What is a Barber Chair????
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A good example of one. Tree splits vertically up with the broken off part free to go all kinds of directions. Definitely a pants filler if it happens to you.
Leaners are particularly prone to do it as are some species.
My practice is to chain (put a log chain around the stem above my cut) any tree that may barber chair.
Harry K
A good example of one. Tree splits vertically up with the broken off part free to go all kinds of directions. Definitely a pants filler if it happens to you.
Leaners are particularly prone to do it as are some species.
My practice is to chain (put a log chain around the stem above my cut) any tree that may barber chair.
Harry K
luvthetrobag
ArboristSite Member
happened to me a few times always a leaner or black locusts. started tying off above my notch. luckilly i was on the ground when this happened had it been a big top i was blowing out i would have been dead. I have heard og guys using bore cuts to alleviate this problem .
joesawer
Addicted to ArboristSite
It happens when the face cut closes but the hinge is to thick or strong to break. The momentum of the tree forces the trunk to split. The split back half is often raised high into the air only to slam down when it breaks, or to not break and stay elevated, creating a mouse trap for the faller.
Magnum783
ArboristSite Guru
I have seen it happen in pines too must make sure to check all you face cuts before making your back cut.
Jared
Jared
nytreeman
ArboristSite Operative
Def watch the face cuts esp. in straight grain trees like silver maple or ash etc. I had a tall thin ash yrs back when I was young,maybe 24" diam at base, 60' tall split up probably 40 ft to the first limbs and fall in two that was scary sh!!!T!!! sounded like a giant rifle "crack"always wrap a chain now if I'm worried about them chairing
beowulf343
Addicted to ArboristSite
Get a tree loaded with ice and it will tend to barberchair.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Here's a pic of a mild barberchair in cherry wood. It was a leaner:
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Here's a good one in hickory. I know exactly how and why this one happened.
We set a rope high up to pull the tree over. I did the face cut, began the back cut, but as soon as the tippy tips started to move, I stopped the cut.
Me and the little guy went wayyyy back to the end of the rope, about 2-1/2 tree lengths. I set a 2:1 Z-rig with a cammed pully, so the advantages were definitely on our side. The tree even had a slight lean the direction we wanted it to go. I could have just chop n' dropped the tree, but the goal was to have Jr. involved in pulling the tree over, and be part of the rigging scenario.
We would pull, watch the tips move, stop, get all excited. Ready ourselves, do another pull, stop, get even more excited. We were geeky and he was just having such a large time in his grippy gloves and hearing protection, all manly-man, pulling over an entire tree.
The nice thing about the one-way cammed pulley (Petzl ProTraxion) is when you pull, and stop, the new position is locked in and held.
We got ready for the third pull and POW!, like a rifle shot, it barberchaired, but of course fell right where we wanted it to go.
What we did was replicate the conditions as if it were a leaner with a heavy top. If it WERE a leaner with a heavy top and the cutter had been standing directly behind, he'd have been drop-kicked into the next county.
Imagine if this were up in the air, you're fliplined into a leaning top and you're thinking, "Ahh, no-brainer. Cut here, it falls there." But you're tied into it and as you sink your chainsaw into the back cut, you hear that rifle crack and in a fraction of a second the top barbers, catching you in the gut. It hinges up, digging in deep under your sternum, through to your spine. In the next fraction of that same second you notice that in the mayhem your chainsaw has severed your right leg, but it concerns you not because your flipline has your lower body (minus a leg) held captive, so your upper torso is ripped from your lower half and catapulted into the neighbor's pool. Amidst this (we're now into 2nd second) your intestines have unfurled and although it is entirely debatable where your intestines will snap, or whether they will at all and leave your head and torso hanging far beneath your lower torso, as stated earlier, you were flung with such force as to effect a swan dive into the crystal blue water. Let's call this a 'half swan'.
So you bloodied up the neighbor's pool. You got guts hanging down through the lower limbs of the tree, you're still (partially) aloft, your stupid azz is still fliplined in and saw still running at idle. Most definitely the worst 5 seconds of your life, but your concerns are already on to other things because YOU'RE DEAD.
