Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[John_Mc]

Safety glasses or nothing in my book are the answers neither of them mess with your vision well sighting in either like screen does.

I've not really had an issue with the screen on my forestry helmet messing with my vision.

Wearing no eye protection just is not an option for me. I remember when I started as a shift supervisor in the wire mill back in 1986. I had been working in that position for about 3 months and knew everyone in the department fairly well. That day, I noticed a guy I did not recognize running one of our rolling mills. He obviously knew what he was doing, so he was not new. I asked someone who it was. "Oh, that's Bill. He's worked here for 30 years, most of them on that machine. He was out for eye surgery, and just got released to come back to work. They thought he might lose sight in that eye, but he says he can still see fairly good out of it." Bill later told me that he had injured his eye while grinding on a butt weld used to join the end of one coil of wire onto another. That day, a hot spark got into his eye. From there, our conversation went something like this:

Me: Maybe wearing your safety glasses over your eyes rather than on the top of your head (as he had them at the moment) might reduce the chances of it happening again.
Bill: I've been doing this a dozen or more times a day for 35 years without a problem. I know to aim the sparks away from me. I'll be fine. Besides, the glasses are all scratched up and hard to see through.
Me: On the day the accident happened, did you get up and say "I'm going to have an accident today"?
Bill: No. How the $*#! would I know that?
Me: No one plans to have an accident. They just happen. They happen to the new kids or the guys with decades of experience. If you want to be able to read your grandkid a bedtime story or watch him play football when he gets a little older, put your glasses on. I'll go get you a new pair, but use those until I get back.
Bill: [grumbles and puts the glasses on]

A week or two later, there he is grinding way with his glasses on top of his head. I remind him. He puts them back on. A few months later, he misses a few days due to another eye injury - fortunately, not nearly as bad as the first one. He just needed to get the little crumb of metal out and let the scratches on his eye heal up a bit. His glasses were on top of his head at the time. On his first day back as he prepares to start up his machine, I walk up to him. Before I can say a thing, he comes out with: "I know, I know! Put my glasses on. 35 years without a problem, and then twice within a few months of each other. You jinxed me! I get it, I'll wear my glasses. I guess 'the man upstairs' is trying to end me a message."

I think of Bill when I'm tempted to make "just a couple cuts" without putting my safety gear on, or make that one last cut after I've already thrown my chaps and helmet back in the truck.

 

[Loaderman22]

I recall reading something in The Morther Earth News in the early 80's as it pertains to splits. With the testing they did with the same species (I forget which), they calculated that the most efficient burns were to be had with 6" splits.
Good for drying and good for lasting burns.
Ever since, that's what I've attempted to do.
Seems to work.

I try to keep everything that size or smaller, occasionally one gets by quality control. I usually run the 4 way wedge on the splitter with it so the horizontals are lower, then I take the top 2 pieces and split them again, this gets me a good mix of small and large splits. I like th elarger ones for the over-nights. My stove was made by a local guy, a guy down the road also, although his is larger. Its all heavy steel with a layer of firebrick in the bottom. The door is 1/2" thick with 2 air inlet/dials. I cemented the top one shut because it tends to blow smoke.

 

[John_Mc]

Typing that last story about Bill and his eye injury reminded me:

A couple of days ago, I was out on the far end of my property doing some Crop Tree Release. (Starting on the first of four 3+ acre plots under an EQIP cost sharing grant I was awarded.) I got a reminder of why I wear a hardhat.

I was dropping one of the cull trees in a crowded area. I had only one choice of which direction to drop the tree: the other sides and back were surrounded by the tree I wished to keep. Fortunately, the limbs were not tangled in each other, so it should be a clean fall. It did have to barely brush through the top of another tree. No danger of damaging the tree, and that one was going to come down anyway, so I was not concerned there. The tree I was working on had back lean, so I made my notch, bored in to set the hinge, came most of the way back out and tapped in my wedge. Then I cut the last of the trigger wood. As expected, the tree settle back on the wedge.

I took another look up, all looked clear, so I tapped the wedge in. The wedge was about halfway in and the tree just started to move on its own. I backed off along my planned escape path as the tree started to fall. Suddenly, I felt a THWACK on my helmet and one of the hearing protectors popped off. I continued retreating.

When all had settled, I looked around. As near as I can tell, in that other tree whose top I needed to "barely brush through", there was a dead limb (hard to tell from the ground in the winter). As it brushed through, it must have bent the dead limb then flung it back toward me. The odds of it flying through the air from the far side of the tree I was working on and hitting my helmet as I retreated from the tree were slim, but it happened. I was probably about 15 feet from the stump when it made contact. A solid hit to my helmet, but nothing touched the rest of me at all.

