S Fry

Don't know if anyone is interested, but I have a pair of the low cut Aku cresta gtx in black -size eu 45, that I am looking to sell for £60 + postage. Bought them last year, wore them a few times out and about, but not quite the right size. They are in perfect condition but without the original Aku box. Cheers Gents

Well done to everyone involved! Big congratulations to Alastair! Wish I could have made the day.

Clear difference, nice job. Would it really make any difference to the chimney though? I doubt doubt it!

Speak more of this fabled zk2!

I got the same thing on one of my HC. It's one of the older versions (24kn mbs) and its only on the one side. Yours the same? It doesn't look like a crack to me though, more like slight cosmetic defect maybe. Either way I recon it's always been there and only noticed it cos of this thread and that the adonised coating has been worn away. Be interested to find out what DMM say. Im not worried and will still use it cos everything else is perfect with it.

I'm on board! I'll get involved when I'm back. Definately keep me posted bud. Hope your safe and well too btw x

Nah, I found the Samson instructions not half as easy to follow as the NE version. Actually having the coloured photo of the NE rope being spliced is way more helpful IMO, than the Samson drawn ones. Each to their own though

The finished article! Lookin very nice bud. Great work for your first go too. You get on much better using the piano wire and new england instuctions this time? I finished me 10mm OP lanyard last night so we shall have to have a climb soon boyo!

Very nice climb Rupe, lovely and smooth. Was there there a decent turn out for the 3ATC comp on the saturday?

What time are things kicking off on the friday? I understand there aint no comp events until the saturday morning, but is there any time to have a look at the trees etc before hand?

I'm competing in the ISA UK TCC this month for the first time ever. To be honest I'm pretty nervous and not really sure what to expect, apart from that its going to be a bloody awesome weekend! For those of you with some experience in competitions, are there any words of wisdom, tips or advice you could offer to myself and any other first timers out there? I think I've got my climbing kit sorted, but I was'nt sure if there was any specific minimum recommended kit list (not seen anything on ISA website)? Also, do I need it all LOLER recorded before I turn up or will it be cleared in the pre-comp kit check? Thank you in advance guys, and best of luck to everyone taking part

@ stephenblair: I never said anything about the customers being uneducated. Some of the people I work for live in million pound houses and have made much money using their intelligence, others are retired OAP's with a lifetimes worth of knowledge and wisdom behind them. However, when it comes to trees and looking after them, they are more often than not fairly ignorant and uneducated in terms of the best pratices of tree work and on how trees as organsims live and die. If I come accross a dangerous tree that needs to come out for the safety reasons, I am not so ignorant and naive to turn a blind eye and advise otherwise. But I will fight the corner of a tree when a customer wants it topped, felled or generally hacked to pieces where a thin, reduction or any other number of possibilties would be better for the customer and the tree! If you think myself, or any other person who lives in the modern age, yet at the same time can understand and appreciate sustainability and living in harmony with our planet as best we can in modern circumstances is a hypocrite, then your just another one of the narrow minded and ignorant modern humans who thinks the world is there for their sole use and exploitation. The greatest gift we humans have been granted over every other organism on this planet, is that we ourselves have the ability to care for others and at least try to look after those plants and animals that are unable to do so themselves.

The Tree every time without fail. Being a humble student of conservation I have brought my core roots of training and education into my Arboricultural practices. Like Hama, I feel a strong spiritual bond with nature, and I love working with it. In fact, my Arb training is just a means to an end in a way, until I can be a full time Conservation Ecologist. Only this week I told a customer that I would not do what he wanted, but I would do what was the best for the tree in the situation. I took time to explain why and argued my case for a good few minutes. At the end of the day, the customer was ok with what I had done, even if it was not what he actually wanted, win win. Although my boss doesnt always see it that way!! I think that taking time to educate the average joe public can really have a result when it comes to advocating the best practice for the trees themselves.

Thanks very much guys. I'm suitably reassured that I will prevail now! Just ordered me some piano wire. Ill give it another go and let you know the results asap.

