This past weekend a neighbor was cutting up some wood for the fire place. For one second
the chainsaw cut into the boots he was wearing. He did not get hurt and I did not see it happen.
Later that day I did get to see the boot.
Now I have been thinking a lot about safety as I use one of my 3 chainsaws every weekend
during the fall. So on Sunday I was in ACE hardware looking at Stihl chaps. They had 4 types
costing $75 - $110+ and asked the ACE guy about them. The kid did not know and did not care.

Looking for comments/suggestions on chainsaw safety.

Buy a pair that fits you comfortably when squated down, over the temperature appropriate cloths you wear.

Get in the habit of NEVER STARTING YOUR SAW without them on!!!

There are folks around the site that can post the actual numbers for chainsaw accidents/fatalities, I will just say that the chainsaw is the most unforgiving, dangerous tool that most regular guys will ever touch.

+1. Dang things don't care what they cut.

The chaps work.

You have to buy a new pair if you get into them with the blade of the chainsaw... They kinda ball up in the chain and it stops the rotation in a fraction of a second...

But, it kinda leaves a mess. (Not as bad as if you'd not had them on though.)

I will add that if you do all day cutting sessions, the Stihl bibs are the way to go. Pricey but worth the extra protection.

For "throw in the back of the truck" emergency cutting, there are cheaper brands out there at the big box store places

I have a pair and they work great. I'd have been in serious trouble last year for 2 seconds of inattention if I hadn't had them on. After I sat down (didn't have to change my shorts but came close)and pulled all the gunk (Kevlar?) out of the blade I counted my lucky stars.

My neighbor is a Dr and is often on call at the small hospital he works at.

He has seen quite a few chainsaw accidents over the years and is a firm believer in chaps.

My dad is 74, I bought him a set last year. I'm not sure I've ever met a logger without some leg scars.

If you have the option, get a pair of chaps that wrap around the calfs.

After i cut my left shin to the bone, I bought a pair from Tractor Supply.

They saved my left leg a little over 25 years ago. The Forest Service requires anyone who runs a chainsaw to wear them while sawing. I was cleaning up trails from winter blow down and came upon a huge spruce across one of the trails. I got careless and didn't do a good size up or I would have seen the two vine maples bowed over under the spruce on the high side. I reached under with the saw to under cut the log and hit those vine maple. They were under so much tension they exploded when the saw touched them. They kicked the saw back and twisted it around to where the blade hit my upper thigh. The chaps stopped the blade instantly or I'm sure I would have been severely injured. They are cheap insurance.

I know for a fact that the Stihl chaps work, My boy walks on two legs today because of them....Well them and my insistence they be worn.

Like was said get a pair that fit comfortably when squatted with the clothes you normally wear for cutting.
This link may help you decide which is right for you. If you still have question contact Stihl directly and they will be happy to help you out.

Chaps Link.

sounds like I have to stop cutting firewood in flip flops and shorts.

Get the he-manliest, highest-coverage units you can. All it takes is once.
Not happened to me, YET, but I know it's gonna.

After one "oops" moment with them, you'll never fire off the saw without a pair on. I still walk and hunt today because I was wearing a pair when my boot slipped on a small branch that I was standing on.

Any pair of chaps is cheaper than the medical deductible when you go to the emergency room! Found out working on a garage door!
Came close cutting wood, so now I don't cut without my Stihl Chaps.

Hotload,

thanks for the reminder. The place we're renting has a wood stove and most of the wood cut, but there's a bit I might get after with my friend's saw. I need to get a pair of chaps first. Had one little nick in a pair I never even noticed happened until I shut things down. Sure as shinola I'd have noticed if I hadn't been wearing them.

I'll ditto everyone else's comments about not running a saw without them. I doubt there's a timber/logging company out there that allows operation without them. When I lived in "timberland" I seem to remember a couple of places that, at a minimum, you'd get a stern warning if they saw you with a saw in your hands and no chaps on. Some places you were looking for a new job, they didn't want the liability, or bad habits to start.

Geno

Have a pair myself, wouldn't run a saw without them. A few years ago the county I live in had 3 chainsaw fatalities in 1 year and we aren't rural at all.

have two different pair of jeans right now, that have gashes across the thigh from chainsaw oops.


thinking it could be money well spent to buy a good set of chaps

All of this is good advice.... I cut a million brd ft a year and I don't wear them. I just wear nee pads and shin guards. I think chainsaw training would be good thing to do. There is a lot of people that I see that don't know that the bar tip is dangerous when touched with something hard. And improper sharpining is danderous. So if you are inexperienced wear chaps....

Most of my chain sawing was done when I was a younger man who had never heard of chainsaw chaps. Though I never had one get away from me, that experience showed me how dangerous these are. Thanks for bringing this up.