That helmet is getting old. There are no cracks, but in a commercial setting, per OSHA requirements you are supposed to replace a helmet after 5 years or when it takes a good hit. This hit was not much - not eough to make me consider throwing out a new helmet, and I'm not working commercially, so probably have far less UV degradation on this helmet, but it is getting rather old. So it's time. When the forest talks, I listen. I bought a new helmet yesterday.

 

[hunt4570]

Yes and yes

10 BEST Chainsaw Gloves: Kevlar, Anti-Vibration, Logger Gloves

Chainsaw gloves come in a range of styles and materials. STIHL, Husqvarna, ECHO, VGO, and Ironclad gloves for chainsaw use reviewed!

fireandsaw.com

gg

I bought heated gloves for my motorcycle once, ruined my dexterity so I put handle bar heaters in instead.. expensive experiment!

 

[hunt4570]

Typing that last story about Bill and his eye injury reminded me:

A couple of days ago, I was out on the far end of my property doing some Crop Tree Release. (Starting on the first of four 3+ acre plots under an EQIP cost sharing grant I was awarded.) I got a reminder of why I wear a hardhat.

I was dropping one of the cull trees in a crowded area. I had only one choice of which direction to drop the tree: the other sides and back were surrounded by the tree I wished to keep. Fortunately, the limbs were not tangled in each other, so it should be a clean fall. It did have to barely brush through the top of another tree. No danger of damaging the tree, and that one was going to come down anyway, so I was not concerned there. The tree I was working on had back lean, so I made my notch, bored in to set the hinge, came most of the way back out and tapped in my wedge. Then I cut the last of the trigger wood. As expected, the tree settle back on the wedge.

I took another look up, all looked clear, so I tapped the wedge in. The wedge was about halfway in and the tree just started to move on its own. I backed off along my planned escape path as the tree started to fall. Suddenly, I felt a THWACK on my helmet and one of the hearing protectors popped off. I continued retreating.

When all had settled, I looked around. As near as I can tell, in that other tree whose top I needed to "barely brush through", there was a dead limb (hard to tell from the ground in the winter). As it brushed through, it must have bent the dead limb then flung it back toward me. The odds of it flying through the air from the far side of the tree I was working on and hitting my helmet as I retreated from the tree were slim, but it happened. I was probably about 15 feet from the stump when it made contact. A solid hit to my helmet, but nothing touched the rest of me at all.

That helmet is getting old. There are no cracks, but in a commercial setting, per OSHA requirements you are supposed to replace a helmet after 5 years or when it takes a good hit. This hit was not much - not eough to make me consider throwing out a new helmet, and I'm not working commercially, so probably have far less UV degradation on this helmet, but it is getting rather old. So it's time. When the forest talks, I listen. I bought a new helmet yesterday.

What did you get? I bought a Husqvarna ventilated one a couple years ago, love it!

Older version of this one I believe

Husqvarna Forest helmet, Technical

Newly designed, sturdy yet lightweight protective helmet with ear protection. The helmet can be adjusted in several ways to suit your particular needs. A new

www.husqvarna.com

 

[Loaderman22]

I do not like wearing any safety equipment, aside from glasses & hearing protection. I would wear the glasses anyway if it was sunny or if there is snow on the ground. The glare hurts my eyes almost instantly. I also wear contact lenses, so any dust or chips is harder to get back out of my eyes. Yes I should know better, & I have full Husqvarna chaps & helmet with "ear goggles" and face screen, but most of the time I just forget. I also don't like gloves when I am sawing, I like the instant feedback of the saw cut, the gloves mute that too much. So in 2022 I will make a conscious effort to wear my helmet (new still in box) and my chaps, (only worn once maybe), but you won't get me to wear gloves while cutting, not going to do it!!

 

[Hoobie]

Years ago my buddy and I were cutting hardwood on my woodlot. He felled a large maple with a large crown and it lodged at a 20 degree or so angle. We were well back to each side of the stump. It didn't appear to want to go down so we walked to the stump to discuss it, the cut tree leaning away from us. I guess we stood there for a minute or so when the tree snapped and cracked and fell on its own. And then a big limb six inches across fell from the sky, brushed my buddy's shoulder and right arm, knocked the saw from his hand and broke his foot. Right beside me. Could tell the limb was ripped off the stem of the cut tree. Never knew if it was dangling from a neighbour tree or was flung back when the tree started to fall.

 

[Gordon Gould]

So in 2022 I will make a conscious effort to wear my helmet (new still in box) and my chaps,

In my book that's a good thing.

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

I make a conscious effort to wear mine too

gg

 

[hunt4570]

I make a conscious effort to wear mine too

View attachment 728708

gg

Are those like chap "shorts"..