andrew346
ArboristSite Operative
Ok so officially hes not actually my BIL, hes married to my sister in law so for all intents and purchases hes the same thing.
Im very fond of the guy, wed hang out and get on well but hes TERRIBLE with tools. Hes that mix of supreme confidence and (i dont mean this as nastily as it sounds) stupidity- especially when it comes to tools.
Its become a tradition around new yrs day for us to go to my father in laws and take down a tree. My father in law has the box store type saw, another guy comes down with a borrowed saw- last yr it was an ms290 this yr it was a small McCullagh. My BIL has no saw so he usually comandeers one of the other saws if he gets a chance. I deliberately only brought down my 346 and the 200t( some climbing involved for this yrs tree) i dint want to bring any other saw because then id have been obliged to lend him a saw and i really didnt want to do that.
touching up my saws before we started and i had the file to fit my FILs saw so i sharpened it. He complained of it having no power and dying in the cut previously- i guess it must have been blunt as it worked well on the day after it was sharpened.
Id already climbed and took out the tops of two of the trees (one sycamore but it spit into 6 indvidual tall skinny trees) before my BIL arrived. Those two tops were leaning the wrong way and had we felled them at the base it was likely to catch the electric wire if it went wrong. ANYWAY my bil comes and were working away when one of the other guys has an accident. nothing major.. one of the trees was down and we were limbing it all up and he got a whack across the face by a branch under tension. He went inside to get fixed up and there was his mcCullagh and my BIL picks it up and gets a'cuttin!
Later on i notice its spitting dust not chips.. i ask the injured guy if he wants me to sharpen it i have the file with me and thats what i do. My BIL has it again and its cutting pretty well. Next thing.. no more than 3 or 4 mins later he calls me over.. laughs and says you might need to sharpen it again.. hes hit something.
There was on old rusty metal tubular gate lying nearby, some green from the trees over the yrs had got on it and to him it looked like a branch!! he was cutting away with sparks flying!!
Now i didnt write all this to make fun of my friend for an honest mistake!! its just i KNEW something like this would happen with him. He breaks things its what he does! he insisted on setting the ropes in the trees for some of the leaners and although he didnt use my spurs he went swinging up like a monkey, insisting on my 200t to do some pruning while he was up there. I advised him against it, just nervous of what might happen. I told him that this saw would punish mistakes really badly but i also hated to patronise the guy. I suppose i was weak in letting him use it but it can be hard to say no to your friends some times. but it was cringeworthy to watch. Last yrs tree he did exactly the same but used my beloved brand new 346xp to do the same. he cut.. got it stuck and next thing i knew he had a hand saw and was cutting the branch on the other side to get it free.. only i noticed that he wasnt even holding my saw for when it would get loose!!!!!!!! SWINE!! I pointed this out and he paused, let out a laugh and an oops!! like hed just trod on my toe instead of potentially smashing my favourite saw!!
What else did he do that day? one of the ropes he set.. way to low - which we all pointed out. This resulted in the tree falling ON the rope and snapping it. He also refused to use a timber hitch- preferring some weird "better" knot which was a PITA to loose after. He also had a swing of my really nice 1952 axe to split some wood and in his enthusiasm swung really hard, glancing blow and my 58 yr old axe smacks the concrete.. Last yr one of his pruned branches was cut without consideration and crushes my FILs garden trellis.. He really is a disaster when it comes to this sort of thing.
That being said it was a good day and despite the BIL and his distruction.. it wouldnt have been the same without him there, simply because hes one of those guys you cant stay angry with for long. And yet so much more could have gone wrong, there was electric on one side.. FILs outbuildings on the other and then a little telephone wire on the other side. (i was able do disconect it and set it down and reconect afterwards- thats my line of work) Im just glad noone got hurt because i would have been responsible- lettig him use my 200t when i KNEW it was unsafe to do so. Not that im an expert, i have no training either, just read a lot and am enthusiastic. but i DO respect any saw when im cutting.
im really looking forward to next yrs. :greenchainsaw:
Thanks for reading
A
Im very fond of the guy, wed hang out and get on well but hes TERRIBLE with tools. Hes that mix of supreme confidence and (i dont mean this as nastily as it sounds) stupidity- especially when it comes to tools.
