A while back, I wrote about Mobile PC's excellent "100 Best Gadgets" feature. In the March issue of Mobile PC, editor in chief Chris Null writes about a few of his favorite gadgets that didn't make the cut, including the EMI Finger Ring Cutter," a device used mainly by paramedics to remove rings from injured people.
EMI FINGER RING CUTTER. So I put on a few pounds after I got married. I can deal with that. But when I found I could no longer wedge my wedding ring off my finger, that's when I started to panic. I heard all the folk remedies: butter, soap, Crisco, and even a dental floss technique that my doctor devised, but nothing would get that ring off. It had to be cut. But much to my surprise, no one cuts off rings for fear of taking off fingers along the way. Only emergency rooms have the tools to do it, and no way was I going to pay that kind of cash for such a simple job. It took months before I realized I could do the job myself by buying a cutter online — they cost less than 10 bucks! The device is fearsome, with a spinning blade powered by a thumbscrew, but I was undaunted. After 20 minutes of work, I had that sucker off. Fabulous. Now I can eat all I want.
UPDATE: Mark D says: "Too bad the Marines don't have those ring cutters. (They make such a nice cut that you can have the ring soldered and never know it was cut.)"
From USA Today:
When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he'd either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.
The 19-year-old former high school football star suffered a mangled left hand and serious wounds to his legs in a Nov. 13 fire fight in Fallujah. Battle, who is recovering at his parents' home in this desert city 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, came under attack as he and fellow Marines entered a building. Eleven other Marines were wounded.
Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle's ring to save as much of his finger as they could.
"But that would mean destroying my wedding ring," he said. "My wife is the strongest woman I know. She's basically running two people's lives since I've been gone. I don't think I could ever repay her or show her how grateful … how much I love my wife, my soul mate."
With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but somehow in the chaos that followed, they lost his ring.
