[morzh]

I do not know if I told this here....when I was.....10, I think, or even 9, I decided to make a soldering iron, having (!!!!) a bare nichrome wire wrapped around a metal rod with a wooden handle, connected to a plug. All bare, mind you - no insulation anywhere. The voltage was 220V. And then I plugged it in.
Blue pieces of the wire flew in total darkness.
By some God's miracle, I 1) did not get shocked, 2) did not get any of these pieces of the hot nichrome wire in my eyes, or anywhere on me, 3) did not start the fire.
Didn't even get scared.
I went up the fuse panel (2 fuses, you know, screw-ins, maybe 15A each) knowing full well the fuses have been replaced with what we called "bugs" (pieces of wire wrapped around the burnt fuse), and simply did exactly that (at 9 years I knew that much), and when my parents came home, they didn't find out a thing!

I was suspicious about non-insulated wires, so this only reinforced it, so I had become a bit more careful since.