Metal Filings and Bare Feet. Any Suggestions Now?

So, we built a nice well house out of spare metal siding from our barn. We used a circular saw to cut the metal, so there was billions of tiny, practically microscopic metal shards all over the place.

We didn't have a magnetic sweeper to clean it up right away and then I forgot....ran out to the workshop, over that area, in my bare feet. Now, I have tons and tons of metal filings in my soles.

I have no idea what to do to speed up them leaving. Tried a very light pressure pumice to try to pull out any that were on the surface....that didn't seem to do anything.

My husband suggested soaking my feet in Coke, maybe it would dissolve the metal.

Epsom salts? REALLY strong magnet?

LOL....almost.

Now what? Any suggestions are welcome.

 

When This Happens To Me, And It Does Frequently, I Use A Bright

Quartz Halogen Light Source, And A Pair Of Tweezers For The Big Bits

And A Needle For The Deeper Bits..

If You Can't Get Them All Don't Worry, Eventually They Will Work Their

Way Closer To The Surface.

The Only Ones I Have A Prob With Are The Curly Ones, They Require

A Bit More Digging..

Good Luck, And Keep Em Bare..



Cheers Glen.

 

That's exactly what I've done in the past for filings, thorn tips, splinters, etc. My feet are like magnets for invaders. Heck, I've even, no joke, gotten dog hairs stuck in my feet like splinters. The end was just jammed in there, hurt like a shard of glass....looked down and was shocked to see a dog hair sticking out of my foot. Happened two or three times after that. My DH didn't believe me the first time, but he saw it the next time and was as dumbfounded as I had been.

Anyway, my feet are super clean right now and I don't see a thing. These things are seriously small. I guess it is just a waiting game...and some really soft sole shoes in the meantime. It is really hurting to put weight on them right now, especially with all tile floors.

 

try soaking your feet in warm water for awhile then peel off the softened callus with a pumice stone, i'd say . phosphoric acid from coke is only good to dissolve iron oxide so i fear it will take too long to corrode sound metal.

 

Rather than a needle, I'd suggest an Xacto #11 blade:



Far more precise. Tiny, surgically sharp and easy to handle, these blades will allow you to go much deeper with far less trauma to surrounding tissue. Far less pain, much faster healing, and much easier to access foreign objects.

 

totally off the wall idea that i recall seeing somewhere for splinters.

i know this is going to sound nuts and i cant believe im typing it but here goes,

coat your feet in elmers glue,allow to dry then peel off. they say it works for minute splinters in your hands,i guess it would work for feet as well.

told ya it was off the wall..

 

oh even better, why not bikini wax like you use to remove hair? i bet that would work better than elmers glue and it would damn well dry faster..

 

That just might work! I was actually going to suggest using duct tape to pull off the superficial filings before getting the tweezers/exacto knife.

 

Ha. Was JUST going to say the exact same thing. I've used Duct Tape to get cactus of my arms and hands before.

 

You guys are great. Thanks!!

So far, I've soaked my feet and used a pumice, which didn't do much...or nothing. Then, DH went at me with the tweezers, and a hypodermic needle, which did great at scooping out shards. He got about 30 pieces out and we think there's about 20 left. Feeling a LOT better. Right now, I'm sitting here soaking my feet in epsoms salts and soaking my hand, too.....managed to jam hoof shears into my thumb while trimming goat hooves. Brilliant week I'm having.

 

aint livin it n luvvin it grand :cheers2:

 

Glad your feet are doing better, Past_VNE. I hope that hand heals up nicely, too.

I was going to suggest the X-Acto knife, as well, before seohsreven beat me to it. That's what I do whenever I have splinters or anything else stuck in my feet that I just can't grab with tweezers. It's too easy, though, to cut too much with those knives, though.

 

Never had that many splinters embedded in my feet before. I hope I don't, but just in case I do, I'll have to keep this thread in mind.

 

Really REALLY depends on the tweezers! I have used all sorts of tools to remove thorns and splinters and have found that having just the right kind of tweezers is far better and safer than using a knife or anything else. They get the splinter out in one piece without having to dig for it.

You need a very bright light and the finest needle-tip tweezers you can get. The tips of the tweezers need to be narrow, sharp and pointy, not flat-edged.

Find the entry hole and begin by spreading the skin apart from the hole center outward using the tip of the tweezer. Do this while squeezing the flesh beneath the splinter. Sometimes the splinter will just shoot out. Once you spread the skin apart enough to see the shard or splinter, grab it with the tweezer and pull it out. The narrow tweezers can reach into the small hole where other types of tweezers cannot.

 

Great tip! Yeah, the tweezers have to be really good ones, too. They can't be well-worn and coming apart at the end, either. The ends *must* meet. I've found that out when trying to do fine work on a different sort of project with small needle-nose pliers.

Speaking of needle-nose pliers, they would work well, too, if you don't have to get them under the skin. I like the idea of the sharp and pointy needle tip tweezers much better for getting shards and splinters out of skin. I wonder if those are even sold at drugstores everywhere or if they're some kind of specialty tool you'd have to buy at a cosmetic or surgical supply place.

 

I recently walked around all day with a piece of cut wire in my heel. The only way I noticed it was there is it would click on the tile floor when I walked across it.

 

Haha, that's borderline gross