Whittle IS a fun word, isn't it!
Be glad it was a good, sharp blade--those cuts hurt less as you discovered, and heal faster, too. I almost cut my finger off while whittling with a dull blade a few decades ago; still have the scars and limited mobility to prove it, but the sensory nerves regenerated after a few years, so that's nice. ha ha Sure was a long drive down the mountain in a stick-shift one only one working hand, though...
I've been learning to carve bows, which is a bit like whittling. I used to carve tiny Anasazi villages into pieces of driftwood. I should try that again some time. It was fun, fairly simple, and my daughter would get a kick out of it.
Oh for sure, papercuts even are more painful than this was! It bled a fair bit for a small cut, with it being on the hand, but didn't hurt at all, I had no idea I'd even done it. It's another reason sharp knives are recommended for cooking too! Much less likely to slip and cut yourself with a sharp blade, and wounds are easier to repair too with a clean cut, so sharpen your whittling knives, young man! If you slip and cut a finger off with a sharp knife, the surgeons will have an easier time re-attaching it
Oh man, the idea of driving myself to hospital while one hand is useless and bleeding heavily gives me cold chills. Glad you're okay now and the sensory nerves regrew! Sorry to hear that it still restricts your mobility though
Hand injuries can be nasty.
When I was a teen, I remember my dad - always a keen DIY'er who had/has some project on the go - had slammed his thumb with a sledgehammer while breaking up rocks for a pond project. He's a tough old bird who shrugs off injuries easily usually, but this time he was sat in a chair, absolutely white in shock. Surgeons had to repair it the best they could, he'd basically smashed it into mush. I'm sure it's not the same as it was before, but it's a miracle of modern medicine really that even with injuries like that, he still has a thumb at all with some use in it. Sounds as though you had good doctors too!
I knew it was bad when he didn't argue that he had to go to hospital.
When I was even younger, he was doing some extra hours street cleaning, using a giant machine called a green machine, one of these:
The machine got stuck in reverse, and trapped his hand between the machine and a lamppost. It put so much pressure on his hand, that the palm actually burst, splitting all the way across his palm. My mother went mad when he got home and dragged him to the hospital for cleaning and stitches, but he was so resistant. He'd done it early in the morning, and apparently he just knocked on someone's door and asked for some warm water to clean it, wrapped a dirty rag around it, and finished his work day. He's pretty hardcore and stubborn
Would love to see those Anasazi projects you made, if you feel like sharing photos!