Thanks Ben. I made my fids out of some 2mm wire. I thought they would be ideal but seems to be too thick still. What guage wire is best? Did you purchase one of the treeworker wire fids or make your own?

I got a question for all you guys who appear to eat rope and crap out spliced goodies during tea break. Have you all invested in some of the more expensive tools such as the splicing wand? Or ar any of you still on wire fids and such? I had a go at 16 strand splicing in the summer, and after many painful and labour intensive, not to mention frustrating hours I had myself a spliced eye. I broke one wire fid during the process and was really put off by how difficult it ended up being. Just recently I tried my hand at doule braid splicing and didnt even come close. I gave up before my hands were ripped to shreads. Is it that mush easier with the splicing wand compared to wire fids? Or must I be doing something really wrong to be making it so difficult in the first place? Cheers for your time guys

Cheers guys. I felt better about yesterdays reduction job today, can't have been all that bad cos he even tipped us I forgot to say yesterday. But I have been thinking about reductions in general and I got a few questions for you. My boss put me on another reduction today. This time a TPO'd Oak, with strict instruction to not exceed 25% from the tree officer. The customer wanted it out but was happer to have something off rather than nothing done at all. I went harder on the reduction than yesterdays and I found it tricky too because of the uneven growth and not having sufficient growth points on the one side to reduce to. The customer was pushing for more but I explained on several occasions that we had to keep to the permission we had. In the end he was really happy with what we did, even though he said he would have been over the moon with another meter off. Looking back over the photos, even though I'm pleased with the end result myself, I can't help but think that it doesnt actually look like much off. My question, when you quote a reduction job, how do you explain to the customer what the end result will mean in terms of the %? For example, on a 25% reduction, do you say that 25% of the total tree height and spread will be gone or more along the lines that 25% of the overall crown size will be gone? You could potentially end up with two completely different looking trees at the end of the day, depending on who you get for the job. Cheers

Thanks very much for all your comments guys. Really appreciate it. Unfortunately he don't got no log burner, otherwise that aint a bad idea. Both myself and my groundie kept asking the customer if he was happy with the amount coming off and he replied "it's ok" every time more or less. Maybe I should have picked up his lack of enthusiasm, but by the time I did I was half way through already. I guess its a case of 'live and learn'. Hopefully I'll feel more a peace on the issue in the morning.

Before and after. Took about 3 hours, seemed like I took a fair amount off in terms of brash when we were finished but looking at the photo's I know its no way 25%. Feel like bit of a con man now

I reduced a Copper Beech today, the spec was for a 25% reduction. The tree was located in very awkward position, at the top of a bank at the bottom of the garden, completely overhanging a large green-house and with only a very small drop zone to the side. The tree had been reduced by around 30%, 5 years ago by someone else at my firm. This being the case, we took our time and did the job carefully, and with the guidance of my groundsman reduced the tree as close to spec as possible, or so I thought at the time. The old boy whose tree is was, insisted on helping us out all day, carrying brash out and the like. I was very conscious throughout the day to check that he was happy with the job as it progressed and he seemed ok with it. I did however sense a reserved dissapointment from him that we were not taking as much off as he had in mind. We finished the job, and he was happy to pay, but I still was'nt sure if he was feeling dissaponted by the result. Bearing in mind it had been reduced before, I was being carefull not to go too hard. I am regarded by my peers as being failry simpathetic for trees and I always belive that less is often more (if that makes sense?), and I tend to work to that motto where I can. I have been looking at the before and after photo's since I got home, and its been playing on my conscience that maybe I should have taken more off. I dont think it ended up as a 25% reduction now and I am unsure if I should offer to go back and take more off in my own time. The customers were an elderly retired couple and I feel bad about not doing enough for the money they paid. Do any of you guys ever feel in a moral dilema like this or am I just being daft? I'd welcome any of your thoughts and advice. Thanks