You folks that don't have a pair, look at it t his way. A set of $100 ones is only 5 boxes or so of American Whitetail ammo.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hornady-American-Whitetail-Rifle-Ammunition/1571906.uts#productChart


And there's lots cheaper than $100

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CHainsaw+chaps&t=ffsb&ia=products

If you even think your wife and family (and maybe even a few of us ) might like you alive and whole, maybe you want to consider a pair?

Geno

while i downplayed the concept and the need for more than a day, i was wrong.

chaps are needed, and they're very important. a trip to the emergency room is not a good thing, when it could have been avoided.

just because we didn't know what chaps were, back in the day, didn't mean they wouldn't have been helpful.

like fire, chainsaws can be friend or foe.

and yes, a chainsaw can saw through the front of an aluminum hat, and still cut into one's nose.

While I don't cut a million board feet a year and have only ever had the one close call I wouldn't call my self inexperienced. I have cut several hundred full cord of firewood, hundreds of saw logs, and as many logs bucked out of trails or fallen while firefighting. I guess I'll wear the inexperienced sawyer chaps.

There are times I hire another cutter, therefore I own two pairs of chaps. Mine and a pair for the cutter who forgets his or does not own any.

As a matter of fact I carry an extra helmet in the truck for the same reasons.

Sam, we already know yer plum cazy, you don't have to keep proving it.

This is a timely post! I have a hardwood treefarm, and do lots of thinning, lumber cutting, and road clearing all year long. I've bounced a sawblade on my leg 2-3 time, always as the saw was stopping, so I only ripped up some skin. I've been thinking about getting a pair of chaps, and today, after slipping and falling with a running saw, I came home to search for a pair on line. A big Stihl 066 could turn into a pretty formidable weapon if it got out of control.

I've seen "experienced" fallers nice and bloody. Actually, it wasn't real nice. Bloody.
The more creative you have to be, or think you can be, with a chain saw, the more ways that thing can attack you. Seriously.

Always wear your hardhat.
You guys are a trip. Who ever said they cut firewood and such. Is not experienced.
When your on a fuggin hill side drop 1000 feet oaks and doing it successfully. And doing so for 20 years then you're experienced. And who ever says a oak doesn't grow to 1000 feet... Is a fuggin idiot, and shouldn't be talkin to me about fuggin tampon chaps....

Iffin' I was fuggin you, I'd "hire" a few fuggin illegals to do the dirty work on the banks.

No fuggin tampon chaps or hardhats required.

Hello ADD, who is the cranky little [bleep] with the attitude...friend of yours?

I wish you would just carry around my saw gas.... You would be humbled for sure... We don't cut firewood and bean poles boy....

Wanker.

BOARD feet, you mean. In how many logs?

nYou guys want to talk like big tree cutters. " I'm going got get me some far wood, and wear me some chaps so I'sa don't cut cut my vagina....." Well the. Let's talk experience. You guys crack me up.. I wore chaps didn't like them... Threw em in the truck about 18 years ago and are probably still in it out in the field. So as I said.... If your not experienced, wear chaps. I was just replying to the sarcasm of my first post, about cuttin a million feet a year. I was just voicing my opinion about experience and proper saw handling and sharpening. Those two will put you in the hospital faster than any tree falling.

What the hell are you talking about? If I said 1000 ft oaks. I'm mean 1000 ft oaks.. There might be three logs in a tree might be four might be two....

These are the best chaps....

http://www.labonville.com/Full-Wrap-Chainsaw-Safety-Chaps-Parts-_c_80.html

Worked many years without chaps, always wear them now...

Myself and all my sawyer friends have too many scars.......

logdog, got you beat by 20 years.
I don't have a clue about "1000 feet oaks". If your talking about 1000 board feet in a tree, come to Idaho, we can beat that in 1 log...... and the boys in the PNW make us look silly....

I see you don't mean board feet.....
you mean 1000 feet of logs????

It's a 1000 brd ft.

1000 brd ft in a oak tree is not that big. But it's nice mature timber. Cut poplar trees on a river hill side that had 3000 brd ft in one of them.

Fuggin straight tampon chaps, idiots!

1000 foot tall fuggin oaks to boot...

My scars are from broken bones and falling limbs. I did get one saw cut on my elbow and chaps would have never helped. Ohio has some big timber. We got in a few Virgin pieces for the city of Marrietta. Those trees had 2000 and up to 3500 brd ft.

The "1000 ft tall "is the [bleep] I was talking about. You shouldn't be talking to me about chaps.

I wouldn't have a clue how to fall a big oak, with all those big branches going every which way......I guess I'd just beaver it off and RUN....

Cut and run...... Hahaha
They are usually leaning enough one direction to predict. But some will fool you.

