“Sting” is a subjective thing. I’ve been using a styptic pencil for years, and on the 1 - 10 pain scale they use in hospitals, a styptic pencil is about a 2. About the same as isopropyl alcohol. More than skinning a knuckle, but not as bad as tearing a hangnail. And it’s only momentary. No point scaring away others. The advantage they have over Kleenex or toilet paper is that a few minutes after they stop the bleeding, you can gently wipe off the white residue, and you don’t have to walk around with a bandaid on your face. Sometimes Kleenex-treated wounds start bleeding again when you take off the paper.
When I was a child we got iodine on any cut or abrasion. Stung like fury but mother just said that if it didn’t sting it wasn’t doing any good. It came in a little brown bottle with a scull and crossbones on it - 
Yes, children love band-aids. Put one on, and a horrible wound becomes pretty sticker.
Iodine, along with mercurochrome, is not recommended any more. Also, alcohol should not be applied to an open wound, either. Styptic pencil for minor shaving cuts is excellent. I still have a pencil that must be 40 years old. New Skin is great for covering the wound so you can grab a tennis racket, or whatever, on the wound. More than one application is usually necessary. However, it does contain alcohol, which burns like mad. I know I said not to use alcohol on an open wound, but there’s nothing like New Skin for protecting the wound so you can grab objects. Bandages don’t work as well.
I understand not using mercurochrome…mercury anyone? And iodine just hurt too bad for the little (or adverse) thing it did.
But I’ve continued to use alcohol on a cut thinking I was killing germs or something. What bad thing does alcohol do on a cut? I always put Neosporin on a bad cut after the alcohol dries and the bleeding stops.
And how about hydrogen peroxide on a bad cut? I always thought that had some germ killing benefit.
Hydrogen peroxide kills germs but it also damages healthy tissue.
And to cushion places that would get rubbed or banged against with normal use.
I keep a little tube of cyanoacrylate glue in my tool kit at work. I end up with all manner of nicks and cuts on my hands by the end of any given day. Clean the wound, stop the bleeding, then seal with a drop or two of CA. It’s worked for me for years.
The Master speaks. Tl;dr: The original evidence suggesting a link has not stood up too well to examination.
As Cecil pointed out in his earlier article on the subject (where he gives the idea of a link more credence), although aluminum has no known nutritional value, it is so ubiquitous in the environment that you probably cannot help ingesting quite a lot of it anyway.
I have a jar of alumin the house. It’s useful for relieving the pain and healing canker sores. You can still buy it in the spice section of the supermarket, although I confess I have no idea what the culinary use(s) of it may be.
(ETA: It’s used in pickling and is one of the components of baking powder, google tells me…)
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