The answer to this is YES! Many people think safety glasses are obstructive or won’t do any good. The facts are these are one of the most important pieces of safety gear there is as well as being the least expensive. You lose an eye you can’t replace it.

Watch the above video and decide for yourself. Then shop all our great Edge Safety Glasses here and protect one of your most valuable assets…your eyesight.

Brian
Hanks Clothing

Waxed Shoe Laces

We sell quit a few waxed laces and if you have a hard time keeping your shoe laces tied tight these may be the answer. They are easier to grip, they stay tied and don’t loosen as easily as regular Taslan or Nylon laces. They also resist moisture better and that helps keep them tied better. So if you have a hard time keeping your laces tied waxed shoe laces may be the answer.

Brian

Hanks Clothing

Rugged Amish Belt

One question we get a lot here is what  size belt to buy. Unfortunately this is one question that is tough to give a definitive answer on. First off fit on belts is subjective as people like to have their belt longer or shorter and also based on what you are wearing the belt with. If you just wear light weight slacks and shirts you’ll need a smaller belt than if you wear heavy jeans and thick shirts. Also if you use your belt for carrying items you may need some extra length also.

If you are trying to figure out how to properly fit your belt and buy the right size there are a few guidelines that will help you get the right size. The most general rule is to buy the belt one size bigger than your pant size you wear. In 90% of the cases this will be the correct size. Take into account if you will be carrying items on the belt or if you will be wearing thicker pants or shirts and you may need to go up another size.

One thing you can’t do is measure an old belt or go off an old belts size. If you’ve had the belt awhile and have put on some weight then they can gradually stretch with you over time and can stretch as much as 1-2 sizes. Also be cautious of reviews customers leave about fit as again it is subjective and your not sure how they are using the belt.

So follow these guidelines and you should be able to get a good fit on your belt and avoid an exchange.

Brian
Hanks Clothing

We are keeping a close watch on hurricane Irene here at Hanks. We are right on the edge and a storm shift of 40 miles could mean the difference between receiving nothing but a little rain or loads of rain and high winds.  All we can do is wait and see.

Our data centers for our website is located in New Jersey though right in the storms path. They have geared up and topped off all the backup diesel generators, arranged for emergency diesel delivery if needed and the data center will be manned during the storm. Hopefully with all the precautions in place interruption to our website will be minimal or nonexistent. We are as prepared as we can be so hopefully our site will stay up for the duration of Hurricane Irene.

Brian
Hanks Clothing

Do your toes always feel a little cramped in your steel toe boots? If so you may may want to try some broad toe steel toe or composite toe boots. Designed with extra wide and extra high toe boxes these style shoes may be the answer to more comfortable steel toe boots…..  They come in a variety of styles, insulated or uninsulated and most are waterproof. Carolina Boot Company makes a great selection of broad toe steel or composite toe boots with superior comfort and price that won’t leave your pockets empty.  Remember though that the extra wide toe box won’t make up for the error of buying your shoes to short. Getting the proper length along with the broad toe will give you a boot with superior comfort if you have trouble with your toes rubbing in traditional steel or composite toe boots.

To view our broad toe boots on hanks clothing.com just go here to www.hanksclothing.com . Once there in the white search box at the top of the page type in “broad” without the quotes. It will then show you the selection of broad toe safety shoes and boots. These just may be the ticket to more comfortable steel toe boots for you.

Carolina Broad Toe Logger boot. 400 Grams Thinsulate, Waterproof membrane.

Brian
Hanks Clothing

Read about the flood of 1972 in our area here.

Every Friday Hanks Clothing will select one of our lucky Facebook fans to win that weeks prize. From Acorn Slippers, to Muck Boots, to Carhartt clothing and more!
Check every Thursday to see what that weeks prize will be and then Friday by noon we will announce the winner on our Facebook page!
Don’t miss out! Head over to

facebook.com/hanksclothing

and hit that like button!

