Buddy hurt in saw accident...Wear your chaps/pants!
- Thread starter PWB
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
parrisw
Tree Freak
At least we can agree on one thing. HUSKY KICKS!!!
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
volks-man
Arboristsite.com Spooner
i know this is a serious topic and all...
but i couldn't help but to laugh out loud on that one.
HolmenTree
ArboristSite Guru
As a fellow Canadian I'll put my 2 cents in too parrisw. I got good respect for ropensaddle he's probably one of the few on this site who works as hard as he does. Over on here on the Canadian plains our climate is tough I don't know how my dad and his dad did it breaking land and farming 1905 to 1975. With winters down to 70 F below, summers at a scorching 110 F with humidity.
Last summer I was doing climbing removals over 100 F above and what really helped me and my crew is we wear those crystal cooled rags around our necks.
parrisw
Tree Freak
Thanks. Yes, it is an extreme climate in lots of Canada, wild temperature swings. This winter was a strange one here, we had a cold spell for a week, went down to like -10°c wind chill brought that to like -16°c. Then the week after it warmed right up to +5° and higher.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Well many times ole ropen is full of bs ,lol ;I applaud all that wear ppe. You usually wont catch me without my cowboy hard hat and never without my safety glasses because ;I can't see anymore without them. I am personally lax on my chap wearing in high temps and unless I am running equipment I rarely wear ear protection. I am not trying to say it is right for everyone but it has worked for me so long, I hate to mess with it. I enjoy bumping heads in here but since I am an Aries ;that is to be expected lol
Last edited:
alpinecrick
ArboristSite Operative
Keep this up, and you guys are going to talk me into buying chaps yet.......
Casey
Casey
alpinecrick
ArboristSite Operative
But the 2 hp saw will most likely be lighter, and the kickback can/will be faster--and probably higher "velocity".
Kickback has always existed of course, but the advent of lighter saws, higher revving saws, the appearance of "mini-saws", cheaper consumer saws, with more and more weekend warriors buying saws, created a situation where kickback became more common.
Lighter saws simply have less mass to get moving. Higher chain speeds can impart more velocity to the kickback motion.
There is some argument that saws with more torque will not "bog" in the event of kickback, and impart a powerful kickback in their own right.
A 15 lb 7K RPM saw, vs a 12 lb 12K RPM, both with the same bar length, it's a simple matter of physics.
Of course, all situations are different, but kickback is kickback--it's all dangerous.
Casey
Last edited:
Well I still live here in Texas and thou I'm not a pro like some of you and probably hadn't cut near as much wood in my lifetime as some of you have in a week I have learned about safety and PPE gear since coming to this site. I also had never heard of chainsaw chaps till coming here but now own and use a pair when I cut. Yes they're hot but so was that pair of snake chaps I bought a few years back to hunt a deer lease I was on that had a bunch of rattlesnakes on it. But I still put them on before going in the woods anyway(I didn't care for fang marks in my legs and the nearest hospital was almost a mile away). I am very careful and mindful of my surroundings when I'm cutting, watch wear that bar is and take a break when I start to get tired, but it is still some cheap insurance to have that PPE on just in case.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Carefull brink , I was in the san Jacinto forest area when I had my heat episode very hot in your tropical rain forest.
Yeah I no Ropen, it just means taking breaks more often when it is 100 degrees plus out in the shade. I try to cut earlier in the morning when the temp starts climbing in the summer months and quit alot sooner till next morning.
cherrycutter
ArboristSite Operative
I am a ER nurse and was also a Flight Nurse for quite some time. I have seen people DIE from bleeding out due to 3-4" chainsaw leg wounds. If you get the femoral artery it can be all over in a matter of 2-3 minutes. I always keep a VERY well stocked firstaid kit with me and religiously wear chaps, steeltoe boots, long sleeved shirts, kevlar gloves, full helmet with ear protection and face shield with safety glasses under the screen. No matter how hot it gets. My friends and other sawmen in my area make fun of me sometimes but I will always use all ppe. Hope this guy makes a full recovery.
