Safety gear poll . Do you wear yours?

Great poll Roo. You know how I voted.

I don't think I'm comfortable telling you if I wear protection. What's with everyone lately, the doctor asked me the same question on saturday.....

boots,eye, ear, and chaps. No helmet yet, but after reading Earthharvesters story i'm going to purchase a helmet before my next venture into the woods.

eye, chaps, gloves.

always wear workboots but not steeltoes

Eye, ear, gloves, boots, (chaps if in a wooded area, with tricky footing). I hardly ever drop trees, preferring instead to scrounge already downed wood, so I haven't invested in a helmet yet.

Uh, gloves. And a helmet when felling.

Think I'll ask for the chaps for Christmas.

If I can, I lay the trees down with the backhoe. Most of my cutting is on the ground If I were dropping trees I would wear a
helmet. you forgot hand protection in the form of leather gloves. I still have not gotten chaps yet but soon

elkimmeg said:

If I can, I lay the trees down with the backhoe. Most of my cutting is on the ground If I were dropping trees I would wear a
helmet. you forgot hand protection in the form of leather gloves. I still have not gotten chaps yet but soon

Click to expand...

Elk I might have an extra set.

Yeah I just made a christmas request to the girlfriend for a pair of chaps and an SOG Revolver (Hunter model)

True story:
I use to work in manufacturing and got a new pair of steel-toed boots every year. My old ones (barley worn) were given to my father who was an avid woodcutter. He very seldom wore them as he felt they were not necessary. Then one day while cutting with his trusty Stihl 029 farm boss, the saw slipped and hit his left foot across his big toe. For some reason on that day he was wearing the steel toed boots that I had given him. It saved his foot from serious injury. Ever since that event, he wore steel-toed boots whenever he cut or split wood. He has since passed away and I found the boots I had given him next to his saw in the garage. A large gash down to the steel on the left toe. I now wear those boots when using his saw to cut wood. I also wear a Stihl helmet with face guard and earmuff, safety glasses and leather gloves.

Good story and its great to hear you wear you'r gear.

I wear steeltoe boots, a helmet with integrated eye and hearing protection. The ear protectors keep the helmet in place while i'm bending over Now, if I could bring myself to wear the chaps.

I've always worn my eyeglasses - which aren't OSHA grade, but are the largest poly-carb lenses I can get - when doing any kind of tool work. I also wear earmuffs if doing anything noisy, which definitely includes the chainsaw. Earlier this summer I got one of those mesh facemask and earmuff combos, but since I don't do much felling, couldn't see the $20 extra they wanted for the helmet unit. (The same catalog (Northern) was selling hard hats by themselves for about $5 - seemed like they were doing a real price jack for the combo units)

The mask and muff unit is OK, but it does tend to flop around a bit as there is nothing to hold it in place on the back of your head. I may try to pick up a hard hat at some later date, but I'm not convinced that it would do me that much good.

When I'm splitting, I just wear my glasses, nothing special for PPE.

I don't usually wear chaps of any sort. I used to wear my leather motorcycle chaps, but stuff I've read says that leather doesn't offer any significant protection, so I don't bother with them any more.

I don't look at them as injury prevention per se, but I also wear tight fitting work gloves, either full or half finger, when cutting with the chainsaw or swinging the splitting maul - gloves protect the hands from many cuts and scrapes (not to mention splinters) and I find that they help absorb some of the vibration from the saw. I also feel that good gloves give me a better grip and more control when cutting. Note that I'm talking the newer style "Technical" gloves that actually fit your hand properly, not those cheapo leather "one size (doesn't) fit all" things that don't do much besides get in the way.

I also wear boots when cutting, but not steel toes because the current pair doesn't have them. Next pair might.

Although this thread reminds me of one of the best lines I've ever seen on the subject - It was an SF story by Spider Robinson - the hero was up in the Canadian north, and came across one of his neighbors out late at night, cutting firewood w/ a chainsaw and dressed in his bedroom slippers. He asked the neighboor, an elderly, crusty, hillbilly sort, if the neighbor had ever heard of steel toed boots - The neighbor responded "Nah, tried em once, dulled to many chains..." :bug:

Gooserider

Don't forget most important gear of all...


THINKING CAP
If you don't have one, you may lose other things also.

I've only really looked into PPE since finding this board. All way use earplugs and shoes. Going get the hard hat and chaps

If you'r not sure if what you should wear, read my story in the story section.

Have you seen the Prilosec commercial that Brett Favre does? He's wearing safety glasses anyway. http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1055669

No gloves, but everything else. I think gloves are a pain in the ass to keep track of and for doing anything that requires some digital dexterity. I prefer to have calluyses and nicks & scratches on my hands.

The only time I had a problem with that was about 15 years ago when my daughter was a baby and I found myself changing diapers on a regular basis. Then all those little nicks and scratches get infected from time to time, and that's no fun at all.

I also think that with gloves, you risk actually having your hand pulled into the chain if one of the cutters caught the leather.

I try to remember to take my wedding ring off before heading out into the woods.

I always have a cell phone on me, too. But I leave it turned off. One time I left it on and when I stopped to gas up, the phone went off. When I answered, some very pissed off lady said, "Who is this?" I said, "Hey lady, you called me. Who are you?" She said, "well, my phone has been ringing off the hook for the past couple of hours, and every time I pick it up, all I hear is a chain saw."

Oops!