No Top handle saw - safety

[Bart]

I just watched a guy in a bucket truck cut and chuck all of a 60' tree using a backhandle saw.

It went something like this. Two hands to start the cut. Near when the pice might fold down the saw was kept running, left hand reached out for the grab and catch, as the piece parted both the still spinning saw (chain) and piece swung down. Only exception was snap cuts on the spar. You could give it a name like the "pendulum dance".

Seems like a step backwards from the control of the bar you get in such a situation with a top handle saw.

Anyone with insights, observations, whether corporate management knows of this reality? Company was On_____ Line Clearing but I bet they're not the only ones doing it.

 

[Bermy]

That's a disaster waiting to happen.
Tell me he wasn't reaching over the bar to catch the piece?
I just finished a week of cherry picker work, one handing my 150t a lot, but switching it from left to right hand depending which side the piece was on, never reach over the bar.

 

[Altissimus]

Started a thread about this awhile back when Asplundh was on one our of jobs ... think it was "Asplundh Blues" , seems corporate took away all their top handles

 

[Mellow]

It's all good... until it's not.

 

[Bermy]

So, corporate figured it's better to up the percentage chance of muscular injuries from one handing a rear handle saw than a top handle? Pretty bass-akward if you ask me.

 

[SkwerI]

Big corporations' rules are written by lawyers. They look very closely at injuries in the workplace and they determined that too many injuries occurred using top handle saws, so they forbade their use. What is easier makes no difference to them, they look at the bottom line. When the orange crew removed 2 pines in my back yard last month, I watched the chipper guys fight feeding a few limbs for a long time using only a hand saw, because use of a chainsaw required putting on chaps and that was too much bother.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I onehandle a lot too, as long as I need to control the piece. If I don't care to dammage something, two hands. Precision cut, two hands. Reducing the strain on the wrist and arm, two hands. Small stuff to keep in respect, one hand, until 2" diameter, depending of the weight; over 2", it's a multipurpose sling and two hands. Bucking a spar, co leader; main limb, I rarely snapcut. It's two hands to start the cut until the 2/.3 or 3/4, then one hand to finish ( straight cut most of the time) the other hand at the top of the log to control it (avoiding falling, lifting it a bit to not pinch the bar,pulling the other way to disengage the bar). It works this way with the 441 too or bigger, even if the lifting part becomes more difficult over20". I add the forearm as a support under the COG if the log is a heavy leaner. For an horizontal limb, I take the intended log under my arm (or over, as needed) and cut it straight, one hand too of course.

But I don't swing the running saw, too much risk to hit something unexpectingly.

 

[Jomo]

I find brushing trees with a handsaw's preferable, then 200T for the wood.



Jomo

 

[Bart]

If you're catching, then swinging to vertical, then flop landing an 8 foot branch you're grabbing it above the saw bar in the cut. No way around it that I can think of to remember what they did other than that. Simultaneous pendulum swings as the saw fell off the surface of the stub. So yes, reaching over the saw.

Same fellas, good friendly people on a personal basis to talk to, felled a smaller tree without a pullover tie rope, where a misjudgement of crown weighting direction would've landed the tree directly on the remaining vehicle in my driveway. They declined my offer/suggestion of a tie rope three times. The hinge was (post mortem) 3/4" to 3/8" tapered before the tree would move, verrry slowly. Barely had the correct lean weighting. Doh!