I love the Blake hitch.....I wish I could give the inventor a hug! That's the best knot for any climber to know. I also do a double tail knot just for insurance that the tail cannot slip through the hitch!
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
I love the Blake hitch.....I wish I could give the inventor a hug! That's the best knot for any climber to know. I also do a double tail knot just for insurance that the tail cannot slip through the hitch!
Scotty , we use to use one of these when I was the NY States DOT tree crew..Saved setting up the bucket truck, you could attach your climbing line to the throw ball line or just send up a pull rope over a heavy crotch bring the tail down and tie a bowline above the face cut your going to make.. No need to climb the tree to set a line.. Your tied in to start your climb or to pull over a tree,, I still have a throw ball , no sling shot, but use it to set my pull lines here on the farm.. my climbing gear was borrowed and never returned, a big mistake....now it has probably been UV damaged by now, wouldn't trust it!
Don't you just hate when your out of tail 5 feet from the ground
.. That's when you say give me a break! Funniest thing when I first started climbing, the tree was twice as high once I got up in it and the limbs twice as big also
,, looking at things from the ground!The guys name was Blake who invented the knot... he discovered by accident, and when he first came out with it, he had you send money and then he sent you an instruction sheet on how to tie the knot... then the word got out and someone posted it in Arborage magazine.. That's a good magazine that came monthly.. Use to have a back page about rigging and one called Lessons Learned! One article talked about an arborist walking off a big pine tree job, he kept going through chains.. so was told to the next guy that came to take the tree down, get this, for some reason a woodpecker loaded the tree with stones over a period of years..
Scotty,
Check out these guys videos.. I went to one of their seminars on rigging about 20 years ago.. They are some wicked good climbers.. They've taken down some nasty dead trees that I would even consider climbing back then... They have like 44 videos.. If you can work smarter and safer, I'm all for that.. That's where I learned about using the loop runners and binners.. Use to just load my rear loop on my climbing harness up with about at least 6... If I had to limb walk out to tip tie something that required a lot of balance, I would take a loop runner and put it around a limb where I was coming back in to make my cut and hang my saw until I got back in from my limb walk.. When I was first learning to limb walk and scared to death my seasoned buddy would yell up , "get out there where the work is"! Man he killed me! We had a huge friction bollard when I worked on the states DOT crew.. Trick was to keep things in motion and slowly brake the fall, not shocking loading the rope or piece to a sudden stop.. It was fast and saved time... You could build one, just a liability issue, but the states was built.. Ours had short spikes welded on that dug into the tree as you tightened the strap.. Some people install a lag through a hole in the bollard plate to keep it from riding up.. Once you use one you'll always use it.. It's nice to stop the piece and tie it off before the ground to limb some chipper wood off as well, or any stubs that will keep you from rolling the wood over later on when bucking..Sorry for the long post,, guess you can tell I enjoyed my days as a tree worker.. Oh, and there's no exercise to simulate tree work ! Know one knows what it's like to hang out at all those bad angles at times , plus making a cut 
.. Sometimes you felt like your getting torn in two.. Ahhh,,,, but you came back for more! I think the nice thing was your mind was just on the climbing, almost meditative in a way! All your problems are left on the ground! I loved being outdoors! I worked with one guy on line clearance was 46 years old, climbed all his life, had a 28 inch waste.. Talk about being in good shape! I use to bring him in my kids used blue jeans as he grew out of them...
Met a lot of good folks in the tree business.. Knew two guys in their 70's that still climbed, LOL!
Check out these guys videos.. I went to one of their seminars on rigging about 20 years ago.. They are some wicked good climbers.. They've taken down some nasty dead trees that I would even consider climbing back then... They have like 44 videos.. If you can work smarter and safer, I'm all for that.. That's where I learned about using the loop runners and binners.. Use to just load my rear loop on my climbing harness up with about at least 6... If I had to limb walk out to tip tie something that required a lot of balance, I would take a loop runner and put it around a limb where I was coming back in to make my cut and hang my saw until I got back in from my limb walk.. When I was first learning to limb walk and scared to death my seasoned buddy would yell up , "get out there where the work is"! Man he killed me!
We had a huge friction bollard when I worked on the states DOT crew.. Trick was to keep things in motion and slowly brake the fall, not shocking loading the rope or piece to a sudden stop.. It was fast and saved time... You could build one, just a liability issue, but the states was built.. Ours had short spikes welded on that dug into the tree as you tightened the strap.. Some people install a lag through a hole in the bollard plate to keep it from riding up.. Once you use one you'll always use it.. It's nice to stop the piece and tie it off before the ground to limb some chipper wood off as well, or any stubs that will keep you from rolling the wood over later on when bucking..Sorry for the long post,, guess you can tell I enjoyed my days as a tree worker.. Oh, and there's no exercise to simulate tree work ! Know one knows what it's like to hang out at all those bad angles at times , plus making a cut .. Sometimes you felt like your getting torn in two.. Ahhh,,,, but you came back for more! I think the nice thing was your mind was just on the climbing, almost meditative in a way! All your problems are left on the ground! I loved being outdoors! I worked with one guy on line clearance was 46 years old, climbed all his life, had a 28 inch waste.. Talk about being in good shape! I use to bring him in my kids used blue jeans as he grew out of them... Met a lot of good folks in the tree business.. Knew two guys in their 70's that still climbed, LOL!Scotty,
Check out these guys videos.. I went to one of their seminars on rigging about 20 years ago.. They are some wicked good climbers.. They've taken down some nasty dead trees that I would even consider climbing back then... They have like 44 videos.. If you can work smarter and safer, I'm all for that.. That's where I learned about using the loop runners and binners.. Use to just load my rear loop on my climbing harness up with about at least 6... If I had to limb walk out to tip tie something that required a lot of balance, I would take a loop runner and put it around a limb where I was coming back in to make my cut and hang my saw until I got back in from my limb walk.. When I was first learning to limb walk and scared to death my seasoned buddy would yell up , "get out there where the work is"! Man he killed me!
Thanks for sharing that Charly! I love.that climbing too, you pretty much nailed it with that post!
- Status
