Safety First, Foremost and Always
I am writing concerning “Teach Your Children” on page 98 of the June BLADE®.
I am impressed with the story’s writer, ABS master smith Wally Hayes, and his daughter Charlotte. To teach young people to make knives is encouraging, and especially with the emphasis on shop safety—which is the point of my letter.
I am familiar with the design, construction, testing and manufacture of Whizard gloves, the ones made with yarn consisting of stainless steel wire covered with two layers of Kevlar. The high tensile strength of Kevlar fiber—which makes personal body armor “bulletproof ”—is what makes the gloves cut resistant.
Kevlar gloves should never be worn around revolving equipment or power-saw blades such as circular, table or band saws. If a blade snags the…