For my apprentice...

TreeMuggs

Treehouser
Joined
Dec 24, 2016
Messages
198
Location
Southwestern Ontario, Canada
Hello all, I am building a website to teach my apprentice the basics during the off-season and I would love some feedback. My newest articles are about saw chain - how and why it works, and how to maintain and sharpen chains. You can view them here:

1. How Saw Chain Works - The terminology and concepts of what saw chain is, and how and why it slices wood.
2. Saw Chain Maintenance & Sharpening - The equipment and techniques to keep your saw chain sharp

The site is called EducatedClimber.com and I would really appreciate opinions and feedback from the TreeHouse community. Thank you all.

Cheers
 
I like it and I agree on overcoming side dominance. Took me a long time. My only question is on your reference to file sizes. I thought 7/32" was reserved for .404 chain and 13/64" was for 3/8 pitch
 
I've been told 7/32 for .404 and all 3/8 except Stihl, which likes the 13/64.

That's just from messing around with the timberline sharpener. . .
 
Hello all, I am building a website to teach my apprentice the basics during the off-season and I would love some feedback. My newest articles are about saw chain - how and why it works, and how to maintain and sharpen chains. You can view them here:

1. How Saw Chain Works - The terminology and concepts of what saw chain is, and how and why it slices wood.
2. Saw Chain Maintenance & Sharpening - The equipment and techniques to keep your saw chain sharp

The site is called EducatedClimber.com and I would really appreciate opinions and feedback from the TreeHouse community. Thank you all.

Cheers

Wow, I have only read the "start here" header and I am thoroughly impressed!
 
requires not just one backup, but in fact, two? Really? I have to be honest here folks, if a knot requires two half hitches to secure it, then you are using the wrong knot!

Hahahahaha, you're my hero! I was taught to hang a block with this stupid knot, so many times the half hitches saved it. Now I only really teach it to send up pole tools!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
Thanks Butch, it has pretty much become my life's work for the last 3 or 4 months! At any given time I have at least a hundred videos and articles that I need to get out there, stay tuned...
 
Muggs, looks good. I too barely got into it, but saw it worthy to send to my apprentice last night.

Did I gather correctly that your name is Patrick? Thank you for all of your work on that.

You mentioned an apprenticeship, does your state have a formal arboriculture apprenticeship? I'm really interested in that idea.
 
Hi Muggs, I liked your saw chain and sharpening articles, the illustrations are nice and clear too. Good job.

Now, in the interests of a review, I watched your bore cut video and picked up two things you might just want to have a think about

1. Wrap your left thumb on the top handle...you corrected yourself once then your thumb crept back up to rest on top
2. When you were inspecting the thickness of your hinge once you had done the face and the bore, you passed right across the rear of the leaning trunk in between it and the trunk behind you. I would definitely have gone around the back of the other trunk to get to the other side. You were putting an awful lot of trust in your holding strap, especially with the defect below it and the excessive lean and the fact you'd tapered the hinge. There was a chance that leaning trunk could have gone bye-bye just as you were behind it. A few more seconds to take a wider path around the back would be safer, especially for an educational video. Your face was a bit deeper than I would have done for such a heavy leaner, leaving you with a somewhat skinny holding strap, especially with the hollow, the defect below and the fact you wanted to turn it a bit with a tapered hinge.

When instructing being a bit safety paranoid is a good idea.
But hey, you are putting in a lot of effort to help the industry, good on you!...and the tree got down safely :)
 
I really hate those file handles. I've paid for the whole file, so I want to be able to use the whole file.
They shorten your filing stroke badly.

Also, when I teach apprentices to file, which I do every 3rd year, I start out telling them to wear gloves.
Haven't had time to watch the videos yet.
 
Yep, always.
Maybe I'm just clumsy, but I've cut myself countless times, untill I got smart and put gloves on.
 
Digging the knot tying tutorials! I can sit in my easy chair and tie various knots that I learned from Jeff Jepson's "Knot at Work". But watching a professional walk you through it makes it way easier and you learn the easy little cheat methods that make it faster to tie.

