Hi
I had an experience today with sword fingers and palming energy which might be interesting to some.
My mother was being given a massage, and the lady (she does qigong herself, though not SFQ) who did it allowed me to lend a hand. We were trying to soothe down some nerves which had bunched up and hardened due to old injuries. She and I were locating the nerves and massaging, but certain locations caused my mother to howl in pain.
For certain locations, I got my mother to do some of the exercises from the active exercise set (e.g. the neck rolling exercises from Harvesting of Qi, which seem to soothe the neck muscles and open the C7 vertebra) and her muscles would become extremely relaxed. This made our job much easier as we didn't have to penetrate the muscles as much to get at the nerves.
In other parts, I applied sword fingers and palmed energy in. This worked remarkably well as an anaesthetic. My father was quite amused as he watched. My mother would howl and the lady would move aside for me to do my thing and then there would be no more yells when we resumed. This way, we managed to make more progress than the lady had been able to in years as we alternated between massage and qigong. Personally, I was impressed by the technique's efficacy, and would never have thought to use it in this manner if the lady had not suggested it.
Happy qigonging. 
KWLee
