My 1st attempt with a drift

[gibbon]

This is my 1st attempt. Cold rainy day

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB6358IVmCE]YouTube - ppoak.wmv[/ame]

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I do like to see a sharp saw at work!

[Mozza]

Looks like an interesting job

[scotspine1]

Good quality vid.

 

On the subject of Coronet cutting and Fracture pruning from a rope and harness. From my experience, the climber is carrying out work that is ill-suited to rope and harness work positioning techniques.

 

When dealing with clients requesting Coros/Fracture pruning in the crown, I'll only do the work if the tree and branches can be accessed from a MEWP, if they can't then the work doesn't get done.

 

Working from a rope and harness already carries a high enough risk of injury or death, when you add in the type of cutting thats required for Coronets your greatly increasing the risk of injury (specifically kickback) or death.

[Big 'Ammer]

Interesting vid, and nice work.

 

However, I agree with Tim on the use of a rope and harness for this kind of work.

 

Getting limbs to delibarately split with a partial cut and a winch off, no matter how well planned and executed, leaves too many variables for my liking.

 

I would maybe climb and do it myself, but I would be hard pushed to be able to justify sending an employee climber up to do it.

[Gerbutt]

Now there's strange - what is it you're doing to it? I've not heard about or seen anything like that before?

[gibbon]

Thanks for the comments its good to get other opinions on what we do

 

The saw was sharp at the start of the job Tony, infact I had just replaced the bar and chain that morning. Cutting agsinst the grain on old dead Oak does tend to lose an edge fairly quickly. All these cuts were a while into the job as the 1st hour or so the lense was covered in wet saw dust.

 

Tim and Big Ammer. I have been doing this sort of pruning for a while and to be fair I think that although mewps certainly have a place it is possible in lots trees to still acheive safe work positioning. Using a back handed saw really helps in reducing kick back if you use the saw carefully. I find that if you are struggleling to get ino a confortable position you can always drop down to where a better position is acheivable.

 

Using the winch is better than a tag line as you can place a shorter cut, leaving a fairly stable limb allowing the climber to move, or release themself from the limb before pulling if off. The danger with a tag line is you need to cut further leaving a limb flapping a bit while you move away. Although I feel very comfortable with this type of work its because I've done lots of it. Sending employees up is different and like all jobs they start off small and work up to fractures and bigger limb.

[dryadlad]

I like it ! did a few last week using a 200t , if you a get a good work position dont think theres a problem really . Same with any chainsaw use in the tree, if your splitting your kipper to make the cut then your gonna come unstuck !

[Stephen Blair]

good vid, and really interesting techniques, oak is really chewy stuff, i often dont do undercuts on big limbs to save lowering, you can swing it back under itself easily, if you have been doing the job for years you just know where you are comfortable. nice one matt

[scotspine1]

Thanks for the comments its good to get other opinions on what we do

 

No problem, look forward to the next vid. Any shots of how the camera is set up on your hardhat? Did you use Windows Movie Maker for the editing?