Important Safety Warning

Sylvrfalcn

Sylvrfalcn

Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
3,930
Here's one for all the khukuri lumberjacks out there. Let's say you just felled a nice tree with your chainsaw, and now it's time to draw the trusty khuk and set about de-limbing and such. Be dadgummed careful of any small saplings the tree might have fallen across. They'll be bent over storing energy just like the pole in a good snare setup. A large khuk will lop through a wrist thick sapling with one good lick, suddenly and violently releasing the energy stored in that bent sapling. A sapling of that diameter will recoil with enough force to put out an eye, crush a windpipe, et cetera. So what do you do? Don't cut either end, cut in the middle of the arc of the bent piece of wood, and only enough until the wood cracks, releasing most of it's energy. Same deal for limbs that are supporting the weight of the fallen tree, they're storing energy too.

Before you ask, no, it's never happened to me, and I'm sure plenty of you out there already knew about it, so I thank you for your patient indulgence. It just occurred to me that there's a lot of brand new khuk users popping up on the forum, and some of them may be new to chopping trees down/up. I've been through several hurricanes and seen a lot of folks hurt trying to deal with fallen trees. They can be very dangerous and entirely unforgiving.

Sarge
 
Thanks for the tip Sarge. I've never run into this either, but I wouldn't have thought of the dangers without reading your post. Safety posts are always worth reading, one can never know too much or be too careful.
 
good tip, sarge.

I'll add it to the Khukuri Safety FAQ (the ones on the website - I don't have control over the ones here on the forum), unless you mind.

--B.
 
Much appreciated Ben. By the way, last time I talked to my daughter she was all fired up, seems she's studying Beowulf in Lit class. Her words, "Beowulf rocks daddy!". Good girl, I got her to read some of the Icelandic sagas by enticing her with stories of Killer Hrapp and his stint as a draugr.

Sarge
 
Originally posted by Sylvrfalcn
...By the way, last time I talked to my daughter she was all fired up, seems she's studying Beowulf in Lit class. Her words, "Beowulf rocks daddy!"....
Click to expand...

:D :cool: :)
 
You have come up with another one. Barring the tree being too big I try to keep rolling the tree even if I have to use my come-along and chains. This puts all of the limbs that I have to cut on the top side of the log. My trees are far enough apart that I don't have the problem of saplings getting caught under the fallen tree.

Again, you do come up with some very good advise :)
 
Sarge, I'm glad your daughter likes Beowulf. I remember in HS I had English right after my German class in senior year. Our English teacher put on a record (dating myself) of Beowulf in the original and my fellow German students and I could follow quite a bit of it. Still have a couple of translations on the shelf.

If she likes sagas, your daughter might like some of Poul Anderson's books, like Hrolf Kraki's Saga or The Shield of Three Hearts and Three Lions.
 
This is excellent advice!

I spent a few days helping to clear some crazy vegetation at my g/f's dad's new house. Took along the WW2 passaround Khuk and put it thru some strenuous use. We carted out 6 large trailers full of brush and trees, etc...

I passed along some of the safety tips before handing the knife to future-dad-in-law, and nobody got hurt. We had a great time hacking away with it.

ALWAYS watch where your shins are at, because out there on the downswing, they seem kinda bloodthirsty! Always wanna head towards your legs. So always be aware. The weight of the Khuk needs to be respected as gravity does like to take control.

We stayed aware, did'nt go overboard with it, and the hungry vampire Khuk tasted not a drop of blood. Sure gave my hand, arm, shoulder, back, etc... a bit of a workout!





(to be reprinted in another post for the WW2 review :) )
 
It's good that you posted this, Sarge. I remember reading the safety thread and then rushing outside with my new BAS the minute it came in. It is amazing how quickly you can forget safety when excitement takes over. The one thing I really was not prepared for was how easily these blades cut and how gravity + the weight of the blade can work against you. I was lucky...the BAS cut clean through a branch closest to the ground and into a paving brick. It wasn't a full swing into the brick...I had miscalculated the effort required for the branch, but if that brick had been my foot...:eek:
 
Good advice on the springpoles. This kind of thing can occur where heavy equipment has just cut a road as well. I worked a few summers for a logging company, and a few times got clean-up duty which consisted of looking for spring poles and damaged small trees at the edge of new roads and cutting them off clean. Really sucked. One did wack me in the tin hat and stunned me for a bit. All I knew is that I found myself sitting on my butt with a dented hat next to me and the chainsaw was about twenty five feet away. Somehow, I aways managed to toss the saw far away on the few occasions that something like that happened.

