using the scissors thinking since my hand strength is more than hers it might go faster. Turned out to be more about the scissors being dull than anything. So I had her hold the cast material a bit away from the patient and I slipped my serrated Delica under it with the edge away from the patents skin. I proceeded to saw through the hardening material in no time to finish trimming it to shape.
Could a plain-edged knife of worked - sure. But in this situation I believe the serrations were more effective. They had no problem with the fibrous cloth covering, and worked like a razor-toothed saw cutting through the gel like inner core. Not exactly an exciting life-saving story, but more of a right tool at the right time & place story.
"A Delica is still a better weapon than a keyboard and a sour attitude..."Michael Janich
I have one of the older large Blue Handled Rescue models that I use to carry prior to my Delica. It worked just fine, but 99.9% of the time the knife at the clinic gets used for non-patient stuff. My Delica is smaller, feels a bit lighter, and carries better in my scrub pocket. I've toyed with getting one of the new smaller Rescue models, but just haven't yet. Money is tight since I was out of work for a few months, and I have two moneypits/sons lol.
"A Delica is still a better weapon than a keyboard and a sour attitude..."Michael Janich
Try a serrated Saver Salt (If you want a rounded tip)...no worrying about corrosion, and fairly close in size to a Delica, but you get a finger choil, and H1 is a beast with a serrated edge. The plain edge is softer, but I've head the serrated H1 is close to ZDP for hardness...and a lot easier to sharpen.
Great story Halfneck! A little reminder about the usefulness of serrations is welcome & timely, as PE gets most of the attention, including mine these days.
