finger

Don't flame me i'm trying to break the one hand habit myself. Ive started the cut with two hands and once the chain is deep enough in the kerf Ill hold the limb with the left and cut with the right. I could snap cut or use a webbing sling, those options don;t always present themselves. it usually on smaller stuff with a target under neeth. Let the flailing begin.
 
I’m not going to flail you or anyone else here…not my style. Pete, I’m sorry about your hand. Sh*t happens in this industry and it’s always great to learn from our mistakes. Like you said, there were other factors at play in your accident, besides just one handing the saw.

When I first started out, I would NEVER one hand a saw. Well times have changed. I feel that there are times when not only can you one hand a chainsaw, but that you SHOULD do so to insure your safety. The best chainsaw article on one handing a saw pros/cons appeared in the first Arb Climber issue last fall. You guys should read it.

Obviously I would never tell a new climber that they should one hand a chainsaw, but I will show them how to do it safely to insure that when the times comes for them to do it (and it will for sure), that they don’t get hurt.

The trick is to not let it become a habit. Know when you should use it and when not to.

This goes against everything that I was taught, but I know that in the real world things aren’t always black and white. There are an awful lot of gray areas that people need to be aware of to work safely.

If anyone wants to flail me, or take away my CTSP, go right ahead. I have thick skin, which hasn’t been cut with a chainsaw…yet
 
Thanks Chris. Healing up pretty well but could use all the help I can get. Treehumper, seeing as you're local, let's take a journey together, why don't you come on down and give it a big wet slippery kiss, don't forget your hand snips and tube top.
 

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I agree, if one handing a saw is a gray area, then don't make a rule about it saying that it's unsafe and should NEVER be used. Let the competent tree work decide when they should use it.

Sorry Pete, I don't want to derail your thread and turn it into a one hand saw debate, I just don't like it when people make a blanket statement about something that isn't true.

Your finger looks pretty swollen, but healing up ok.
 
petes said:
Gee I didn't see that coming. You're right it couldve been prevented if I had two hands on the saw. And then at least I'd have the prettiest hands on the unemployment line. Maybe in Asheville it's a utopian tree world where you can skip around with hand pruners and get paid, but that wouldn't fly around here. I didn't want to mention one handing in hopes that this thread wouldn't result in a pc tree guy backlash but I must have been delusional from the percocet.
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One of the funniest posts I've read in awhile.

I've been finding interesting older threads on this forum as a result of reading a particular interesting post written by some forum member, and then wondering what other interesting things they may have written in the past. So I go to their profile pages and look at their drop-down history of old posts. I'll find a title that seems to have merit, click on it, and often read the entirety of an old thread I had never seen before.

Along the way, in these same threads, I read interesting posts from other members I've never heard of. So I click on the name of these members, to see what else they might have posted, and to see if they might be worth "following".

I should explain here that my purpose in "following" forum members is simply to help feed my addiction to new information about all of this arb stuff. Instead of just having "new posts" as a source of supply for things I have not yet read, following people generates a list of posts almost every time I log in, that I might otherwise have completely missed, just because the posts are no longer "new".

So one of the things that happens is that I find interesting posts written by forum members that might have hundreds of posts to their credit, and when I follow up and go to their profile pages I find that they dropped off the face of the earth two years ago, or something similar. Too bad, really, because I'd love to hear more from them, and it makes me wonder what the heck happened.

No real point to this, just lamenting the loss of interesting forum members. Thanks for listening.

Tim
 
chris_girard said:
The trick is to not let it become a habit. Know when you should use it and when not to.

This goes against everything that I was taught, but I know that in the real world things aren’t always black and white. There are an awful lot of gray areas that people need to be aware of to work safely.

If anyone wants to flail me, or take away my CTSP, go right ahead. I have thick skin, which hasn’t been cut with a chainsaw…yet
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Well said! Sometimes one handing is the ONLY option!.. But do it "right!!"... (full extension, saw as perpendicular to arm as pos...anticipate kickback going anyplace else but back towards you!)...

(Don't let the chief see!!...)

...(n don't cut off your finger!!)
 
