wheres your money

[Evan]

boots or saws. this is 10 maybe 12 years of waring whites. the two pairs at the far end are rebuilt the last few years.

i was worried i was running out of foot ware so i did a inventory im good for a few years still

way more money here then what i have in saws

 

[jus2fat]

Looking at those boots...I notice none look to be steel toe..??
I would have thought you west coast loggers would use steel toe boots.

I don't - except in certain situations - so I'm NOT trying to make a statement..!!

Are non safety-toe boots common for loggers in the western parts of the U.S. ??

J2F

 

[lfnh]

Were the rebuilds full lowers or just heel and sole ?

Get 4-6 years, depending, between rebuilds.

Mud and grit are the boot killers.

You keep them in good shape!

 

[NORMZILLA44]

Hard to beat those White's. I got the Hawthorne highline, made by white's. Pretty close Just2fat no steel toe's anywhere around here. The logger's here were alway's worried of a log rolling on the toe or foot. I don't like steel toe, but once in awhile when I drop a piece of wood or round on my foot, I think about steel LOL! As I am hopping around.

 

[tlandrum]

id say ive got a dozen 900 -1200 dollar saws so i dont think my 2 pair of boots at 200 a pair is where my moneys at lol

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

Steel toes are deadly to a faller,they cut toes off! Better off with squished toes then none.Steel toes are for factory people. Treat your boots with a good oil and they will last a lot longer

 

[Evan]

I feel they last a long time 2 years or so so technigly I should have 5 pairs.
the two rebuilds were full rebuilds last year. The uppers and backstrsp ostentatious replaced. The lowers leather and soles are.

I've got one pair that needs soles ill have a local boot maker resole them and one pair yo far gone that needs rebuilt

 

[NORMZILLA44]

I agree Hillbilly, and the woodsman in my area feel the same. I use to do underground for the county, and working around trenchplate's all day lifting, and lowering dindn't make me feel good. They made us wear steel toe, and the lightest trenchplate was 3,800lbs. The stell toe average is base'd on a 75lb drop test. Hmmm! Think they'd help.

 

[jus2fat]

I agree Hillbilly, and the woodsman in my area feel the same. I use to do underground for the county, and working around trenchplate's all day lifting, and lowering dindn't make me feel good. They made us wear steel toe, and the lightest trenchplate was 3,800lbs. The stell toe average is base'd on a 75lb drop test. Hmmm! Think they'd help.

OUCH..!!! I had no idea of the ratings...75 lbs...:msp_thumbdn: thanks for the info..!!

J2F

 

[Evan]

Whites used to make a Kevlar reinforced toe that looked good. Ive always been afraid of Stihl toes. Or I guess the thought of loosing my toes

 

[Justsaws]

75lbs impact
AND 2500lbs compression

Like seatbelts and chainbrakes, everything has it's limitations.

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Steel toes are deadly to a faller,they cut toes off! Better off with squished toes then none.Steel toes are for factory people. Treat your boots with a good oil and they will last a lot longer

I feel much better educated after your expert advise. You are truly a sage.

you figure they'd go ahead and amputate all your toes after you showed up to the ER w/them pancaked? yup, it'd be great still having them on there for that extra hour or so...

FWIW I were rubber toe kick, steel toes w/steel metatarsal protection, and I like them. They've saved me from several potentially bruising situations on top of my feet. 75lbs is a lot to drop on top of your unprotected foot, not every impact is 3k lbs.

 

[lone wolf]

I agree Hillbilly, and the woodsman in my area feel the same. I use to do underground for the county, and working around trenchplate's all day lifting, and lowering dindn't make me feel good. They made us wear steel toe, and the lightest trenchplate was 3,800lbs. The stell toe average is base'd on a 75lb drop test. Hmmm! Think they'd help.

Just drop what your thinking of on an old boot and see what happens.

