theXman

yes Paul, they have been for over a year now I think. The 38x28 "BEAST" ring, so people call it. Manufacturer worked with me to bring out a larger size to my specs for the Arborist industry since I saw the need. Also, I have new proto-type tools in the X-Rigging Line, in the works. Hopefully antal will be able to produce these new products, as I love working with them. I'll show a glimps on video part 2 when I get it done I think. I already have patent pending status on, thus I can share it. I'd surely appreciate it if people would give their support and buy the products labeled X-Rigging so I can continue this "adventure". also, I did actually make a NON-music version, so can at least be viewed on mobile devices. Although, you are missing out on the full affect that I had in mind.

I just completed a short action video of X-Rigging Ring use. See what you think. It could be edited better, but I think it's okay. Please take advantage of the decent resolution and go to YOUTUBE, increase the screen size to it's maximum and increase resolution to the 1080 maximum. Thanks

I just completed a short action video of X-Rigging Ring use. (should I add it to this thread or start a new thread on this subject?) See what you think. It could be edited better, but I think it's okay. Please take advantage of the decent resolution and go to YOUTUBE, increase the screen size to it's maximum and increase resolution to the 1080 maximum. Thanks.

Same here, as I read many pages of your Rigging thread you started the other day. Hope to read more another day and maybe even contribute a little. Really great of you to put time into helping others learn. I really enjoy rigging and I see you do as well.

softbankhawks, Great application. Thanks for the pictures. Didn't know you were on this forum too! ha ha, interesting.

Yes, great. I know Trevor's email and we have communicated many times in the past. He was very helpful in getting products to me here in the USA when they were not available in the USA yet. I shall contact him, thanks for reminding me.

almost done now

wow, I just figured out that more than 5 can be posted on a post, I'll get this done in no time. Hope all is okay with this many pictures. Don't worry, I won't be flooding this site with lots of pictures like this likely ever again, I'm just catching you up and they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so if I post a thousand pictures that's worth 1,000,000 words and I won't even need to type anymore.

random work pictures

our 2013 tri-ring sling, used in crotches and is retrievable by adding any ring or D ring slightly smaller than the X-Rigging Rings

one way to safely negative rig with our cheap white sling by adding beast rings via alpine butterfly the little bit of friction really makes things less violent and very calm when using XRR's to negative rig

wow it's nice posting pictures on this forum! I don't have to resize them and I can do 5 at a time! amazing.

placing a Beast ring in rope midline using an alpine butterfly. This was a 1 inch (25.4mm) amsteel II line, being used as a static side guy line in case the trees try to not follow the hinge wood. ring and a large block used to get a little mechanical advantage to tighten side guy line

more work pictures, in random order. they should speak for themselves. feel free to ask any questions

Redirects

you are correct and you are also using the sling in basket form, doubling it's capacity.

you got it. I just noticed that treestuff is supporting this site, I see the advertisement on the right of this screen, so I guess I should mention them, you can see our past sling designs there. just use the search words "x-rigging rings" on their webpage search. I have a blog website that shows our past slings, but I'm not advertising on arbtalk yet and I don't want to be rude to the other advertisers. but I will show you XRR sling pictures from work to further your understanding of different applications and uses. I went through my files tonight and picked a bunch out. will start posting here if you want to see them in actual use. Most of my stuff is in video form, but luckily, now and then someone snaps a still picture. I will post embedded pictures from our jobs.

Scots and Gray Grit, thanks for the pictures! That's amazing, I never new that tree guys used something like that. When I was first promoting these, a guy in Pennsylvania, USA said that many years ago he used two 5/8" shackles welded together for increased width. Used them for years of redirects and negative blocking. Even wore grooves in them over the years. They were very heavy, but cheaper than blocks and gave him some friction. Anyway, he got some X-Rigging Ring slings and loves them. For the first year he kept texted me stuff like, "these rings are so strong, I can't seem to do any damage to them!". "where did you find this amazing transformer metal! what the hell are they ". Very interesting to see these large steel thimbles, thanks! In our break testing, we discovered that for negative rigging, multiple rings should be used, depending on the weight involved and what size ring using and what size rope. So, you will see some of our sling configurations with multiple rings or see our tutorial videos on how to add rings. (caution, this is not our typical action video, it is an information video and therefor slow and long) [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBBGa_MDa9I]INTRO X-RIGGING RINGS video part ONE - YouTube[/ame] Also, Tom Hoffmann on youtube has done a great job showing these rings and how to make some great combinations. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh_pHkVxkro&list=PLUlSYuIlSMrQXbiVU90EorPih0u1zv0Fd]The XRR BEAST gets loose! - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiN8XwwcglE]XRR Beast Rigging Whoopie - YouTube[/ame]

Picture of early 2013 slings.

also, I have lots of rigging footage over these last two years using the X-Rigging Rings and should edit together a fast moving action video of the rings in use and not a boring tutorial. Since this got started here, I should probably get on that now. I'll never have spare time to do it, so, I should just do it. hopefully start on it tomorrow if we get snowed on.

