# An argument for steel-toed boots



## homefront (Dec 2, 2007)

As a construction superintendent, I am very aware of OSHA regulations and the safety of the workers at my job sites. But sometimes you get comfortable, and don't give safety the attention you should, and this can be the result.
I was swinging an 8 lb. splitting ax, and struck a glancing blow; the ax struck my foot with results as shown. 1/4" either way would have meant broken bones.
Let's be careful out there!


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## EatenByLimestone (Dec 2, 2007)

I'm glad you're relatively unhurt.  

Thank you for the reminder,
Matt


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## myzamboni (Dec 2, 2007)

looks like you should go up a half-size on your next pair of boots.  The way your toes are bending to the right is a sign of not enough room in the toebox.

Good to see it is 'merely a flesh wound'


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## abj1969 (Dec 2, 2007)

man those are some ugly feet..lol


  glad thats all that happened man...


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## Todd (Dec 2, 2007)

Ouch! Good safety tip.


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## Lignums (Dec 3, 2007)

If they only made steel clad shin guards for when a piece of red oak blasts out off the splitters wedge.  Has anybody else had that happen, or is it just me and my retarded stance?


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## eba1225 (Dec 3, 2007)

Lig,

That is me too. At least one piece manages to fall against my shin during every splitting session. I am considering getting hockey shin pads for my splitting sessions.

The steel toe boot are a definite must for the splitting.  It is amazing how those split rounds just seem to aim for those little piggies.


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## Wolves-Lower (Dec 3, 2007)

eba1225 said:
			
		

> Lig,
> 
> That is me too. At least one piece manages to fall against my shin during every splitting session. I am considering getting hockey shin pads for my splitting sessions.
> 
> The steel toe boot are a definite must for the splitting.  It is amazing how those split rounds just seem to aim for those little piggies.



I have to wear steel toes for work, so I know that it is a must when splitting wood.
However, my shins and such are always getting knocked around when splitting.
I have no idea why I didn't think of the Hockey pads...thanks for the tip! Although it will look pretty odd in the summer to have that crap on, everyone knows I am odd anyway.


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## BrownianHeatingTech (Dec 3, 2007)

I just wear steel toes all the time.  I even have steel-toed shoes.

The only footwear I have that aren't steel-toed are the heavy winter boots, and the shoes that go with my suit.  Everything I wear day-to-day has steel toes.  That way, I never worry about forgetting them, or ending up in an unexpected situation (helping get a car unstuck on the side of the road while passing by) without proper footwear.

Joe


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## cmonSTART (Dec 4, 2007)

I can't say I've ever hit myself with a piece of wood while I was splitting.  I almost got my wife with one once though..


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## Gene K. (Dec 4, 2007)

An excellent safety reminder.

$24.95 at "Wally World" will buy a nice pair of steel-toe tennis shoes. Boots aren't much more in cost. With prices like these, there is no excuse for skipping safety.



			
				homefront said:
			
		

> As a construction superintendent, I am very aware of OSHA regulations and the safety of the workers at my job sites. But sometimes you get comfortable, and don't give safety the attention you should, and this can be the result.
> I was swinging an 8 lb. splitting ax, and struck a glancing blow; the ax struck my foot with results as shown. 1/4" either way would have meant broken bones.
> Let's be careful out there!


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## Gene K. (Dec 4, 2007)

I've never had this happen, but just for your information, carpenters of yore used to put halves of stovepipe on their legs while they learned to use adzes.



			
				Lignums said:
			
		

> If they only made steel clad shin guards for when a piece of red oak blasts out off the splitters wedge.  Has anybody else had that happen, or is it just me and my retarded stance?


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## Lignums (Dec 4, 2007)

Out of all the wood I split with my splitter, only the Rod Oak will do this.  The wedge comes down and makes contact with the round, and it seems like pressure builds up for a second, and then blahm, the pieces blast out to the sides, and either bounce off the splitters guards, or my legs.  I have gotten used to changing my stance with the sound of the splitters cylinder changing.  That has helped out allot.  The worst was a small piece hitting my leg right above my ankle.  I just kept going,(I was getting paid $150.00 to split a cord of it for some dude).  When I got home my sock was stuck in the wound and I had to pull it out, reopening the cut.  I did this back in August and it still hurts to rub on it too much.  That was only the second time in my life I have seen white from the pain.  Having a 30 pound stack of plywood smash my thumb was the first.


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## WILDSOURDOUGH (Dec 5, 2007)

Steel-toes are the shoe to use 99% of the time- but my neighbor (who was a welder in the same factory as I) showed me his foot one day- seems a sheet or plate steel (a big one) dropped on his toes several years before... took them a while to get the crushed steel toe piece off of his toes at the hospital, lost most of them. Guess it would have happened anyway. Like anything else- just one freak accident to wreck your day.


