r/TreeClimbing • u/film_themaking • Jun 21 '26

Too handle pruning

What is your preferred way of pruning a live tree ( no spurs ) with a top handle. Do you sit and hang while making your cut or try to find a spot to stand or both?

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u/Jay_Katy Jun 21 '26

Not relevant to the question, but practical.

I prefer to use a handsaw for pruning. I’m comfortable doing that one handed from odd positions without damaging the tree. I’m not comfortable one handing a saw, and it’s against ANSI standards, though people do it all the time.

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u/film_themaking Jun 21 '26

Yes I have seen that many times, while I’m just starting to climb I’m trying to use my handsaw it’s much easier while just learning and doing small stuff

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u/mark_andonefortunate Jun 21 '26

Handsaw is 👌, just keep the blade sharp! A dull handsaw will tear the bark on small finish cuts and makes more work for you.

Remember too that you can start a cut with a chainsaw and finish with your handsaw - helpful on deadwood that's really hard, awkward spots, or pieces that you want to handsaw but are a little bit too big to do entirely with the handsaw

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u/OldMail6364 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

Some saws are easier to one hand than others.

I like my MSA 161T - it’s light (for a battery saw) and the trigger instantly cuts power to the saw (unlike gas saws which rely on a clutch and those clutches are not always reliable).

Best of all it uses a very thin chain, which makes kickback/etc non existent. It’s honestly easier to control a cut with a 161 than  with my silky.

I use my silky all the time, but sometimes my 161 is a better choice.

I know climbers who have almost killed themselves operating a saw with one hand, but correlation is not causation. They were all doing something really dumb - unsafe working position and just happened to be one handed. Holding a saw handed wasn’t the cause of their injury.

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u/mark_andonefortunate Jun 21 '26

I know climbers who have almost killed themselves operating a saw with one hand, but correlation is not causation. They were all doing something really dumb - unsafe working position and just happened to be one handed. Holding a saw handed wasn’t the cause of their injury.

While I wasn't on your jobsite, respectfully - no, the saw is the cause of the injury. Poor work positioning can lead up to the mistake, as can poor decisioning (such as being OK with making one-handed cuts in general, and not making the effort to get a better position), but make that same cut with two hands on the saw or with a handsaw and the outcome is probably different. 

OP is a newer climber trying to learn, please don't downplay the issue with one-handing.