Another 40 year old just starting

[forestboy1978]

6 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Forestboy I’m not going to enter the slanging match.

I’d rather concentrate on the tree work.

 

A few points, from the unfinished pic you put up -

Is it all Silky/tiny topper work? It seems to be coming on really well.

Slightly hard to tell, you need to reference pics from the same points so we can see what the difference is, but it is looking tidy.

i wouldn’t quote from pics, but it looks like a day for a gun climber and a groundy to me, so your quote seems canny high, but I’m never going to knock that. You certainly aren’t devaluing the industry! 

Was the spec ‘reduce to previous’? Not an easy feat sometimes.

 

My tuppence worth is if you get a chance like this again hire in a good climber like Matty, Joe or Rich and go up the tree with them.

You’ll learn more in a morning than you believed possible.

 

You certainly seem to put the effort in, I’m looking forward to the finished pics.

 

Increase the peace!

 

It is reduce to previous points. There are fences and sheds etc around the drop zone. Silky is my main  weapon of choice yes. 

 

And yes Maria it is a Makita better top handle. It's actually a half decent and safe saw. No cha of kick back into your face with it. It runs slow but it'll cut 1ft branch 40 seconds or so. 

 

I priced it high cos I didn't want to win it frankly and figured, well, if I did, then it'd be worth the stress and I can but some needed kit. 

 

I cam getting the Husq battery chainsaw. Makita isn't up to the task long term. 

Edited November 29, 2018 by forestboy1978

[forestboy1978]

The thing that annoys me about this is that the TO said, scew the pruning points. Go to width and height you've been told even if you have to sever branches. Epicormic growth and all that... I really wanted to inside and outside the 14 m diameter and 18 m heights by making nice choice cuts. 

 

Get what I mean? Like if I had to sever a branch no where near a pruning point then it wouldn't hurt to do it on a 1" branch kinda thing. Not a previous prune at 6 inches thick with no off shoots at all.

 

I've been reading about xylem and phloem and nutrient transportation and it does NO good to make a thick cut no where near a pruning point. 

[forestboy1978]

And Dempsey before you ask I am not doing the tree today. High wind and rain and my side door on my van is broken and I have to fit a locking mechanism so my stuff doesn't get knicked. 

[tomo567]

Where are you based out of interest

[sime42]

Thanks man. Appreciate your candour but I'll do it and I'll do it well. It just might take me to my pensioners years. 
 
I was limbing walking today though with slack ropes knowing I was safe, even in high wind. No breakages. And wet as hell. 
 
One question,,, double prussock or triple? I couldn't budge a wet triple today. Took me an hour to work around it 

Bear in mind that any knot is going to be a lot more sticky and awkward in the wet.
You could try something like a distel hitch instead, (with a slack tending pulley). This is so much nicer to use than the horrible old basic prussic hitch. But if you do try it make sure it's on a few "low and slow" climbs first, just to get used to it as it will feel much less grippy and freer initially. Also the performance of any knot system depends on your rope/prussic cord combination, I don't know what you've got.
I think the only reason they still teach the prussic on the courses is because it's so simple and so hard to get wrong hence safer in that respect. Any knot in the family of "more sporty" friction hitches is actually much better in terms of performance. I'd never go back to a prussic for climbing. It is useful for rigging though occasionally. I think the Distel, (or similar), is particularly good as a compromise between the sluggish prussic and very rapid but potentially unforgiving VT.
Btw; a Hitch Climber pulley would be a very useful purchase.

[forestboy1978]

21 minutes ago, tomo567 said:

Where are you based out of interest

New Forest bud

[forestboy1978]

2 minutes ago, sime42 said:

Bear in mind that any knot is going to be a lot more sticky and awkward in the wet.
You could try something like a distel hitch instead, (with a slack tending pulley). This is so much nicer to use than the horrible old basic prussic hitch. But if you do try it make sure it's on a few "low and slow" climbs first, just to get used to it as it will feel much less grippy and freer initially. Also the performance of any knot system depends on your rope/prussic cord combination, I don't know what you've got.
I think the only reason they still teach the prussic on the courses is because it's so simple and so hard to get wrong hence safer in that respect. Any knot in the family of "more sporty" friction hitches is actually much better in terms of performance. I'd never go back to a prussic for climbing. It is useful for rigging though occasionally. I think the Distel, (or similar), is particularly good as a compromise between the sluggish prussic and very rapid but potentially unforgiving VT.
Btw; a Hitch Climber pulley would be a very useful purchase.
 

Thanks man. I don't know what any of these pulleys etc and hitches you are talking about are. i will research. So skint ATm so sticking with prussiks. 

 

Do like them though for dangling on a brnach for a foot hold. That wet triple prussic yesterday though. I very nearly cut it off. Just would not budge. I'll never do a triple again. 

[tomo567]

Have you asked for help on this site for members to give names of good contract climbers as it’s amazing how much you can learn from watching others

[forestboy1978]

7 minutes ago, tomo567 said:

Have you asked for help on this site for members to give names of good contract climbers as it’s amazing how much you can learn from watching others

Not yet. I know some really good climbers local but they are full time so they will work but on weekends and i do quotes on weekends. 

[sime42]

Steve has created a very useful Knot Guide App and also there is a section on here, Arbtalk, somewhere about climbing knots. Good places to start some research.