It was a weird one blocking out te vertical stems of a trident headed gum each one about 150-200mm diameter was going great guns then just above the saddle..where all three came together had to take some time repositioning as i remember the main stem leant away, it was a little awkward nothing really, got settled againhad my left arm up holding the stem nearest to my head, balanced, placed the running saw against the middle stem began to cut through (the block was about 750mm long) as I finished the cut saw going flat outtook my hand off the saw back onto the vertical stem, (yes one handing at that point) I deliberately used the chain and the bar to flick the block out and away from the fence below, as it moved through the air it tumbled the saw moved in a horizontal arc, the tumbling block and saw came into contact mid air....kickback flicked my sleeve..I thought nothing of it moved to the next position, then thought bugger my shirt got cut then, lifted the tron sleeve to reveal......splatter movie time!
So really what went wrong, going too quick (reduced control),
one handing (no control), using the saw to flick the block (no control)
I have never made the same mistake again, though I have made many others!
Snap cutting is quick simple and controlled, oddly enough doing multiple snap cuts on any job can be quite relaxing bit like meditation (well it was to me)
Couple of other points I would like to make (then never speak of this again
) I had a second line with me thankfully, because without it I would not have been able to descend under my own steam..spiking down with one arm would have taken an absolute age...I would have lost too much blood (it was raining down on those below
)
Descending in a calm but agitated state I attached the second line with a chocked on biner (yes I know but I was distracted!) distorted the biner attachment completely almost snapped it in two...never would have believed that to be possible but it was...have never done that since either..side loading biners will lead to failure under enough loading...screaming down 15m on a F8 was just such a loading.
I was very very lucky the cut didn't severe any tendons, mainly because where i was cut they have turned into muscle sheaths, cut through most of them though. The blood stopper was magic, the doctors in the ER very skilled 3 yrs and 28 stitches later 18 internal and 10 external you'd hardly know it had happened.