Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists

To be honest i have not tried these but its not much more money to buy some decent ones, if spiking is few and far between then cheap will do. I have had a pair of kleins i think (blue shank with leather straps)? had them about 10yrs really good but recently tried some carbon geckos needless to say im now saving.

As a small business, if I was replacing equipment like that I'd like to think I would have had the nous to research a bit first and would know that my surplus equipment had a second hand value and would dispose of it myself, even if the cash just went into a slush fund for the christmas party. I'd be a bit hacked off if my staff were selling them for their own gain.
I don't sell surplus materials from our sites for my own benefit, it comes back to the yard and goes on the company ebay account.
However... for a firm like WPD for instance, selling second hand spikes is not going to be a priority and if someone was injured using spikes they'd sold, they must be concerned they'd be liable, so I'm sure people are correct when they say that spikes are replaced with new regularly and the companies don't ask for them back.
It's definitely a grey area. There are bound to be genuine staff who use them well and get new ones when they're given them, and let people they know have the old ones. But there must also be staff who keep selling them and claiming they've lost them and getting issued new ones.
Personally I'd rather have something cheap and honest than cheap and potentially dishonestly acquired.... But I don't really know any linesmen to tap for their old spurs....

This is a good point and why the utility Co's destroy the used climbing gear and ladders, they are cut in half and then weighed in for scrap.

Anyone who has ever worked for a large organisation knows that when you want replacement items you take the old ones to stores where they decide if they need replacing or not and you then generally leave the old item for them to dispose of.

Why don't one of the people who feel that buying gear of staff is fine email their local utility Co and see if the management are happy for you to buy equipment off their staff.

Please post the reply email on here.

Good suggestion Dave. It's probably something that those in the gods at these firms have never thought about, their only concern is maintaining H&S standards and I suspect to them spurs are a disposable [and so far as they must believe 'easily mislaid'!] piece of safety equipment, like safety helmets or hi-viz.... If staff 'lose' their spurs, why wouldn't they just issue them with new ones....
I'm very suspicious of the practice of buying company equipment directly from employees, as a manager in a company it doesn't sit well with me.....

For a big outfit the couple of quid from a used hand tool sale would be a drop in the ocean and probably not worth the effort, but as far as liability goes, provided the items were accurately described at the point of sale there would be no liability. Auction houses sell electrical gear but they cut the plug off and describe them as used and not in working condition. The rest is caveat emptor.

I have a set of alloy bashlins for sale and some climbing stuff message me if your interested

thankyou for the interesting replys, ive been looking into buying some spikes, but as they would be only be used occasionaly i find it hard to justify spending the £200 + for a decent pair. But then again i dont want to waste 90quid if they would be unusable, which it sounds like they would be. If anyone has an old pair of spikes i would be happy to take them off there hands..

as long as there not stolen....