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## Lignums (Dec 5, 2007)

The show Mythbusters did an episode where they dropped some weights on them and from what I remember, the steel toes boots are only good up to a certain weight, and then they act like shears and bye-bye toes.


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## jklingel (Dec 5, 2007)

Home: glad to see your toes are still on your foot. A friend's brother was a logger long ago (killed by a snag) and he once put a logging axe through his boot that stuck into the log he was on; the bit was right bewteen two toes. He got steel thereafter. As far as steel sheering, eventually, I am sure it does, but what would your toes have looked like anyway? Sounds like a 50-50 deal; ugly vs bad. I think they are probably a good idea; I wear 'em most of the time, hoping....


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## carpniels (Dec 5, 2007)

HI guys,

Don't they have non-steel steel toe boots now? I thought they made those to prevent the steel toe from collapsing and cutting your toes off. It is some kind of carbon or hard plastic.  

Also, they aren't as cold in the winter, with the cold metal around your toes.

Carpniels.


PS. I wear neither. I have some Meidl Perfects that I wear.


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## Gooserider (Dec 6, 2007)

Well if I'm messing around in the wood piles doing more than getting a cart full of wood, I wear my chainsaw boots - Matterhorns, w/ steel toe, 7 layers of kevlar, gore tex, etc.  I did have one close "test" when I first got them (and haven't dared tell the GF about it yet...  :red:  I shouldn't have had the saw that close to my foot anyways, but I swear half of it is because the Matterhorns are comfortable, but so bulky I feel like I'm wearing clown shoes - I loose the sense of just where my feet are.  I ticked the toe with the chainsaw, only went through one layer of the leather.  Covered both toes in shoe goo, so the oops doesn't show.

I will give these boots lots of credit, they are the FIRST steel toes I've ever owned that were comfortable in cold weather - every other pair I'd ever owned my toes ended up feeling like I had left them sitting on an iceberg.

I do still wear my non-steel rubber boots with the felt liners when using the snow blower, but for power equipment otherwise I tend to use these Matterhorns.

I've also collected more than a few bruises from flying splits, or even worse, the wedge that decides to do a bounce...  The Matterhorns help with this but they don't go quite high enough - like up to the waist  :lol: 

One area where steels are considered a mixed bag is street motorcycling - There is research that says they are about equally likely to save you from injury as they are to complicate it - most time it doesn't make much difference.  This was a pretty heavy duty study where they looked at actual injuries from accidents, and found that there wasn't enough advantage or disadvantage to steel toes to make a recomendation either way.

Gooserider


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## 88gmc1 (Dec 7, 2007)

I asked an old timer is the bush one time why he did not wear steel toed boots?

"steel toes? too hard on the chain!" :lol:


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## computeruser (Dec 8, 2007)

Ouch.  Glad your foot made it through OK.

I went years without steel toe boots but finally got my head out of my $#% when I was trying to walk a 24"x72"+a fork crotch piece from a silver maple up the ramp on my trailer and it slipped out and the top of the log landed on my toe.  Ouch.  It was black for probably six months after that.  And, of course, as soon as it got better I did it again with another log.  Go figure, guess I'm not a quick learner.

I find that the steel toes are very helpful when blocking stuff up on a pile, where rounds are likely to roll down and land right on your toe.  They're also helpful at the splitter, when stuff falls of and lands on your feet.  Every time I cut or split without them I wish I hadn't.  I usually use a pair of logger boots, but purchased a shorter pair of steel toes for quick slip-on at home.

As for getting hit by stuff while splitting, a couple years back we were splitting some pieces of knotty maple.  We left the splitter in the trailer and handed the rounds up, split them, and then threw the split pieces back down.  On the third to last piece, with the trailer all full of splits, a really knotty piece built up pressure and exploded, sending a large half-round into my nuts.  OUCH!  It would have knocked me out of the trailer had my knees not gone out first.  Not cool, and definitely not something I will aim to have happen ever again.  I am now much more cautious about where I stand when splitting, and am glad that my current splitter is a wedge-on-beam setup instead of the wedge-on-ram, which in my experience seems to have a greater incidence of sending crap back at the operator.


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## jklingel (Dec 8, 2007)

computeruser said:
			
		

> On the third to last piece, with the trailer all full of splits, a really knotty piece built up pressure and exploded, sending a large half-round into my nuts.  OUCH!


 COMPUTER: Good God, man! You are not supposed to be riding the logs when you split them, only when you drop them, and then a saddle is recommended. Glad everything worked out OK. That reminds me of taking large diameter (50-lb) weights off of a weight-lifting bar that Harry Muckelow had been using to  bench press. I think he benched a ton or something.... I was straddling the bar and my buddy was supposed to be at the other end taking weights off his side. He got distracted and did not remove any weights, and when I took my last weight off that bar flipped up and nearly knocked me unconscious. God it hurt. Never again.


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