Grandad

"Glove fulla vaseline?, disgusting..." Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. Seriously, udder cream is great, it's pure lanolin you know...

Had a similar experience: this time snatching the top out of a Lombardy pop... Rigged it with a half-hitch below the cut and a killick hitch above, made a couple of little notches in the trunk for the killick hitch to sit in as additional security to stop the rope slipping off the trunk. Pulling rope up much higher. Made the mouth and shouted down to boss on the ground that I was ready to cut and NOT to pull until I said to. "Ok" shouts boss. So no sooner had I started cutting than he started HEEEEAVING on the pulling rope, a 16 stone bloke... All I could do was keep cutting as fast as I could and hope for the best. Well, next thing I know is the top of this tree cracked off and fell onto the ground leaving my killick hitch still there attached to the tree. What was worse, the top fell at the feet of the lady owner of the tree, who was taking a picture and who shouldn't have been anywhere near anyway. Boss fixes me with an accusing stare and demands: "What happened there?" I was still in shock, "I don't know" I said. "Well look then, analyse what happened" he retorts. I pulled myself together and looked... I had got about half way through the felling cut when the trunk had split due to the strain put on it by boss pulling before I was ready. The split travelled up through the killick hitch and the trunk snapped at the notches I had cut to hold the rope. I explained this to boss... He replied, "So it was my fault..." his voice trailed off and he suddenly remembered something he hadn't done elsewhere... Everything would have worked properly if he had waited until I had made the felling cut before pulling and the best thing was he never learned from the experience, I never could wean him off pulling before I was ready.

I have taken some time to consider everything that has been said, and have to admit: “I know when I'm beaten”, I'll try to keep quiet when such subjects come up again. What I was trying to say, not very successfully was: “Keep It Simple, whenever possible”. You have all convinced me that the new methods are better, particularly true was the one about ropes damaging the bark, it does depend on the tree and the weights being lowered, but as a general principle, avoiding damage to the tree is paramount. Mike, I really didn't intend to offend you and offer my sincerest apologies for any offence caused.

Apologies if I have given offense, it wasn't my intention.

Treequip: no, I haven't tried any of these gadgets, I hope you don't think that that fact disqualifies me from having a view on the subject... I would be happy to try them, my mind is not closed to new ideas. Let's stick with the branch lowering question for the moment: it's just lowering a branch by rope, it's not rocket science but I suspect that the manufacturers of the gadgets and possibly the colleges and HSE would like it to be. The more complicated something becomes the more training is needed and the more it all costs. My point is that it is not necessary, whether it is better or not is debatable. As I said before: No offense intended...

No, I don't think I'm doing that, I realise that some of these questions are being asked by inexperienced users, I know that the industry as a whole is doing ok but particularly in the regard of branch lowering I feel that it is getting unnecessarily complicated and I suspect that many older guys think so too.

Ok, two pulleys, nice and smooth lower, I can see that but how do you belay if the branch is a heavy one? And it's even quicker to just hang a rope through a fork than rig a pulley.

Can't agree about the "slow , inefficient and laborious" Steve. How can having to rig pulleys and belays not take up valuable time especially if you have to move some or all of it again to do the next branch? To me it seems complication for the sake of complication.

Please don't be offended but I really can't believe the problems you guys have these days. It seems to me that all these gadgets make as many problems as they solve. An awful lot of the posts on this forum are about how to rig this gadget or that pulley. Then the problems that arise around climbing gadgets such as lockjack or spiderjack and the merits and demerits of each. How to retrieve the lowering rope? As many have already said: get groundie to tie it on your climbing rope and pull it up again; what could be more simple? None of these "problems" used to arise, none of these gadgets existed, life was simple. If we wanted to lower a branch we would rig it appropriately having chosen a suitable anchor point and just lower it. If it was very heavy we would pass the lowering rope around the trunk as many times as was thought necessary. never had a problem, never got launched through the air. I think a lot of these gadgets are like the Vincent motorcycle: a collection of ingenious solutions to non existent problems. I am yet to be convinced of the true worth of any of the gadgets thought of as indispensable today. We had it easier and cheaper. Again: no offense intended to any individual, just my view...

You answered your own question brother... So did everybody else.

Dead right Stephen, problem is most folks seem only too willing to hand over their minds to big brother; there is a saying: " Most people would rather die than think and many of them do".

You said a mouthful there Red, totally agree. There is no doubt in my mind, the powers that be are depriving us of our ability to think for ourselves.

Nah! Can't be, they didn't start in business until 1888.

Welcome Red, I'm a noob myself, joined in November. Lots of midlanders on here, Leicestershire me. Where you?

No mate, I'm afraid not, never seen one like that before, sorry. John. Hey, this is my 100th post! And..., I'm not that old!!