####ing insane

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I added a big "bad language" disclaimer to the original post. By rights, I should have deleted it, but hopefully someone will see it and realize how fast things go wrong when you have no clue what you're doing.

That said, that's gotta be one of the luckiest SOBs I've seen on youtube yet. If cats have nine lives, that dude's a whole litter of cats, and he's running low already.
 
Unfortunately common sense has to be learned, just as operating a chainsaw has to be learned. Nobody is born with knowledge of either one. This guy apparently missed those lessons. Hopefully after the camera was turned off and his buddy went home, he was intelligent enough to seek out that knowledge. At least someone else may learn something from his mistakes.
 
mainewoods said:
Unfortunately common sense has to be learned, just as operating a chainsaw has to be learned. Nobody is born with knowledge of either one. This guy apparently missed those lessons. Hopefully after the camera was turned off and his buddy went home, he was intelligent enough to seek out that knowledge. At least someone else may learn something from his mistakes.
Click to expand...

As they say wisdom keeps you from making bad decisions. Where do you get wisdom? Wisdom comes from experience. How does one gain experience? Experience comes from surviving bad decisions....
 
Maybe next year

It seems he ran out of time to make the short list for the 2013 Darwin Awards, but there's always next year.
 
There's a common misconception among amateurs that trees which are leaning heavily are the easiest and safest trees to cut. As experienced sawyers know, nothing could be further from the truth. There's no easy answer to how to solve this, but I've been surprised frequently by how often otherwise intelligent people put their lives at risk without doing any research. Just last week we did a job for a guy who was a reasonably intelligent white collar worker, careful guy and pretty sensible too. He called us in to do a couple of really technical take downs, big trees with complex rigging in a tight space. I've worked for him before in past, and he likes to watch and I don't mind at all. Some people watch because they're suspicious of you, or they think you're going to damage their property or whatever... but this guy watches because he's genuinely interested in the process. We'd done a few trees for him last year on different properties that he owns, he's certainly not short on coin.

So after we finish the job, he was saying how impressed he was, and asked me if I'd come take a look at a tree he cut down himself. So we go out the back, and there's this tree, not a big tree, maybe only 16" DBH but well over 50' tall because he's on the back side of a hill in a remnant forest area so the trees grow slow, tall and skinny. It's about 6' away from the house, and he's cut it down with no scarf. It chaired for about 20' from where he cut it, and it was obvious from the stump that it was a very heavy leaner. We had a talk about it, and he told me he thought it would be easy because it was ready to fall down being on such a lean. Said that he went real slow with the cut, just cutting a half inch at a time (making it even worse!).

So, we had a little talk, I showed him how to sharpen his saw, did some bucking with him. Showed him the difference between tension and compression, and explained the principle of the hinge. You could see light bulbs going on in his head as I was explaining why I'd made each cut earlier taking down the trees in the front. He asked lots of sensible questions, and got a little more worried with each answer. Explained to him about PPE, and told him of the various injuries that different guys get from chainsaws, showed him that our trousers were in fact chainsaw pants, explained kickback, industrial deafness etc... After a half hour or so, he seemed to be losing heart and looking more and more at the ground.

In the end, he realised how close h'ed come to losing his life taking that tree down, though I never really said so to him in so many words. He hadn't even realised it after he'd cut it at the time. I was trying to encourage the guy to learn some more, get some PPE and become a safe chainsaw operator, but he told me he didn't think he could see himself using a saw again after starting to understand the dangers involved. I don't really know how to get this message out to people.

Shaun
 
imagineero said:
There's a common misconception among amateurs that trees which are leaning heavily are the easiest and safest trees to cut. As experienced sawyers know, nothing could be further from the truth. There's no easy answer to how to solve this, but I've been surprised frequently by how often otherwise intelligent people put their lives at risk without doing any research. Just last week we did a job for a guy who was a reasonably intelligent XXXXXXXX. He called us in to do a couple of really technical take downs, big trees with complex rigging in a tight space. I've worked for him before in past, and he likes to watch and I don't mind at all. Some people watch because they're suspicious of you, or they think you're going to damage their property or whatever... but this guy watches because he's genuinely interested in the process. We'd done a few trees for him last year on different properties that he owns, he's certainly not short on coin.

