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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Dec 21, 2018 - 12:13pm PT
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learned from an old drunk logger to free hand. Confirmed with an arborist just recently that they still free hand.
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Dec 21, 2018 - 12:59pm PT
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Pferd cs-x chainsharp or Stihl 2 in 1 file holder
Best file holder available.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Dec 21, 2018 - 01:38pm PT
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I use a Dremel tool- does a pretty good job
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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Dec 21, 2018 - 03:48pm PT
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Once again Chief is right. Wear chaps. First time I put mine on and worked for a day in them they became as indespensable as my saw and hearing protectors. Now I wear a helmet with a face shield too. More than once I’ve been hit by a loose branch I did know was hanging in the tree I was cutting.
Beautiful work Steve.
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Tom Patterson
Trad climber
Seattle
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Dec 21, 2018 - 03:53pm PT
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Chief nailed it. Might take a little practice, but you can dial it in. One run through a log, and you'll find out quickly enough whether one side needs a little more attention than the other.
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Dec 21, 2018 - 05:33pm PT
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A carbide tip blade is the ticket. It cost me about 70 bucks and depending on frequency of use it lasts forever without sharpening. Forever I tell you! Cuts through oak like butter.
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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Dec 21, 2018 - 06:55pm PT
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Chief,
You be da’ man! I was high lead logging in the coastal forests of Washington in the early 70’s. There’s a special place in hell reserved for me for all the trees i took down. I had two 075 Sthil saws with 36” and 42” bars. We always carried a couple extra sharpened chains in the woods with us so we didn’t have to screw around with sharpening in the field except for extraordinary occasions. We used to buy our chain by the roll and bar oil by the 5 gallon bucket.
Did you ever ride the rigging? More than once I found myself 50’ to 60’ off the ground straddling a dangling choker sitting on a stick jammed through the bell swinging wildly trying to fend off the other guys that were trying to kick the stick I was sitting on.
I bought my “corks” from the old Valley climber, Will Tyree. He told me, before i’d ever been out there, to “stay out of the bight”. “You won’t know what i’m talking about now, but just remember, stay out of the bight. You’ll figure it out”. My first week setting chokers I found myself sitting on a stump waiting for the turn to be dragged to the landing. I was facing downhill looking to the bottom of the “road”, probably close to a thousand feet away. It suddenly dawned on me that I was seeing the haulback looping uphill towards me. I dove off the stump just before it hit, right where i’d been sitting, and the cable left a 1” deep groove in the wood. The light went off. I was in the “bight”, the death triangle between the haulback and the mainline.
I don’t miss those days. Getting up at 5am in the dark. Driving out in the “crummy” in dark pouring down rain. Working all day in pouring down rain. Driving back to town in the steaming smelly “crummy” as it was getting dark in pouring down rain. Next day: repeat. Nope. Don’t miss it.
Taking down a monster sans helmet.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Dec 21, 2018 - 08:42pm PT
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Yikes ! When men were men and sheep were scared. I never run a saw these days without chaps and helmet with eyes and ears protected...
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Dec 21, 2018 - 10:48pm PT
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Jeezuz Crisis Mastodon, that's a pretty minimalist gyppo accoutrement ensemble!
And no Humboldt either!
At the risk of further thread drift, I never worked as a full time faller but murdered a lot of trees daylighting right of way while working as a Second Loader cherry picking right of way.
I did the whole program from the Haida Gwaii to the Elcho as an IWA logger setting beads, pulling rigging, landing man, tending hook on steel spars and grapple yarders and spent a sh#t ton of time in really hazardous landings covering the Chaser, Landing Bucker and Second Loader's jobs in remote, steep coastal shows.
Only rode the tweezers on the grapple yarder once as the practice was generally frowned upon and I never trusted most operators.
Graduated to running both grapple yarders and line grapple loaders (American 7220s and a brand new Madill 122) before moving on after eleven years lucky to still be alive.
I had some incredible adventures logging especially the few years working in a logging camp deep in the BC Coast Range on the Homathko River about twenty miles from Mt. Waddington.
Big timber, steep terrain, manly men and total haywires, grizzlies, huge cutthroat and bull trout, big appetites and big problems.
The story of how I got my first job and some of the calamities and mayhem I survived probably wouldn't be believed.
