Splitting wood PPE

[Tacotodd]

I would like to know what everyone wears for PPE when splitting wood with an axe or maul. I've been hit in the head when a friend was splitting and I've hit myself in the shin with wood. I've thought of wearing my saw chaps for myself but I'm only splitting 10" pieces. I guess I've just been lucky so far but I will NOT split wood in a thong and/or flip flops. I just can't resist that dig!🤪

[realzed]

but I will NOT split wood in a thong and/or flip flops. I just can't resist that dig!🤪

If you change your mind on this - Please don't bother to include pictures without letting us all know..!  :

[WV Sawmiller]

   I just wear gloves and a baseball cap although safety glasses would be a good idea in the rare cases I use a steel wedge. I just use a splitting maul and not a splitter.

  Many years ago I was splitting wood in SC and a piece bounced over next to my stack and instead of moving it I tried to split it where it lay and I hit the end of an already stacked piece which bounced back and hit me on the gourd splitting the skin and requiring 7 stitches to close it up. I was not wearing a cap and don't think it would have prevented the injury much if I had been wearing one.

[doc henderson]

I tend to use composite toed boots doing anything with wood.  even in the shop, as I get used to using my feet to nudge things, and lift things.  eye protection is a good idea, and I am as bad as many not always using it.  My son will tell you after splitting some nearly dry logs on the hydraulic splitter, that some form if a hard groin protection is worthwhile.  after his experience (minor)  if the log starts to creak and split hard, he turns sideways without thinking about it.  He is a learner!  gloves.

@WV Sawmiller maybe you should just stay inside!   :D
@Tacotodd can we please not use the words "thong" and "dig" in the same sentence! ;) ;) ;)   8) 8) 8)  

[Tacotodd]

Sorry about the thong comment from earlier folks! It's just I SEEM to be remembering it from a different post, but my memory isn't the greatest. Just ask my wife! 

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   I resemble that remark! Do you think I am any safer inside with water and electricity and stairs and a big wood heater? :D

[doc henderson]

Sorry about the thong comment from earlier folks! It's just I SEEM to be remembering it from a different post, but my memory isn't the greatest. Just ask my wife!

you are correct, and I thought it was very funny!!  you know what our moms always said about hanging with the wrong crowd. my sense of humor has been sent to the woodshed a time or two!  all in good fun.  
edit:  on review I see a period so it is technically in two different sentences.   ;)

[doc henderson]

Doc,

  I resemble that remark! Do you think I am any safer inside with water and electricity and stairs and a big wood heater? :D

true.  I hope  can still do half what you do when I am your age.  not too far behind you.  but with only 10% of the "incidents"  ! :D :D ;D ;D 8) 8)

[Tacotodd]

BUT you have to admit, it's a topic that keeps us from dwelling on this other "stuff" right now! I better be careful Doc or I'll join you in the woodshed!

BTW, I'm speaking of splitting wood the old method as by doing it with a maul or my new favorite, by axe. The maul was the head but the axe was the leg and all hit by the flying wood.🌪 sometimes is what it feels like!

[doc henderson]

a maul is fairly safe, but boots are one issue, and a blood circle the other.  (keep everyone else away),

[mike_belben]

It was me.  Im the guy that the geared out people like to say is an idiot for not being covered in gear.   I will do near anything in just shorts and crocs and generally not get hurt too bad.  Every day of my life since maybe 8 years old has been a great chance to get hurt in some industrial way.  All my jobs have been dangerous.  Most hobbies too.  Im not as fast as i used to be but i think it all through a little longer now.  Safety is a mindset and thought process from experience, not a color or component.. In my opinion.  I put a lot of spindle and belt guards on machines for operators that shouldnt have been in the same room.  Nothing i own has any of that junk.  Mind the spinny parts son.  That lathe dont have a brain so youll need to use your own. 


  The Lord has let me keep all my fingers and toes so far.   


Sunglasses and a thong.  Youll be ok.  

[Tacotodd]

Mike, I knew it was you but it wasn't in a readily accessible area like this is, so I preferred not to name it. I just thought that it was HILARIOUS!!! 

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water,     dada.....dada.....dadadanaaaa.....

[Tacotodd]

I'm mistaken, imagine that!

Chainsaw post.

Oops!!

[Southside]

I know you said ax or maul, but FWIW I have had some elm about explode on a hydraulic splitter.  Pretty decent sized chunks will fly a fair bit so no thong and sunglasses for me.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.... :D

[mike_belben]

Theres a documentary of the boulder dam construction on youtube that everyone should watch to see just how sissyfied weve become since grand dads day.  These normal joes are repelling down a canyon wall with just rope and harness, lugging huge jackhammers in their jeans shirtless.  Thousands of dumptruck loads and the trucks doent even have a roof while the guy sits there in it getting loaded.  Backing into bays with no side mirrors.. Standing up on the seat to see over the dump while it rolls back.. LoL.. Just crazy stuff.  3 guys on one wooden ladder hammering a wall.  What a different world today.  