So after we finish the job, he was saying how impressed he was, and asked me if I'd come take a look at a tree he cut down himself. So we go out the back, and there's this tree, not a big tree, maybe only 16" DBH but well over 50' tall because he's on the back side of a hill in a remnant forest area so the trees grow slow, tall and skinny. It's about 6' away from the house, and he's cut it down with no scarf. It chaired for about 20' from where he cut it, and it was obvious from the stump that it was a very heavy leaner. We had a talk about it, and he told me he thought it would be easy because it was ready to fall down being on such a lean. Said that he went real slow with the cut, just cutting a half inch at a time (making it even worse!).

So, we had a little talk, I showed him how to sharpen his saw, did some bucking with him. Showed him the difference between tension and compression, and explained the principle of the hinge. You could see light bulbs going on in his head as I was explaining why I'd made each cut earlier taking down the trees in the front. He asked lots of sensible questions, and got a little more worried with each answer. Explained to him about PPE, and told him of the various injuries that different guys get from chainsaws, showed him that our trousers were in fact chainsaw pants, explained kickback, industrial deafness etc... After a half hour or so, he seemed to be losing heart and looking more and more at the ground.

In the end, he realised how close h'ed come to losing his life taking that tree down, though I never really said so to him in so many words. He hadn't even realised it after he'd cut it at the time. I was trying to encourage the guy to learn some more, get some PPE and become a safe chainsaw operator, but he told me he didn't think he could see himself using a saw again after starting to understand the dangers involved. I don't really know how to get this message out to people.

Shaun
Click to expand...

Edit: I'm not near as funny as I thought I was.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Seeing a tree barber chair is enough to make a sensible person think really hard about tackling a leaner. I have taken down just a handful of trees. I have one in my backyard that needs to come down that has a lean to it. I've been researching and researching how to get it down safely and before I do I will come on here with pictures ect. To make sure I have the approach correct and I also have solid understanding of how to perform the cuts involved. I know there is not a one size fits all cut but for leaners what is the best cut to use for the majority to avoid barber chairing is it a bore cut with a trigger?

I have very very health respect for the damage/danger that trees present. Obviously some do not.
 
stupid...worst thing other than the obvious is his hoodis up over his head he has no field of vision which is super dangerous in any safety situation
 
nomad_archer said:
Seeing a tree barber chair is enough to make a sensible person think really hard about tackling a leaner. I have taken down just a handful of trees. I have one in my backyard that needs to come down that has a lean to it. I've been researching and researching how to get it down safely and before I do I will come on here with pictures ect. To make sure I have the approach correct and I also have solid understanding of how to perform the cuts involved. I know there is not a one size fits all cut but for leaners what is the best cut to use for the majority to avoid barber chairing is it a bore cut with a trigger?

I have very very health respect for the damage/danger that trees present. Obviously some do not.
Click to expand...

The best cut, in my opinion, for heavy leaners is the 'coos bay'. There are two variations on it; one with a hinge, and one without. I prefer without.

It's hard to imagine a simpler cut. Workout the direction that the tree favors. Make two cuts, perpendicular to the direction of lean, about 30~40% into the tree. These side cuts remove most of the wood which would contribute to a barber chair, but leave a narrow strip 20~40% of the tree DBH facing the direction of lean. To trop it, just make a normal cut from the back. The cuts don't need to match perfectly but it's nice if they do. I've used this cut on hundreds of heavy head leaners without issue.

Shaun
 
You know, the only thing scarier than that guy's shear idiocy is the fact that he has a driving license too. :msp_scared:
 
I couldn't believe how many times he walked under the tree that was hung up. Then when the second one chaired, he walked under it again, almost to his demise!
 
imagineero said:
The best cut, in my opinion, for heavy leaners is the 'coos bay'. There are two variations on it; one with a hinge, and one without. I prefer without.

It's hard to imagine a simpler cut. Workout the direction that the tree favors. Make two cuts, perpendicular to the direction of lean, about 30~40% into the tree. These side cuts remove most of the wood which would contribute to a barber chair, but leave a narrow strip 20~40% of the tree DBH facing the direction of lean. To trop it, just make a normal cut from the back. The cuts don't need to match perfectly but it's nice if they do. I've used this cut on hundreds of heavy head leaners without issue.

Shaun
Click to expand...

Thanks. Again I will have pictures etc before I tackle this job. Normally I would have had my friend that is an arborist show me the way unfortunately he is in the sandbox for the time being.
 

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