When I was bit younger, things were pretty much always black and white with me. I was often very oppinionated and outspoked, and at times I admit that my view was'nt always the best informed. I like to think of myself as a pretty worldly person now, and I can appreciate that there are many shades of grey between the black and white. However, Fox hunting with hounds has always been something I see as unacceptable. I can appreciate that people like to hunt and eat what they catch, and if it is a sustainable practice then I'm all for it. I can also understand that vermin needs to be kept in check, provided that it is done in a humane way where the animal does not suffer. Fox hunting is a Blood Sport. No animal shoud have to suffer for our enjoyment, under no circumstance. I believe that this is a simple matter of fact, and a fact of life. Foxes are not vermin, it is only due to human's clashing with them as we dominate this Planet, that some people brand them as one. They are a native wild animal here in the British Isle, just like Boar, Wolves, Beavers and Bears once were, and perhaps one day could be again. We should be proud of the fact, but instead there are those who only want to trample their existence into the very countryside they claim to be part of themselves. If Fox populations are on the increase and are genuinely causing problems, it is only because we move into their habitats and force them to react against us, such as taking chickens or such. If they need to be brought into check, then I wish that it was done with humane efficiency, i.e cleanly shooting them. Not by dressing up in garish livery, charging around the countyside en masse with a pack of wound up dogs scaring the life out of an animal that has as much right to life (if not more?), and then have the cheek to label it as 'tradition' and deem it acceptable. Granted there has been violence on both sides of the fence. In those video's the 'Country' Gentry men in particular act like cowardly scum. If I were there and if myself or andyone else had been charged or trampled and physically assulted in any way , I would not have hesitated in ripping that person from their saddle, as much in self defence as anger. Im sure its fun to meet up on boxing day, and other such occasions and remember this past tradition. To share a drink and a few stories beteen a bit of a ride and a run of the hounds is fair past time. Fox hunting of old has been banned for a reason though. Its an inhumane, backwards and dishonourable tradition in my eyes, and always will be. I hope that people can see that when they take part, and only appreciate how times have changed. Maybe a little much for this thread, but after some of the comments I just felt I had to say my bit. Whats a disscussion forum for after all hey?!

Since working for a company partly subbed out by a large council tree contactor, i have come to detest pollards. Correct crown reductions and thins are far better for the tree and the people who have to look at them. In the long run they require less maintainance, less money, and look infinately better. However, in my experience, there are far less tree surgeons out there than many realise (especially in large commercial companies that often carry out the street tree maintainance) who actually have the level of skill to complete decent tree reductions, irrespective of size. I have seen so many bodged pollards and re-pollards. Not cutting back cleanly to the knuckles correctly is a prime example of poor work and effort. There are also loads of pollards around the city centre that have clearly given up the will to live after one too many 'Pollard' (or in reality, topping as I see it). I could rant on about this for ages.

Some of these posted pictures of veteran pollards are absalutely incredible! Many of which I have never even had the close resembelance of meeting face to face. One day I will rectify that fact. In many of these cases I think that the pollard is a viable management technique in the correct circumstance, and especially in the situations where they occur due to natural failures. However, I hate the term, and the work order of 'pollard'. In the vast majority of tree management cases, I truly believe that to 'pollard' the tree on the job is completely lazy, unskilled, unprofessional and far too easy to diagnose. I feel upset and embarassed at times to re-pollard butchered, undignified trees, where the pollard has only encouraged decay and decline in trees where a well thought out and executed reduction would have been a considerably better option. I believe that pollards on trees should only ever be performed as the last ditch management technique, prior to felling, and in more than a few occasions I think that felling and replanting would be a far better option. There is a place for pollards in arboriculture, but in my experience, it should'nt be used half as much as it is. I only hope that this thread does'nt encourage it in the wrong circumstance.

I thought that the GRCS uses a harken winch already. This new design looks like a slighly less heavy duty version GRCS so i Recon it will be less £. Maybe designed for lighter rigging jobs? Time will tell

How do they come us size wise? Im a UK 11, will this correspond with ordering a size 11 from outdoor warehouse or are they US sizes? Cheers