Glad to have done it and survived and don't miss it too much too often.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Dec 21, 2018 - 11:06pm PT
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Here's a horrific kickback story happened out MacBlo's Sproat Lake operation about 1984 ish.
The Second Loader's grooming a loaded truck with a long bar saw at full extension overhead while the truck driver is throwing his wrappers on directly behind him.
Saw kicks back at full throttle and pretty much beheads the truck driver.
True fukking story!
Don't stand in the bight when someone's running a saw!
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Dec 22, 2018 - 06:35am PT
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sounds like material for a book. I certainly would have loved to have a book of my Dads adventures in the ETO True stories are so much richer than fiction...
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Dec 22, 2018 - 06:47am PT
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pretty wild shot of Mastedon. he is missing all the kit the modern fellers have...
This is a crazy barberchair! probly already seen it but here it is agin. [Click to View YouTube Video]
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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Dec 22, 2018 - 06:50am PT
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Yikes, Mr. Chief! You worked in a camp? I heard stories about those but they were all gone in Washington by the time I hit the woods. You can find a lot of historical reference to the life and hardships of the camps if you look around.
I was never a dedicated faller but did many of the things you did: hooking (hook tending), landing etc. That picture was taken after I had graduated (down) to cutting cedar for shake and shingle bolts. We were called “cedar rats”. Cedar shake bolts were bringing in $360 a cord in the mid 70’s and were usually able to cut, split and stack a cord a day per person. Helicoptering to the road and trucking to the mill was about $20 a cord each. I ended up buying my own 1 1/2 ton flatbed, a 1948 Dodge with a flathead 6 engine that got 7 miles to the gallon, empty or loaded. Never figured that one out.
Cutting cedar like that was as physically demanding as big-wall climbing.
Mike White, Drone Stephens and Fig (Mike Breidenbach) all “worked in the woods” in Forks Washington. I drove through Forks a couple months ago and looked up Fig who I hadn’t seen in 45 years. Never in a million years would I have recognized him. If anyone’s interested, I’ll post a recent picture of him. Not too many people here on the Taco would even remember him. Maybe Werner....
Holy s#it Mr. TMC, that’s your worst nightmare as a faller. That and “widow makers”.
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Dec 22, 2018 - 07:08am PT
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I fell asleep in a pie cut
I fell asleep in a pie cut
when I was out logging one day
it looked so warm and cozy
so I just slept the day away
I woke to the sound of a chain saw
and much to my distress
the pie cut was now closing in
on my warm and cosy nest
I fell asleep in a pie cut
and felt the fatal slam
of a tree truck pinching painfully
and turning me into jam
-jambo
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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Dec 22, 2018 - 07:29am PT
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Using long dormant skills in my yard a few years ago taking down beetle kill trees. I got bids from local tree removal companies that came in around $10k. I said “screw you” and bought a thousand dollar saw (having gotten rid of all my logging gear decades ago) and did it myself. Ended up taking down about 60 dead or dying trees.
Here’s a great video. This guy has skiils (and luck).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9NRmYzLrvfM
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Dec 22, 2018 - 07:49am PT
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Wow mastodon. that is some serious shite!
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Dec 22, 2018 - 08:11am PT
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My last job working as the climber for my tree service in October 2017. The herniated discs have since taken me off my crew except for equipment repairs and stump grinding. My tree climber has it handled now...
Nowadays on jobs while the crew works, I’m miles away attending to bids, errands, or working in my shop. After forty five years in tree work, I don’t miss it.
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WBraun
climber
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Dec 22, 2018 - 08:17am PT
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LOL Don.
Maybe 3 years ago?
Mike Breidenbach walked up to me on the job and my first thoughts was, .... Who the fuk is guy???
LOL, .... he's such a great guy so glad he came by .....
Good job doing that rip-off 10k tree bid yourself.
Will Tyree ... last time I saw him he told me to eat nothing but oranges that way the Martians won't get me when they land here.
LOL
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Dec 22, 2018 - 02:20pm PT
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Mastadon,
What you needed was a Kut-Kwik.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dec 22, 2018 - 06:05pm PT
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The best friend of a friend of mine decapitated himself in front of his wife while cutting
a snag on their property. It had grown around some barbed wire unbeknownst to him and
he was holding the saw at shoulder level when it hit the wire.
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