theXman

No. I was working on building an ultimate basal lowering device and searching for components to build it. When searching the antal site, I found the rings and bought them to try them out. BUT, in 2012 or 13 when there was an upset on a forum in the USA (when some acted like I was ripping people off by re-branding); it caused me to research on google the words ANTAL and LOW FRICTION ring to see if anyone else in tree work ever talked about the rings and I found that very same thread at that time. Interesting. Someone pointed it out that they might be good and only 3 or so people had some interest and then it was dropped. (gotta run, I'll check forum later tonight or tomorrow)

To go along with my friction article I wrote, I threw together a video. With so much going on, it's hard to find any time, so this video could have been much better; but who knows when I would ever have finished it. (I have videos I started over 2 years ago, just waiting for me to ever get some time.) This is not an entertainment video; it is for those that want to see how we are using the rings and also how we use the X-Rigging THT. To those that say they would never trust using X-Rigging Rings for large heavy wood; I would say that during my ignorance 3 years ago, I would have likely said the same thing. Now, using them exclusively for big wood over the past year, I'll never go back to a block for big wood lowering ever again. (Even I was slow to try them when it came to the BIG negative rigging; I was so use to using blocks for most of my whole career). [ame] [/ame]

Hi ArbTalk people. Some acquaintances told me about this video and this thread on arbtalk. Good job explaining Reg. Some of the same topics XRR users have been trying to pass on for several years now, but it sure helps when someone well known explains it in their own words. I respect you more and more. I know you are associated with certain products, but these rings have nothing to do with you, so it shows me that you care about other's safety and you want to truly give useful information to your subscribers. I'm sorry to say this, but I always thought you only gave a review of a product or did a video when it had monetary value in it for you. Now I see first-hand that you don’t have to be associated with a product to share information on it. I’m sorry I thought that; I just figured you would not have time unless you were paid to do so, we all gotta work. The X-Rigging Rings are not a hyped up tool. The more that people actually try them out, the more they will become the main tool people will go to when rigging down trees. No exaggeration. That’s just what is going to happen. I'm a small tree service owner and very small arborist supply company owner. I was told in the beginning that rigging tools are very slow to spread the news and sell. Good climbing products spread fast and sell fast, but not rigging tools. Well, I tried to change that and these rings have spread in popularity quite fast. It has been very expensive to do so; testing, shows, testing, expos, testing, giving away samples and testing and filming. Now if a product was crap, no matter how much money and time I put into promoting it, it would fail. These X-Rigging Rings are no failure, they are growing in popularity because they are truly a better tool to be using. It looks like Paul that works in Japan tried to put the friction in words, he tried to show a scale, instead of using % he might have been more understood if he used numbers. Say, 10 being natural crotch rigging. 0 being a pulley/block. These rings are around a 2 to a 3 in that scale on friction. I would agree with this. Lots of questions on where to purchase them in European Countries. TreeKit which is a sponsor of this site, I think, has them in stock. They sell them individually and spliced to slings. X-Rigging Ring - Featured Products TreeStuff (a sponser of arbtalk) and Sherrill in the USA also ships worldwide. I kept looking for a reputable distributor in Europe that could take on larger quantities and supply small shops. There must be lots of very small shops all around Europe, because none of them could take on many rings at a time. Some would ask for just 2 rings of each size. This was going to kill me. Then, finally one larger company contacted me from Germany. FreeTree is the arborist tool store, but they are part of a group of climbing schools and they also put out technical articles and perform testing. When I looked into them, they seem to have a passion for arboriculture and want to advance the industry. They also respected the work I invested in using and promoting this type of ring. www.die-nuernberger.info - Translator or the freetree site: X-Rigging Ring - 38x28 mm They expect to have their completed SLING configurations on-line THIS week; any day now. They have had the rings for a long time now, but they wanted to do testing and gets things just right. We supply any supporter with the information we have learned over the years, we send them sling designs, videos, advertising material and advice. Antal in Italy makes the X-Rigging Rings for us. They are not experts in arborist rigging operations, they are experts in marine/sailing tools. I put their rings to use in my tree service in 2011. After seeing how great they performed, I asked if I could introduce them to my industry and I would educate, test and determine the safe working practices for them. In turn, they imprint them as X-RIGGING RINGS. The X is for my social media name; The X man. Also for Xtreme Arborist supply, the arb supply company I started. About a year later we asked antal if they would make a larger ring, the extra large beast 38x28 ring. I gave them the dimensions and they said yes and produced it. Now, you see me write the word “supporter” at times when I talk about companies that sell the X-Rigging Rings. What I mean by this is people or companies that recognized that I put a lot into this and want to sell the rings marked X-Rigging Rings. Yes, the antal marked ring is physically the same exact ring except for the lettering on it. I would assume that if there was an accident or some problem with antal marked rings used in arborist rigging; they might immediately say that it was not used in sail rigging as they were intended for. I’m not saying they would try to weasel out of it. I’m just saying THAT would be the probable, honest reaction, because it’s being used in a way that they don’t have experience with. They are a very stand up reputable company that makes high quality gear, they are in the marine industry. The antal marked rings and the X-Rigging Ring prices should be near the very same. Whether you get them wholesale as a distributor or whether you are an individual buying one ring from an arb store. So, why not get the ones marked X-Rigging Rings and support the guy that put effort into them? I have learned that in the modern day product business, there are few with honesty and integrity. As soon as some big businesses learned that antal made the X-Rigging Rings, they tried to cut me out and see if they could get rings straight from antal cheaper. All the work I did, all the money invested. Not even a thanks. Luckily the North American antal distributor is honest and has integrity. They respected the work I put into these X-Rigging Rings and told the arb stores to work with me. Now in Europe it’s going through that phase right now. Some want to use the marked X-Rigging Rings, some didn’t even ask for my pricing and assumed if they bought marine rings they were getting a better price. I picked the X-Rigging Rings as the first major product because it was already being made and the easiest to take on. I learned that even the “easiest” is NOT EASY. But we are doing it. The THT is my own designed product and I have a lot more products to bring from paper to product. Only supporters will get these new products, I guarantee that. After seeing the benefit of some friction in the rings, I wanted more friction and created a “top-of-the-tree” friction device. The THT. I wrote an article a few months ago on ‘Where Should Friction Be in our Rigging Systems?’. ArbClimber Magazine will post it in their spring issue magazine. I think it’s issue 7. I wish it would be published sooner, because it touches on the many things discussed in this thread. The old strops, friction, how much rope is being used, etc.

