Bill, the video. But also, I can't seem to picture in my head what your talking about mate, could you put up some diagrams (just use paint) to educate us?
First of all, let me thank you for taking the time to put up an entertaining video, Simon.
Now here comes the "nagging and nitpicking".
Points that need pointing out:
- That Sling you use for knotless rigging
- Your Saw Chain
- Your tear cuts
- That freakin' Barberchair of a topping
Alrighty, we'll go in order of the list.
That Sling, what size is it? It looked to me either 8 or 10mm Prussic line. The 10mm prussic line (based on the various ones I've bought) usually comes in at 1350KGS breaking strain. Not sufficient at all. Get some double braid, or even the same stuff as your lowering line (You could even use any left over part of old climbing lines as a temp fix) for your slings, try to get their rating to be atleast 4,000kgs.
Your Saw Chain. Wtf, why you using it blunt?
16 inch bar, picco chain about 3-9 mins to sharpen and do the rakers. Somebody said it in one of the chain sharpening posts, it's better to hone it up a few times throughout the day then wait til the end of the day or week for that matter to sharpen it. Even if it doesn't need it.
I like to live by this and get the absolute most out of our chainsaws and their components.
Tear cuts. Just gotta say this first before I get into it, the proper name for it is a tear cut not a hinge cut as the wood isn't hinging in anyway, it's tearing. I saw that you were doing quite a few tear cuts where your lanyard was just below... I noticed that the tree was pretty snappy, but come a tree that isn't snappy, if that tears down to and past your lanyard you're going to get crushed, pinned, busted nose ribs and other bones, or get killed.
I know from experience in the early days of my climbing, cutting a 400mm branch of a lemon scent gum with a straight through cut (tear cut). The branch started falling before I could finish my cut, it tore down towards my wirecore lanyard (absolutely no way to disconnect it from my harness at the time if there had of been a load on it) then for about 2 seconds I got crushed against the branch until the strip toar off and slipped out of my lanyard. I was fine, it hurt alot during it but after that everything was fine.
If you wanna keep on using the tear cuts as you do I suggest that you put a nick of about 3-5cm deep on the other side of the branch or trunk just above your lanyard, that way, if it does wanna tear all the way down it's not gunna tear past that point, putting a safe buffer between your lanyard (
you) and the wood tearing.
Tear cuts do have their place, but in your video they are used in the wrong place as there are better and more efficient cuts you could have used.
The Barberchair of that top. DUDE, WTF were you thinking?! You almost
KILLED yourself. It didn't even tear, that was just down right barber chairing (slabbing). The top of the tree is probably one of the most dangerous parts if not THE most dangerous part of a tree dismantle. If that had of slipped down your side of the trunk - GONER.
The topping of the head of a tree should not be taken lightly and appropriate cuts be used. The head of the tree is just like a smaller version of the tree your climbing, and you felling it. So what cut do we use when we fell it? We use the scarf (notch for you yanks). A correct scarf and back cut, usually with a pull line and we can make the top or tree our bitch and tell it what to do and where to go. 99% control is taken when we use and cut a correct scarf. Using tear cuts ESPECIALLY on vertical limbs, we have about 1% control.
Oh one more thing I thought of. Your step cut... Nothing wrong with using a step cut in the right place just as long as you know of the risks. The tendency for the branch to jam and drag your saw out of the tree is very high with a step cut, to minimise this to the best we can, we put our top cut right next to the bottom cut (around about 1mm apart). Oh and also makesure you keep your cuts parallel, if you don't you're actually creating a pocket for your saw to sit in and be grabbed.
And this post of mine just took like 20 mins of my life, but that's better then a tree taking your life from you for using inferior methods and technique.
JohN Dee