Polesaw reminder

[The Branch Doctor]

Hey all you climbers, I'm sure everyone is already very aware of this so call this a "complacency alert".

I did a little contract climbing today for a tree company that I do a lot of business with. The guy he had helping him is a beginner climber that has promise but also had a shitty teacher during his climbing "basic training". When I'm around him I keep an eye on him so I can correct some of the bad habits he has acquired and try to pump him full of as many good ones as I can.

Anyway, I had a few errands to run this morning so the newbie was climbing until I got there and boy did he learn a big lesson the hard way!

Lesson/reminder of the day:

We all use a polesaw while aloft and have to hang it from a branch from time to time. REMEMBER TO HANG IT SO THAT THE BLADE IS POINTED AWAY FROM YOU OR THIS COULD HAPPEN... or worse so lets be paying attention and stay safe.

[MasterBlaster]

He's damn lucky, it coulda been a LOT worse.

Yep, we gotta be extra diligent when hanging a pole saw for SURE!

[Skwerl]

Damn, that hurts me just looking at it. I've been bit a few times by my handsaw, but I've always been paranoid about that polesaw blade and it scares the hell outta me to have it hanging in the tree over my head. I ALWAYS make sure it isn't over me. Yeah, call me chicken. :P

[sotc]

nasty! ive had a few close calls

[Hobby Climber]

Ouch!

Good thing he wasn't using a "Silky" otherwise they'd be calling him lefty!

Hope he heals well.

HC

[Mr. Sir]

That's not so bad as far as pole saw cuts go. I've got a nice scar on my shoulder from about twenty years ago. NEVER made that mistake again.

[No_Bivy]

:\:FOCK!.....handsaw/polesaw kisses really suck!

[treelooker]

Clip scabbard onto dogleash. Remove polesaw from scabbard to use, return it when done. No nicked flesh, no nicked rope.

Next question?

:P

[squisher]

Damn, that's just a little touch no need to get all worked up.

I'll bet he never does it again.

[Stumper]

I've become paranoid since the advent of razor tooth saws-I scabbard mine in the tree.

[rbtree]

Takes too much time to scabbard a pole saw.. if it is getting a lot of use.

I always hang mine from a sling, usually off my saddle, or, slung to the tree...same with everyone who is on the crew.

[Paul B]

nasty bits facing away from the soft tissue bits tho right? :)

[Blinky]

I generally hang mine from a 1' tether on my harness, folded, with a scabbard... yes I'm paranoid. When I'm using it a lot I hang it on the hook, far away. The Silky hook is nice and big so it's easy to hang securely.

Had a Hayuchi come really close to slicing my shoulder when it was falling... no hook on that saw... bad idea to take it up to begin with.

[Skwerl]

I think it was Mike Maas who mentioned it the first time I heard of it, but a couple years ago I started putting the blade on backwards on the polesaw head so that the hook is underneath the teeth rather than on the opposite side. If the polesaw were to fall on me, at least I have a chance of the hook bouncing the head away from my flesh before the teeth rip me apart.

[rumination]

Brian, that doesn't get in the way when you're cutting?

[Skwerl]

Nope, never. In fact when cutting in tight areas it is less obtrusive than having the hook on the back side of the head.

[OTGBOSTON]

I gotta try that..........

[rumination]

Likewise. I will have to give that a test run.

[MasterBlaster]

Hmmmmmm...

[top hopper]

another good reason to leave the pole saws on the ground.

[MasterBlaster]

+10

[Stumper]

Mike is pretty good on backwards advice that works. I'll try it also.

[sotc]

me four

[brendonv]

Cool Idea. Maybe my polesaw head will fit in the storage tube now.:)

[OTGBOSTON]

Cool Idea. Maybe my polesaw head will fit in the storage tube now.:)


exactly what I was thinking!

you can see my tube in the left side of the bed....

[NickfromWI]

This is from an arboristshite post from 2004:

Tip- I painted a stripe on mine. I called it a safety stripe. It was on the side facing away from the blade. This meant that if I was in a tree, and it was hanging a few feet overhead, I could reach for it, and if I could see the blue stripe, then the blade was facing away from me. It would be safe to loosen the grip on it and let it slide down through my hand until it was at the length I wanted to make my next cut/move. I was paranoid that if I just let it slide without watching it, the blade might slide down and cut my helmet....or worse

I'm getting a new pole saw in a couple weeks. This served as a reminder for me to paint that one, too.

love
nick

[brendonv]

I just went to switch my blade when something occured to me. I sometimes use the pole to advance my climb/rigging lines, probably not a good idea to have the cutting edge facing the rope.

[Al Smith]

It isn't a pole saw but my dad bought I think a Silky a few years back.Geeze talk about sharp. The old man hit the back of his hand just slightly and had to get sewed up .

The one I have has teeth like a regular saw,sharp but nearly as much as those razor teeth or whatever they are called .

If a person could figure out how to use that sharpening method and apply it to a saw chain you could run a 36" bar from an 020.

[TheTreeSpyder]

Al, dang Silkys are so sharp; i'm not so sure you have to even touch'em to git cut!!

Sorry about the cut Doc; but i seen much worse. They say in some films to place saw higher than ya if hanging it, that way less chance of it getting knocked; but if lower than ya it doesn't race by ya.

i've done as Mike says, but present blade doesn't have the holes right. i've also done as Rog with sling;seeing as i use'em for everything else; even thrown krab and sling as a penalty flag out of tree when real noisy and can't get attention and/or almost too hoarse to talk...

