Got burned by a hidden hinge crack on a big oak in Portland last month

I was up in a 60 foot red oak near Mt. Tabor, and a hinge I thought was solid turned out to have a hairline crack hidden under some bark. The tree started to go sideways on me before I could get a proper pull line set. Lucky for me my groundie saw it and yelled, but now I always shave a test strip of bark off the hinge face before I make my final cut on anything over 30 inches. Anybody else ever had a hidden defect almost cost them? I'm wondering if there's a better way to check besides just scraping bark.

3 comments

3 Comments

jessica_ross383mo ago

That 'hinge face' area is actually the hold wood, not the hinge itself.

terry_jones3mo ago

Huh, never thought about it that way. Guess I've been calling it wrong this whole time.

dixon.spencer2mo ago

Man I read about this exact thing in an old safety bulletin from the PNW logging council. They recommended taking a drawknife or just a sharpened file and peeling a 2 inch wide strip clean down the middle of your hinge face before the final cut. Apparently conifers are the worst for hiding cracks under thick bark but oaks can do it too. Another guy I used to climb with would also take his saw and cut a shallow 1 inch deep relief slot across the hinge line to peek underneath. Seems like extra work but beats having a 60 footer go sideways on you.

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