Why was it so hard to stop the bleeding from a small cut on my finger?

I have had cuts to my fingers before, and it never required more than a bandaid to stop the bleeding. This morning I cut my pinky finger near the base. The wound was superficial but it was larger than usual, about the size and shape of half of a dime. The bleeding was slow, but it would not stop. I was eventually able to stop it by placing part of a paper towel over my finger with an elastic to put pressure on the wound. Was it the size of the cut that made the difference?