I know two people personally that took a chainsaw to the flesh and both claim that if the saw was cutting properly they wouldn't have. My mentor would NEVER go up a tree with a dull saw.. That's like playing a guitar when its out of tune.. DON"T DO IT! Once again such a small detail and such a price to pay... Live another day.. Wishing ALL well.. health, peace and prosperity
 
@treehumper, Wow, no kidding? That is an amazing data point, thanks for sharing it.

Sometimes I work around folks that want to be a bit cavalier with safety oriented stuff, and it bugs me, especially when it relates to them just trying to save a nickel on some fairly cheap material. I have given in to these folks at times as a result of unrelenting pressure from them to cut a corner with regard to safety, and nearly every time I do, something bad almost happens. It hasn't happened, but it was close. It reaffirms my faith in that little feeling in my guts that warns me that something I've just been asked to do is a really bad idea. I realize now that it is important for me to stand my ground on these individual issues. Even more important than that, however, is to stop the insistence upon bad practices by a workmate in its tracks by getting straight just who is in charge here, and who is it that has final say over how we operate in this current situation.

If, in the arb work scenario, the answer that comes out of the other person's mouth is someone other than me, (the climber), it is time for me to come down to the ground and let the other guy climb the tree, and accomplish the task.

Sorry if I'm going off here; it just really bothers me when people doubt my judgement about things safety related, and the more I give in, the worse it gets. Better to be an iron fist in a velvet glove. End of rant.

Tim

(Edit) P.S. This rant had nothing to do specifically with one handing a chainsaw. It deals more with safety generally, and following your guts, in particular, in order to stay safe and prevent accidents.
 
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Yeah, that figure is purely the money laid out by the insurer for medical expenses and temporary benefits. To me and the company it's another major chunk of change. I probably lost over $60k in income, incurred some major interest on the credit cards we used to offset that loss of income and I missed out on 10 cat rescues! Those alone cost me $12oo and the opportunities for tree work that arise from the rescues.

The company is now paying a higher WC premium and lost out on significant revenues from my absence.

So, the next time you think you're saving some serious cash by taking a short cut around a safety procedure, think again. Even if you add up all the time savings it will not amount to what the accident will cost. And that's just hard costs. There's the intangible emotional costs that is paid by those around you. Your spouse/partner, kids, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, their spouses, even your clients who may, as in my case, witnessed your accident. Imagine those that had witnessed a fatality at their property!

Paul O'Neil put it bluntly to his executives when he told them ALCOA was setting it's goal at zero fatalities in their company (about 40,000 employees worldwide). When they said it was admirable but wouldn't it be more realistic to set it at say 1 per 1000? He asked them who would volunteer to be that 1 in order for them to "meet their target"?

TimBr, next time someone pressures you, stop and ask them if they'll be the one to explain to your loved ones what happened if you get hurt or killed? Then let them know that you don't want to be put in that position by them either.
 
@treehumper; Apologies if you've already covered this in brutal detail elsewhere already, but if you don't mind, could you give me a ballpark idea of how long you were out of work as a result of this incident? No offense taken if you don't wish to talk about this.

I'm glad you're back to work.

Tim

P.S. Thanks for the advice on how to handle it when others wish to take shortcuts or otherwise create a safety hazard.
 
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Tim, I wrote an article about my experience and discussed it in the awakenings forum under Treehumper down and getting back up. I think it was the November 2014 issue of TCI magazine.

It was 2 weeks shy of a year. I'm still seeing a pain management specialist and will be finalizing the WC claim in the near future. I'll have to live with the pain and some numbness in parts of my foot.
 
Thanks for this answer, treehumper. I went back and read through that thread again. Really tough break. I'm glad you survived the fall, and are hopefully still back and climbing. Sorry to hear about the continuing pain and numbness in your foot. I hope your body heals even this, in time.

Thank you for being so open with everyone concerning the details of this incident.

Tim
 
TimBr said:
Thanks for this answer, treehumper. I went back and read through that thread again. Really tough break. I'm glad you survived the fall, and are hopefully still back and climbing. Sorry to hear about the continuing pain and numbness in your foot. I hope your body heals even this, in time.

Thank you for being so open with everyone concerning the details of this incident.

Tim
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Thanks Tim. I'm back at it. Busy as ever. The pain and numbness won't go away (previous injuries have taught me that!) it's just the way it's going to be. That's just another reason to be safe.
 
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