Buckingham vs Klein gaffs

emr

emr

Cheesehead Treehouser
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
2,193
Location
Neenah, Wisconsin
The profile of the whole gaff shape is significantly different...the very tip is similar, but I don't think the gauges would be interchangeable. Don't know for sure.
 
I thought you just take the raker file out of your tool box and make a light stroke or two.

My ex-lineman friend gave me a small hone stone and told me not to use a file. Just a little bit every once in a while.
 
It's pretty important to maintain the original tip profile. I've seen a pair of gaffs ruined by an inaccurate sharpening attempt.
 
My old boss did all the sharpening on the hooks. I didn't like how he did it, because in his determination to maintain the tip profile, the tip just got shorter and wider. I hit the sides a couple of strokes to keep the tip slim while keeping the point straight in line with the spine. Been doing it that way for a good 20 years. I don't walk around a lot in my hooks, I'm particular about how I handle them in transit/storage, and I don't make a habit of loaning them out. I still have the first set I bought new in '87 or '88, though I don't climb in them much. I bought another set about 10 years ago and have been climbing in them ever since. The old pair wears the leather/metal cup pads, and I'll break them out if I will be standing in the hooks all day. My hooks are treated like my 192's/200's.....in-tree-use-only! I seldom, if ever crank a climb saw on the ground. They stay sharper that way.
 
I will occasionally walk to the next tree if it's not too far, or walk to the truck, but I have a peculiar gait when wearing hooks. I don't let the points touch the ground. And when I say I sometimes walk in them, I don't just stroll around, it's only when there's a purpose in it. Jay, I, too have worked with guys who walked around quite a bit in them, but there wasn't much sense in it in those days. They mainly did it because they were to lazy to take them off.
 
The guides are not interchangeable to my knowledge. Still have the guide Burnham sent me for my Kleins though. Although I climb in Gecks, I do still have my Kleins as a back up set

I walk in my gaffs often......but i have the short pole gaffs and they have good ground clearance. :)
 
That's all well and good until you trip on something and stomp one gaff on top of the other foot...that'll dull a gaff something terrible.

:D
 
I'm in the pole gaff club, too. Maybe its not, but seems like a gaff filing guide is like a saw filing guide, IME, unnecessary. My experience filing gaffs is very limited. Only a touch-up very rarely. Perhaps I'd need them razor sharp if I climbed more rock hard trees, or need to file more if I dulled them up, and I do walk around on the ground routinely, walking to the truck, etc. I might be weird, as I will climb big doug-fir in pole gaffs, sometimes just skipping the bottom section via ladder or simply with an overhead climbline.

Surely like a saw chain, some people will ruin gaffs sharpening them poorly. I don't doubt it.

How often do you guys file 'em?
 
I do a hell of a lot of sharpening of one thing or another, 'bout every day, but not supposed to touch the one side of the gaff with a file, it seems odd. It seems like you need to a bit, not wanting to much alter the profile.
 
I've heard of taking a Sharpie marker and marking the surface to be filed before starting as a guide to know how much you've done. I dunno. I just do a tiny bit.

My ex-lineman friend that gave me the hone stone would touch his up just a bit, regularly. Always spiking into hard poles. Trees don't seem to wear them much, that I've noticed. Maybe for some palms that I've heard turn rock hard after dying, or maybe still alive. I've seen two palms up here, thank god.
 
Ive had my Gecks for over 4 years now..........havent sharpened them yet. Sharpened my Kleins maybe 3 times in 15 years.

I hear ya on tripping B, I DO walk carefully when wearing them.
 
In 30+ years, I have only needed to lightly sharpen a SINGLE gaff one time...rapped out onto a basalt boulder. I pretty much live by the rule of putting on gaffs at the base of the tree, and taking them off there as soon as I hit the ground. You probably would too if you'd seen first hand the results of a trip/stab-the-other-foot accident, as I did early in my climbing career. It was extremely ugly. Of course, I work in the brush, footing is always suspect. But y'all can generate plenty of slash on the ground in a removal...be thinking about trip hazards very carefully.

Sean...pole gaffs for a PNW climber? Odd my friend, very odd :D.
 
Bark's always thin higher up the tree-Less wobble. Less leverage on the joints. Less likely to stab yourself, and if you do, less likely to be as deep.

Maple, alder, willow, madrona, walnut, geary oak. All good, or better, with pole gaffs, IMO. A lot of conifers, too. Cedar isn't really thick barked, residentially at least.

I climb with a climbline choked or overhead, or if just starting out on a conifer removal, I'll do a 540* wrap for fall arrest, just holding the choking effect open with my hands pinching both parts of the flipline.

Odd indeed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Spellfeller
My take on much of the New Tribe lineup
Replies
8
Views
3K
Fiddler
Fiddler
SouthSoundTree
Stump removal tools-- besides the grinder
2
Replies
38
Views
6K
frans
F
NickfromWI
Stihl vs. Dewalt Drill : Which is stronger?
2 3
Replies
55
Views
10K
Burnham
Burnham
Che
'verticle mouse' for bad hands
Replies
8
Views
2K
MasterBlaster
MasterBlaster
Che
BUY THIS BOOK: The Best of Life, 1973
Replies
5
Views
2K
MasterBlaster
MasterBlaster
Back
Top