Its become a tradition around new yrs day for us to go to my father in laws and take down a tree. My father in law has the box store type saw, another guy comes down with a borrowed saw- last yr it was an ms290 this yr it was a small McCullagh. My BIL has no saw so he usually comandeers one of the other saws if he gets a chance. I deliberately only brought down my 346 and the 200t( some climbing involved for this yrs tree) i dint want to bring any other saw because then id have been obliged to lend him a saw and i really didnt want to do that.
touching up my saws before we started and i had the file to fit my FILs saw so i sharpened it. He complained of it having no power and dying in the cut previously- i guess it must have been blunt as it worked well on the day after it was sharpened.
Id already climbed and took out the tops of two of the trees (one sycamore but it spit into 6 indvidual tall skinny trees) before my BIL arrived. Those two tops were leaning the wrong way and had we felled them at the base it was likely to catch the electric wire if it went wrong. ANYWAY my bil comes and were working away when one of the other guys has an accident. nothing major.. one of the trees was down and we were limbing it all up and he got a whack across the face by a branch under tension. He went inside to get fixed up and there was his mcCullagh and my BIL picks it up and gets a'cuttin!
Later on i notice its spitting dust not chips.. i ask the injured guy if he wants me to sharpen it i have the file with me and thats what i do. My BIL has it again and its cutting pretty well. Next thing.. no more than 3 or 4 mins later he calls me over.. laughs and says you might need to sharpen it again.. hes hit something.
There was on old rusty metal tubular gate lying nearby, some green from the trees over the yrs had got on it and to him it looked like a branch!! he was cutting away with sparks flying!!
Now i didnt write all this to make fun of my friend for an honest mistake!! its just i KNEW something like this would happen with him. He breaks things its what he does! he insisted on setting the ropes in the trees for some of the leaners and although he didnt use my spurs he went swinging up like a monkey, insisting on my 200t to do some pruning while he was up there. I advised him against it, just nervous of what might happen. I told him that this saw would punish mistakes really badly but i also hated to patronise the guy. I suppose i was weak in letting him use it but it can be hard to say no to your friends some times. but it was cringeworthy to watch. Last yrs tree he did exactly the same but used my beloved brand new 346xp to do the same. he cut.. got it stuck and next thing i knew he had a hand saw and was cutting the branch on the other side to get it free.. only i noticed that he wasnt even holding my saw for when it would get loose!!!!!!!! SWINE!! I pointed this out and he paused, let out a laugh and an oops!! like hed just trod on my toe instead of potentially smashing my favourite saw!!
What else did he do that day? one of the ropes he set.. way to low - which we all pointed out. This resulted in the tree falling ON the rope and snapping it. He also refused to use a timber hitch- preferring some weird "better" knot which was a PITA to loose after. He also had a swing of my really nice 1952 axe to split some wood and in his enthusiasm swung really hard, glancing blow and my 58 yr old axe smacks the concrete.. Last yr one of his pruned branches was cut without consideration and crushes my FILs garden trellis.. He really is a disaster when it comes to this sort of thing.
That being said it was a good day and despite the BIL and his distruction.. it wouldnt have been the same without him there, simply because hes one of those guys you cant stay angry with for long. And yet so much more could have gone wrong, there was electric on one side.. FILs outbuildings on the other and then a little telephone wire on the other side. (i was able do disconect it and set it down and reconect afterwards- thats my line of work) Im just glad noone got hurt because i would have been responsible- lettig him use my 200t when i KNEW it was unsafe to do so. Not that im an expert, i have no training either, just read a lot and am enthusiastic. but i DO respect any saw when im cutting.
im really looking forward to next yrs. :greenchainsaw:
Thanks for reading
A
