What is the relative importance of cut-retardant safety gloves when using a chainsaw?

Question

I am evaluating some cut-retardant gloves for use with a chainsaw. At first the idea of protecting my hands appealed to me, but later I couldn't really justify to myself why that purchase would make sense if the rest of my torso was unprotected.

I'd like to know if there is a rationale for spending money to protect your hands before spending money to protect the rest of your torso, including arms. It seems like your hands are actually not that likely to be hit by the chainsaw's blade. It's kind of hard for me to visualize how that would even happen, or at least happen at a frequency that is much higher than the frequency of another part of my torso being hit.

Answer 1

A diagram put out by the US Product Safety Comission shows that the left leg and left arm/hand are the most commonly parts of the body injured by chainsaws:

(Source: OSHA Web site)

If the dots on the diagram represent frequency of injury, protecting the left hand would help prevent a common source of injury.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund website also states that "The most frequent chainsaw injuries occur to the left leg and the back of the left hand."

The diagram on the OSHA site dates back to 1994, so it's not clear if modern safety features like chain brakes have changed the distribution of injuries.

Note that the STIHL Cut-Retardant Gloves referenced by the asker of this question only provide cut protective material on the left glove: "Engtex®, a cut-retardant material, is sewn into the back of the left glove", so Stihl too has identified this as a particularly vulnerable part of the body.

To be honest, from personal experience, I'm unsure why the back of the left hand is so frequently injured, it must be because that hand can slip off the grab-bar when the chainsaw kicks back and the hand slides into the moving chain.

Since I was curious whether or not the current injury distribution matched the 1994 statistics, I did a little more research and found a CPSC query tool that gives access to their injury data.

When running this tool against their 2012 data, it reported that the CPSC estimates that there were 30,509 chainsaw injuries, and they had detailed data for 635 cases. I downloaded the detailed case data and counted up the number of hand, wrist and finger injuries:

Hand:   54  injuries (8.5% of total)
Wrist:  15  injuries (2.4% of total)
Finger: 123 injuries (19% of total)

They also provide limited details of each accident, here is limited descriptive data for a random 15 hand injuries:

• 59YOM USING A CHAIN SAW TO CUT BRANCHES CHAIN KICKED ..LAC TO HAND
• 40YOM-HAND LAC-GOT CUT WHILE USING A GRINDER TO SHARPEN A CHAIN SAW CHAIN-@ HOME
• PT'S FRIEND WAS TRIMMING BUSHES WITH A CHAIN SAW AND PT'S HAND GOT IN THE WAY. LACERATION HAND, RIGHT. 54 YOM*
• CUT HAND ON CHAIN SAW. LACERATION HAND, COMPLICATED. 44 YOM*
• 59YOM CUT HAND WITH CHAIN SAW/ RT HAND LAC
• 43YOM THAT WAS HELPING A FRIEND CUT DOWN A TREE WHEN HE WAS HIT IN THE RT HAND WITH A CHAINSAW. DX: RT HAND LACERATION
• 17YOWM WHILE HOLDING CHAINSAW IT SUDDENLY FLIPPED & JERKED HIS HAND VIA A ROTATIONAL FORCE. DX: SPRAIN R HAND
• 32 YOM CUT HAND ON A CHAIN SAW AT FRIENDS HOUSE DX/ LEFT HAND LAC
• 46YM CUTTING WOOD WITH CHAIN SAW THAT KICKED BACK CUTTING HAND >>LAC
• 88YOM HELPING SON CUT A TREE, PATIENT WAS HOLDING TREE LIMB, CHAIN SAW ACCIDENTALLY CUT HIS HAND . DX. LAC. HAND.
• 57YM CUTTING A TREE WITH CHAIN SAW WHICH KICKED BACK CUTTING HAND >>LAC
• 54YOM WITH LAC TO HAND FROM A CHAIN SAW
• 49YOM CUT HAND WHILE USING CHAIN SAW DX: HAND LACERATION
• 49YMC CUTTING A TREE WITH CHAINSAW KICKED BACK FELL CUTTING PALM ON CHAINSAW/LACERATION
• 17YOM LACERATION TO HAND CUT WHEN THE CHAIN SAW HE WAS USING SLIPPED CATCHING HIS GLOVE

Based on this data, it does appear that kickback is a significant factor in hand injuries -- I didn't look at all of the records, but looks like kickback is cited around half the time for hand injuries.

