I don't prune with spurs on, spurless ftw. Although there have been casese where removing a large limb from a gum tree prune that I have used my spikes on the doomed limb (after gut crunching my way to the limb).
Spikes have their place in our industry, aswell as our ropes and EWP's etc.
For Therrin's line of work, I see it somewhat acceptable if he is talking about reducing the pretuding limbs from the forest that are venturing in near the big 100k Voltage lines.
For street tree utility clearance I say no. Where there are targets or influenceable public I also say no. If you do work near the last 3 points I mentioned, Therrin, why not buy a bucket truck to half your speed again and leave the trees that are in the public's eyes alone(from spikes).
As for palm cleans, we do less and less of this nowadays, but when we do, I use our biggest ladder, tied off from the bottom and top and go up in my harness and tie myself into the ladder and around the tree at the same time.
Fancy a ride to the bottom of the palm putting your life line in over the head of an Alexandra Palm? Not me thanks
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