How do you final cut large loww limbings

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

John Paul Sanborn

Above average climber
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
14,546
Reaction score
495
Location
South Eastern WI
The perennial one-hand dialog reminded me of this question.

You are doing one of those big huge final cuts because the HO had to have a big limb or stem taken off. Ladders will not reach, all TIP's leave you hanging in a weird position and gaffs would leave marks visible from the picturewindow. You would need a huge loopie to get a footstrap in...

How do you make that final cut safely?
 
Have your groundguy hold your tail off to the side to stabilize you or another rope attached to your saddle.
 
I stay tied in and throw a running boland around the trunk so that I can bind against the tree then hook into my figure 8 and pull myself into position.​
 
It takes very little force to make a really ugly finish that will show for years.

So true, I always make a bottom-cut a hair out from the top-cut heather chunking or rigging these.

You have to be extra careful with starting angle too, when unshure of your footing it is easy to get a flushcut going. I saw one guy cut into the trunk pretty badly many moons ago.
 
So true, I always make a bottom-cut a hair out from the top-cut heather chunking or rigging these.
You have to be extra careful with starting angle too, when unshure of your footing it is easy to get a flushcut going.

:agree2:
Can also make cut couple of inches long to relieve excess weight before making final cuts (when bombing is allowed).


Common sense does not exist in all equally.
 
Last edited:
You have to be extra careful with starting angle too, when unshure of your footing it is easy to get a flushcut going.

Very good point here John. Take an extra second or two to check all bar angles to make sure they coincide exactly with where you want to end up. Very easy to miss a big cut, after all, it's all that's left after your hard work is done.
 
I'd do it like a lot of people do these days when they get in a bind...........









Call in the Crane...........yeah baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Throw your lanyard around the stem, clip it back to itself and choke it around the stem. Position it so you can adjust to where you need to be to make the cut.
 
Positioning to make the cut can be difficult but often more difficult is preventing the large piece from tearing bark and cambium off of trunk as it's severed. It takes very little force to make a really ugly finish that will show for years.

Don't know if anybody else does it this way ,but I will often make my undercut with the saw partially upside down on the far side of the cut,and keep the blade in the kerf but rotate the saw around until i am cutting with the saw pointing straight up ,or down and progressing thru the cut sideways.
Makes for a nice smooth final cut with out tearing.
Of course this is for pcs with only a slight tendency to tear,not 30 ft branches.

Also works pretty good for bombing smaller horizontal logs that you wish to stay horizontal
 
For positioning, I'll clip around the trunk with my lanyard, and bring my knees up in front of my chest/waist area, cross my legs at the ankles, and then tighten down my lanyard as much as possible. Then all I have to do is apply pressure against the trunk with my legs to lock myself into a stable position.

Make a relief cut to remove all but 2-3" of where your final cut will be, and then if need be, make 1-2, maybe 3 cuts to get the proper finish cut, just slicing off thin cookies as you go.
 
Back
Top