Wow...lots of snow

Well we got blasted last night with our biggest storm of the season so far. What started out as a heavy rain in the morning developed into a full blown old fashioned NY snowstorm that ended up dumping over 20 Inches of snow across our area in Upstate NY. This is what my friend Jeff was greeted to when he opened his garage door! He lives up on a hill and boy does it drift. I bet no sooner he got it plowed it drifted in again! For those of you in warmer weather we envy you today!

Brian
Hanks Clothing

View From The Stand

Shortly before deer hunting season last year I was in the market for some new waterproof and warm hunting boots. I started asking friends and co workers what they would recommend, some said go the cheap route and others suggested I should go all out and get the most expensive boots around.
There was one response that stuck in my head. One of my coworkers said to me don’t try on any Muck Boots unless you are willing to purchase them. Then he said if you are going to try them on make sure you try onall the other boots you are considering first because you’re going to leave with the Muck Boots. I didn’t think he was serious and laughed at what he said.
I took his advice anyway and tried on a bunch of different boots. After I had tested every boot I could find, the time came to try on the Muck Boots. When I put on the Woody Sport All Terrain boots my mind was made up. I even had to take an extra walk around the store because they were so darn comfortable.

Fast forward a month. It’s opening morning for deer season. I’m all set to walk out to my tree stand and I felt like I was forgetting something. Then I realized I was so use to bringing an extra pair of boots out to the stand so I had one pair to walk through the water and one to keep my feet warm. With the Woody Sports being rated to -20 I didn’t have the need to lug my warm winter boots out to my stand.
When I arrived at my stand I was amazed at how warm my feet were, but I was still very hesitant to sit all morning in 20 degree temps with just a pair of waterproof boots on. Was I ever wrong about my new Muck Boots they are a far cry from just your ordinary pair of knee high boots.  After a long cold morning in the stand my feet were still toasty and dry.

After a few days of nothing more than a couple of glimpses of deer  I decided it was time to do a little bit of walking to see if I could find any deer. In the past I was always very tentative to do a lot of walking because I would get blisters and extremely sore feet.
This year with my new boots I was sure my feet would stay comfortable. The only thing I was hesitant about was how they would hold up to the diverse terrain. The area I hunt consists of dense woods, thick underbrush, and low swamp land. To my amazement I had no problems at all and the boots still looked brand spanking new after my three hour hike.

The last weekend of my hunt I had injured my wrist and was unable to use a tree stand, so I ended up sitting on a stool. With dense fog, heavy snow, and me being vertically challenged I didn’t see a single deer. I had to go another season with out a deer.

Even though I wasn’t successful in harvesting a deer I was grateful to be able to have purchased the best boots I have ever owned. If it wasn’t for the comfort and durability of my new Muck Boots my deer hunting season would have been so much worse.

Ben G.

Ready For Hunting

Ben runs the outdoor blogging website BenGOutdoors a blog devoted to hunting,fishing, and outdoor adventure!
Make sure to check out his site, full of product reviews, hunting experiences and so much more!

It was all in a day’s work at an unusual kind of summer school, one free of algebra problems and reading-comprehension drills.

In an age when Facebook and video games have conspired to keep adolescents tethered to a sofa, and the book “Last Child in the Woods” laments the loss of contact with nature, Paul Smith’s College, a small private college in the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains, is providing an outlet for young people who crave a different experience. Its new summer program — a two-week, college-credit course called the Adirondack Woodsmen’s School — is dedicated to traditional lumberjack skills and sports, like carving a dugout canoe, building a fire without matches and throwing an ax.

Indeed, there was nothing virtual about the heady scent of pine, the buzz of chainsaws or the flying wood chips last week as the first session began. And the two dozen young men who showed up, mostly high school seniors and college freshmen, had the blisters and sweaty brows to prove it.

“They’re a very anachronistic group,” said Brett McLeod, an assistant professor of forestry and natural resources at Paul Smith’s who directs the summer program. “They should have been born in the 1800s. They really like working with, and learning with, their hands.”

They came from rural and suburban towns in Northeastern states , many with an established interest in the outdoors, and some drawn, paradoxically, by lumberjack competitions they had seen on television.