You are correct. THAT IS the business that I feel is true to advancing arboriculture and not being a greedy corporation. That IS the business; FREETREE, that I shared our knowledge with and supplied X-Rigging Rings to. (Also, most pages translate to English, just right click on them.) The rings and slings will be displayed soon I'm sure. TreeKit is an awesome growing business and it would be great if you UK guys gave them support. I failed on my deadline of my story today for you. I shall try to post a short story tomorrow. Today was clustered with different unscheduled events. I offer a picture from this season in return:

Thanks for notifying me of this thread Merle. A lot going on behind the scenes and it would be good for me to tell you all. It's going to take me a bit to write it up and I hope I can explain well, I've been very sick for a month and anything I try to do is exhausting right now. In short for the moment; FreeTree in Germany has come fourth to be a supporter and main distributor for European Countries and Russia for the marked X-Rigging Rings. (this has been created over the last 3 or 4 months) and they have a large supply of XRRs in stock. I will explain why we choose to do business with them and lots more. Plus my story of who I am and why I promoted these antal rings with markings of X-Rigging Rings. Worse case, I should have this information written up and posted by tomorrow night. My family is leaving for a small vacation tomorrow and I'm staying behind due to being sick and work on these types of things; so I better spend some time with them before they leave. FreeTree Is the good guys They are also very willing to supply small shops with rings or complete spliced rings with slings a good prices.

someone has been writing me asking for breaking strength of the XRRs, I've responded via email three times and they still can't see this chart. So I'm trying it here because others might ask anyway.

