Safety attire in the smithy!

[Alan DuBoff]

no need for input here.

[Glenn]

I bet the most overlooked protection would be coal smoke. We all know how dangerous it was for the workers in coal mines.

Coal smoke in a mine usually means there was an explosion somewhere. I am sure you mean coal dust. Black lung is an industry and occupational hazzard from inhalation of coal dust.

Many times we stand too close to the dragon breath of a gasser, or the warm exhause (for lack of a better term) from a coke fire. Both contain nasty things. You can reduce the smoke from a coal fire by simply poking a hole in the top of the dome of coal and letting the smoke burn. Nothing beats a good chimney to get any smoke or fumes 20 feet into the air and out of your face.

The lungs were designed to operate with clean air. Anything other than clean air is dangerous to your health.

[Jymm Hoffman]

While much of the talk started out with foot wear, to that I will add I wear cotton and rag wool socks in my wooden shoes all year round. It really is cooler in summer and warmer in the winter. When others complain about cold concrete floors, my feet many times appear to be steaming when I kick of the wooden shoes. I do put irons on the bottoms to keep from wearing out the soles, otherwise they would only last about 8 months.
Next up the body is cotton work pants for warm weather and jeans in cooler, bibs in the winter over the work pants.
Next is my knee length leather apron with strap that connects the neck strap to the waist strap. It puts the weight of the apron on the shoulders and not the neck. The apron is split in the legs with straps and buckles to keep the legs where they belong. Makes it a lot easier for holding tools between my legs.
I wear long sleeve cotton shirts all year round. I started doing this when I switched to gas, helps to keep some hair on your arms and deflect sparks from burning your arms.
I always wear safety glasses with side shields, I need corrective lenses anyways, but won't let anyone work in my shop without safety glasses. Sometimes I wear goggles, and frequently a shield when grinding.
I really like 18th. century style work hats, 100% natural fibers again, frequently wool and linen. Helps keep hat sparks out of the hair, etc. and easy to throw the face shield or welding helmet over with not fuss, or turning a hat around. Plus they really do a much better job of keeping the sweat out of my eyes than any other hat or bandanna.
I frequently wear a left glove, occasionally one on the right (hammer) hand. Normally cheap welding gloves. I have tried Kevlar, etc, and find the cheap welding gloves work as well and cost a lot less.

[Jymm Hoffman]

I forgot to mention ear plugs. I did use foam for years. I now have the molded type and really like them. They are really worth the expense.

[Alan DuBoff]

no need for input here.

[Jymm Hoffman]

Not unusual for a good anvil to "ring like a bell," especially a Peter Wright. There are lots of tricks to quite down an anvil, and I recommend that you do make them as quite as possible for your ears' sake. I learned early on that if you tighten it down to a stump, it will help quite it. Other tricks include a rubber mat of some sort between the anvil and the stump. Silicon (caulking) works pretty well too, especially if you use some tightening method as well. I have simply pointed 1/2 round stock, driven into holes next to the feet, bend over the feet and drive tight. However, a chain that can be tightened is better and easier to remove to move the anvil. Look at the PAABA's website projects page to see an example.

[Site Admin]

See Blueprint BP0320 Stop the Anvil's Ring

[Marc]

My comment way down below about the false sense of security was not to compare eye safety to foot safety. It was more a comment on the concept of a false sense of security. I rarely find that an excuse, in and of itself, to forego the protection. If it's cheap enough and doesn't get in the way, then it's just another level of security. For the record, I don't have steel toe-ed boots. Maybe when these boots wear out and if I find some cheap and comfortable enough I will.

I wore my sandles once for a quick forge at the treadle hammer. I won't do that again. I think the scale somehow aimed directly for my foot.

As for gloves, I occasionally use a cheap kevlar "terri-cloth" type. They go for around $5 a pair from Enco and seem to protect as well as leather. But if they do get too hot, just letting go of the hot steel is enough. Leather seems to hold onto the heat longer and I have to fling the glove off.

I also got some thin kevlar gloves for TIG'ing, handling sheet metal, and general work gloves. I like the range of motion, ease to pick up small stuff, and the general protection from sharp things. But they're not good for tiny pointy things.

I'm on a vision plan at work that gets me galsses for $25. So it was easy to get some prescription safety glasses with side shields. I'm going to look into getting some shade 2 or 3 lenses the next time.

Full face shield sometimes when using the angle grinder, always when using that nasty wire wheel. OK, almost always. Most of the time, anyway :-)

Natural fiber clothes pretty much all the time in the shop. Usually just jeans. In the summer I'll wear shorts, but I put my full-length, split-leg, apron over that. It's made out of cotton duck.

I use ear plugs, the rubber mushroom kind, when using the angle grinders or treadle hammer. Or banging sheet metal. My anvil is a Fisher, so no real ringing there. It's interesting how I can hear people talking, phone ringing, even the nice outside sounds through them, but they very effectively squash the loud, painful, noises.

ANd if I'm going to do a lot of grinding, I wear a NIOSH mask. It's more than those nuisance paper masks, with some decent gasketing, but far short of real air filter. It seems good enough to keep the grinding swarf from darkening my handkerchief.

[Alan DuBoff]

no need for input here.

[Glenn]

Ear plugs come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Wal-Mart has them in the sporting goods or gun section, any sporting goods store, any welding supply store, any place that sells safety equiptment etc. For a couple of dollars you get several sets in a blister pack, or packaged for individual use.

Keep a couple of spare sets in the glove box of the vehicle you use to travel to hammer ins. Sometimes those anvils can be rough on the ears.