Chainsaw PPE: wear this kit before you start the saw

The saw is on the driveway, the logs are stacked, and the boots by the back door are the steel-toe pair from a site job. That is where chainsaw PPE usually goes wrong. You dress in marked garments before the chain turns. The Health and Safety Executive names a helmet, hearing protection, eye protection, gloves, leg protection and chainsaw boots. A site toe cap leaves a hole in that list.

This page follows HSE's kit list, STIHL's UK class guide, and the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. Boot prices are six amazon.co.uk listings. We have not run a chain across any garment. A qualifying purchase through our links can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

Put on the HSE set: head, hearing, eyes, gloves where cut protection is required, trousers to BS EN 381-5, and boots to BS EN ISO 17249. Take the class from the saw's actual chain speed. The clothing can slow a chain in a test and still will not stop every cut, and the 1992 rules are a work duty rather than an automatic garden offence.

The chainsaw PPE kit HSE names

The HSE chainsaw PPE page is the list to dress from, on the ground and off it. Find the standard on the label, then keep the limit in the same row.

• Helmet on the ground: BS EN 397, BS EN 14052 or BS EN 12492. Off the ground, HSE names BS EN 12492.
• Hearing protection: BS EN 352-1, 352-2 or 352-3.
• Mesh visor: BS EN 1731. Glasses or goggles: BS EN 166.
• Gloves: BS EN 381-7 where cut protection is required.
• Trousers: BS EN 381-5. Type C covers the leg all round for aerial work.
• Boots: BS EN ISO 17249. A steel toe or an S3 code is a different standard.
• Gaiters: BS EN 381-9, occasional use, even ground, little snag risk.

A BS EN 12492 helmet may still be used on the ground if the risk assessment allows it. AFAG recommends Type C trousers aloft. Type A covers the front only, and HSE allows it when heat stress makes Type C impractical and the assessment agrees. High-visibility clothing is a separate decision. This page names no helmet model and no glove model.

Chainsaw boots follow their own standard

BS EN ISO 17249 is the boot standard on the ground and off it, with a clogging layer at the front vamp and instep. EN ISO 20345 sits behind a steel toe, an S3 code or a metatarsal guard. A chainsaw boot can carry a steel toe as well. The SAFETOE title states Class 1 and a steel toe together. Buying the toe cap alone is the mistake.

HSE allows BS EN 381-9 gaiters for occasional users on even ground with little snag risk, over steel-toe safety boots. Brash, a slope and work off the ground sit outside that sentence.

The chainsaw boots comparison keeps six amazon.co.uk listings from £66.99 to £108.88. The dearest row is not a higher class. The top pick, SAFETOE Class 1 leather, is £108.88, with 4.3 from 135 listing reviews, not a UK-only count. Several UK reviews say the fit is true to size. The extra cost is not Class 2. The page is B0BJK5X43D and the details block is B0BJKLM5CH, so read the class on the boot you unpack.

Three Oregon Sarawak rows are sizes of model 295448, level 1 on Oregon's declaration: UK 8 at £71.44, UK 9.5 at £72.49 and UK 12 at £82.52. Yukon leather is £99.99 with no class on the Amazon title. Oregon's page for model 295449 states Class 1 at 20 metres per second. Yukon rubber is £66.99, also with no class on the title, and UK reviews say the size runs large. Oregon's page for part 295385 states Class 3 at 28 metres per second. A review is not the label. A printed "EN ISO 19249" is the wrong number. Leather above Class 1 is about £181 to £371 excluding VAT on Solidur's UK page, outside this set.

The class is a chain speed

The class is the chain speed in the test. STIHL's UK guide sets Class 0 at 16 metres per second, Class 1 at 20, Class 2 at 24 and Class 3 at 28. STIHL recommends Class 1 for forestry and home use, because the higher classes are less flexible. HSE does not assign you a class. Boots and trousers share that scale. Class 1 trousers do not upgrade an unmarked boot.

Use the actual rated chain speed, not the nominal speed plus 33 per cent. In SIP Protection's STIHL MS 211 C example, 24.8 metres per second is the inflated figure and 18.6 metres per second is the actual speed, inside Class 1. Another saw can sit above 20 metres per second on that actual figure, and then Class 1 is the wrong test. If the manual is unclear, ask the maker or the dealer. The Class 1 and Class 2 guide applies the same speeds to boots and to trousers.

STIHL does not treat Class 0 as suitable for chainsaw trousers. Boot levels here are 20, 24 and 28 metres per second. A label that only says "chainsaw" has not named its speed. The lowest class on you is the speed the saw must stay inside. An actual speed of 26 metres per second leaves a Class 1 garment outside the test.

What chainsaw protective clothing will not do

STIHL describes fibres under the outer cloth. The chain catches them, wraps the drive sprocket, and stops. In the test the chain meets the inlay at the class speed and must leave the inner lining intact. That pass is a rig, not the angle if you stumble. The fibres are drawn in to stall the sprocket.

The same guide says the clothing cannot give absolute protection and does not replace safe practice or the manuals. Stars in this set run from 4.3 to 4.5 and score fit and wear. FISA notes that bulky protection adds fatigue, itself a factor in forestry accidents. Sharpness, tension and angle sit outside the test, and contact often happens while the chain is stopping, so the class remains a guide.

Stop after a chain hit, a snapped hook, or a sole leaving the upper. On the Sarawak UK 8 listing, one of two UK reviews says the sole started coming away after about 15 weeks, at £89.00 rather than the £71.44 on this scrape. These sources give no replacement interval in months.

Who provides the kit at work

At work, HSE expects chainsaw users to be trained and to wear the protective clothing. The 1992 regulations require an employer to provide suitable PPE, and they also speak to a relevant self-employed person. Suitable means the HSE standards, including BS EN ISO 17249, rather than site boots already in the van.

If you employ someone, you buy the kit and arrange the training. New trousers do not replace competence. A split heel in kit the employer supplied is reported, then replaced, before the next shift.

A householder cutting their own firewood is outside that offence on these sources. The injury is the same, and the saw manual still applies. This is not a ruling on a contract or a case. If a self-employed job may fall inside the regulations, ask an adviser with the instrument open.

Where to compare chainsaw boots

Choose the actual chain speed, then the upper, then the size. That order is the buying guide. The comparison shows the class each Amazon title prints. Within 20 metres per second, for Class 1 leather with a steel toe on the title, start with the SAFETOE top pick at £108.88.

Wear the trousers over the boots, and retire a failed pair, as the how to wear guide sets out. Prices on amazon.co.uk move.