Circle of death. Advisory

[roseyweb]

I had this happen on a willow the other week still suffering had to cut my lanyard to release my self, dicky hip and bruised waist a result

[Tom D]

was a willow that did it to me too.

[born2trot]

Wow . This is alot more common than i envisaged.

 

Next time i've got my flipline round me i'll be thinking **** , am i in the circle of death ?

Don't know if you can think negatively like that but certainly a timely reminder!

Good post

[Peter]

Willow, poplar, ash, any tree with heavy head lean or weighting. Experience will tell you when it's likely to happen, until then take smaller pieces.

 

A sharp chain and a big enough saw for the job will help prevent it, as will boring the hinge, setting the sink cut deep enough and narrower, and making side cuts. I sometimes like deep side cuts, like a Coos Bay cut, to really power through the back cut quickly.

[atree]

I have had it happen to me before, not a big bit though and I don't have my strop on my side d's anyway, its on one of my vids but I can't remember which.

 

One thing that you can do is choose where to fell your top... A splits most likely to occur on a clean grained piece of timber (think how easy logs like that are to split with an axe) if you fell your top just above a stub or branch the "cone" of branch wood that extends into the main stem helps to hold it together. Obviously you can't always find a suitable stub but often there will be something.

 

On conifers like spruce I will often remove one whorl of branches, and then fell just above the whorl.

 

Good tip Tom

[Rich Rule]

I had a willow go on me during a repollard job. About 14 inches dia split out and pulled me of my perch. No damage until I cut the hanger free and to support my self and to try and get back above limb I grabbed the only bit I could reach. This was the split stub and as the weight released it closed up on my fingers. No damage but did give me a good solid hand hold.

[Stephen Blair]

Keep to the side, don't mess about with top handles, get the biggest saw you can lift with the shortest bar and keep the power on.

[Dak]

Beat me to it Dak. Got the same email came through this morning and made me think. I have to change the way I have done things for years.

 

Pure habit to use d's 99.9%time, hard one to kick hey!.

 

 

Shame uk's so reactive to safety/best practice. Kudos NZ arb, very much more preemptive!!

 

to Treetools Blog | life in trees - hell yeah! worth checking daily! for ideas, safety, the lot.....

 

[atree]

Pure habit to use d's 99.9%time, hard one to kick hey!.

 

 

Shame uk's so reactive to safety/best practice. Kudos NZ arb, very much more preemptive!!

 

to Treetools Blog | life in trees - hell yeah! worth checking daily! for ideas, safety, the lot.....

 

 

Yeh,good to see treetools being looked at from from around the world,

[gibbon]

This happen to me ob a large leaning sweet chestnut once and I broke 3 ribs. The slipping of my side strop knot allowed the lump of wood enough slack to fall free. The piece of wood was about a ton so if I had a steel strop and grab I could have been killed.