The blade isn't the real culprit; it is the weight of the pole that makes the sharp blade a power cutting device as it falls i think! Another case for lighter pole$ IMLHO. Always place the blade away from ya; just in case it falls; and this is another good reason not to let anyone in the kill zone; even if you aren't cutting; you could at anytime drop anything or knock a loose branch down etc. i never got very far into the scabbard deal.

What about a fancy pole that blade folds down? i've gotten too much done in tree with polesaw, to rule out using them. Especially slapping it around to make it rain small loose dead 'wood'. i've never been cut from one falling; but a buddy of mine (nicknamed FRED for Screw-You Red-Rick; a major contraction that saved a lot of words during a normal day) got it on the face real bad; right before Halloween; he just wouldn't listen. So, he got nicknamed Frank'n Fred instead. Once a 320#'r came to work with us; i really enjoyed the shade! i named him Tiny and he said my nickname wouldn't stick this time; 6 months later that is what his Mom and Dad called him...

[Bounce]

Not a bad little scratch. It should scar up nicely and be a visible reminder to not do that again.

[pigwot]

My pole saw tender: I kept one of my old, home-made, 'no-longer-legal-for-a-safety' lanyards (no double-lock snaps on it) and I use that to hang the pole saw well below me. The old snap fits the paint brush hole on the polesaw head just fine. Does anyone even use wound dressings any more? If I am doing something critical and it would be in the way I can take the lanyard and clip the polesaw anywhere in the tree, even on a leader that has no side branchings to 'hang' it on.

Since it never gets used for climbing I also use that utility lanyard to hang smaller branches as I cut them free over a hazard or structure, so I can cut two-handed with the climbing saw, then unlatch it and toss it down safely. It also holds my drill for cable bracing and/or a tool bag. In large prunes it even has carried my lunchbox and a thermos of hot coffee on the cold days. Haul them up and clip them where you'll get to by lunchtime. Was up a large tree a few weeks ago, -4 degree wind chill, winds gusting to 30+ mph and two of us were cable-bracing it. The other climber kept saying he felt bad that I had all that weight on me. My saddle has a single strap over the left shoulder and back to the right side of the saddle, so I hardly notice the weight.

A friends brother had his back to his pole saw, hung a good 10 feet above him, cut a branch that knocked it free and it cut through three muscles in his back on the way down. He was climbing for the County and this was a weekend buzz he was doing.

[TC3]

I just hang the thang where it needs to be. If I get hooked, my bad.

[Stumper]

Brendon -for whatever it is worth .I have 2 pole saw heads. I'll swap the "in tree use" one and scabbard it for line advancement. THe ground use one is the one I most use fro line setting(from the ground) so I'll leave it standard since -like Spidey mentioned that blade doesn't line up the same reversed.

[Stumper]

Brendon -for whatever it is worth .I have 2 pole saw heads. I'll swap the "in tree use" one and scabbard it for line advancement. THe ground use one is the one I most use fro line setting(from the ground) so I'll leave it standard since -like Spidey mentioned that blade doesn't line up the same reversed.

[TC3]

How 'bout this : Hook your polesaw where it's useful. Advance it such. Never have it be above you.
Gosh ?

[treelooker]

Never have it be above you.
Gosh ?Mmmm, not too convenient to have ot reach down. Roger is right re scabbarding every time; I do hang it between cuts when it is really busy, but scabbarding is a good default storage method.

[TC3]

Sorry, I never scabbard. What an unreasonable solution, IMO.
There are inherent risks. I assume the polesaw as one of them. Climb without one ?!? Are you f**kin' kidding me ???
How many times have I been just out of arm's reach of my polesaw / pruner ? How many times did I have to make six moves to recover it when it shoulda took TWO ?!?
I wouldn't be in the trees without it.
I have never had to retrieve it from the ground.

[MasterBlaster]

I hate having to drag one up in a tree. I use mine as little as possible.

[brendonv]

I hate having to drag one up in a tree. I use mine as little as possible.

Ditto.

At my old job he handed me a pole saw from the start. Wish he never did. I try to climb out farther and farther these days, the p-saw stays on the ground now.

[lumberjack]

We used the heck outta our pole saws today today, first time in ages.

Also bopped my arm with the silky, just a scratch :)

[treelooker]

I try to climb out farther and farther these days, I agree it can be a crutch, but it can also reach where you cannot climb, so there is often a need for it to do the light reduction cuts that limbs often need.

For those who are dissing the scabbard, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.:/:

[Greenhorn]

isnt it always a compromise - the safest method versus the most profitable - bid higher and scabbard the darn things is the answer I guess - the trees I'm in a polesaw makes you way more $ without compromising quality.

[Ryan]

I used to be terribly dependant on a polesaw to the point where I was using it when I shouldn't have been. I speared it to the ground more often than hang it in the tree due to the frustration that comes with dragging the thing around with you.

[sotc]

nuthin wrong with a big guy like you stripping out a small top like that with a pole. spearing it on the other hand is hard on the glass. ill drop em butt first to a groundy to catch

[The Branch Doctor]

Here's my solution to the hanging polesaw issue and it's working well for me. I usually clip it to the black tether but when I want my saw blade to hang below my body I use the orange one.

[top hopper]

I cant carry my pole saw like that....

the thrusters on my jet pack would melt the blade.

[MasterBlaster]

You carry a polesaw on a TD?

[sotc]

sometimes i have one sent up on a long skinny top that i want to shave one side off

[The Branch Doctor]

You carry a polesaw on a TD?

I do if I need to but I just had it on so I could get a pic of it connected to my saddle.

[MasterBlaster]

Cool. I've staged one or two posed shots, myself! :lol:

[The Branch Doctor]

Nice one boss.:D

[MasterBlaster]

:lol:

[Burnham]

Butch is real nervous being in a tree, can you tell?

;)