Molly, you like those? I saw them online today and was thinking they might work and were reasonably priced. I'll check a saw shop or two when I get over to the wife's place for the winter.

" and the boys in the PNW make us look silly"

Yeah, even big trees in ID can't compare. I'm guessing those fellas who worked for the timber company I did (I did fish work, not tree work) and felled them little ol' 10- 15' DBH redwoods and doug firs had manginas too.....

cause they wore chaps!

Geno

Actually you horrible wee inbred leprechaun...neither I nor any of the others were talking anything like that...the arrogance you display in your stubborn insistence that your "cutting" for a crust entitles you to "own" the subject matter is breath-taking in the extreme.

I cannot speak for any other here but I can assure you that I do not give a flying [bleep] about what you do for a living, nor do I care one iota whether you continue breathing...or not.

You just don't really matter, but wankers are like that.

That's the ones I wear, a little warm in the summer.
Don't miss this if you order...
" **IMPORTANT NOTICE*** Sizing - Chainsaw Chap length is not the same as your pants length. It is not measured by your Inseam. Chainsaw Chaps are sized by overall length. To calculate your overall length measure from your waist (where you would wear your belt) to your anklebone."


U of Id. did a test on all brands years ago, these rated the best..

I'm older, if you haven't guessed, and my balance isn't as good as it once was. I'm still working but notice I'm not as "light on my feet" as I was 40 or so years ago.. So the chaps get "used" sometimes.

Be careful. I'm "older" now too.

I did notice the sizing notes on some of the webpages. I'll take it into acct. It's one of the reason I want to see if I can find them in a local saw shop, I could try them on. I sometimes hate buying "clothes" online.

Geno

Well I spent many years working with chainsaws and the best protection we had in the woods was a hard hat. This post is very meaningful if you know anything about chainsaws. My two worse experiences were carrying out a forest ranger who had reached up to cut a vine with a saw and it came back down on him and cut into his neck. The other one was a faller had a big Redwood barber chair on his leg and he bled to death. If those type of experiences don't develop respect what a chainsaw can do you shouldn't be using them. Probably the closest I ever came to buying it was climbing and topping trees. If the saw didn't get you the tree would if you were carless. Get the damn chaps!!

Notice the lengths, 32", 36" etc. hard to go wrong.
I have a 32" waist, yeah I'm bragging a little, and the waist fits fine. They have an extension if your waist is over 46".

Thank you for that information, I am up for a set of chaps this year and that is worth knowing.

I wear chaps when running a saw. And I have a hard hat with the attached ear muffs and face screen. It just takes a moment to strap on the PPE.

I'm not a logger. Just cutting nuisance trees and cleaning up fence rows. But I don't have time to be hurt either.

One ER visit and you've more than paid for the PPE.

What the hell are you talking about??? Don't fuggin worry about what I do for a living!!!!!! I know more the subject than you ever will. The feeling is mutual Dipshit. You shouldn't comment on subjects you know nothing about.. Let me worry about the man stuff Shirley. You couldn't carry my saw wrench..
You're a woman that tries be a professional on every subject. Once you figure out how to spell tree, come talk to me about chaps and such...

If the $110 won't break the bank I would get the most protection. The more expensive models usually offer more protection. I don't cut firewood but have to deal with wind falls and trees that have died on our property. I have chaps I bought several years ago and I got my money's worth!

Glad I did bring it up. Learning a lot here.
Saw a pair of Husqvarna chaps for $70 and they looked as good as the Stihl. As I was searching
for chaps also been looking around at the new chainsaws. I can not believe how much plastic
is on the new chainsaws. Even a $500 Husqvarna seems to be mostly plastic.

Why are these the best chaps?

Like in the Army,use'm if ya got 'em..For the casual chainsaw user there a must in my mind.We tried them on the logging jobs and they were just another item to get snagged up on and hot in the summer so few continued to wear them.

Sometimes the boss insisted the new guy on the landing wore them because of the obvious but very few fallers did, because of what I stated above.I don't wear them but I always wear a hard hat falling wood these days then I take it off when done tripping wood.I have seen way to many experienced timber fallers catch one on the noggin they never saw coming but few loosing control of the saw.

I'm not as quick or as graceful as I was. Nor do I heal as fast. So the gear goes on before the quality comes out.

U of Id did a test. This pair didn't have any cut thru when stopping a saw. Other brands had some tear thru on the leg side after stopping the chain.. It only takes one tooth to wreck havoc with skin...

I had a trip to the er once, I don't touch a chainsaw without wearing chaps. A friend's son was on a job cutting a gas well location. First cut went right into his brand new chaps. He's a believer in chaps too.

What beats efficient, succinct, Aussie vernacular?