tight cocos palm

[imagineero]

i removed a couple of cocos today, thought it would be about an hour job but ended up taking ages. They weren't that big - about 25' and 14"DBH with modest crowns, the first one went well but the second one was probably one of the hardest cocos removals I've ever done.

I was up in the tree and the 200t was bogging down a bit so I went for a bigger saw. Couldnt even get the bar all the way into the tree without it binding! I thought it might have been a blunt chain so down goes the sw and a fresh chain on it. Exactly the same. Thought it might have been the bar so I grabbed another saw. Exactly the same. I've never seen a palm with so much bind on it.

Tried all the usual tricks - a wedge, backing out of the cut then back in, pulling out and re-boring, cursing, cursing extra loud, thinking hateful thoughts... nothing seemed to work at all. In the end I managed to rip the spar straight down into quarters, then use the tip of the bar to cross cut. I ended up using nearly 2 full tanks of fuel on that one palm. It seemed like an entirely normal palm except that there were a couple of splits in it up near the top, lengthways about 3 feet long and maybe an inch or two deep. Never seen a palm split like that. It wasn't dry.

Anybody found a good trick for dealing with this?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[ozzy42]

What I have found helps on spongey palms is to back out of the cut as you described,then re-insert the saw about a 1/16 of an inch above or below the first cut.Seems to help reliive some of the pinching pressure.May have to do this 2 or 3 times.After about half way thru the log I push upward with my left arm[no safety police ,please] while pushing the saw out thru the backside.
The first 5-6 feet below the head seems to always be the morst.