Bend-and-Swing-Rigging

[chris_girard]

Here's an article from one of my rigging jobs from a few summers ago, that deals with lifting and swinging trees.

Some interesting tips on utilizing the wood fibers in the tree to your advantage.

Bend-and-Swing Rigging

OK, here’s what we had to do: Remove two bent birch trees (leaders) that were overhanging a beach. We couldn’t just drop them into the lake, because we had no way to fish them out of the water. They would be partially submerged and ridiculously heavy underwater, and they were already full-length...

tcimag.tcia.org

 

[lxskllr]

Birch is pretty flexible, right? Any idea what you'd have done with something more brittle?

 

[Ryan]

Great video to complement the article!

 

[chris_girard]

Birch is pretty flexible, right? Any idea what you'd have done with something more brittle?

Yeah, Birch is very flexible. If it had been something more brittle like Poplar, I would have probably used a second side-tensioning line.

 

[chris_girard]

Great video to complement the article!

Thanks!

 

[Kaveman]

While I haven't necessarily had call for this, it's always nice to have spare tools in the box. Thank you Mr. Girard.

 

[Burnham]

Nicely done.

 

[SeanKroll]

Well done

 

[Bart]

A related technique in a Reg video is where he loosely slings a conifer branch to the zip line (branch on opposite side of tree from zip line) the he makes a 45 degree downward aimed "felling" notch and the back cut so the branch swings out to the side from behind the trunk before it detaches. Relies on flexible chewy fiber like wood.