john87

Since you all think it is such a good book, i have just bought a brand new copy of the actual book itself.. Was expensive, but all technical books are.. Think i will like it??? john

Wow!! that is an amazing book!!! by the time i digested all that, i would be too old to climb up a tree. I will try to find a paper copy if i can, i hate looking at computer screens, ruins your eyesight for one.. john..

Hi all, I was going to comment on each point in each point individually, but i would be here all day and it would be hard to follow anyway, but the main two points.. 1, Step cuts.. I did not say they were pointless, i asked why it was that some people say to do the top cut further out than the undercut, and others say to do it further in. In amongst constructive answers, i was basically informed that i was an idiot and did not know what i was talking about.. Funnily enough, one person commented that they thought that current practice was NOT to use step cuts at all, but to do the top cut directly opposite the bottom, and this my friends, happens to be the case. Current practice does NOT involve step cuts; The top cut goes directly opposite the bottom one.. 2, I can confirm that i DO indeed decend on a figure 8 using the blakes as back up. Now this may be seen as "belt and braces" or alternatively as a "pigs ear" but i will make two points regarding this.. a, Each to his own.. b, Before laughing at me using an figure eight in conjunction with a friction hitch, best you get hold of a copy of "the tree climbers companion" by very well respected international author Jeff Jepson and have a very careful read of page 49.. I do not care if people have been climbing up trees for 50 years, that does not mean they necessarily know everything. Dare i venture that perhaps it is not just me that needs some training.... john..

Very very sound advice... john..

"John has been asking basic albeit very relavant questions, indicating a lack of knowledge not ability. Perhaps I like watching people succeed & thrive and a bit more knowledge would load the die in his favour. P" Yes, and i think your comment is very constructive too.. To go off on a tangent a bit. Yes i could fall out of the tree, hurt myself with the saw etc, but i think i can keep myself safe.. Do you know what worries me more [being 60] I do worry about if i had a heart attack or a stroke up a tree.. Then you would be in BIG trouble.. Anyone else worry about that sort of thing?? john..

Hi Kriss, Thanks for the vote of confidence!! I hope i have as good a chance as others, i am good at most things and i have survived this far!!

Yes, that is where they lived Eltham.. Terrible thing to happen. The poor man still has therapy now.. It is not helped by the fact that although the police firstly thought it might be "foul play" but later decided otherwise, some of his children still do not believe him which obviously tears him apart.. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for him.. Even to say awful feels like taking the piss, simply unimaginable is all i can say. He is a lovely bloke too, met him a few times now.. john..

Ah, yes, i see what you mean now!! Yes, you are obviously correct in what you say, but for the amount i do... I know that is a bit daft, as i could hurt myself badly as you say if things go wrong adn accidents will happen.. Have a read of this.. It was my partners mums boyfriend... john.. Man kills wife in tragic chainsaw accident | Daily Mail Online WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK A husband is being treated for shock after his wife was killed in a tragic accident when he fell from a ladder while using a...

Not necessarily.. They have done away with the 750kg trailer limit now, and as for the car test, who said you had to have training?? Take the bike test.. I passed my bike test about 10 years ago, no training at all, just bought a 125 and a 600 and turned up.. Did my CBT [easy] passed my theory [easy] the "hazard perception" [easy, but more suited to muppets] the module one [easy, had 1 point for going 1mph too slow in the swerve test, and the module two [easy] no points at all.. Why would i want to go on a course to ride a motorbike?? How hard can it be?? So it can be done... john..

I expect they will put it rather more strongly than that!! john..

Yes, i know what you are all saying about training, and yes, ideally it would be great, but i only do this sort of thing once in a while for fun basically. It would be like me telling you lot to go pay out to get a class one HGV to drive your caravan once a year. It makes sense and is a great idea, but expensive for what i need. If i fall out of a tree as a result of not having the training, then that is my own silly fault!! john..

Err, no.. I do not do it just for the firewood, i do it [and a hell of a lot more besides] because i get a lot out of it as a person. There is more to life than money.. 2, As i said, i do it for enjoyment, i am also over 60 now, going spending all kinds of money on training would just be a waste.. 3, The insurance company were perfectly happy, i explained everything and no problem.. john..

