Any one require steel toes?

[frashdog]

First off, do any standards call for them?

Wondering the general thoughts on steel toes.

I was required to wear steel for years, then I started climbing and found my hiking boots were so much better in the trees. I'm not against wearing steel toes, just wish they fit and performed as well as my hikers.

 

[Magnum783]

First off, do any standards call for them?

Wondering the general thoughts on steel toes.

I was required to wear steel for years, then I started climbing and found my hiking boots were so much better in the trees. I'm not against wearing steel toes, just wish they fit and performed as well as my hikers.

Uncle sam requires them for all jobs were lifting is performed that weights more than twenty five pounds. Granted that is the government so take it for what it is worth.
Jared

 

[RedlineIt]

Yes, here in Canada, they're called CSA "Green Patch Boots" sometimes called "Steel-toe/Steel-shank (or sole)" and are required in a vast array of jobs, from warehousing to construction and includes treework. Really any job where you could drop something on your toe or step on something sharp.

They needn't be steel-toe/shank, new plastic materials pass the impact and puncture tests well enough to get the CSA green triangle and are commonly found in winter work boots.

Since they are required to gain access to any large constuction site, there are CSA green patch brogues and penny-loafers for the engineers and other assorted desk jockeys who occasionally come on site to oversee and want something that goes with their belt and tie.

You can get CSA green patch white nurse's wedges and green patch hi or lo ankle running shoes and green patch hikers. Oh yeah, green patch cowboy boots are popular with truckers.

Having said all that, you can go on any house building site and find small outfit subcontracting carpenters, drywall boarders, etc not wearing what they ought to be, but if they were to have a foot injury, they'd be out of luck for Workman's comp.

Since they're all I've worn to work for a couple of decades, I'd feel odd without them on, and don't find they compromise my climbing at all. I wonder what it would be like to kick a big stack of branches into an armload without them.

Many of us in the trees have a couple or even several pairs, a set for big spurring jobs (Usually Vibergs here in B.C. but Wesco's, White's or Goodhue's in Ontario) a lighter pair for spurless, an insulated pair for winter spurless and right where I am a rubber vamped pair for the rainy season. (I don't care how well you waterproof them, no non-rubber boot stays dry in 4" deep puddles).


RedlineIt

 

[ATH]

I don't have the book in front of me, but I'm pretty sure ANSI requires them for chainsaw operators on the ground (but not climbers).

Good idea even if not required.

 

[Magnum783]

Easy on saying a good idea. I have met a guy who lost all his toes on the left foot because a aircraft wheel feel on the back of his toe and bent the steel into the back of his toes and amputated them or almost amputated them enough that a surgeon had to finish the job. I guess it is just a give or take broken crushed toes or removed. I am not saying anything against steel toes where them everyday so that should tell you something.
Jared

 

[maxburton]

I would imagine that anything strong enough to bend a steel toe into your foot and destroy it is heavy enough to destroy it either way.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Easy on saying a good idea. I have met a guy who lost all his toes on the left foot because a aircraft wheel feel on the back of his toe and bent the steel into the back of his toes and amputated them or almost amputated them enough that a surgeon had to finish the job. I guess it is just a give or take broken crushed toes or removed. I am not saying anything against steel toes where them everyday so that should tell you something.
Jared

I think if you saw the stats on the amount of pressure needed to perform that (unless the boots were in bad shape beforehand) amputation youd find the toes would have been totally lost anyhow. I have heard many myths about guys loosing toes in steelcaps, have yet to actually meet anyone who has done it.Mine have saved my toes many times.
Its like guys who claim a seatbelt will kill them, or a crash helmet. Steelcaps, seatbelts, and crash helmets will save you or reduce injury 999,999,999 (or at a guess something like that) times to every once they hurt you.

 

[Jumper]

As mentioned above, an overwhealming percentage of workers in Canada wear steel toes, with a puncture resistant plate as well.