When looking at finger injuries, kickback doesn't appear to be listed as a cause as often:

• 41 YO M PT WAS USING A CHAIN SAW AND CUT THE TIP OF HIS LT MIDDLE FINGE
• 35 YOM INJURED FINGER WITH CHAIN SAW. DX-LACERATION RIGHT INDEX
• 20YOM CUT THUMB ON CHAINSAW/ LT THUMB LAC WITH TENDON INVOLVEMENT
• FINGER LAC, 37 YOM CUT FINGER WHEN USING A CHAINSAW
• 41 YOM LACERATED LEFT THUMB ON A CHAIN SAW
• 49YOM CUT HIS HAND ON CHAINSAW. +ETOH/LAC FINGERS
• 38YOM CUT FINGER WHILE USING CHAIN SAW DX: FINGER LACERATION
• 44 YOM SUS LAC TO FINGER, ACCIDENTALLY SLID CHAIN SAW OVER FINGER
• LT THUMB LAC.34YOM LACERATED THUMB ON A CHAIN SAW.
• 30 YOM SUS LAC TO FINGER, HIT IT AGAINST JAGGED PORTION OF CHAIN SAW
• 71 Y/O MALE CUT FINGER WITH CHAINSAW AT HOME
• 55YOM CUTTING SOME BRANCHES USING A CHAIN SAW INJURED LT FINGER;
• 58 YOM W / LACERATION TO RT 3RD FINGER S/P WAS HELPING SISTER CLEAR UP
• 55YOM PT CUT L INDEX FINGR W/ CHAINSAW AT HOME. WAS NOT WEARING WORK
• 45YOM LACERATION TO THUMB CUT WHEN CHAIN SAW HE WAS USING SLIPPED

For comparison, I looked at the distribution of injuries for 1997 (the earliest date they provide downloadable case data for), and the distribution is similar:

Hand:   57  injuries (10% of total)
Wrist:  9  injuries (1.6% of total)
Finger: 145 injuries (25% of total)

I'm not sure what conclusion to make from the data -- if the gloves provide protection for the hands and fingers, they appear to be a good investment and will protect you from a common source of injury. If they are only effective for hand/wrist injuries, those injuries only account for around 10% of all reported chainsaw injuries, so there may be less value in the gloves.

Answer 2

No. Chainsaw chaps and a hardhat (and ear and eye protection) make sense when using a chainsaw. Your hands are generally on the saw, even when things go wrong. The hardhat and chaps (leg protection) protect the areas that are most often involved in the saw cutting the operator. Given what I know about how chainsaw chaps work, I doubt any gloves you could actually work in would have a significant effect .vs. a chainsaw (the chaps have a sufficient bulk of kevlar that the saw ends up getting stalled by the fibers jamming in it, rather than by it "resisting being cut.")

Note that these things only work if you make a habit of using them EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU USE THE SAW. If you find yourself choosing not to, contemplate the time efficiency of a trip to the emergency room until it does not seem like too much bother to put them on, even if you are only cutting one limb.

Answer 3

funny, but the examples show also that when a hand was cut, it was very often not the chain operator, but somebody helping !

So for your specific question regarding gloves, i would think it is not that useful preventing YOU from being cut at all, but more to prevent you from debri and getting splinters when actually doing the job itself, cutting down trees or whatever.

Answer 4

I ran a chainsaw 36 hours per week, for 3 years. I grew up with a wood stove and my primary chore was to get wood (and it still is, many years later). I had a chain come off once and wrap around my hand when I was 14 or 15 years old, but I guess the brake stopped it from causing any cuts. The reason it came off was because it was so cold that day, I had to mix motor oil with bar oil to get it to flow... but once it warmed up it was too fluid-y, and then I accidentally hit a rock. Another time I saw (no pun) it happen to a new guy, someone that had never really used a saw. I'm not sure how he did it, I didn't ask, but again no injury. Those were the only times I ever witnessed the chain come off, in a way that could have injured a hand. The only hand injuries that I have seen from a chain saw came from sharpening the chain.

I can vouch for myself and others that I worked with that chaps are essential. It usually happened at the end of the day, when the saw is feeling pretty heavy, and whoops, you got a little too close your thigh while the chain was still cutting (an expensive habit).

Regarding the helpers hands... we/they generally used trash hooks for holding trees and branches while the cutter was sawing. It keeps hands and bodies out of the way. I only wore gloves in winter. We went through a few pairs of chaps per year. You are supposed to replace a pair of chaps whenever they are cut, but often we would use a lighter to burn the stuffing and cauterize the hole until we could get another pair. In reality, we didn't replace the chaps until they got a couple holes. I don't believe gloves are essential. Ear plugs are a must for constant sawing. Eye protection is smart; good old leather boots, too.

But the only serious injury that we encountered was when a tree landed on a helper below. The cutter didn't call timber and the helper wasn't paying attention.

Answer 5

I'll chime in here since I'm looking at a gashed up left pointer finger ATM. I wish I would have had the gloves for sure. Hurt like hell! You don't wanna clean that out, it takes serious debradding and alcohol....the oil and general crap on a chainsaw blade makes it horribly hard to clean. That said ten years prior I also took a chunk out off my thigh which again was nasty. That one needed stitches and was deep. Get the safety stuff. Make sure you saws blade stops instantly when you let off trigger also.

As for me....I'm getting an ax.