Hemostats come in various sizes. I discovered today at the supplier I prefer for such medical implements (Ax Man Surplus) that larger hemostats have larger finger holes while little hemostats have little finger holes. WTF, over? Does that mean that only larger surgeons use larger hemostats and the smaller ones are used only by people with small hands and fingers? What if an old farmer with gnarly hands shaped by a lifetime of hard work (and maybe some arthritis) happens to need a small hemostat to do a small task with his big, competent hands? Hmmmm?
That, in fact, happens to be a situation I have. A good neighbor and friend at the lake, a farmer in his 80s, needs a small hemostat. He isn’t castrating chickens, hamsters or honey bees; he likes to go fishing so he needs it to tie knots in monofilament fishing line. He didn’t know that until I ‘splained to him how a small hemostat can be a big help when tying knots in nearly invisible fishing line with hands not designed for making fine stitches in lace doilies. He’s been a farmer all his life and has the hands of a man who is no stranger to hard work.
He told me recently that he doesn’t change lures as often as he probably should when fishing because it takes him about forever to tie a knot. I discovered that he uses the palomar knot, an excellent fishing knot that is among the easiest knots to tie, but no knot is easy for an older guy with older vision and big fingers. It’s like tying your shoes in the dark while wearing boxing gloves. Knot that I’d know personally, but that’s what I’ve read in the literature. I have half a dozen hemostats in my boat in case I should ever get old or anything like that, doncha know. Vicki also uses them for grabbing leeches from the bait bucket and disgorging hooks swallowed by panfish.
So I went to Ax Man Surplus today and picked up a 4” hemostat for my friend. It had tiny finger holes. I couldn’t even get my thumb and bird finger thru those little teeny holes. Imagine trying to use a lilliputian’s bowling ball the size of an orange, right?
I have a shop and some skills. As such, it is my higher calling and duty to rectify social injustices like hemostatic finger size discrimination when possible. So I did.
I made new finger holes of a size better suited to experienced manly digits. I made them out of 1/8” stainless steel welding rod. I silver-brazed the butt joints that made them rings, and then I silver-brazed the rings to the stumps on the hemostat from which I’d amputated the original, absurdly small, wimpy little finger holes. I’ll give the modified hemostat to my friend when we return to the lake.
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