If you are inwardly focussed, you new concern might be, "Wow, pearly gates. Cool! I wonder if the beer is actually better in Heaven?" If you're an outwardly focussed person, you might think, "Bummer, someone's gotta clean up that mess AND one of my buddys has gotta finish the treejob."
Alway's be watching for the possibility of a barberchair. Hope I've clarified why.
We set a rope high up to pull the tree over. I did the face cut, began the back cut, but as soon as the tippy tips started to move, I stopped the cut.
Me and the little guy went wayyyy back to the end of the rope, about 2-1/2 tree lengths. I set a 2:1 Z-rig with a cammed pully, so the advantages were definitely on our side. The tree even had a slight lean the direction we wanted it to go. I could have just chop n' dropped the tree, but the goal was to have Jr. involved in pulling the tree over, and be part of the rigging scenario.
We would pull, watch the tips move, stop, get all excited. Ready ourselves, do another pull, stop, get even more excited. We were geeky and he was just having such a large time in his grippy gloves and hearing protection, all manly-man, pulling over an entire tree.
The nice thing about the one-way cammed pulley (Petzl ProTraxion) is when you pull, and stop, the new position is locked in and held.
We got ready for the third pull and POW!, like a rifle shot, it barberchaired, but of course fell right where we wanted it to go.
What we did was replicate the conditions as if it were a leaner with a heavy top. If it WERE a leaner with a heavy top and the cutter had been standing directly behind, he'd have been drop-kicked into the next county.
Imagine if this were up in the air, you're fliplined into a leaning top and you're thinking, "Ahh, no-brainer. Cut here, it falls there." But you're tied into it and as you sink your chainsaw into the back cut, you hear that rifle crack and in a fraction of a second the top barbers, catching you in the gut. It hinges up, digging in deep under your sternum, through to your spine. In the next fraction of that same second you notice that in the mayhem your chainsaw has severed your right leg, but it concerns you not because your flipline has your lower body (minus a leg) held captive, so your upper torso is ripped from your lower half and catapulted into the neighbor's pool. Amidst this (we're now into 2nd second) your intestines have unfurled and although it is entirely debatable where your intestines will snap, or whether they will at all and leave your head and torso hanging far beneath your lower torso, as stated earlier, you were flung with such force as to effect a swan dive into the crystal blue water. Let's call this a 'half swan'.
So you bloodied up the neighbor's pool. You got guts hanging down through the lower limbs of the tree, you're still (partially) aloft, your stupid azz is still fliplined in and saw still running at idle. Most definitely the worst 5 seconds of your life, but your concerns are already on to other things because YOU'RE DEAD.
If you are inwardly focussed, you new concern might be, "Wow, pearly gates. Cool! I wonder if the beer is actually better in Heaven?" If you're an outwardly focussed person, you might think, "Bummer, someone's gotta clean up that mess AND one of my buddys has gotta finish the treejob."
Alway's be watching for the possibility of a barberchair. Hope I've clarified why.
BobEMoto
ArboristSite Lurker
:crazy1:
Boa07
ArboristSite Operative
Nicely posted TM if a little graphic...but hey it needs to be, cool kid too mate.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yea, clearly this is a deliberate exaggeration. The point, though, is, it CAN kill you, like so many other things in Arboriculture. Awareness precludes prevention.
I'm just having fun, but also I hope to drive the point home about the inherent dangers. If it saves the life or prevents injury to even one climber, then it worked.
I'm just having fun, but also I hope to drive the point home about the inherent dangers. If it saves the life or prevents injury to even one climber, then it worked.
joesawer
Addicted to ArboristSite
Good point Tree Machine,
Several years ago, young climber in Al had a small leaning fork, that he had wrapped his safety around, barber chaired. It hit him in the mouth, causing lots of damage to his face.
For years after the warning of "Watch Your Lips!" brought back instant recollection of the incident, and was used by some of us as a general warning.
Several years ago, young climber in Al had a small leaning fork, that he had wrapped his safety around, barber chaired. It hit him in the mouth, causing lots of damage to his face.
For years after the warning of "Watch Your Lips!" brought back instant recollection of the incident, and was used by some of us as a general warning.
matty f
ArboristSite Operative
we where taught to use bore cuts on heavy leaners to advoid barbers chairs....that is the only time i use the cut
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