Chainsaw Chaps *bloody pics for emphasis*

[foxhunter]

My wife got me a pair of safety chaps after seeing a few pairs of jeans come into the laundry with obvious chainsaw cuts from close calls. Its a sign of love.
Any power tool can be dangerous. A few yr ago my cousin's nurse wife had just left him for a plastic surgeon. He decided to remodel.One evening he got out of the shower and still in the nude started drilling a hole in his fireplace. The drill hit something hard and jumped down, catching his foreskin and completely degloved his manhood from tip to base. A nurse lived next door and gathered up his skin after unwinding it from the bit and took him to the hospital where the plastic surgeon who stole his wife sewed the skin back on his male part. He did fine but the drill was forever known from that day forward as the Black and Decker Pecker Wrecker. Some things you just can't make up.

 

[Dirtytires]

Foxhunter, do you really believe this ? Come on..

 

[Treenail]

I've made my living as an arborist for around 37 years. In that time, touch wood [my head full of sawdust], I've never cut myself with a running saw. One time I had a saw slip off the back of the ATV and knicked the back of my calf. Ugly chomp...five stitches.

Chainsaws have been described as the most constructive and destructive tools made by humans.

If you're going to buy chaps the best choice is to get full-wraps. The lower portion wraps all of the way around the calf. If the saw does catch the chaps it is likely to 'climb' and pull the saw around..to where the meat is

I'm glad that the cut wasn't worse and you mended quickly!

Tom

 

[foxhunter]

DirtyTires
I am on staff at the hospital he went to and while I didn't witness it firsthand, I heard the same story from my cousin, the nurse who cared for him and the ER doc. So while my cousin(distant) has been known to tell a whopper, he had corraboration on this one. Now,knowing my cousin, I am not sure he was innocently drilling when the accident happened or was trying to turn the drill into a sex toy. After nearly 30 yrs in medicine, I have better stories than this one. Just none that involve power tools.

 

[PV Hiker]

As learned over and over being certified from the Forest Service...when finished a cut set the chain brake. Walk around and get in position and un-lock chain brake and make next cut. If you are not engaged in cutting lock the brake. There is a new requirement on chaps with the forest Service...mine cost me ~$150 but such a small price for your health and safety.

 

[TerryD]

That $150 would have been my co-pay for the ER visit. That's not counting the $800 I lost being off work for a week AND still having a huge tree down in my yard. I'm hoping to go looking for chaps today. I'm really wanting a set of the full wraps like Treenail suggested. Stitches came out yesterday. Everything seems to be healing nicely and as one of my friends said, I should have a pretty rocking scar on that knee. Not sure I agree with him that it's so cool, but hopefully it's a lesson learned.

 

[Scott B.]

These are some nice ones made/sold by Stihl.

They wrap completely around the bottom of your leg.

I've had a pair for many years - ever since I was certified by the Forest Service. Fortunately, I've never had to "use" them...

 

[PV Hiker]

I have these but they run short and got the next length longer. http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/View_Catalog_Page.asp?mi=73351&title=PGI+5%2DPly+Para%2DAramid+Chain+Saw+Chaps

Any chap is better than none at all........

 

[shortbus4x4]

Good to see you and your leg are still together. I grew up in a logging family and have seen and experienced what chainsaws can do to human flesh. I only did it once when I was about 19 and that was enough. Luckily my dad had made my sister come along with me on the falling job so she got to drive me the hour or so down to the clinic to get stitched up. It didn't even hurt when it happened but I knew I had done something very bad. I was limbing a tree and the tip of the bar knicked my left foot right behind my little toe and right behind where the steel toes ended. I didn't even bother taking my boot off or looking at it until I hiked myself and saw up the hill to the landing. Then I took my boot off, poured the blood out and assesed the damage. We will just say you could take my pulse from some distance away and I had to stop showing my sister because she said she was going to pass out. I used one of my socks folded up on the cut and the other one twisted around my foot to slow the bleeding to just an ooze. Also had to have my foot up on the dash the whole way down with me kind of slouched down in the seat too or I would leave a puddle. The doctor said I was very lucky because for such a deep cut it had missed all my tendons and bones. My dad just shook his head when he got home and asked me if I learned anything.

 

[cruisertoy]

My father did the same thing when we were clearing our land outside Boston to build a house when I was 14. Funny thing was he was teaching me proper chainsaw technique when the exact knee cut took place. He pinched it with his hand and I drove him to the hospital without a license. I am very proficient with a chainsaw now and respect the tool.

Another sad story came from our production manager two years ago. He all of the sudden had to fly to the midwest for his sisters funeral. Apparently her husband had been trimming branches while on a ladder that she was holding. When he finished cutting a branch he swung the saw down and it went into her kneck. She bled to death before help could arrive. Can't even imagine.

 

[TerryD]

Another sad story came from our production manager two years ago. He all of the sudden had to fly to the midwest for his sisters funeral. Apparently her husband had been trimming branches while on a ladder that she was holding. When he finished cutting a branch he swung the saw down and it went into her kneck. She bled to death before help could arrive. Can't even imagine.

That's horrible, plain and simple. I run everyone away from me when I'm running a saw. When I'm mowing, weedeating, ect, the kids all stay inside. I just don't want to chance running over one of them. The middle girl LOVES to ride around the yard with me on the lawn tractor (not mowing) and I don't want to take a chance on her coming up to it while the blades are going and getting hurt.