Noooo.. If i spike up a tree i will have my flip line and a lanyard too. I pull up the rope so that i can use it as a super long lanyard if i want, or use it to climb to other bits of the tree. I always come down on the rope as it is lots easier than spiking down!! john..

Oh i see!! I will give that a try, see how i get on with it.. john..

Hi There, What do you mean by more forgiving?? I do not understand.. john..

Hi There, I have to be fair, that is one of the most constructive posts i have ever read, so i will answer all your points one at a time.. I'm generally not someone who's always telling folk to get tickets, but in ur case i do really think u should be doing some sort of climbing training. Yes, it would be a good idea, but i have no ambition, that is entirely the wrong word, but what i mean is, i am not setting out to set up as an arb expert or a tree work business or anything like that. I do what i do as a favour if you like, looking after a large estate that would otherwise just be left to go to rack and ruin. I do not get paid at all, indeed, it costs me a lot of money as you can imagine, but i get a LOT of satisfaction out of it and the occupier of the land does quite well out of it too. I know in theory i could fall out of a tree or whatever, but as with other hobbies, i could also fall off my motorbike, electrocute myself, or fall off my scaffolding etc.. Have u any chainsaw tickets?? No, i did have training though, was a very long time ago. I worked on a farm for a bit. One day i was standing there with the farm owner and a car pulls up. It was the HSE people. They asked if we had any chainsaws. When we said yes, they asked did we want any training. We said might as well, and we had an instant training session there and then. We are both still alive, using saws, and uninjured, so we must have learnt something!! All the saw maintenance i do myself, so my saws [i have three] are BEAUTIFUL.. I know it is different if you do it every day as a job, you cannot spend half the time faffing with your saws, but i have all the time in the world, so makes no difference to me. If the majority of ur trees are near buildings and assuming they need climbed u obviously have targets near by u don't want to be dropping branches/tops on, getting ur basic tickets should be a must, surprised most folk allow u to do the work without asking for tickets. As i said, i do it as a hobby.. The basic tickets probably wouldn't answer this question as how safe a dead/rotten/diseased tree is is an experience thing, and better to learn fron othrs experiences than ur own if it goes wrong. Very true!! Even felling these dead/diseased trees from the deck can tell u a lot as some species will just crumble/explode /shatter when they hit the deck, i certainly wouldn't like to be up 1 taking bits off Me neither!! If something goes wrong how would ur insurance cover u? Most insurances want/expect u to be trained and certified to atleast the basic level I took out insurance obviously. It was not that straighforward though, as it is a bit unusual for someone wanting what amounts to business insurance, not to be running a business, but it was all sorted out and i have 5 million pound public liability cover.. But atleast it would give u a genral idea about safe methods of work etc, I dunno if u have worked with throwlines at all? But if u wanted ur line up the 2nd tree in this instance u could probably do it all from the deck with a throwline and no need to climb it. Yes, i use my throwline a lot. I have one of them "big shot" things. God knows how people use then without the trigger attachment, but with that you can get the throwline where you want it quite accurately with a bit of practice.. Lesson number one of throwlines and big shot catapults... When you miss and the thing goes sailing up through the tree, before you pull it back for another go, let it come back to the ground and take the bag off before you pull the line back. Otherwise, when you pull it back and the bag gets stuck you will have to climb the tree to get your bag back.. Guess how i discovered that!!!! When i done my training they had just outlawed screw gate carbs for the triple lock 1's and i'm pretty sure ascenders/descenders were fairly new, i wouldn't have a scooby how to use them, definately never shown in the course all those years ago i think ur over complicating things, not a good thing if u are not 100% on the basics . Yep, i do not care for gadgets either, that is why i use a Blakes hitch when going up, [If i can with my most excellent Harken Ninja ascender] and when coming down a figure eight under it and the blakes as backup, nothing else.. Also be wary of tieing/climbing on the Blake's hitch, i used to climb on 1 and really liked it, but i also remember if u tie it slightly wrong its called a suicide knot, it looks just like a blakes and even acts like 1 until it just lets go. Been that long since i tied a Blake's i've gave up using them incase i get tie wrong. Can't remember which way it is now but tail either goes in front or behind but only 1 way works, so i thought why risk it when other methods work just fine I know what you mean, the tail goes in front of the tail and then behind the climbing rope [aasuming you wind it round anticlockwise that is] Apparently it is not unheard of for people to have the tail behind the tail as it were and then wonder why the knot does not work. I tie a stopper knot after it too. I have not had one try to pull through at all, but a stopper knot is good practice therefore i use one.. Must admit i'm back to a prussick now which does fine for the little climbing i do nowadays If i spike up a tree, i drag my climbing rope behind me with it attached to the harness [about 8 feet down the rope] with a prusik and a karabiner about 8 feet down from the end of the rope . Once where i want to be, i just throw the short bit end of the rope round the tree, attach the end to the harness and instant lanyard or set it up with my adjustable friction saver round the stem ready for when i want to come down.. john..