I sure will, likely tomorrow. Also, if you could explain or show a picture of a "old school topping down strops", that would be great. Curious what they look like.

Hi Paul, Drew and others, Yes, the rings are produced by Antal in Italy. I don’t bring it up unless asked because I have a lot invested in this even though I didn’t do the product development of the ring itself. That’s why they would ship from Italy, I think I said this earlier on this thread or the other one. What I contributed was I recognized a great product, adapted it to sling configurations that worked, tested them and worked with them (as I also own a small tree service for 19 years now). I also saw the need for a larger size ring that antal had never produced before and asked if I could have them make an extra large ring, the 38x28. Others have called the “beast ring”. The rings are all antal’s design, they just say X-Rigging Rings when they send them to me. There are inferior rings out there and antal/ X-Rigging Rings are the best I ever found. I only spent money on destroying lots of slings and rings to find out what us tree guys could use them for. Independent testing in breaking machines and real world extreme shock loading and such. Plus I purchase them in large quantities to keep the costs down for customers. Plus the advertising on websites, magazines, expos and events eats up a lot of money. The North American contact for antal recognized my time and money involved to educate and bring this to the Arborist Industry (an industry they are not familiar with), that they made a statement to me that arborist supply stores needed to work through us at Xtreme Arborist Supply to get the rings. They have proven their honesty and integrity to me on at least two occasions that I know of when two different Arborist Supply companies tried to cut me out of the deal by contacting antal and this North American distributor. I do not clear much on these rings and my wholesale customers make between 30 and 40% on the sales they make. They get them cheaper than any other supplier that is available to them that I know of. Sherrill and TreeStuff are the largest customers right now and Sherrill is so appreciative of my efforts to educate the arborist world on these rings that they gave me some nice credit in the new 2014 catalog that just came out this month. You can surely find the antal rings at many large marine stores or websites. I have never seen the 38x28 ring listed anywhere though. If you can get these rings with the X-Rigging Ring logo at the same price, all I can ask is that you consider purchasing ones with the X-Rigging Rings in order to support a little guy trying to make it. If the little guys get their efforts squashed, then what is the point of trying to bring products into our industry? About 15% of people that hear that it is made by antal, get upset and feel like I am ripping customers off by putting on another name. There are TONS of products in our industry that are borrowed from another industry and it takes someone to notice it and put time and money into testing it, working with it and spreading the word. Plus I have insurance on the products we sell. A year or more ago, another American arborist forum that I do not post on acted like it was a big scandal when they discovered the similarity between the antal rings and the X-Rigging Rings. It was then presented on a forum that I was on about how that they looked similar and the tone was a bit scandalist. I think I had $30,000 worth of rings in my possession at the time (which I borrowed money to purchase) and I didn’t outright answer the post fully at first because I had so much on the line and was scared. I’m not a person that lies, so I said something like, “there are other rings out there that in the world, some similar and rings that are junk with inferior designs with flaws and seams.” I probably should search and re-read the thread/posting but it really was an upsetting time and I don’t really want to re-read the posts again. I think then someone flat out asked if the X-Rigging rings were antal rings or not? So I answered that yes, they were antal rings. But since I avoided the straight out answer at first, some think it was dishonest or a half truth. Since the beginning, when someone asked me if I made the rings, I always said, “no a company in Italy makes them and they come from the marine industry”, then if they asked who, I always told them. What was great was that many guys that produce products for this industry contacted me via phone and emails and explained that similar things have happened to them before and it is “par for the course”. They told me that for some reason, part of the public just wants to tear you down. They told me don’t fight them because that’s what they want and it will bring in more vultures. (which is very hard for me, and that’s why I can’t view the old commentary on that one forum). I hope my story makes sense to some of you and you don’t feel like you are being ripped off, it’s not like you are paying more for the rings, they are similarly priced in the marine market.

September would be great!