I get extra safe with abrasive cutoff discs and covering skin from welding light.  Ill gear up to top a tree and wear my helmet for falling. But for just ground work my inner monologue says maintain control of the saw and keep appendages out of the uncontrolled saw path.  That foot cant go there.  If this top rolls that has to be elsewhere.. Etc.   I dont sever tensioned wood until its been whittled and moved enough to reveal its plan.  Those sorts of things.  You cant cut wood effectively in a goalie suit so think it all through. 

[mike_belben]

I had my first barberchain in years a few weeks ago.  Good reminder of 2 things.  One, its life or death.  And two, that the first part is determined more by where you are standing than what you are wearing.  That tree didnt give a dang about my little plastic brain bucket with muffs and screen. 



A log that comes over the fork rack onto your steering wheel isnt concerned about your footwear either.  So everyone in gear should still make choices like theyre standing there naked and vulnerable.  Youre in a cab machine?  Limb will still come right through it like a javelin.  Youre never fully safe.   

[doc henderson]

#1  brain engaged,  #2 cell phone accessible (if you still have hands).  #3 keys in the truck

[Tacotodd]

Gents, you all make extremely good points (in your own academic way of looking at things) but considering all that I've heard so far from you guys, I'll probably just keep on doing it the way I've been doing it. It sounds like no matter how I approach it, I'm just not going to be able to! Either I get hurt or look like a pansy 😄!

But seriously, I am just kidding. I DO want to hear more information and input from everyone that has something to say about it. Maybe I'll even get lucky and hear something from @Roxie . I just hope I did that part correctly!

[doc henderson]

since I appear to like to correct you, consider using I will either get hurt "and or" look like a pansy!   :D :D :D  @Tacotodd   you could theoretically do both!  

[Tacotodd]

Touche' and funny 😇 But keep the information coming because no matter how you look at it, it's got to be useful for all involved, including me 🥵

[WV Sawmiller]

Mike, according to Google the official death toll on the Boulder dam was 96. These are the ones killed specifically working construction from fall, blasts, falling objects, etc. I think I'd suggest a different example for downplaying the significance of safety equipment and procedures. :D :D

[mike_belben]

Cmon howard, grim statistics led me straight to the USMC.  Danger?  Sign me up. 

[doc henderson]

the ppe is for the intermediate stuff so you can work more days, without blood dripping everywhere.  If you number is up, with a catastrophic fail... too bad so sad.

[dgdrls]

Glasses first and always,   safety toe boots,  chaps help with the fly debris,
Gloves,  treat the handle of your axe with sticky stuff.

D

[Southside]

Well as a guy with his name on the vest save list, to me PPE gives you a fighting chance.  You might not be in one piece, but at least the pieces are big enough to still work.  

[trapper]

I have a peice of steel in the back of my hand that came off a mall when splitting with steel wedges.  Sawed the handle off so I wouldnt be tempted to use it again.

[Roxie]

 Tacotodd you did indeed use the summons correctly and I am very grateful for the heads up because apparently there is a thread in the chainsaw section I need to avoid that involves thongs and flip flops. I am vehemently opposed to the use of flip flops by any grown man. 

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for me to get home from work and be out in the yard in my Jonathan Taylor suit and 6 inch heels splitting enough to last till morning. For safeties sake, I kept my sunglasses on. 

So yeah, be careful, it's a jungle out there.  :D

[Ed_K]

 If your going to use a steel wedge to split wood keep it sharp and grind any mushroomed steel off. Don't stand a 4' piece on end and hold the wedge in one hand an hit it with the maul short sticked :( .

[mike_belben]

Tacotodd you did indeed use the summons correctly and I am very grateful for the heads up because apparently there is a thread in the chainsaw section I need to avoid that involves thongs and flip flops. I am vehemently opposed to the use of flip flops by any grown man.

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for me to get home from work and be out in the yard in my Jonathan Taylor suit and 6 inch heels splitting enough to last till morning. For safeties sake, I kept my sunglasses on.

So yeah, be careful, it's a jungle out there.  :D

So what i read is that roxie loves a man in thongs.  Should his thong match your heels is the 64 million dollar question..  You could both look the part splitting wood together! 
;D

[sawguy21]

Roxie, I spit my coffee envisioning that. It must be a PA thing. :D

[Tacotodd]

I love it!

No wedges, just an 8lb splitting maul, but my personal experience (just me) an axe works better. Again, just me.