“There’s some fulfillment for the couch outdoorsman who is watching a lot of this stuff on TV on the weekend,” Mr. McLeod said. “But there’s a higher level of appreciation that can be earned through getting out here and sleeping under the stars and getting bit by a few mosquitoes, as opposed to watching it from afar.”

A century ago, lumberjacks were a dominant feature of the Adirondack landscape, setting up temporary camps and working in harsh, dangerous conditions to get timber down the mountains and onto the rivers for transport. Starting in the 1920s, the term “lumberjack” gave way to “logger,” as men traded in hand tools for mechanized equipment. Today, the politically correct job title is “timber harvest professional.”

But the romance of the job persists. The lightning-fast skill set of the lumberjack — and the lumberjill, as the women are known — has evolved into a popular national competition, with events like speed climbing, chopping and birling (logrolling) held at the collegiate and professional levels.

Colleges like Paul Smith’s, which has an extensive forestry program, cheer on their co-ed woodsmen’s teams the way other campuses support their football squads.

Rosey Santerre, a senior here and an instructor for the woodsmen’s summer program, was one of several students at Paul Smith’s who dominated the Stihl Timbersports Northeast Collegiate Challenge this spring, capturing the women’s title.

Ms. Santerre and another Paul Smith’s student, Tyler Rothe, who won the prestigious Ironjack competition at the same event, were fine-tuning the chopping technique of Ben St. Amand, an 18-year-old from New Boston, N.H., who will attend the college this fall.

He was alternating his swings among four different 45-degree cuts that he had made in the wood block.

“Nice job, Ben,” Ms. Santerre said. “Show me your top hits. Avoid windmilling it.”

Mr. Rothe added, “Pretend there’s a wall behind you and you can’t touch that wall.”

The outdoors has beckoned Mr. St. Amand since he was a child. The summer school here provided him with the structure to pursue the kinds of activities (hurling axes, making fires) that would at best make most parents nervous, and would turn some into furious scolds.

“I really love the ax throwing,” he said. “Everybody can hold it and swing it, but throwing it — and hitting the target — is awesome. The third time I threw the ax I got a bull’s-eye.”

The experience does not come cheaply: tuition is $1,095 per week. Indeed, Mr. McLeod conceived of the summer school a couple of years ago but was stymied by the expense.

By the end of the two-week session, students will have used $10,000 worth of hand tools and $5,000 worth of power tools. While much of the equipment is already owned by the college, the beating the tools take will require costly repairs. “You can only sharpen axes six times before they’re completely done,” Mr. McLeod said. “Those axes are $400 to $500 apiece.”

So he enlisted corporate aid. Carhartt donated work clothes, while the tool manufacturer Stihl lent power equipment, underwrote the salaries of three instructors and helped in recruiting, distributing 1,500 brochures at the collegiate competitions it sponsors around the country. Paul Smith’s also sent mailings to incoming freshmen who had indicated an interest in trying out for the woodsmen’s team.

The college ended up turning away some interested students because it wanted an intimate atmosphere, Mr. McLeod said. But next year, he said, the college could add additional sessions if there is sufficient demand. And it may try to reach beyond a core audience of young men who are already well versed in hand tools to young men and women who are more comfortable with a remote control.

Still, logrolling and other lumberjack sports are tougher than they look on a TV screen. Bill Barnik of Binghamton, N.Y., who signed up with his 17-year-old son, Dan, for the woodsmen’s program, learned that the hard way after giving the two-man saw a go. “I thought they were going to have to pull out the defibrillator, I was so winded,” he said.

Some instructors made a point of sharing their own battle scars from when they were novice lumberjacks.

“It’s important because I’ve chopped about 9,000 logs, so 9,000 logs later, yeah, I can chop it really fast,” said Mr. McLeod, a Paul Smith’s alumnus who, while growing up in rural Connecticut, got his first ax at age 5 and his first chain saw at 7. “But when I was starting out it was very discouraging.”

Mr. McLeod told a frustrated student about his initial attempt at the standing-block chop, which simulates felling a tree. “My first time was not pretty at all,” he said. “I ruined my coach’s personal ax, and it looked like a beaver had chewed the log when I was done.”