PPE et al

i had a silkey jump out of the scabbard and bite my arm once. i was using the pole pruner and reaching for a cut just out of reach. i kind of threw the pruner at the branch while holding the butt end. the pruner rope must have caught the saw handle, pulled it right out and launched it right across my forearm. blood was drawn, but it wasn't near as bad as fiona's bite.
 
I use cut resistant gloves when I'm doing Silky work for hours on end. They work well to minimize damage to a hand - cut proof, no. I put sticks in the fingers of a test pair and contacted it with a Silky in various ways. Direct on puncture strike it softens the blow. Dragging passing strike it minimizes the damage some. Dragging aggressive strike it goes right through, slightly minimized.

I see value in cut resistant, just as a back up to forethought and a plan to not get cut.
 
The thin cut resistant gloves work well for the straight blades with a continuous cutting edge, not for the serrated blades or even more the long sharp teeth like the Sylky's. They aren't against the punctures at all and the handsaw's teeth act nearly as needles, they just go through it, between the fibers instead of across them. The teeth find the skin before they travel enough through the fibers to be stopped. The deep of the wound can be almost the length of the teeth, even if the fibers aren't ripped by a vigorous strike.

I tested them at my beginnings, at the same time I tested the sylky's sharpness :(
I didn't find that it worths the cost, either for protection or for wear, compared to cheaper gloves.
 
I once dropped a polesaw out of the tree to the ground guy.

It must have caught something and caught the cuff of my glove and pulled the glove right off my hand.

I instantly felt sick thinking it must have been a bad cut as there was zero pain. I saw my glove on the blade on the ground and expected the whole back of my hand to have opened up.

To my surprise, not even a scratch. I don't know how I managed that one.

I have hit my left forearm before, through a jacket and jumper and look my sleeve. The branch I was on snapped and I lost my footing in the middle of a cut. Only about 10 foot in the air. The sugoi just slapped me and wasn't raked across.

By the time I got to the floor, there was blood dripping out and of the sleeve of my jacket and my long sleeved, grey t shirt was maroon in colour.

I am pretty vascular and had pierced a vein. It was squirting out. A trip to the hospital and 4 stitches later I was as good as gold. One stitch in each hole.

Those Silky saws definitely bite.
 
biggun said:
I once dropped a polesaw out of the tree to the ground guy.
Click to expand...

Ha, me too. Funny, we don't do that anymore, we always lower them now unless it's a short drop. Those old wooden poles, SOP was to beat on them.

Well this one time I was fairly high up and was aiming to chuck the pole saw like a spear through a small canopy opening. After taking a practice stroke or two, I threw it hard. One teeny tiny problem was that the curved blade was hooked toward me instead of away from me, so the blade caught my hard hat square across the back of my head. What a dummy. I wasn't injured but without the hat I suppose I coulda been killed as that blade dug hard into my skull
 
Silky saw bites seem to be a matter more of work position and handling that things going unexpectedly wrong...

The discussion of 'cut proof' gloves could be in the same category as chainsaw pants/chaps. We know they won't completely stop every kind of chainsaw boo-boo, but on a spectrum of protection it can go from walking away to only needing stitches, when the alternative might have been career threatening if not life threatening. Preaching to the choir here I'm sure.

The one time we had a hanger drop out of the tree, it hit my hubby on the head, he was wearing his helmet...I reckon it could have killed him if he wasn't. Ok, we both lost track of it as it was stuck up in among other leafy stuff, so we have to take some responsibility for the incident...but still, every now and then, our careful work practices can fail, and the habit of wearing PPE is the next layer that keeps you from being permanently maimed or death.
 
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  • #35
Good post. Those climber generated hangers are a concern...easy to lose track of sometimes.
 
Thanks Bob...worth looking at.
Indeed I also have bandaids, large plasters and an Israeli bandage with me in the tree...the large plaster wouldn't stick, there was too much blood, but I slapped it on there anyway and twisted my cuff again. I was hoping up to that point that I could just bandage things and keep on working...nope. Didn't need the Israeli bandage, had slowed bleeding by the time I got down and used a smaller compression bandage from the truck first aid kit.
 
It's a Bermudianism...when you are done with something you say...'that's all she wrote', even if you are guy, and you aren't talking about something you actually wrote...

Like you boys fixing your trucks...when the last spanner goes back in the toolbox, you can take a step back, look with satisfaction at the job well done, take a pull on your beer and say 'that's all she wrote!'
 
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  • #47
Burnham said:
Common expression here too, Fi. I think Gary was just enjoying idea of a real "she" doing the telling :).
Click to expand...

Burnham is spot on...common expression here, too...funny that a "she" was saying it and was actually through writing it, too. Sucks to have to explain the joke, don't it....:D
 
Ah ok, I thought it was something special to us! Must be the proximity to America...
And yeah, the day someone tells me I can't use a specific gender descriptor...they can...well let's just say I might lose my Irish on them.
 
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