Kevin, Your Avatar picture is similarly irritating to some of my pictures I post:

Mike, I have a few OLD tutorials on my youtube channel that show some of the basics and thoughts. Most of it is still decent material for getting started. I dare not watch it myself, because I don't like watching myself explain things. We have progressed way past these tutorials, but I have not made a new video yet to show what we are up to. I will get back to the videos this winter. my youtube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/user/thexmanjdd then click on LOAD MORE at the bottom of the page to find more videos I uploaded. Then do it again, etc.

Kevin, as you all say, "Cheers mate".

this one? Or is there a different book in the UK? This is the one here in the USA. I'm proud that i was a small part of it. [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Practices-Rigging-Arboriculture-Industry-Association/dp/B005NHW4IQ[/ame] some of my pictures and diagrams I drew were included in it. Actually that's me on the front cover upper left too

So, out of curiosity just now, I clicked on treequiped's link he posted for antal rings. the biggest ring I found useable for rigging on the marine site was what we call the medium ring. The 20mmx14mm. We hardly ever use a ring this small at work. But that doesn't matter, anyway the marine site he linked sells it for 15.65. TreeKit lists it as 14.31. so, where are they marking it up for arb use? Or am I missing something? Looks like treekit is selling them too cheap to me. The marine site looks low priced at first, but that's because they are quoting the tiny ring. The 7mmx5mm. Anyway, I just thought i had to speak up for them when i looked up the numbers just now. If you find that I'm wrong, let me know.

Hey Kevin, When treekit or others get THE X-Rigging Rings from Xtreme Arborist supply, they should be very competitive prices, due to the low cost we can supply them for. We have lots of experience and testing with the rings and have insurance on the products we sell. Arborist work is quite different than the sailing industry and we help set up stores with the knowledge that we have learned over the years and our past sling designs. If there is a difference in prices that you are seeing at the moment; there are reasons for it I'm sure. It is likely costing them a good bit to get them. When they get the ones imprinted for the arborist industry (that includes with us backing them up), they should be selling at very competitive prices compared to the marine industry. Hold tight, be patient. Support the Arb people.

Hey Kevin, No, it should not have a higher Arb pricetag. Actually, TreeKit should be getting them at a lower price from us. Let me find an old thread maybe that explains the history so that I do not have to write it all again.

Thank you RCO, It is simple, but took several years of scrapped ideas to come up with a truly good top-of-the-tree friction tool. I should show a series of scrapped ideas sometime. I'm sure you would like it and you know the benefit of less force on the rigging point. It won't give too much friction like the figure 8 and won't spin and put the rope into pigtails like when running through a figure 8. Thanks, X

video Lawrence put together after my New York city visit with him. (come to think of it, I may HAVE posted that one on arbtalk before.... sorry if I did already, I'm beat tired). All rigging is using the X-Rigging Rings of course. Some of our new sling configurations for 2015 are in these videos, but not that you can see real well the configuration too much. good night, X

some THT pictures

In case you haven't seen, this was the video August did and the THT is shown briefly in there:

hello everyone, It's been a crazy busy year and I've been away from this forum and other forums for many months. This forum is important to me, but it's hard when there are so many important things going on. Sometimes, some things get neglected; there is just not enough time in the day OR night. Updates: X-Rigging Rings are going great in the USA. There was a large, unexpected surge this year that depleted our supply temporarily and THAT paused our “first time” small orders and samples to places around the world. The small orders are being sent out now. I don't think it will happen again. I have NOT had time to do any video editing. But August Hunicke and Lawrence Shultz did put out videos this summer that involve the X-Rigging Rings and myself in the work. Actually, I told August to go ahead and show a sneak peak of a new tool called the THT; it was used to slow the butt down of a large top, but is often used for the main terminal rigging point and adds needed friction. This THT should be available soon, I’ve been using my prototype THTs for almost a year now. Antal makes the X-Rigging Rings for us and have been really good to work with. They happily obliged us when I requested the idea of them making the extra-large “beast” 38x28 ring size when I saw the need for a larger than ever ring in our line of work. Since they have been so great to work with, we are giving them the first stab at making this THT product for us with the same high quality workmanship as the rings. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and touch base. Also to say sorry to anyone that has emailed or placed small orders and had any delays. I'm sure I'll be spending more time here this winter. Things are still very busy right now, but I should have more time after the big TCI Expo show next month. Later, X

