I agree that it would take major huevos to cut your own arm off. Most of the guys I reference above either had the flesh torn off, or mangled so badly that it had to be surgically removed.
Which brings me to a bad joke. You know what "Coyote ugly" is. Do you know what "Double Coyote Ugly" is? It's when she's so ugly that you chew the other arm off so it never happens again.
I grew up on a farm, and farmed until I was 38.
During that time machinery changed a lot, but my repect for it only grew.
Back when I left the farm, a corn header pulled the corn stalks through the rollers at about 16 feet per second. That number is just a number until you see it in action. 16 feet per second is so fast that if someone has a good grip on that stalk they are unable to let go before they get pulled into the rollers themselves.
Once you see a corn header in action, with it’s hidden rollers, it’s easy to see how a moments carelessness can cost a hand, if you’re lucky.
I never had a serious accident, and only a very few of the people I knew had any kind of real injury, but I still cring at the thought of what might have been in some situations we all got into from time to time.
One of the ‘fun’ accidents we still laugh about was when a good friend came over to help with some carpentry. He was busy nailing, and toenailed an upright to a 4x6 skid. The angle of the nail was such that the nail went right through the 2x6 upright, and unknown to him, through his tennis shoe missing any toes, and on into the 4x6 skid.
When he wanted to step to the next spot, naturally his shoe wouldn’t move, and he almost fell flat on his face.
We’ve laughed about “toenailing” for years.