Anybody know where the "stupid" forum is? (pics)

Good video, thanks.

And yes, as Tramontana said above, this is what I told myself when I forked out for my chaps:

That reminds me of one of my jobs as a teenager (decades ago) in at the local timber and hardware merchants. All the contractors used to come in in the morning with their orders for wood for the day, and we'd cross-cut and/or long-cut it for them on the big table saw or circular saw.

One thing that stuck out, was just how many of them were missing fingers or fingertips.

Another thing about this site, that you kind of discover after burrowing down a bit, is what MasterMech said earlier on: Most of the guys who cut a lot of wood — unlike a bunch of folk in various youtube chainsaw videos — wear chaps, eye protection and other PPE.

I think tiredness is the other wild card. And if you're a guy that's used to pushing it, in sports or whatever, it can be kind of hard to know when one is getting to a point where one should stop, as one might have that strong instinct to keep going. A pause in the action can give one that moment ask oneself about it.

Swedepro does summer and winter cutting pants . I too toyed with the idea of cutting pants , but just went with full wraps for convenience of use .they are also a bit pricey .

Summer just wear shorts!

I tried that . A passerby stopped and said that when he first saw me , he thought I was riding a chicken ! Haven't worn shorts since !

Man, glad you are ok. I need to look into some chaps also. BTW, how do you like that new 261? I mean for cutting wood??

I have not tried full pants.. chaps are hot enough. AND you can take them off quick. If I was using the full wrap pants deal, I am sure I couldn't stand to wear jeans underneath.. and that would be a "problem".

Many close calls myself. Got chaps for picking blackberrys, figure I might as well save my overalls too.

Pretty sure the idea with the pants is to not have to wear another layer underneath (jens, etc.). I'm guessing I'm going to have to be the guinea pig on the forum and try a pair out.

I guess I need PPE when I'm making kindling now too.

I was using an Estwing Fireside Friend last night to split up some old 2x4s for kindling. These things are great for that. I picked one up this summer and am very pleased with it.

A word of warning. They are very sharp. Don't ask me how I know...

I found out the hard way last night. I have no idea how I even did this. I was splitting a bunch of scrap 2x4s for kindling. I must have steadied a small split with my left hand and the Fireside glanced off the side. Dumb dumb dumb.

46 years old and never had stitches. Got 8 last night. Nice clean deep cut. At least I was in and out of the ER in under 1 1/2 hours.

Wonder what a chain mail (sp?) suit goes for. Cooler than my chaps and effective against electrics saws too!

What's really stupid is that I have a pair of lightweight Kevlar gloves somewhere. Somewhere...

(Used them for summer riding when I still had my Honda ST1100. So what if they were yellow? )

It would be tough on the saw chain though.

Somebody needs to photoshop a chainsaw in place of the sword here:


like Danno77's avatar.

Brings to mind one point: After a hit with chaps, the bar and chain are roasted anyways. You might get lucky and be able to get all the fibers out of the sprocket and chain but most likely they will never be the same.

A small price to pay for your leg or even your life.

Smokey, for the guys new to chain saws, and those that need to refresher for what we know, how about a blow by blow how it happened. Lets see how many issues we can find.

Pain and disfigurement are bad enough but manageable.
However, I figure proper safety equipment costs far less than one trip to the emergency room.
Plus, I can usually keep doing what I want to do as opposed to being laid up with an injury.
Safe use of PPE and your equipment just seem to make sense no matter how you look at it.

I simply relaxed and let the blade swing down just enough to graze my knee.

I actually did that with a hedge clipper a year ago. Sliced a hole in my jeans and scratched my leg. Glad it wasn't a chainsaw.