This guy did a great job explaining. I could NOT have done a better job myself. I have never met him, he is not a friend, he is not on my payroll. He's just very thankful for me for bringing these to the arb industry and he has done lots of great informative videos on them. check it out, only like 3 minutes long.

The beast has 38 and 28 on imprinted on it. What this means is 38mm hole in the middle and a 28mm wide groove on the outside. I suggest a RIGGING ROPE used anywhere from the size of 1/2" (12mm) up to 1" (25.5 mm). I've never gone over 1 inch rigging rope, you want a little bit of air space, you don't want a max size rope (say 38mm) running through the middle (likely get too hot). Now, the groove rope or sling is more critical. You really should use a sling or rope that fills up that groove and so the groove LIPS help capture the sling/rope. This is a nice feature of this rings design. When it comes to the groove; I find that a 3/4 inch (19mm) is great and on up to 1 inch (25.5mm). Dimension wise, you should be able to use up to 28mm in that groove, but I find most ropes are a little more "fluffy" than they say they are, some 28mm might be a problem getting into the groove. using these sizes will allow the lips to do their job. However, if you girth hitch cordage into this groove, then smaller cordage can be used due to the doubling of the cord in the groove. I don't have those sizes readily available in my mind.

here is a climber in New York City, USA, doing removals in the city. Keep in mind that this is all contract climbing and he's working with groundmen that he doesn't really know. So, things don't "run" as he would like to see them at times. But with many XRR slings, he can use multiple rigging points and redirects to maximize strength of the trees structure. He doesn't use any blocks anymore since he found the X-Rigging Rings.

Who sells them in the UK? THE X-Rigging Rings and our sling configurations in the UK? No one yet. Oh and gentlemen, I do have some other X-Rigging Ring videos on my youtube channel. Most are slow moving tutorial type videos. Some of the content I don't like, cause we have better systems now. But I think you can still learn a lot there. https://www.youtube.com/user/thexmanjdd

Thanks Reg, yes, I'll be sending more samples over to climbers in the UK. When a product is good, you just gotta spread the word and someday it'll hopefully come back around. I've probably given away $15,000 worth of X-Rigging Rings and slings in the past 12 months. I gave away about $1000 worth this Saturday at a Maryland Arborist Volunteer work day that we helped sponser. yes, we have negative rigging action with rings and I'll be sure to include it in the second video I'm working on. Unfortunately there is not enough time in a day or night when running a tree service business; being a climber and also doing Xtreme Arborist Supply. Currently lots of rain this week, so that normally will help slow down the tree service work, but at this time of year we have planting, which we do in the rain

Bob, I surely appreciate the question, thank you. I've been trying to research who would be a good company to deal with to distribute in the UK. I have not gotten far. I would like to find an efficient reputable company that can distribute the X-Rigging Rings to companies that can splice and perhaps sell individual rings. We will pass on our sling configurations that work and help them succeed in smart configurations, applications and education. Meanwhile, if you want them now, I will definitely work out something where you can get them very reasonable. So much so that I'll lose money or break even. Just as long as you have the X-RIGGING RINGS. You beginning users will be the pioneers in the UK and I want you to get them at very low cost. My current thought right now..... I wonder if there would be a small arborist supply shop willing to accept a huge group purchase. I can then pay that shop commission to distribute. Or.... something like that.