Don't forget your chaps!!

[woodworkingboy]

Every time I put on my chaps I feel something. Kind of like this song goes.

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[treebilly]

PPE is your last line of defense.

I agree. I try to explain to the guys that using your head is the first and ppe is for the split second you're thoughts wander from the task at hand. I started wearing chaps because I'm quick at math and figured the odds were not in my favor after going as long as I have without cutting myself. This was also after reading the stats on when accidents happen most often during a career of tree work

 

[cory]

This was also after reading the stats on when accidents happen most often during a career of tree work

When do they happen most often?

 

[treebilly]

With in the first five and then in between 10-15 if I remember right. First five from lack of experience and the latter is from becoming to comfortable ( complacent?).

 

[stig]

Around here it is just before lunch break and before quitting time.

The " last cut syndrome"

 

[Mick!]

First couple of minutes, in a hurry to get the job moving.
In fairness though I can drop a bollock at any given moment.

 

[Limbrat]

Every time I put on my chaps I feel something. Kind of like this song goes.

Can you dance like that with your chaps on Jay?

 

[woodworkingboy]

Possibly Ray, but I'm not sure that I can remember all the moves in the right sequence. I might have to improvise.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I'd heard 7 years is a ripe time for an accident.

I can believe it.



The last cut syndrome is like the last run at the ski/ snowboard hill. The mind can start moving on to the next thing (where are the keys, what's for lunch?).

 

[stig]

I got the " Last cut syndrome" thing from Donald Blair's " Arborist equipment" Might actually be " final cut syndrome". My memory isn't what it used to be.

An outdated book ( But so is " Fundamentals") but well worth the read.

I pulled one heck of a last cut syndrome off myself a few years back:

We had managed to bid on and land one more State forest contract than we were actually able to do.
Since we couldn't find anybody to help us out, we simply had to log the whole thing by ourselves.
I literally slept in the woods in order to cut down on transport time.
It is the one time in my life where I've been stretched the most, trying to make ends meet.
On the very last day, the State forester asks ud if we could drop a line of trees outside the forest, along a street, under some powerlines, where they have had a bucket truck remove the tops.
Wanting to be on his good side for future work, we agree.
At the end of the day, nearing dark, after a looooong day of logging, 2 of us set to dropping the trees.
Easy enough, I cut and my partner pushes them over. They are small trees and have no tops.
As we progreess, it gets darker and darker.
Finally, we get to the last tree.
I cut it, my partner pushes and nothing happens!!!!!!!!!!
I look up and realize that for some inexplicable reason, the bucket truck cutter hasn't done the last treee.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So we are wrestling with a full tree about 3 feet from the 220 volt power line.
My partner throws himself at it and manages to shove it away from the line and we get it on the ground.
No harm done.
But looking up and seeing that whole tree teetering near the lines is something I'll never will forget.

Last cut syndrome at it's finest.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Tired and dragging the saw a little while removing limbs at the end of the day, is what put the big cut in my chaps. It wasn't the last cut of the day, but close to it. Chaps saved from a nasty one I'm sure.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Fridays...

 

[woodslinger]

Thanks for posting, Nick. Sometimes the rest of us need to hear about these incidents to remind that it can happen to any of us. I almost always wear my saw pants or chaps, but that sentence should have the word "almost" removed from it.

 

[NickfromWI]

Exactly why I posted it. It's a great reminder.


love
nick

 

[Burnham]

Late to this thread, but anyway it's a great reminder for us all. Thanks, Nick.

 

[Grendel]

There's a couple local loggers up here, younger guys, maybe late 30's, who can barley walk from chainsaw damage to the knees. One guy has three big gnarly saw scars right above his right knee. His whole leg has atrophied to a certain extent as a result.

Thanks for posting those pictures Nick.

 

[TREEBOAT]

You Sir are a wise businessman. Anyone who employs others needs to carefully document even near misses with their employees and log it as discussion point in safety meeting log. It prevents law suits both with employees and OSHA/Dept. of Labor. Well done.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I've been wearing my chaps in brushy cutting lately, dealing with storm damage. That is what I regard as high risk cutting.

