Saw a guy trimming a massive oak with a dull handsaw yesterday in Austin

I was driving home and spotted this crew working on a huge live oak near 6th Street. The climber was up there sawing for like 10 minutes on a branch maybe 4 inches thick, just grinding away. I pulled over and watched, and sure enough his blade was toast. You could hear the saw catching and tearing instead of cutting clean. He finally got it but left a nasty jagged collar on the trunk. That tree is gonna have a hell of a time sealing that wound. Am I the only one who can't stand seeing people fight their tools instead of just sharpening them?

3 comments

3 Comments

chen.casey12h agoMost Upvoted

Wait, how is it even possible to climb a tree with a saw that dull and not realize you're ruining the job? I totally get what you mean, it's painful to watch someone fight their gear like that. That jagged collar is basically an open invitation for rot and bugs to move in. A sharp blade would've made that cut in like 30 seconds flat, no tearing or ragged edges. That tree's gonna be struggling to heal that wound for years, all because someone couldn't spare a few minutes with a file. You'd think if you're getting paid to work on trees you'd respect the wood enough to keep your tools in good shape.

derekjenkins2d ago

Read a piece from some arborist blog a while back that said a dull saw can actually cause more damage to the tree than just a bad cut. The tearing shreds the cambium layer and makes it way harder for the tree to compartmentalize the wound. Your mileage may vary, but that jagged collar you described sounds like a textbook example of that. Always bugs me to see someone fighting their gear instead of taking ten minutes with a file.

charles_kelly432d ago

Is it really that hard for people to just sharpen their tools once in a while, @derekjenkins? You'd think they'd rather wreck a tree than touch a file for five minutes.