I am woodwork/makey-stuff fiend and sharp implement fetishist. I almost always stick damaged digits in my mouth and use saliva to start the cleaning, unless of course it's a deep-puncture chisel wound which requires stuffing the wibbly bits back in and immediate compression to stop the claret leakage (
). For wounds which involve that certain stinging feeling (cutting onions) the relief is quick, the wounds seem to clean quickly and have no problems healing. Obviously soil bacteria doesn't count - gardening scrapes get cleaned thoroughly first, usually with a nail brush, and I like my wounds to bleed freely if they're raggy little scrapes or cat scratches. I rarely use dressings unless either the wound demands it (large, deep) or I'm handling food. Needle/awl punctures from leather sewing just get the suck-it-and-see treatment. Scars - I haz them.
Last time I had a deep knee wound I was 13, and a piece of window punctured the joint and went under the kneecap, nicking the tendon and generally making a right mess. For that I received an A&E special prize of discovering how resistant I am to local anaesthetics when they cleaned the joint for me. The scar is remarkably small for something that took 7 stitches to fix, but I was off my feet for a week, and 'light movement, minimal stairs' for another. No deep knee bends, and no sports for a few weeks. Nowadays they'd have sent me skiing after the first week, just to prove the point.
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