intentional barber chair

murphy4trees

TreeHouser
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Nov 28, 2008
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Philadelphia PA suburbs
Cut my second today... gotta say got was very disappointing.. Pretty straight white ash ... hoping to get 7-10' of lift above the cut... only got 2-3' with a lot of splinters..
this is about as prone to BBC as any species around here and I was expecting a lot more action.... Still formed a nice bridge, and so a lesson was learned.....
 
Seems like a risky solution. Lots of potential for injury and inconsistent results. Off the top of my head I can think of a half dozen other options and all of them are preferable to an intentional barber chair IMO.

How big of a tree was it?
 
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  • #8
let's just call it outside the box.. if you feel the need to judge that, its a pretty good bet that you're inside the box... making you nothing to me...

I already came up with some valuable insights on the first attempt, which could end up saving someone's life.... nothing ventured.. nothing gained

inconsistent results are only that way because you haven't figured out the physics yet...

16" stem ... maybe 45-50 feet
 
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  • #14
we pulled from about 15 degrees off the 90 of the cut.... so the pull line was offset to the desired lay... I predicted that the tree would fall with the grain of the wood (90 to the cut)... turns out that the top started going to the direction of the pull line for about the first 45 degrees of the fall, then it turned and landed perfectly to the lay.. at least 15 degrees during the drop... NOw that was a surprise .... I love surprises. (when they don't result in something getting damaged).. great opportunity to learn something...
 
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  • #16
I was also expecting more of a clean break of the trunk fibers vertically with the grain... It looked at first like it was going to split up the trunk a good ways, then it got all stringy with a bunch of jagged fibers, rather than a clean breaking of the grain.. I've seen hickory splits look like that but never ash... got video.. forgot to get stills
 
Nothing wrong with experimenting if it doesn't endanger, but speaking for myself, there is so much to constantly learn without adding the questionable things to it.
 
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  • #18
each to their own.. I like to start wit the questionable things and work back from there :lol:

Thinking about the way the trunk split on this one makes me think that trees growing in a wooded landscape are more prone to BBC as opposed to trees growing in a suburban setting.. also of course its interesting to see what it takes to split the trunk.... which is a lot in this case
 
Oh, there's always lots to learn, as I, too, have experimented using questionable techniques working with trees just to see if the results would ever be consistent enough to draw firm conclusions. Since trees are so highly variable in nature the results of some experiments never were consistent enough to draw any firm conclusion. Well, other than, stick with approved and recognized techniques. Nonetheless it is fun sometimes, often frightening, to experiment with trees.
 
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  • #20
I remember the first time I ever swing a limb accidentally... being amazed at the movement sideways over 90 degrees before any drop... took me a few years to figure out how to do it on purpose.. Kenny the tree spyder explained it back in the day...

SO its those anomalies that can be fertile ground for learning...
 
let's just call it outside the box.. if you feel the need to judge that, its a pretty good bet that you're inside the box... making you nothing to me...

I already came up with some valuable insights on the first attempt, which could end up saving someone's life.... nothing ventured.. nothing gained

inconsistent results are only that way because you haven't figured out the physics yet...

16" stem ... maybe 45-50 feet

Call it what you want.... You wont convince me different.
Luck of a fool I say. Luck of a fool
 
Limb swing...learned that in tree climbers college, standard basic instruction.
 
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