I have often wondered if everyone has there fingers frozen when first starting to work on cold days with a saw....
I have to stop after a few minutes and painfully press the gloves on the muffler to try and heat them up..
Have I missed something??
Heated handles? ;D
I don't wear ear muffs, and I find that my ears initially get real cold. I press them against my head with my hand and they warm up (and they seem to stay warm after that). Maybe just enough to get the blood circulating.
Heated handles are the only way to go. Kinda pricey to add them to an old saw,but maybe about $100 now when buying a new saw? I have them on my 372,I think it was $50 dollars about 6-7 years ago. They died a couple years ago. I'm not cutting in the woods for money now,so I have not bother to get them fixed. Most of the time my hands are fine. Just when I grab onto a chain and the links are full of snow and than the gloves get wet after a few time. Now that I live here,I just swap gloves.
I always washed my gloves before i wore them, new gloves are the worst. Buy a dozen and throw-em in the washer, then put-em all in a bag so that you can keep changing. Have another bag to put the wet an dirty ones in. I always used the muffler to get my hands warm, then once there warm with the change of gloves they stayed warm.
In -20, -30 weather i usually wore choppers in the morning, then switch over to gloves. I didn't like running saw with choppers, the ones with the trigger finger work pretty good.
If your hands get real cold, the best way to warm them up is to, swing your right hand under your left arm pit, then left hand over to the right hand arm pit. Do this fairly fast it gets the blood moving, usually this is good for the rest of the day. I learned this 55 yrs ago working with my father.
Another thing that helps in addition to the above is when you have a pair of heavy socks go ,cut the top part off. Pull them over your wrist with the band toward your fingers. There is a lot of heat loss from your wrist as the main blood vessels are so close to the surface. ;)
Stephen my grandmother in law always made me a pair of wristers for christmas . Just a knit cuff with a thumb loop about 4-5" long. I still use them as she has passed on. They do keep or hands alot warmer.
I hear ya "brother" cold hands can get ya the cold shoulder.
I also use the saw muffler. Or if on the ground I use the exhaust from the chipper. Works great. I had frost bite on my finger tips once and now the always ache in cold weather till I really get movin. Then I usually have to remove my gloves or my hands sweat and then get cold again.
XPG g stands for heated handles.Both the 346 xpg and 576xpg have it,I won't buy a saw ever again w/o them.My dealer Ron's Husky in New Fane Vt. has them,$50. extra for the G :) ;) 8) .
different approach
In this cold weather I do someting first that involves working most of the body hard
the easiest way to do this is to have some precut rounds of firewood ready to split
dress, but leave off the coat and go start the splitter and what ever else you use for firewood
walk around, fill the furnace, move some wood inside
go inside hava cuppa coffe or wait for the machines to warm
put on the coat, hat face cover etc
then split 1/8 tp 1/4 ova cord and stack or put inside
then cut some to be ready to split tomorrow
then go to work
warm socks and boots must be present before attempting
singing beach boys songs while doing the previous also helps :D
When I was younger my hands got cold while I ran a saw but now they don't seem to bother me anymore. It has been near zero this week and by ten I have my gloves off. Ive ran saws with heated handles but have never owned one.
today it was 0 and the wind blew . i start the fowarder turn the heat on let it warm up for 20min while i wait in the pickup. by the time i get into the woods its time to take the jacket off. got so warm in there i had to turn the heat off for a few mins. last trip out i start the truck before i unload
If it is to cold for gloves switch to choppers. Keep the gloves somewhere warm so you can use them when you get the blood flowing. Also try rubbing a good gaub of vasaline on your hands before you leave the truck. It is like an extra pair of gloves especially if you have go bare handed for a minute to fix something. Works good ice fishing too.
Ed_K,I am shocked it is still only $50 for the heated handles. I'm pretty sure that's how much I paid 6-7 years ago. That's why I thought $100 now.
Temps here were a 66 year low for that date yesterday. Like Ed I will not be going back to a saw that does not have heated handles. If you live where there is snow and your going to try to make a living with a saw in your hands, you pretty much have to plan on a new one in late fall every year. Keeping your hands out of the snow as in not digging for wedges etc. is important. The thing is I seem to be lugging more. A lot of weight hanging off your waste seems to reduce circulation in your lower back muscles and they can go into spasm. Made some harness out of some nylon straps, so the weight is on the shoulders. Now phone, knife, headlight, hook and wedges are handy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12754/Harness.jpg)
Even full wrap chaps get heavy,so I hook spenders to them,that holds the tool belt up pretty good too.I also have leather insulated mittens works good for pounding wedges.
Stephen
What is the belt driven apparatus in your pic? a compressor of sorts?
I get cold hands too. It always went away after taking one break and putting my hands on my stomach. It is weird that the cold doesn't come back again after doing this.
