Just wanting to share my new perspective on PPE. I have been looking at getting a helment with the face guard and ear muff but never pulled the trigger. Figured regular ear muff and safety glasses would work. Today while cutting a downed tree I had a stick flip up and go under my glasses and get me in the eye. So after a trip to the eye doctor the wife and I made a trip to get the face shield and helment setup. I have always worn the leg protects and now will use both.
Learned the hard way
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Shield is in addition to the glasses. Or glasses in addition to the shield, rather. Belts and suspenders.
+1
My usual is to wear clear safety glasses under a Stihl forestry helmet (earmuffs and metal mesh face shield). Infrequently I'll wear just the glasses, but that's just for simple bucking. If I'm cutting treetops and odd angles and reaching, the Mesh shield keeps the chips from my eyes and face.
The safety glasses are the cheapos from Harbor Freight or whoever has the lowest price. They meet the minimum ANSI protection and they are a bit larger than the sleek sporty models. This provides more protection in my experience.
http://www.harborfreight.com/garage-shop/eye-protection/impact-resistant-safety-glasses-94357.html
My brother gave me one of the Husky forestry helmets a few years ago. Now I also use it when running the string trimmer / brushcutter (depending on what is mounted up) in the summer. Again, in addition to glasses. And the bright orange color is very visible when trimming around the mailbox. That is, if the drivers going by are not reading text messages 
Me too, along with my chaps.
I'm sure my neighbors are wondering what the hell, but it's not like I care what they think!
I'm sure my neighbors are wondering what the hell, but it's not like I care what they think!
My brother gave me one of the Husky forestry helmets a few years ago. Now I also use it when running the string trimmer / brushcutter (depending on what is mounted up) in the summer. Again, in addition to glasses. And the bright orange color is very visible when trimming around the mailbox. That is, if the drivers going by are not reading text messages
I can tell you from experience that protective equipment is not going to end all accidents. Some accidents are just that, accidents. You can and should learn from them. Tree work is always a Challenge when it comes to trying to figure out what branch is under tension and what direction it is stressed. I had a friend that broke an ankle doing storm work when a 3' trunk section rolled UPHILL as he was cutting limbs off. this was after 3 other professionals looked it over to find the safest way to make the cuts.
I have glass shreds from Safety glasses in my eyes from an accident over 25 years ago with 12 stitches in both eyes . The eye surgeon said I would have been better off with REGULAR glasses since they would have just popped the plastic lens out of the frame. The Safety glasses were required to have glass (regulation at the time - since changed)
I have found that in today's world we are too quick to blame on the causes of accidents, we need to face the fact that SOMETIMES they just happen and there is nothing that you can do about it.
I have glass shreds from Safety glasses in my eyes from an accident over 25 years ago with 12 stitches in both eyes . The eye surgeon said I would have been better off with REGULAR glasses since they would have just popped the plastic lens out of the frame. The Safety glasses were required to have glass (regulation at the time - since changed)
I have found that in today's world we are too quick to blame on the causes of accidents, we need to face the fact that SOMETIMES they just happen and there is nothing that you can do about it.
Beer Belly
Minister of Fire
Years ago, we were at a friends house dropping some trees, and was cutting a big branch to raise the canopy on a big ol' Elm.....got the branch cut to the point that it was just hanging by a thread.......friends BIL was below tugging on it.....we told him to stop, we're gonna go back up and nip it......then it happened.....he tugged, the branch landed next to him...rolled and knocked him down.....he got up, tried putting on his glasses, and couldn't get them on straight.....I looked, and said "John, you gotta go to the hospital"....the branch scraped the side of his head, and his Ear was hanging off his head in 5 shreaded pieces.....was able to sew everything back together, but a lesson learned the hard way.
I have a little machine shop, I was grinding some items to spec, glasses and face shield on, dang stuff still got me in the eye , bounced from below up under shield and found the only tiny gap there was. Doc had to dig the stuff out of the eye, no permanent damage luckily. Another time just driving down the freeway with sunglasses on windows open ( cheap air conditioning) something metalic got me in the eye, no other traffic around when it happened, that had to be dug out also ( same eye) no idea where it came from as I was on my way to work, so it wasn't something lifted off my clothing by wind.
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