Mythbusters busted that myth on TV. You are far better off with steel toes on as any accident serious enough to collapse the box and amputate your toes is going to do so with out them as well, likely worse. From the discovery channel site:

Episode 42: Steel Toe-Cap Amputation
Adam and Jamie slice and dice a myth from the construction industry. According to some laborers, steel-toed boots can be more dangerous than the regular variety. Apparently, a worker from Down Under was awarded financial compensation for losing three toes when a heavy weight fell on his steel toe-capped boot. But were the unfortunate Aussie's steel toe caps turned into toe cutters, as the myth stipulates?
premiere: Nov. 9, 2005

On this mine site you don't leave the office areas unless you are wearing CSA green patch boots, in fact my employer will pay up to $180 a year to provide you with them; even the office workers got a pair. I had a truck driver the other day that was not allowed out of his truck while we loaded 35,000 lbs worth of impellers and impeller housings for the smelter in GA. I had to go back to the office and get the visitors toe caps, clunky yellow things, for him to wear. I am not quite sure why anyone would show up on an industrial site here without approved fotwear but he did.

Most tree workers I know here wear steel toes, climbing or not. The complaints that they hurt or are too cold in winter just do not fly anymore as there is a huge variety of sizes, styles and materials on the market, my winter pacs are composite toes and plates as are one pair of gore tex boots that I think were meant for security people so they do not set off metal alarms; I passed through Pearson with them on and the alarm remained silent.

 

[Jumper]

First off, do any standards call for them?

Wondering the general thoughts on steel toes.

I was required to wear steel for years, then I started climbing and found my hiking boots were so much better in the trees. I'm not against wearing steel toes, just wish they fit and performed as well as my hikers.

There are a wide variety of hiking styles available here in Canada.

 

[badhabits]

One thing to look into particularly for the people on the ground is the metatarsal covers, this not only would give added protection but make it difficult to cut into the top of your foot.

 

[frashdog]

Would be nice to find some great boots for climbing/hiking around the woods with steel toes.

I have steel toe chippawee loggers. Have had about 8 pairs. Great boots if you, walk on concrete all day. Made for the woods, big vibrum lugs, but they do not come near the performance of good hikers.

What I do not like about every steel toes boot I have ever tried on is the boot will twist at the ball (the end of the steel shank) more as they break in, no torsional stiffness. Very important for getting toe box to edge on small features when climbing or traversing on steep terrain. Even though my hiking boots I climb with are also 3/4 shank, they still have many times the torsional stiffness of my steel toes. I also have a pair of full shanked leather alpine mountaineering boots that are the ultimate for walking and climbing in cold snow and ice, never going to get those in steel toes.

 

[badhabits]

Would be nice to find some great boots for climbing/hiking around the woods with steel toes.

Try Timberland Pro boots, steel toe and shank but feel like hiking boots I have 2 pair and love them.

 

[frashdog]

Try Timberland Pro boots, steel toe and shank but feel like hiking boots I have 2 pair and love them.

Those look great. http://www.timberland.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2013262

 

[Jumper]

Steel toe hiker available here:

 

[Jumper]

My employer just bought me a pair of these in tan leather. not quite what I normally would wear, but free once a year.....They look heavy but actually are quite lightweight.

 

[Cedarkerf]

Myth busters did a show on steel toes and it took a lot more pressue tocrush the steel to than it did to amputate toes for what it is worth

 

[Chinooker]

There are many hard toe boots sold through military suppliers. Converse makes a composite toe boot that is running shoe comfortable. I prefer the new composite toe boots - lighter and do not conduct temperature like steel.

http://www.uscav.com/Productinfo.aspx?productID=9666&TabID=1&CatID=6

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I do most of my own work, and hire temps if I need brush or rocks moved from Point A to Point B.

When I call for help, I request that they wear steel toe shoes / boots if we're moving chunks of wood or rocks for landscaping.

I wear them myself, for the same basic reasons, and when cutting apart trees on the ground with a chainsaw.

Otherwise, I were a hiking style boot.

 

[Canyonbc]

Ya i know Iron Workers..are not required actually is looked down upon the best i know...
it goes down the princpal of...well a 1200 pound beam is gonna crush and break all your toes...or the steel toe will cut them all off..

 

[ATH]

OK...so if folks don't think steel toes do anything to prevent crushing injuries any thoughts about cutting your toes when limbing stuff up on the ground?