Do you wear your chaps while splitting?

[Marshy]

I split about 1/4 of a f/c this weekend in flip flops with my Fiskar x27...

 

[slowp]

Why do you fear a little bruising?

During the warm days, if I feel like splitting wood, I'm wearing shorts, t-shirts and regular shoes. I use a maul. Yeah, sometimes a chunk flies off and hits my shin, or ankle. I get a bruise. I continue working. The bruise heals up and another one probably takes it's place from doing something else. Warm days are 50 degrees and up without drizzle or rain.

I don't get it. Fear of bruises? When I worked on the dry side of the mountains, we spent the season marking timber in an area where there were old fallen snags criss crossed all over the place. Since we wore eastside cow poopy boots, (called that by a guy over here when I first showed up to work here) our shins were colored up all summer long.

I guess instead of chaps, you could get boots that go up to your knees. That helps in the woods, but we still get bruised, cut, banged up...it comes with the job.

Now if you are a hemophylliac, or have a health problem, then worry.

 

[Whitespider]

slowp,
I didn't read anywhere in this thread where someone expressed "fear" of bruising... where in hell did you read that into it??
Although... just FYI... continued and repeated bruising in the same area does present a very real increase in the chances of muscular, vascular and neurological diseases/maladies developing, as well as certain types of cancer.
There is in fact a "danger" associated with repeated bruising.

 

[olyman]

slowp,
I didn't read anywhere in this thread where someone expressed "fear" of bruising... where in hell did you read that into it??
Although... just FYI... continued and repeated bruising in the same area does present a very real increase in the chances of muscular, vascular and neurological diseases/maladies developing, as well as certain types of cancer.
There is in fact a "danger" associated with repeated bruising.

 

[snoozeys]

Im more worried about wearing gloves than chaps

 

[Bartman]

I only wear them if the wife is with us.......then she wears her's when we get home. It works, I ain't messin with it.

 

[Full Chisel]

Call me whatever you want but I like to think if I feel better at the end of the day and can get more work done I'm all for it.
I have found that if I wear ppe I generally work more recklessly/faster and a get more work done in a day.
Not screwing around putting Band-Aids or black tape on a cut saves some time away from the job.

I don't wear PPE, except for gloves, boots glasses and long pants for I'm very careful when I'm working and have respect for the tools I'm using. It sounds like you are under the mindset that you can get away with being careless or reckless because you are wearing PPE...and that is a dangerous thing, more dangerous then not wearing them, IMO.

I had a wake up call the other day when I was splitting. The maul was sitting on the block with one hand on the handle and it rolled off onto the side of my boot while I was tossing a piece with the other hand. It took a sizeable sliver out of the cowhide, I keep my tools very sharp. I imagine I would have been looking at a significant laceration if I were wearing sandals, and it wasn't even from an errant swing. Something to think about for the guys who are wearing sandals...

 

[Cerran]

Now that I understand.
Don't get me wrong on this, I have no problem with someone acquiring and using PPE (or any sort of safety gear/equipment of any sort for any task). I would never tell someone not to use it. And I certainly would never make fun of, or tease someone for using it. But at the same time, the user needs to understand that safety gear/equipment does not make you safer, it only reduces the potential for injury or death when and if you (or someone else) screws-up... it cannot prevent the screw-up, or eliminate the danger from the screw-up. What got my dog barking was the comment from hdp stating that only a fool would cut without chaps. I took exception to that, and gave examples of everyday (foolish?) things most of us do that are way more dangerous than cuttin' without chaps. I also believe an employer has the right to require employees to use certain PPE... but after that it's a personal choice, no different than wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle (I believe helmet and adult seat belt laws are flat wrong).

Having an opinion of that personal choice and stating it is one thing... but being judgmental of someone else because of their personal choice is another thing.
*

PPE/Seatbelts/Helmets are a good idea and saying people who do choose these activities without the safety equipment are foolish certainly isn't out of line. It has nothing to do with being judgmental and everything to do with the reality of mitigating risk.

There certainly is a point of diminishing returns however as well.

In my mind not wearing a motorcycle helmet or seatbelt is plain stupidity, but then again as an engineer I understand the dynamics and energy involved in crashes which gives me a unique perspective. (I don't think we should have helmet or seat belt laws however)

I always wear boots, gloves, eye protection and ear protection and in about 85-90% of cases I wear my chaps.

 

[Toxic2]

Nope. shorts and steel toes tho

 

[snoozeys]

I always wear steel caps after dropping more than one log on my foot !!!

I find it ridiculous and stupid when I see drivers not wearing seat belts and even more stupid seeing bike riders not wearing a helmet ... they wear boots jackets gloves yet are too stupid to wear a helmet