gumneck
Addicted to ArboristSite
He could easily have plugs jammed in his ears....that's how I do it. Now those farmer overalls with no shirt.....whole nother issue!
No PPE and bar is going to be in a bind!
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I know a logger who does not own any chaps nor did he ever wear any to the best of my knowledge, and he still has all his limbs and digits to boot. I also believe he was a hardhat/earplug guy and he still has good sight and hearing. When it comes to chaps, as a local tree guy told me, "When I send my guys out with chaps the chaps'll get shredded and chewed up, but if they head out without chaps they won't have any marks on their jeans when they come back." Meaning, some people do stupid stuff because they know they're protected if something goes wrong. If you aren't protected, you'll probably be a lot more cautious.
Also, there's a chance that he could just be posing for a picture and he doesn't actually dress like that while he's actually working!
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There are plenty of retired two legged loggers that used chainsaws from before the time someone decided to add Dyneema to the front of trouser legs.
As for chaps and jeans- my guess is the employer pays for the chaps (so who gives a fat rats ass, he will buy new ones!) and the employee's pay for their own jeans?
By that logic, would we all be safer if we took the brakes off of our cars? People would never drive so fast, if they knew they could not stop? Cops without body armor would be smarter about where they stand?
Safety is about hazards and risk. If that guy has crew members coming back with 'shredded' chaps he has something going on that needs to be addressed. It would be like a contractor who keeps blowing fuses and blames the circuit board rather than his undersized extension cords and defective tools.
I don't think that any of us know the guy in the photo, but it is common to see a bunch of local news coverage, following a storm, of guys with Wild Things, cutting in gym shorts and flip-flops / Crocs. A lot of guys get away with it; a lot of guys don't.
The picture is good for discussion.
Philbert
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Yep, but you have to factor in that good old common sense, plus meter out the human idiot factor.
Most saws have safety decals, most owner manuals that come with the saws have more pages devoted to safety than maintaining the saw. It is up to the individual user to decide if he or she is going to be bothered reading and abiding by some of that advice.
Usually the gym short and croc wearers belong in the once bitten twice shy camp- get a good scare or an injury and then think about some PPE.
A cop wearing body armour still does not stand in the open and paints a target centre mass, just like motorists don't generally drive towards solid objects at pace because they know a quick press of the brake pedal will stop them short of impact.
Yes, I believe he buys his guys chaps but not jeans.
No, I said some people and I did not mean that we should blatantly ignore common sense. I know that if I'm literally crawling on my knees cutting brush like I was yesterday, I'll wear chaps and a full-coverage saw hat. If the saw kicks back and I have no room to maneuver I'm f-ed. If I'm falling in a huge, flat clearing or even just falling wherever, I wouldn't worry about chaps quite as much. I also try to follow the same standards of safety that I would use if I wasn't wearing chaps when I do wear chaps. But, when it comes to potentially hazardous situations I tend to look at them and say "Well, this could either go really well or really bad", pick the safest possible approach, and let the chips fall where they may. So far, I've yet to be injured by a saw outside of when I'm fixing them. I have had my chaps get nicked once but while I do occasionally do stupid stuff I don't use the upper part of my bar tip to cut brush or other partake in other deliberate mis-uses of a saw. It is nice to have "Oh sh*t!" failsafes in place such as chainbrakes, chaps, helmets, steel toes, chain catchers, etc, but you shouldn't be doing stuff where they are required. If you are continually tripping your chainbrake, cutting your chaps, having stuff hit your face, head, and toes, or throwing your chain you probably shouldn't be running a saw or doing what you are doing.
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Yep, what do they say- it all comes down to the nut behind the but!
Canyon Angler
Addicted to ArboristSite
WTF cares what he wears, what kind of saw he owns, where he lives or how he cuts? Seriously.
Some of you cats need to get a freakin life. You spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time worrying about other people's business. Got Tampax?
It'd be interesting to know the ages of some of the folks whose panties got all in a bunch over this photo. Seems like this is a Millennial pajama boy thing...as if they go crazy now that Mommy and Daddy are no longer helicoptering over them, so now they've got to helicopter over everybody else by patrolling every photo and statement ever posted on the Internet. Good God.
Some of you cats need to get a freakin life. You spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time worrying about other people's business. Got Tampax?
It'd be interesting to know the ages of some of the folks whose panties got all in a bunch over this photo. Seems like this is a Millennial pajama boy thing...as if they go crazy now that Mommy and Daddy are no longer helicoptering over them, so now they've got to helicopter over everybody else by patrolling every photo and statement ever posted on the Internet. Good God.
Personally, I think it's stupid to bicker over this, but I'll prod it along just to watch the show. I know people who won't cut without chaps and I know people who never wear chaps, I don't try to change either camp. I always wear chaps because if I'm on the clock I wear them for potential insurance reasons and I'm usually in crappy situations cutting brush, if I'm not on the clock I'm at the house where the rule is to always wear chaps when you cut.
I would never say that that stuff by itself makes someone 'safe'; PPE without safe work practices is insufficient. But PPE is part of working safely.
That is the 'risk' part (probability/likelihood X severity): if you KNOW ahead of time that you will be in an auto accident, you only need to wear seat belts at that time. By definition, an 'accident' is an unplanned / unexpected event. Might be someone else's actions that cause it. Might be something that has never happened to you before. So wearing the PPE all the time is part of safe work practices, and why it is required in many/most work situations.
Philbert
You're right, I mis-phrased it. What I should have said was you shouldn't be engaging in practices where your safety gear is worn out quicker than your bar or chain. I wear a set of Stihl chaps that are from the mid-90's, there is a slash on one leg that my brother put in it probably 5 years ago but aside from that they are unharmed.That is what chaps and other safety features are for, those rare moments where things go wrong in spite of your best efforts.
All I see is your average guy cutting up a tree with an older saw if he makes the under cut only Vegas knows the odds.
Kash
Kash
AGoodSteward
Power Head
4" bar max. Anything larger would be threatening. Also teeth are dangerous. Smooth chains with no sharp or scary bumps.
The solution to any problem is the appropriate application of targeted mockery.
i am 55 yrs old and have been wearing PPE since I was 25. I think it's worth the effort to wear. I had a good friend cut his thigh deeply with a saw. He could have been killed and took months to fully recover
Hickahollar
ArboristSite Operative
That's just a photo op. Looks better cutting top down. He was gonna pull out and finish bottoms up!
My two cents (over valued), for all we know from the picture he could be making the perfect cut. PPE or no PPE, I can tell that I wouldn't want to arm wrestle him. Ron
awful knawful
ArboristSite Operative
My 80s 268xp looks identical.
If you get hurt, regardless of how, now you're not part of the solution--you're part of the problem.
"I broke my arm in three places."
"Well, stay outta them places!"
"I broke my arm in three places."
"Well, stay outta them places!"
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