hard hat question?

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slowp
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I made up my mind im going to redo the whole headband part and leave all the other stuff alone. Do you think there is a sewingsite out there somewhere? Hahaha!

There are these things made out of paper called books. You can find them in fabric stores. :D

The leather will be too heavy for a sewing machine. Even my old treadle couldn't sew the leather. Sew, (pun) I would suggest going to a craft, fabric or maybe an outdoor store and purchasing an awl, or ready stitcher or some sort of name like that. It will come with a thick, waxed thread which is almost string like, a bobbin, and needle. It will have a wooden handle on it where the bobbin goes in. You thread it, push the needle through the leather, grab the thread and pull it through, and then repeat and do a knot, which is sure to be somewhere on the internet. Repeat. I've got an old pack that I made and that stitching is still holding up well. If your fingers get sore or can't pull the thread, a pair of needle nose pliars will do the trick.

Note: If you are planning on wearing this hat to work, it most likely will not meet the ANSI and OSHA and whatever else your state has. You might get a fine. But, it will be fine to wear at a GTG or put "on display".

Smokejumpers know how to sew. If you need new strap material, I ordered it from The Rainshed in Corvallis, OR. They are on the internet, and have mass quantities of outdoor fabrics, fleece, straps and hardware.
 
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madhatte

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I picked this one up not too long ago. It's the nicest old 6-pointer I've found yet. I doubt it ever got used. Twenny bones at an antique shop.

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Nate66n1

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Im not planning on using it for work, just for cuttin around friends land. I also thought it would accent my saws nicely in the shed. I do have a stupid plastic hard hat but it just dont feel right lol.
 
Gologit

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Im not planning on using it for work, just for cuttin around friends land. I also thought it would accent my saws nicely in the shed. I do have a stupid plastic hard hat but it just dont feel right lol.




Go ahead and wear that tin hat. They hold up real well. This one is only about 30 years old and it still looks like new. Well, maybe not new...but close.

 
slowp
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Anyone know why these hats are not "safe" enough? Those damn plastic hats seem like you might as well just put some Tupperware on your head

My former employer ordered us to only wear plastic like twenty years ago. The reason for it at the time was that plastic was safer around powerlines, which didn't really make sense since most of us did not work around any powerlines. Then I heard it was because the metal hats get dented when tossed in the back of the pickup and in our fair state and others, that can cause fines to be leveled by the safety people. Since our district ranger decided everybody must have Bullard fire hats, it sure wasn't an economic decision.

The tin hats were declared to be the safest, by the Game of Logging guy. They take the impact and dent.
Plastic hats will take impact and split, but that's part of the design. It is the suspension that slows things down and lessens the impact...we hope.
Plastic will degrade if exposed to sun so it has to be replaced. Normal plastic hardhats are inexpensive so that shouldn't be a problem.
That's all I know. Both types can be flung off whilst having a rigging fit but the tin hats make more of a racket. My Mac T has clips (which have been declared unsafe) to hold a headlamp on and I can make obnoxious noise/music by flicking the clips. Tin hats can be written on with a pencil, erased, and used over. I used to keep tree measurements, phone numbers, and log scale on my hat when I didn't have paper handy. You have to put duck tape or something on your plastic hat if doing that.

Enough??
 
madhatte

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The "dent versus crack" argument is still pretty hot and contentious, as I understand it. I'm certainly a fan of aluminum, mainly because I can see the damage. Plastic wants repaired after any hit at all, since internal flaws will be invisible. I'd much rather not throw away something that's perfectly good, and I'd much rather be able to tell when it isn't any more. However, if you work anywhere that the OSHA guy might come and look at the date on your hat, you damn well better be in compliance. My fire helmet certainly is.

Oh, also, I remember back in the day working for Weyerhaeuser when they went to all-plastic. The reasoning behind this, as I recall, was indeed electrical, but not for the reasons you'd expect. Turns out, they wanted one rule for all employees, which included folks working in mills and cardboard factories and such who could expect to be working around electricity regularly. That rule made it out to the woods in order to preemptively shut down any "it's not fair" complaints from indoors. (this was 1995, I think)
 
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northmanlogging
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Anyone know why these hats are not "safe" enough? Those damn plastic hats seem like you might as well just put some Tupperware on your head

What I've been told is that the tin hats don't hold up to puncture... thats why the new skull buckets have that extra plate in the top.

Having said that I've only heard of one tin hat get punctured and that was with a bull block shoving some other dudes skull through it... first dude died second dude is dingy and has bits of wire holding his face together but far as I know he's still around.

Last I heard they had his hat at the UW on display for some reason...
 
slowp
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That was the reason for our ranger's order that everybody here shall have the Bullards. That way, there would be no "borrowing" of somebody else's hat when called to go to a fire.

Bullards are quite heavy. After losing mine down the hill in an acrobatic maneuver, the logger I was walking with caught it and then started exclaiming about how heavy it was, and didn't I have a sore neck, with a few %$# thrown in over his amazement. It usually stayed on during such acrobatics, except for when I switched to a new suspension. Then it would not stay on so I switched back.

That brings up another point. All heads do not match all suspensions.
 
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