BobL...you always seem to amaze me with your links to valuable information.
Cheers Andrew, I go through an interesting tension when it comes to making rigs and jigs. As a scientist one is trained to go see what has been done first so I spend a fair bit of time researching stuff. But before I do that I often just see what I can come up with by myself - that way I an not fooled into just following the existing ruts. 95% of the time I cannot compete with what has been done before so I do end up following the herd.
A very good history lesson on logging tools. You mentioned that your cant dragon is too big for small logs...how small is that? Your small ones might be big for me.
By too big, I mean the hooks are too big. My big cant hook is 14" long and the handle is 48" long so it is 62" long overall. The Cant dragon is 12" long with a 36" handle and the hook is still too big for small longs. The next one I make will have a 10" hook.
Lots of danger in the woods...I bet your Dad would be amazed to hear it's more dangerous to get to the woods..than work in them.
Not really, he stopped felling trees was he was permanently disabled in a logging truck accident on the way to the logging site.
The accident was, as they say, an unfortunate series of events.
The truck was doing 50 mph in a storm and Lightning hit a 120' x 36" hardwood tree that fell onto a gravel road immediately in front of the log truck. The driver hit the brakes hard, and instinctively steered his side of the truck away from the tree. The air brakes on the prime mover held, but they failed on the massive 8 wheeled bogie/jinker traveling behind, and as it was not attached firmly enough to the hitch, it slid down the hitch and slammed the truck now at an angle into the log. Dad was on the side of the truck that struck the tree.
Dad could see all this coming so he grabbed hold of the sides of his seat just as the truck hit. As he flew through the truck windscreen with is head, still hanging onto the passengers seat (luckily he had not put on his seat belt of he would have been squashed into a 2' gap) he tore off his left knee cap and broke his left leg in several places. He then went flying through the air and hit a big upright tree head on (lucky he had his hardhat on) broke several ribs, cracked three vertebrae and had serious internal injuries. He spent 2 years off work but never recovered his physical health and went back to school and became an office worker. For this injury and loss of income he was paid the princely sum of US$1200 which basically our family broke - but that is another story.
Like I said - the drive to milling it's a dangerous business.
