Why you should wear chaps! (GORE WARNING)

[Angelos]

I wish you quick recovery and thanks for sharing the pictures.
I'm relatively new to chainsaws , but I always wear boots, pants, hardhat, gloves.
The thing is that no one uses PPE in my area or at least never seen one.
Everyone's looking at me like I just landed from another planet.
Well...let them look I guess...

 

[EDMman]

Angelos, You can start a Greek fashion trend ............. lol

 

[powerking]

Here is my newest edition! Thanks to my father inlaw! He beat me to it!View attachment 221138

 

[ShermanC]

Chaps kept falling off my waist

I bought a pair of Carhartt suspenders this morning. They sure made a difference for the chaps that were slinking down below the waist.

 

[formationrx]

that looks like a good one...

i've nicked my left leg 7 times with my climbing saw.... weird seeing your leg is made of hamburger huh? ........that is worse then all mine put together.... i wish you a speedy recovery.... at least you ll have a cool scar and you ll never do it again... not like that anyway...

 

[aclawrence]

Thanks for the post and pics. I've got to get me some chaps. You can't be too careful!

 

[Carburetorless]

I know this thread is nearly a year old now, but there's no time limit on safety.

It's a fact that accidents always happen when you're not expecting them.

Reminds me of a friend of mine several years back, he was clearing a right of way with an 026, he wore his chaps all day even during his lunch break, then at the end of the day he pulled them off, was about to put his gear away when he looked back at where he had quite working, and noticed one small limb he had missed up on the side of a small embankment, it wasn't more than 1 & 1/2" in diameter, so he decided to fire his saw up and "just knock it down real quick" didn't bother putting his chaps back on for such a small thing, stepped up on the bank, cut the twig, went to step back off the bank, fell and got raked across the side of his hip when he fell on top of the saw.

The cut was about 1/2" wide x 5 or 6" long x about 5/8" deep.

Believe it or not, he was lucky, the chain was dull, so he had work a little harder cutting through the limb, the chain got hot, which cauterized the wound.

It looked like someone cut a ham with a chainsaw. It never bled a drop.

They cleaned it up with alcohol pads from a first aid kit(I thought it was a bad idea being as how clean it looked anyways) , and took him to the hospital. He was months getting over that one, because it kept getting infected. He still has nerve damage from it.

Most accidents that I've seen were similar. Usually in the last 30 minutes of the day. Guys get over confident, are ready to go home, and they drop their guard for a minute, and something happens that wouldn't have if they'd taken the extra minute to do it the safe way.

 

[zacker]

After that, you tied it off with a shirt, walked up hill to your truck, drove to town, got your dad then went to the Dr's?
Man, I prolly would have threw up, sat on a stump and cried till i bled out. man that had to have hurt like mad. I cut my knee on a broken window i was carrying and got like a 2" cut that needed stiching and it almost made me throw up and i got a weak and turned pale for a minute...lol but then i finished putting in the replacement windo and then went to go it sewn up..lol hope its all healed up now!

 

[Imbigdave]

WHat an eye opener!

I think the next thing I do is find me some chaps!

Glad you are doing well.

Safety first

 

[NHlocal]

Hey everybody. I've been working & I havent been on here in awhile. This topic went crazy since then. lol I've been back to work for awhile now. Everything has healed good. Surprisingly i was only down for 2 weeks. Thanks to everybody for the get wells soon & everybody who said this story has helped them, you are very welcome. I hope everyone bought new chaps after seeing this.

Good to hear you're healed up. I hate to hear about injuries(or worse!)like that but it is good to see it posted.
It's a VERY graphic reminder :msp_scared: of how easy it is to get badly hurt(or worse!)in this type of work. I bought a pair
of Husqvarna saw pants last summer, not because of this thread(I just found it today), but because of many
other injuries I've heard about. I've been cutting trees for about 15 years and no serious injuries. Saw pants
go on every time I cut. Thanks again for the post. :msp_thumbsup:
Work safe! ::thumbsup::

 

[axeman12]

Good to hear you're healed up. I hate to hear about injuries(or worse!)like that but it is good to see it posted.
It's a VERY graphic reminder :msp_scared: of how easy it is to get badly hurt(or worse!)in this type of work. I bought a pair
of Husqvarna saw pants last summer, not because of this thread(I just found it today), but because of many
other injuries I've heard about. I've been cutting trees for about 15 years and no serious injuries. Saw pants
go on every time I cut. Thanks again for the post. :msp_thumbsup:
Work safe! ::thumbsup::

I wear my chaps all day. Even if I don't do any cutting.

 

[Kapriel]

Wow

I bought a husky protective jacket and the chaps. That was about 2 years ago.

I know safety is important that's why I bought them. I have to tell you I've never worn them cutting, but now that I've seen this....

I do wear safety glasses and hearing protection and the Husky gloves but I have to do the whole bit I guess.

That's a wake-up call for me !

Thanks for sharing and helping others re think what we do !

 

[logbutcher]

Old thread but pertinent.

It's hard to understand all the macho posturing with pics here of cutting without PPE. otstir:

For those of us of the errrrrrrr, older persuasion, we remember the late 60's and 70's when NO protection of any kind was the norm. "Fire in the hole", ordinance training, no hearing protection. On the range for qualifying, no hearing OR eye protection. Kevlar body armor was not available for anyone...yet. It is mandatory now even in 100 F temps. We now discover that we can't hear at the many cocktail parties, too much background noise.

PPE : FULL SET ALL THE TIME. I don't need no more scars to show the "boys".

 

[Sagetown]

A well known old school teacher loved cutting his own firewood died from such a wound while cutting alone in the woods.

 

[Kapriel]

A well known old school teacher loved cutting his own firewood died from such a wound while cutting alone in the woods.

Yikes ! That's not good I like stories with happy endings. :msp_biggrin:

 

[powerking]

...Gotta admit it too....I never wore chaps, but ended up buying a nice set after reading this. Also, after rebuilding a saw I was always quick to go out back and run it, now I put on the ear protection first!

 

[tallfir]

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Glad it missed the tendon.

 

[shooterschafer]

Those 066's will give ya an education , I got one that was 56 stitches long , my friend cut himself the same way kneeling and right abobove the kneecap his was pretty bad they had to pull his muscles back together. I still dont put those darn chaps on even after all of that ! I make guys that help me put em on though.

 

[greendohn]

A pair of Cabela's insulated "brier pants" saved me some damage a couple years ago. It's all i wear when wood cuttin' my fire wood. The heavy nylon facing if these pants jammed up the saw just in time for me to get off the throttle. I was barely cut across the upper leg.

Haven't thought about that really since it happened. Been figuring I'm good to go. BUT!!!

Now that I look back on how quick it happened and the fact I WASN'T even Wide Open Throttle..

Those brier pants probably wouldn't hold up well to a REAL kick back..

Thanks for the post and the reminder.

Gods speed in your recovery.

 

[brucew44guns]

chaps

I've been sawing with chain saws for 35 years, never considered much at all using chaps. But--------------that was before seeing your post on this accident. Thanks for doing so. I'll order some right away.