I've wanted to get my groundie some saw pants.

Any preferences in the $150 and less ball park. Stihl and Husky both have some in that range, and was what I was thinking about. I have Husky pants, and have bought some Stihl for an ex-employee. The stihl blew out in the crotch doing ground work. Maybe they need suspenders EVERY day for ground work, different than plain cutting work.

Husky's haven't seen a lot of use.

 

[Burnham]

I still am getting great service from a +10 year old pair of Husky pants. Not the lightest, not the coolest...but definitely a good value. I'd buy them again, easily.

Just sayin'...in my several decades of chainsaw work, I've never been able to adequately define low risk vs. high risk cutting, in so far as being able to say "you can't cut yourself doing this, and you can doing that". So for me, I came to conclude that wisdom tells me that I should NEVER run a saw without chaps or saw pants on. And I religiously do not. Seeing a saw cut or two can be mighty convincing in encouraging avoidance thereof.

 

[stig]

I have recently switched from Stihl to Pfanner.
The Stihls are fine, but too expensive for the short time they last.
The new ventilated Pfanners are really comfortable. First day I wore them, I ended up sitting two hours in the office after work, doing books, and only at the end realized I was still wearing saw pants.

They work well, too.
It was a pair of Pfanner, I cut into a couple of months ago while cutting a birch branch aloft. Saved me from severing my quadriceps tendon.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Glad your safety culture worked, Nick.



A couple weeks ago, I did the later, cut my kneecap. Second time that exact thing happened, first time was like 30 yr ago. I don't think chaps existed back then but I wasn't wearing them 2 weeks ago. Reallllllll dumb. I rarely take them off, now. Wow they are insanely hot but it is a miracle I wasn't hurt worse, took 10 staples to the skin.

Were you holding the side of the wrap handle or the top?

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I still am getting great service from a +10 year old pair of Husky pants. Not the lightest, not the coolest...but definitely a good value. I'd buy them again, easily.

Just sayin'...in my several decades of chainsaw work, I've never been able to adequately define low risk vs. high risk cutting, in so far as being able to say "you can't cut yourself doing this, and you can doing that". So for me, I came to conclude that wisdom tells me that I should NEVER run a saw without chaps or saw pants on. And I religiously do not. Seeing a saw cut or two can be mighty convincing in encouraging avoidance thereof.

B, you're right that there isn't a way to define the one versus the other. Safest way to protect against a chainsaw cut to the area protected by chaps or pants is to wear chaps or pants. PPE is the last line of defense. Situational awareness is much more front line.

A chainsaw cut to the torso on up seems much higher risk for a pro climber, at least to me and my work habits. Larger risk than that, to me being squashed by a piece of wood or rigging.

I'm trying to be better. My employees always wear their chaps. I'm a PPE freak, honestly. Maybe storm work will pay for some vented Pfanners. Chaps or saw pants aloft distract me a good bit.

 

[squisher]

If saw pants are your daily workwear than they are no distraction aloft. Unlike my avatar pic I wore saw pants most all of the time. I found them to be an advantage aloft. Providing some extra padding for Spurs or some down and dirty clambering around.

 

[squisher]

I could never stand the calf wrap pants though. I've got calves like Arnold and always chafed non-stop with wrap pads. Lol

 

[Burnham]

A man can only do so much to avoid injury with proper PPE, squashing being a foremost example . And it's pretty obvious that a climber has at least to some degree different exposure than a sawyer working on the ground, as Sean says. But check out the several websites that quantify chainsaw injuries by location on the body, which counts all workers together of course. A high percentage of cuts are to the areas chaps and pants cover. So...

Over the years I've rolled the dice any number of times in any number of situations, as anyone who knows me or has followed my posts these last 15 years or so can attest. But I always like to play the easy odds, and cut protection surely falls into that category for me. I'll go so far as to insist that if it doesn't for anyone making their living with a chainsaw...well, that's just dumb.