I have a tree next to the house I practice climbing in. As a new guy it baffles me how I can forget how to tie a knot when I'm 75' up a tree when I did it every night for a month sitting in my living room.:?
 
To follow up on my question about the "apprenticeship", I was just at a climber safety panel and I heard news that our trade is finally getting recognition as an apprenticable trade. They got a program going in Wisconsin. I'm gonna do my best to get it out here is Washington ASAP. I'm psyched.

I think it's going to help with public recognition, bringing in new people to the trade, professionalism.
 
No it def won't hurt. I'm kinda shocked that there isn't one, but then again I'm not as well. The line clearance guys here are union electricans, and they have an apprenticeship. I'm pretty sure it's not the construction pay or training, but i did go to a climbing and proper pruning workshop with them. Very good climbers, and the teachers were line clearance guys too, but they had moved up to crane work and the tricky problem trees. That was really fun, and i learned a ton. The residential side is more of the wild west around here, ranging from a few people like me who do it by climbing and log carts to a ton of companies with even more heavy iron. Lots of iron and old bucket trucks around here.

Muggs, happy belated bday by the way, and your website rocks.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20
"You mentioned an apprenticeship, does your state have a formal arboriculture apprenticeship? I'm really interested in that idea."

I am in Ontario, Canada, and yes, here we have a formal apprenticeship Arborist program. Arborist is considered a skilled trade in the service sector, but it is not a restricted trade, like electrician or pipe fitter, etc. So technically, anyone here can call themselves an Arborist. To get certified by the province, you need to sign up with an employer and do some paperwork with the apprenticeship office so that you can get into school. The apprentice gets this big book that lists every single little skill that they are supposed to learn, like "Wears hearing protection on a regular basis", etc and each one of those skills has a signature box for the employer to sign. The schooling is 2 terms of 12 weeks, from January to March and then same time the following year.

So, to get certified, you need to get both terms of schooling, you need 6000 hours on the job signed off by your employer, and you need that big book full of signatures. It is assumed that most guys will just give their employer a bottle of whiskey or something in exchange for having to sit there for a couple hours signing their name over and over :) So once you have all of those requirements, you can write a final exam to get your certification number. And by the way, there is no study guide for the exam, its not like the ISA. I actually found the provincial cert. harder to get than the ISA.


"Muggs, happy belated bday by the way, and your website rocks."

Many thanks, glad to hear that the site is appreciated. It is fast becoming a job unto itself, I'm loving it. Lots more in the works...

Cheers,
 
"You mentioned an apprenticeship, does your state have a formal arboriculture apprenticeship? I'm really interested in that idea."

I am in Ontario, Canada, and yes, here we have a formal apprenticeship Arborist program. Arborist is considered a skilled trade in the service sector, but it is not a restricted trade, like electrician or pipe fitter, etc. So technically, anyone here can call themselves an Arborist. To get certified by the province, you need to sign up with an employer and do some paperwork with the apprenticeship office so that you can get into school. The apprentice gets this big book that lists every single little skill that they are supposed to learn, like "Wears hearing protection on a regular basis", etc and each one of those skills has a signature box for the employer to sign. The schooling is 2 terms of 12 weeks, from January to March and then same time the following year.

So, to get certified, you need to get both terms of schooling, you need 6000 hours on the job signed off by your employer, and you need that big book full of signatures. It is assumed that most guys will just give their employer a bottle of whiskey or something in exchange for having to sit there for a couple hours signing their name over and over :) So once you have all of those requirements, you can write a final exam to get your certification number. And by the way, there is no study guide for the exam, its not like the ISA. I actually found the provincial cert. harder to get than the ISA.


"Muggs, happy belated bday by the way, and your website rocks."

Many thanks, glad to hear that the site is appreciated. It is fast becoming a job unto itself, I'm loving it. Lots more in the works...

Cheers,
That's all awesome. Even if it's just a list at this point, plus the time required.

My feeling was the ISA Certified Arborist is great in that it's something, but it's not what I hope this can be.

Is there somewhere I can read up, or get the apprenticeship program over the internet to use?
 
After banging around on the site for a bit I have to say it seems very well done. Certainly falls in line with the perpetual education mindset I try to go with.
 
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