 

[MCW]

Steel toes are deadly to a faller,they cut toes off! Better off with squished toes then none.Steel toes are for factory people. Treat your boots with a good oil and they will last a lot longer

Steel toed boots are law in Australian Forestry. Cut or crush your foot while not wearing them and there isn't any insurance company or workplace going to cover you for any money. In fact you'll probably be the one getting sued for ignoring your safety obligations to the company you work for after being told you have to wear them. They are a major part of PPE for a reason. Please tell me how many people you have REALLY heard of that have had their toes amputated with steel capped boots in forestry? I've heard of it happening in factory situations with 3 tonne forklifts running over people's feet but that's about it.
Badly squashed/crushed toes mean no toes anyway as they'll be amputated regardless.
Like I've been told during forestry courses - you can do what you want on your own farm on weekends cutting firewood but if you get employed by somebody or employ somebody everything changes.
In fact I have a hard time believing that any forestry organisation anywhere would allow an employee to wear non safety boots?

 

[Chris J.]

...They are a major part of PPE for a reason. Please tell me how many people you have REALLY heard of that have had their toes amputated with steel capped boots in forestry?...

I would also be interested in the above-requested information. In fact, documented proof would be great.

 

[slowp]

My $$ have definitely been spent on the feet. My living depended on my feet. My feet have gone bad and now I am retired.
When I worked on the East side, I wore Whites. When I came over to the wet side, I went to Kuliens. I wore holes in the heel leather of a pair of Danners in just a month due to working on vertical ground covered in volcanic pumice. Kuliens will cost you as much as a good chainsaw. Kuliens will last a while and fit well.

I will admit, I seldom can find any boots that can be bought off the shelf. I wear a 6 in men' sizes. I have a strange toe and now have more strange toes. They are going into strange curled shapes.

Steel toes? Nobody I know wears them in the summer. They add weight. We seem to keep track of where our feet are. I don't know anybody who has cut their toes off with a saw. I had a log try to roll onto my feet, but because I was wearing some ill-fitting Wescos, the log didn't get to my toes.

We do wear steel toes in the winter, because the lowest cost rubber calks, that will hold up, are the Vikings. You can't find them without steel toes and they weigh a ton each. They shouldn't need steel toes because with their bright orange color, one always can see where one's feet are.

The main injuries out here are torn and strained muscles, injuries from things falling out of trees, injuries from logs rolling onto bigger parts than feet, injuries from mis-steps off equipment, crashing vehicles on the way to work, falls in the woods, etc. I do know a hooktender who lost fingers and parts of fingers when he took his eyes off the line he was feeding in, to yell at his crew because THEY were doing something unsafe. His hand got sucked in and the story made me feel sick. An entire landing crew from here was killed in the 1980s. They were on their way to work at 0 dark thirty and were hit head on by a semi truck, whose driver had fallen asleep. I don't think steel toes would have helped there either.

There's lots of back injuries. Steel toes don't help that either.

I guess, we should require wearing a suit of armor, but that would increase the injured backs. I guess that's why logging on flat ground, has gone mechanized. :msp_mad:

 

[MCW]

I don't think you understand where I'm coming from slowp. I understand everything you've said and I'm sure cutting your foot off isn't real high on the to do list but that doesn't mean it isn't a risk. It's also a very easy risk to fix. You have to wear chaps don't you yet I'm sure everybody knows where their legs are. I'm not the PPE police at all but just trying to put it into perspective that we must have higher safety regulations than you guys - they're not there for a joke either. Everything I hear would suggest that the US is the king of regulation but maybe not?
Don't worry about the hot feet - I'm well aware of how hot boots get regardless of their style in our climate. Soil surface temps here in summer can easily cook an egg. I wear steel toed boots all the time now and am certainly getting some whacked out toe shapes. I used to qualify as a foot model In fact myself or anybody else I know find no real comfort difference between a good set of steel toes or non steel toes.
By the way I envy how nice some of the hand made boots you guys have access to in the states.

I still want to know where the previous poster's severed toes theory came from and it's relevance to logging?