PWB
ArboristSite Guru
You guys don't like chaps, fine. I don't either. Personally I wear a pair of husqvarna pants with kevlar in the front that are pretty light at home. Bought them to fit, really they're too light in the winter, cold even. At work I wear a pair of stihl pants that I bought big enough to fit over my work pants. Too hot in the summer, but I still have all my limbs....... No getting snagged in the brush on the straps on the chaps if you wear pants instead.
SW ontario has wind chills of -40 in the winter (celcius OR farenhiet) and +39c or over 100f in the summer with lots of humidity. As far as I am concerned there's no choice. Just look at my buddy's leg, we all make mistakes.
SW ontario has wind chills of -40 in the winter (celcius OR farenhiet) and +39c or over 100f in the summer with lots of humidity. As far as I am concerned there's no choice. Just look at my buddy's leg, we all make mistakes.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
I don't really mean to sound like an :censored: hole but how many days have been over 100 degrees in Canada? Remember if it is that hot there add ten to twenty degrees and at least three more months of summer and you will begin to understand our summer. Corse in winter we rarely see below 0 temps so if I had not lived in Mi I could not comprehend your winter.
parrisw
Tree Freak
Depends on where you are?? I really couldn't begin to tell you. One of the hot spots in BC is in Osoyoos BC, I know it can get over 40°c there, 40° is 110°F, I've heard temps of 45° there, this place is a few hours drive from me not including ferry ride. So you don't live in the only place in this world that gets over 100. Anyway, I'm done talking about this before I get pissed off.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Ok I am just thinking equatorial I will do a search to see for myself I have been wanting to move to north Ar five degree cooler and less 100+ days just four hours away. I can't take Texas heat as I used to live there don't mean to get you riled just thinking of being a snow bird in the near future south in winter north in summer
Blackberry boy
ArboristSite Lurker
Tell your bud best wishes .
cpr
Addicted to ArboristSite
Wow, sorry to hear that. Prayers go out to him and I hope for a speedy and full recovery.
I never used to wear chaps, either. I was in the woods with my BIL and he cut himself with his saw. He was holding the saw running in his left hand, not cutting anything, just holding the saw and clearing some brush away with his right hand. The saw was idling just above clutch engagement speed and he bumped something sending the bar around into his leg. It tore through his jeans and helped itself to a few layers of skin. Painful, ruined pair of pants, blood spilled, but he was lucky. Convinced me right there about chaps...
I'm more of a firewood cutter and certainly no arborist or logger. However, I always limb with my 141 the few times I've had to do it. It's not that the smaller saw has less power and couldn't hurt me, it's that a 15" bar in close quarters and odd positions is a LOT easier to keep track of than a 24" one like on my other saws. I know it's been said, "yeah, but will you really change saws to lop off a couple branches"... Yes, I will, FWIW.
I never used to wear chaps, either. I was in the woods with my BIL and he cut himself with his saw. He was holding the saw running in his left hand, not cutting anything, just holding the saw and clearing some brush away with his right hand. The saw was idling just above clutch engagement speed and he bumped something sending the bar around into his leg. It tore through his jeans and helped itself to a few layers of skin. Painful, ruined pair of pants, blood spilled, but he was lucky. Convinced me right there about chaps...
I'm more of a firewood cutter and certainly no arborist or logger. However, I always limb with my 141 the few times I've had to do it. It's not that the smaller saw has less power and couldn't hurt me, it's that a 15" bar in close quarters and odd positions is a LOT easier to keep track of than a 24" one like on my other saws. I know it's been said, "yeah, but will you really change saws to lop off a couple branches"... Yes, I will, FWIW.
flatpikr
ArboristSite Operative
Everything you said is Right ON! I think, however, the most important piece of safety equipment is the brain making common sense decisions. If what I'm doing somehow seems a little stupid, or maybe a lot stupid, then I'm probably asking for trouble. Think safe. Not a good idea to have a 6.5 hp saw buried in a slash pile while thinking about last nights hot date. Stuff like that. Scuze me while I get down off my soap box.