Even a chain that's slowing down to idle can deeply cut flesh and bone. If it's been sharpened by somebody who knows what they are doing, especially a chisel bit chain, it's dangerous indeed if out of control. Here in the city, I see folks using ridiculously dull saws, even arborists. The saw should cut into the wood by itself, if you need to push on it hard, it's dull. When I worked at the log deck I would have slowed the whole crew down with saws that dull, and wore myself out in couple of hours as well. First day I learned to carry a file in my boot, keep the chain the hell out of the dirt, and sharpen. The fallers used full chisel-bit chains and sharpened the chisel part with a flat file. Cutting pine, they didn't make sawdust, they made shavings 6-8" long sometimes.

Also be careful in thickets, a top or large branch can break off and get hung up in a nearby tree. That's called a widow-maker for good reason. If monk gets back on, ask him about this.

And whacking on tall, dead and possibly rotten, or insect-eaten trees is stupid in my book. They are brittle. The top can break off and fall straight down at any time, or they can break into multiple pieces when they start to fall. It is much safer to pull them down with a line or cable, or push them over with a rig that has a properly protected cab. Clearing the working area of such dead trees is SOP in logging operations before people on foot work near heavy equipment. It's mandated by safety regulations, again for good reason. One tap from a rig or dragline and they can instantly fall down in multiple pieces with no warning. Hardly makes sense to stand under one and pound on it with a big khuk for fun. Green trees with dead or diseased tops are also warrant caution.

Have fun, but felling even smaller trees and working in the woods can be very dangerous if one doesn't look and think about what they're doing.

If I recall correctly, offshore comercial fishing and logging are the two most dangerous civilian occupations.
 
Thanks for the heads up.

I almost lost an eye once when chopping up some crayons on carpet... They were kinda old, so they were SUPER HARD!!! :cool: :footinmou :grumpy:
 
Excellent advice gents. The USFS hires professional loggers to deal with blowdowns rather than tackle such problems themselves. Fallen timber is no joke.

Also, when chopping down really big trees keep in mind the hazard of USFS people jumping on you and biting you in the neck. If you don't own the land or haven't paid for the stump, it probably isn't allowed.
 
Dunno how it is now, but back then fallers worked in pairs, and each pair kept well clear of each other. Somebody in training would be essentially be apprenticed to an experienced faller for months and it would be a long time before he would be paired up with a less experienced faller.

Pro cutters work very hard to avoid the kind of jumble that occurs after a storm because it damages the timber to fall on other trees, and it's considerably more dangerous to work in such a mess.
They'd soon be looking for another job, it's not tolerated. The ability to read where it's possible to direct a large falling tree and the skill to put it there doesn't come after a couple of weekends in the woods. Thickets of tall skinny trees like lodgepole pine are no less dangerous than cutting the big stuff, just different.

Learning such things the hard way is a very bad idea, as is trying it alone. This is serious stuff.
 
Good advice. Glad you posted this. No matter how many times you do something, it just takes one time of forgetting to think ahead to get you hurt. I've been meaning to purchase a Peavey to help me roll &/or pick up these smaller trees/logs to help prevent what you are talking about. Y'all don't forget to watch out for those little slit-eyed no-shoulders. Wife did Pappy's beheading trick on one last week that was about 30" long........nice Tennessee copperhead.
 
I don't know about you but, I have yet to run into a copperhead that would back up or run. I don't think they are scared of one dayum thing.:)
 
You're dadgum right about copperheads Pappy, those little devils are fierce. Ran into one while setting up for a field exercise out on one of Ft. Hood's range training areas. That booger struck the blade of my entrenching tool so hard he made it ring. He wasn't put off a bit by going head to head with that piece of steel, he just kept striking and striking, and after several such jarring strikes he'd bloodied himself up pretty bad. I used the edge of my E-tool, which I tend to keep filed sharp (doesn't everybody?) to end his suffering, and placed his head with great reverence under a large rock. He was a brave little warrior, worthy of respect.

Rattlesnakes are relatively docile by comparison, but I got to tell you, as a kid growing up the snake that gave me the worst scares, and the most close calls, was them fat old cottonmouth moccasins. They not only won't back up, if you tick 'em off they'll chase you quite a ways.:eek:

Sarge
 
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