Having a good pair of socks is essential for any forester. So how does the HJ Hall Comfort Top fare when put to the test in the woods?

WHEN the email entitled “Review Enquiry” from the editor of Forestry Journal popped into my inbox, I had wild dreams of it being about getting my paws on the new (at the time) Husqvarna 592! Ultimately, it was to try out something slightly less cutting edge, but nonetheless important. I also knew there was a wealth of sock-related puns that needed using up, so ...

Let’s talk about socks, baby! Sock it to me! Time for some socks education! Socks in the city! I’m bringing socksy back?! If you like my body, and you think I’m socksy, come on baby let me know!

Right, that’s quite enough of that then.

Forestry Journal:

As someone who was a trained boot fitter in a previous career, I know better than most how important it is to have decent quality socks to go with your boots. I’m not the new kid on the sock here. We spend hundreds of pounds on boots, and most of us only get 12–18 months out of them. I’ve got socks in my drawer at home that are older than some of my children, so investing in decent ones is very worthwhile. Imagine spending thousands of pounds on a car and putting the cheapest tyres possible on it? You just wouldn’t, would you? Crikey, I feel like a sock broker on the hard sell. 

I was lucky enough to be sent some new models to try from HJ Hall. Now I’ve done my research on socks, in particular HJ Hall, and have actually bought socks from them well before the test pairs arrived (more on that later). 

So the models I got sent to try were billed as Cotton Comfort Top, and I got two pairs.

As I’d expected, they were well made and comfy from the outset.

READ MORE: PS3 Pro: Stihl's new saw chain boasts 'enhanced cutting performance'

The USP for these particular ones is in the name, Comfort Top. Now I distinctly remember my dad used to have a strong dislike for tight-fitting socks around the ankle, and I concur, so clearly this problem is one that needs addressing (I must be a chip off the old sock). I can indeed confirm these are nice and comfy on the ankle, and you don’t notice them being tight at all during the day. 

Unfortunately, I am not blessed with chunky ankles. In fact, my ankles would make a flamingo jealous, they are that skinny. So annoyingly these socks had a nasty habit of creeping down my leg during the day. Now if you had a regular body composition you’d be fine with these, but I’d also recommend you get the longer-leg version as we do tend to have taller boots in forestry and arb.

If it was down to me to recommend some socks for work, based on my own independent purchase, I’d 100-per-cent suggest you get the Indestructible Broad Rib Half Hose from HJ Hall. I’ve got half a dozen pairs that I wear in rotation (aids with stink suppression) and also wear with a decent set of thin liner socks (to reduce friction when walking about) and they are perfection. Tough enough to stand up to the rigours of forestry, comfy enough to wear every day, and very reasonably priced. I bought the three pack for about £17.50, delivery was swift and they have been excellent to use. 

They even have a 12-month guarantee on the Indestructible variant; it’s six months on other models, which is still decent.

To summarise, I’d go so far as to say I think anything that HJ Hall makes will be of great quality. The Comfort Tops will serve the average-sized ankle wearer very well indeed.

The Indestructible range is fantastic for the skinny-legged user, but I have no doubt they’d be brilliant for the vast majority out there. 

Who’d have thought any human could write about socks so enthusiastically? It’s about time I took sock of my current situation, I think.

Mike Tyson established Low Impact Forestry, which offers environmentally sensitive forestry services in North Yorkshire and the North East, in February 2019.