Hey Beenthere, a" compressor of sorts" it is. Blowing the dirt out of the saws daily is huge in reducing maintenance. This one is in a small workshop I built under the deck. On site a quick coupler was plumbed into the air tanks of the pete. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12754/Saw_compressor.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12754/site_compressor.jpg)
Hey... where did the GIANT compressor pump go ???
I'm always amazed at how much everything warms up once you get the blood flowing, hands, ears and feet included. I've not dealt with the extreme temperatures as a lot of you guys, but i have terrible circulation so my hands and feet are often freezing cold.
I was heading to my boring office day job the other morning - it was about 10degs out and i was freezing while walking out to my car. I noticed a sloppy pile of boards had blown over :( . I had about 10 minutes to spare so i quickly took down the stack and rebuilt it. Only about 15 boards, maybe 10" x 5', but about half way through i was ready to take my jacket off even tho i had been shivering 5 minutes before.
I saw a tv show once that demonstrated how your body will restrict bloodflow to your hands and feet to maintain your core body temperature. If your body thinks your core is warm enough, it can open the gates and warm up your extremities. They demonstrated this with a heat sensitive camera showing someone in a walk-in freezer trying to do some simple sorting task or something. Hands were ice cold initially. Then they gave the guy a heated vest... core heated up and bloodflow to the hands increased and warmed them up. Or at least, that's what they claimed :)
Great tip about cutting the end off some warm socks and covering the wrists Stephen.
Keeping your core warm will help keep the hands warm. It is hard sometimes though because when operating a chainsaw you can get pretty hot from the exercise. I usually wear very little extra clothing while cutting wood, like maybe one very light jacket, even when it's 20 degrees F outside. But I'm one crazy lumberjack and I like gett'in things done so I stay pretty warm! :D
At -20 to -40 running a saw its no problem to stay warm. I wore wool pants with thermal underwear, wool shirt with thermal underwear and a Down filed vest. My wool shirt would get covered with frost, big ice cycle's hanging off my mustache. At least i didn't have to go get a drink of water, i just sucked on a ice cycle :D
QuoteI saw a tv show once that demonstrated how your body will restrict bloodflow to your hands and feet to maintain your core body temperature. If your body thinks your core is warm enough, it can open the gates and warm up your extremities. They demonstrated this with a heat sensitive camera showing someone in a walk-in freezer trying to do some simple sorting task or something. Hands were ice cold initially. Then they gave the guy a heated vest... core heated up and bloodflow to the hands increased and warmed them up. Or at least, that's what they claime
This is exactly what seems to happen, at first, fingers cold and hurt enough to make you jump up and down.
After about 15 minutes or so of steady work, hands get hot and feel like taking the gloves off..
Thanks
Runnin' cattle or puttin' out a small wildfire will heat you up more than anything I know.
Quote from: Jasperfield on January 24, 2013, 07:56:55 PM
Runnin' cattle or puttin' out a small wildfire will heat you up more than anything I know.
Yes I've made fires that scared the poop out of me before :o.
I'm not complaining about cold body parts after talking to the guy who moves my equipment. He got hit by a tree awhile back now he drives truck, the tree crushed his one leg they replaced the bones from his knee to ankle with a titanium pipe. It's been so cold lately he noticed an eighth inch of movement when he lifted his foot so he got it x- rayed the cold has caused the metal to shrink pulling the pipe from his knee pulling the screws out of the bone.They said he should've stayed on disability but he fought the state so he could work, now he might need surgery again I'll take frozen fingers anytime.
My fingers usually get cold when I start working, but after I warm them up on a muffler once they stay warm, not sure why that is, more bloodflow?
Yes I have the exact same experience, That 1st tank my fingers freeze, even with chopper mits, once they warm up I can go the rest of the day with light gloves. Iv'e also noticed sometimes if i take an extra long lunch, i go threw the same process in the afternoon. That makes sense that the blood goes to your core from that initial cold blast and later the "gates" open back to the extremities. The older I get the more i hate the cold, my old equipment hates it to, my worst breakdowns are in the cold, I try to hand-cut on those zero or below zero days and leave the forwarder & harvey sit.
On a real cold day if i was having trouble getting warm, or couldn't get the blood flowing good, i'd trot down the road, [ How far ] this depended on how cold i was, this worked every time.
Heated handlebars are worth their weight in gold.
When i fell i also ran rigging, with heated handles i'd have wet hands all the time.
If your only running saw, heated handles are the only way to go.
Why don't you install some air-conditioning, cd player, and electric start to your saw too :D :D :D. Just being sarcastic ;D.
When it gets real cold and I need to get the hands warm, I will place a chemical heat pak in the gloves, mits, or in a hand muff.
They make great new gloves know a days that are light weight and very warm compared to the gloves some of us old timers are used to, I started to just were gloves this year if it was below 20 degrees and I found some excellent gloves that a re breathable as well as made with fleece or wool with a gripper just in the middle.