Spellfeller's Continuing (Mis)Adventures Aloft

Yeah, Sean. I thought that making the cut on a bigger limb out towards the tip is what created that lip on the bottom that can roll forward when the limb starts dropping, and snatch a chainsaw out of the cutter's hands.

Tim
 
Great illustrations you're coming up with, Jeff! I have to say thanks to you for pumping a lot of new life into this forum. You are a really strong addition.

Tim
 
I think the point of offsetting the cuts are for accuracy reasons,if you don't line up and go even the slightest inside of your under cut,you then have potential for a tear that may go beyond the branch collar. Being a greenhorn,I would suggest you keep with the offset method,imo. Keep it up!👍
 
Offsetting your cuts can also be used to make the limb fall off differently. You can make them jump, pop, and swing depending on where your top cut is in relation to your undercut. This also ( as with everything) varies with species, limb angle, temperature, etc...
Your few barber chairs are probably just from the slowness of a handsaw. Nipping on the sides not only will reduce the unwanted fiber tear but also allows for a faster top cut.
 
For a fair sized limb (with corresponding weight) the top cut should be on the tree side...putting it on the tip side will one day give you the horrible experience of having the saw snatched out of your hands...mmmhmmm, I know ;). This is for basics, once you can make some assessments about how you want the limb to move, you can used different sequences.

Agreed Stig, during training we didn't get to use saws in the trees until we'd done felling and crosscutting on the ground, so the instructors could assess how well people were managing before you throw in climbing and balance and position...
 
This is an attempt to include a couple of photos requested by Jeff, of my throw ball throwing stick. Not my idea, I got it from some other guy on one of the forums. I haven't felt like trying to run down exactly who it was.
 

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #37
Psyched to get back off the deck today and into one of the ash in the yard that will have to be removed. We've decided to treat five of the ten, but the arborist said that the remaining five should go to deny aid to the enemy (habitat to EAB). He wasn't looking to line his pockets either, as he doesn't do removals, just treatments.

After all the super helpful advice HERE, I decided to try a little natural crotch rigging of light limbs with my hank of Pro-Master and a big aluminum screw-lock belaying crab from my rock climbing days. (It has now been relegated to the rigging bag and will NOT be used for life support.) I had a groundie eager to help out, so we went for it.

Got up to working height, bucked in, a piece hooked up, ready to rock. You can get a glimpse of my new boots, which because of Peter's reaction HERE I am calling my "tissue paper Karrimors."
So far so good; they shattered the 10-minute durability barrier! :lol:

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Despite breaking out the little yellow Motorola radios, it was easier to holler down to my help...

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Who was ready to go! (Minus the eye pro; we won't forget next time!)

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I was ready to help him in the tree, but both of us were amazed at how much friction was available to hold the pieces. They lowered easily, with only a few minor hang ups in neighboring branches.

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Mom was fixing dinner, so today's photos were taken by my groundsman's 11-year-old twin.

I think he did a pretty good job...artistic, even!

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It was another great day of firsts, thanks in large part to the collective TH wisdom and willingness to coach!

Thanks a ton. You guys and gals are rockstars! :thumbup:
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #40
sawman said:
wacth out for the rope around ground mans legs
Click to expand...

Thanks, SM. I thought that too when I saw the photo.

Thankfully, these pieces were so light, in a few cases he could have let go and the rope wouldn't have moved!
 
candoarms said:
Jeff,

You've got it nailed down. Your diagram above explains things perfectly. The first cut removes most of the weight from the limb you are removing. The final cut can now be made without any need to worry about a fiber tear that could strip down the bark on a tree that you are attempting to save.

On larger limbs....say over 5 inches.....or too big to get your hand around......it's still a good idea to made a shallow cut all the way around the limb stub, so as to avoid any fiber tear that you won't be able to control by hand.

Here again......getting your free hand too close to the saw is a always a bad idea. When you make your first cut, make sure you leave a good amount of limb stub remaining, so that your free hand can control it, while making the final cut, without getting too close to the saw. You'll figure out what's most comfortable for you, but I like to leave about 2 feet of stub when making my first cut. (As in your diagram above)

Joel
Click to expand...

If you leave a stub that is a top-handle saw width, you can cut the stub (geometry of the tree permitting the bar to be upright and vertical) so that is rests on the top of the saw, held with the pinky.

Alternately, you can flick the stub to a target area (or more often, not in the area of an obstacle) by using your bar. If you drop your bar through the cut, keeping pace with the falling stub, you can flick it with the bar, holding the saw with both hands, or not. The saw chain on the top of the bar, moving forward, can be used to push the stub forward, rather than flicked sideways. A little saw "english".
 
A bin is sometimes useful for a repeat rigging. Faster to stack the whole rope into, and move around, keeping it more easily 'clean and tidy' around legs and sticks.

Don't choke the biner against the spine, as a habit. If I'm on thin branches, I prefer a half-hitch or marl before the choke. Heavy loads, I use two half-hitches, just to keep almost all the load off the biner. It just all slips off the end of the branch and falls out. A MARL results in an overhand knot, if slipped off the end, or a dead limb shatters. If it shatters, and you've used a bunch of marls, each marl with try to grip something.
 
Ditto that about the rope on the ground where the groundie is standing! Super important, I know you get it but get everyone into the habit real early!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #49
Thanks to you guys, today was safe AND productive! I learned a ton.

No time for a proper write-up--I'll do that later--but here are a few pix of my first ever "top and drop" on the first of five ash in my yard that have to be removed due to EAB.

Man, riding the spar when the top comes off is CRAZY! First time for that, and if I hadn't watched 100s of vids of you coolios doing it, I might have had a serious trouser accident. Still, I didn't expect it, but at least when it happened, I knew what was going on!

Can't thank you guys enough for all the help. I have LOTS of questions to post up when I get time...;)

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👍 looks good Jeff,nice smiles and bar placement looks decent. You have any pictures of the hinge wood after topping/felling cuts?
 
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