I also still have trouble believing that workplace safety in any western country allows non steel cap boots in a logging situation and inclines, temperature, big logs, small logs etc have no real relevance to whether safety boots are suitable or not. Does safety footwear vary from operation to operation or state to state in the US? Surley there are guidelines somewhere?
The PPE list in forestry here and this relates to manual fallers is quite simple. Helmet, face shield OR glasses, chaps, steel toe boots, hi vis vest. An easily accessible whistle is also a requirement in other heavily wooded areas like Tasmania depending on the felling situation. Pretty simple really. I have heard of chainsaw injuries to feet but not about anyone having their toes severed by steel caps in logging.

 

[slowp]

Most of the fallers in my area do not wear chaps, or even eye protection. It varies. The independent fallers are contracted out, and most of the gypo logging outfits are not too concerned if they are not the ones who will be paying the fines. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries is the agency responsible for inspections. I have not seen them out on the ground anywhere I've been here. They visit after a fatality and will then hit an area. The state, like other governments, is having budget problems.

One logger had a yarder set up on a busy road. It was there on the weekend. A safety inspector who was on a touristy trip left his card on the yarder along with a note about the way the guylines were rigged. When I arrived on Monday morning, it was the first time I'd ever seen his chaser wearing chaps and an orange vest.

Insurance rates for yarder crews now almost equal the hourly wage in this state. I do not know what the correlation is, except the rates were raised right after the last election.

 

[promac850]

I love my steel toe Caterpillars... they were a little uncomfy, until I broke them in.

They have saved me from some pain and prevented me from dropping large quantities of swear words faster than a really pissed off sailor... several times.

Also, I wore them while I was working on a 1990's Chevy plow truck... cast iron cylinder heads. I felt good knowing that if I happened to lose my grip on one of those heavy bastards while heaving it over the fender, my toes are safe.

I have dropped rounds/splits of firewood on my toes while stacking/splitting... wearing tennis shoes... it hurts like a ##### when the very small pointed corner of a split comes down on the top of your toe...

These kicks were about 100 bucks at Meijers. Well worth it, and for that money, these are well made. Only the crappy shoelaces had to be replaced. I threw some Kiwi laces on and haven't had a problem since.

I don't notice the weight. I can wear them all day long, day after day. It ain't that hard to wear them, they really don't weigh that much more than a pair of regular boots.

My dad had a pair of non steel toe Cat boots that were 20+ years old when he finally threw them away since we got him new boots for Christmas. They were suede, but from years of wear, the toe caps shrunk and hardened up... they were as solid as a rock. They still had plenty of tread left. He wore those things every day back in the tire business, and to many more businesses as well.

Water doesn't do good on boots... especially leather ones... that's why I bought some of the good beeswax shoe waterproofing stuff... every now and then, there would be a little bee flying around my boots and observing them, occasionally landing on one as well... beeswax will do that...

Here is my theory on steel toe boots and toe decapitation... It takes a #### ton of force to collapse the entire toe cap, due to the way it's formed around the tip of your boot... the ass end (open end, where your toes come into the cap) will be the first thing to collapse from something really heavy, possibly resulting in the severing of your toes from the steel curling over and onto your digits. However, the bright side is that your toes likely will be mostly whole, and could probably be reattached to your feet, and thus you'd eventually be able to walk again.

If they are completely crushed without steel toes, well, there's no way in hell the docs can possibly reattach your beloved digits.

If you are wearing steels and get your feet crushed, you are really doing something wrong. If you crushed your feet (a lot easier to do without steel toe boots) without them steel toes, well, you probably ain't ever gonna walk again... it is nearly impossible to walk without your toes, especially your big toe and little toe on each end of the foot.

Don't hold back that "yank your foot/feet the hell outta the way" flinch you preform (hopefully) when something appears or is falling down, heading for your foot/feet. Keep it up, reaction times will only improve, and it will greatly reduce the number of times you drop #### on your toes.


***This safety notice has been brought to you by the Shop Monkey.

 

[anymanusa]

I use full steel toe with metatarsal guard when I'm out in the woods trompin' around. Carolinas and Georgia Boots.