Now I can't get my mind off of high heels and thong. Thanks guys! 

A wedge n sledge maybe. But broke Todd, I have ZERO of either. 

The really knotty pieces go to the outdoor burn pit for parties 🎉. That's the ORIGINAL hotsaw!

[SwampDonkey]

I usually am wearing my logger boots, helmet and screen goggles. I split pretty much where the tree lands along side a trail or road. I have no way to forward firewood logs or load them, so she gets blocked and split on site and either tossed in the pickup or the SxS firewood buggy. ;D

I just split with a Collins. I will need to forward rounds of tamarack home in the pickup to bust up on a hydraulic splitter. So far I have not cut the bigger ones to split, just the wimpy skinny ones that the bears climb and bend down.

[doc henderson]

and wearing some man's suit, named Jonathan Taylor.?  is does conjure a visual @Roxie .

[Tacotodd]

Doc, yes it does.

Swamp, I've been cutting a lot of sweet gum lately and it's almost impossible to split green, but dry it's as easy as red oak. With that said, splitting on site is not an option. Why gum? It's not for cooking, only for burning 🔥! Besides, nice and dry gum is REAL easy to get lit.

[doc henderson]

well @Roxie you may have avoided the thread on chainsaw safety, but you seem to have really jumped into this one.  all in fun of course!  8)     DOC

[SwampDonkey]

treat the handle of your axe with sticky stuff.

Will fir pitch do? Some people waste money on pine tar and turpentine. Get some nice fir pitch on there, it's even UV resistant since it's used in window repair and don't yellow none. Fir pitch on topper windows hasn't yellowed in 7 years now. (fir pitch blisters and sapwood end grain rubbing on glass)

Gotta smile sometimes. :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

Doc, yes it does.

Swamp, I've been cutting a lot of sweet gum lately and it's almost impossible to split green, but dry it's as easy as red oak. With that said, splitting on site is not an option. Why gum? It's not for cooking, only for burning 🔥! Besides, nice and dry gum is REAL easy to get lit.

You know what it takes to get'r split, so take the easiest path I say. ;) Up here maple and yellow birch splits easiest green and frozen if doing by hand. My uncle used to split 6 cords every winter that way for the kitchen stove, for next season. White birch, aspen and fir are a dream to split. Not the BTU per volume of sugar maple or oak, but never froze to death yet. ;)

[Tacotodd]

Swamp, it SEEMS like gum and pine have ABOUT The same BTU but keep in mind my case, I'm burning it outside so no real way to compare. The oaks that I've cut, I can tell have a lot of BTU in them. Pine and gum are great for a summer time party where you like the light but don't need the heat. Oak is great for heat but not so much for the light on a dark winter night 🤪 Just my perspective.

[mike_belben]

Spiral gum can jam even a hydraulic splitter if its multi wedge.  


Some stuff you just have to quarter up by noodling with the saw. For hand busting big rounds that wont pop, cut a pair of kerfs into it one bar height deep in a criss cross so as to make a phillips screw head.   

Now pound a steel wedge into the far side until you hear crackling fibers.  Then wack a few times with your maul on the close side.  If it wont pop put another wedge in the center and work the two.  But dont try to use your maul between two wedges or your bust a handle by hitting the closer one. 


If you dont wanna wedge em try to knock pieces out from the perimeter with your maul. The outer wood is straighter than the inner a lot of time and will chunk out easier. Just keep going around making a big round to a smaller round before trying to split in two.   On spiral gum is may be impossible. 

[Edvantage]

In my thinking the word accident comes from the dangers of careless ax use. I've knocked myself out with a splitting maul. A builder had cleared a lot and left firewood length pieces scattered around the building site. As I worked from one pile to the next I ended up with a clothesline behind me. The maul bounced off the clothesline and hit me in the temple. I crawled to the house not knowing if I had split my skull or not. Apparently I'm not the only one to do this. E.H. Kreps writes in his book "Woodcraft" (1920) about this very thing "I have known several men who have cut their heads splitting wood under a clothesline" same applies to low branches. I believe this is also mentioned in the older boy scout handbooks.  Knowledge and awareness of the hazards is the first step towards ppe. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

PPE can make a fatal accident not fatal.  A serious injury accident not so serious and a minor accident no injury at all.  
I fall timber 5 or 6 days a week weather permitting. Good boots, six anchor web quality helmet with screen and hearing protection, don't start the saw without chaps on and quality gloves.  
You get used to it even in hot summer weather.    Just part of the only job I ever wanted to do.
I have a three inch scare across my forehead from a junk of wood that kind of blew up on the wood splitter one day.  Never saw one go quite like that before or since.    Now I at least wear eye protection running my splinter.     To many pretty women to see so I don't want my vision impaired. :D