Yes, i was thinking about what happens if you are tied into a tree or a section of a tree that then fails, that would be worse than falling out of the thing by a long way... I think a lot about what i do, overthink it some may say, but if your life depends on it, a bit of thinking in advance is the way to go about it, as it what "could" go wrong, and it it did, what would the result be.. In engineering it is called FMEA "failure mode effect analysis" Have not done the birch yet. Had covid then it rained rather a lot, that sort of put a stop to things, but back to normal soon!! john..

Yes, suppose you are right.. I do only come down slowly too.. I would be the first to admit that i am no expert too. I know next to nothing about trees for a start off, big green things, would like to learn though so i have been buying books on the subject. At the moment, the only involvement i have with them is removing ones that are damaging a building i care for and sawing them up and sticking them on my logburner!! john..

Did not like to cause friction wear to the split tail.. [ I know, please do not laugh!!!] john..

I was just a bit worried that i would climb up the thing and it fall to bits with me up it!! Bits of it look seriously not good with the bark falling off and what appears to be a crack just above the main part of the trunk in a bit that supports the bulk of the rest of the tree.. In the main, it would have to come down in little bits, as there are things under it that must not get damaged. I could not rope bits down, or at least i would not like to as the loading on the dodgy bits of the tree might be a bit much, and unhappily, i have no idea where all the dodgy rotten bits might be.. Might leave this one to people that know what they are doing!! john..

Yes i bet!!! With me the hardest thing is to stop thinking about it.. What i mean is the day i got my friction saver stuck in a tree and i had to go up and get the thing, no worries at all, none whatsoever, as it was about to rain and i was in a mad rush.. it is when you are up a tree and have plenty of time to look around that it hits you WTF am i doing up here!! The worst is, as i climb on a blakes, when you decide you do not like it, and then have to sort out your decender to come down on while you are rather stressed.. Once having done this and coming down though it is rather fun!! All part of learning i suppose!! I see what you mean about the rope and that is a great idea!! Stick the rope up the other tree, come back down and than spike up the dead one, instead of trying to swing across.. In the event of things not going to plan, the worst that could happen is that i swing back to the first tree, although this could be seriously not good.. john..

There is a huge tree next to it so i could in theory traverse across, but it is about 25 or 30 feet away and i would need seriously big bollocks and rather more experience than i have! I was thinking that perhaps i could spike up it and cut it down in small chunks, but maybe not such a great idea, given that it could snap at any time.. It will have to be removed in bits as not enough room to just fell it in one, especially given that as you say, it could well all go somewhat amiss.. Thank you very much for all your brilliant advice though!!! john..

Yes i agree, the large branch on the ground fell off the other week. The rest looks unsafe to me, i certainly would not climb it. It definitely needs to be removed though as you say.. john

Thank you very much!!!! I will post some photos of another tree now, one about 200 yards from the first one.. A few questions.. 1, is it the same sort of tree?? 2, It looks like the same rot, is is contagious to other trees?? 3, It there a reason that it would start half way up a tree or does it start at the bottom and work up?? john..

Thank you!! Now, what has happened here... several large branches fell off.. When you look at the wood where the branches broke, it is very light, almost like Balsa wood, and it has sort of delaminated, with white stuff inbetween the "laminations".. john..