Pruning saws are SHARP

SeanRuel

SeanRuel

Carpal tunnel level member
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Was pruning an apple tree in my own yard, with my brand new silky tsurugi 400. Hand slipped making a cut. Only thing that stopped the blade was the bone in my thumb!

I always joke about blooding in a new blade, but it's true for me. Happens once every time I change to a new blade. I think my body forgets just exactly how sharp these saws are, This was the worst blood in I've had, going to try and remember it for next new blade.

Pretty silly and obvious awakening. If you're changing handsaw blades, watch out for a few days!
 
SeanRuel said:
Was pruning an apple tree in my own yard, with my brand new silky tsurugi 400. Hand slipped making a cut. Only thing that stopped the blade was the bone in my thumb!

I always joke about blooding in a new blade, but it's true for me. Happens once every time I change to a new blade. I think my body forgets just exactly how sharp these saws are, This was the worst blood in I've had, going to try and remember it for next new blade.

Pretty silly and obvious awakening. If you're changing handsaw blades, watch out for a few days!
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I did the same thing with the same saw a few weeks ago but not as deep, still ripped my thumb nail and bloodied pretty good, amazing how fast the hand heals though.
 
Sean, have you ever tried the cut resistant gloves. They are not cut proof. I took a pair and put sticks in them to simulate fingers. Then I took the fresh left glove and gently poked at my hand with a new silky, then raked it with a little more pressure.

I could easily cut through the #5 resistant gloves in a hard raking motion like when we are working aggressively. What I would say is it would slow the saw down and minimize cut damage. Some other cutting instruments it would stop all together.

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I've tried a couple of cut resistant gloves too with even a used Silky saw - it went right through them! I think straight knife blades are one thing, but the Silky blades have pointy razor sharp ripping teeth - these catch on and rip away as designed. So before I am convinced anymore, I'd have to see some actual aggressive glove trials with actual new Silky blades.
Until then I've gone back to just being very very nervous around these things. They're a sneeky hazard in the tree with you daily - had a lanyard that was just touched in the course of a cut a few summers ago and it was toast. Climbing arborist had a youtube video about his accident with one too.
 
I remember a trade school lecturer who decided to test some chainsaw chaps for his class and just overlaid them over his leg before attempting to test the effectiveness of the chaps (forgot to do the straps up before applying the chainsaw) - needless to say the chaps rotated on his leg and the class got to apply their first aid skills before the ambulance came...
 
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Chaplain242 said:
I remember a trade school lecturer who decided to test some chainsaw chaps for his class and just overlaid them over his leg before attempting to test the effectiveness of the chaos (forgot to do the straps up before applying the chainsaw) - needless to say the chaps rotated on his leg and the class got to apply their first aid skills before the ambulance came...
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Idiot!

My biggest gripe with our crews is that they wear the chaps too loose on th their leg and do exactly as what happened here.
 
I’ll be wearing this scar on the back of my left hand for a while still. Courtesy of a 5 minute old Zubat and my own clumsiness/stupidity maybe 10 years ago.
Didn’t really hurt much, and zero damage to muscle, nerves, tendons, etc but it sure bled a lot and had to throw away that glove. Pretty sure the gloves cut resistance was on the palm, more suited to handling sheet metal or whatever.

Glad you’re ok Sean. What’d you end up doing for treatment? I used a little dermabond stuff to close mine, basically sterile super glue.
 
I'll say one thing about silkys, they give a smooth cut. Just dumped some peroxide in and laid the flap back in place. Bandaid with med tape to hold it down. Seems like it's going to heal up just fine.

Was just reminding to be careful when changing equipment. So easy to habituate , changing something always warrants a bit of caution. Same with climbing systems, machines etc.

Not a huge fan of gloves for pruning, would rather just realize that im spacy and need to re focus
 
Sure would be nice having one sheathed blade that's quickly interchangeable with three other handles, handsaw, polesaw etc.

Sheathed blades can't cut yu.

Universal 13 inch blade quick connector.....

Sometimes just a straight three foot pole's perfect.

Jemco
 
I took a full silky stroke across the thumb on the first prune of a new year and got lucky. The blade caught the nail and left no more than a scratch. BUT my first thought was "this is going to be bad". Hand saws are plenty sharp to do some serious damage. Be careful!!!
 
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