01/11/2020
Today, three mugs here, so my apprentice James, has been doing a lot of climbing and cutting this summer and a few weeks ago he had asked me to make a video about the snap cut, and I said that I would so I wanted to just go over some of the basics about it, what it is how and why it works and when to use it versus not use it.
So I'm, not an expert by any means, but I do use it on a daily basis, and I know for myself it was an essential element in my own training back in the day, so this video is not meant to be comprehensive.
It's just meant to convey the basics for my apprentice James, so I actually use the snap cut in all kinds of situations anytime. I want to be able to put my saw down and then to manually release a piece under control and I use in rigging a lot, but for this post I just wanted to focus on one very common scenario, which is, after you've.
Taken all the brush and the top off now you're left with a spar of wood and you have to get that wood safely down into a small drop zone. So let's. Take a look at the snap cap, so the snap cut is also called the bypass or the mismatch cut.
So as a concept, if you have wood fibers that are running lengthwise through a stem, what you can do is you can make two bypassed overlapping cuts that are separated by a gap. So you can make those two cuts, and then you can put your saw down.
You can use both hands to grab the piece snap it off and then throw it where it needs to go. So it's, normally reserved for pieces of wood in the vertical or near-vertical orientation, and especially for beginners.
I recommend using it only on pieces that are within let's, say thirty degrees off vertical, so the further away from that a piece gets from vertical your chances of success get less and less so I know a lot of people like to use face Cuts to jump down spars myself, I just prefer the snap cuts.
Almost all the time, and one of also one of the most important scenarios where I use the snap cut, is to avoid negative ringing so avoiding taking all the time to set all the rigging up. As well as the shock load, that goes along with it, instead of all that, I can just make my snap cuts, break the piece off and throw it where it needs to go.
So as a framework, we're gonna look at it in three parts. We're gonna break it down into the cuts themselves and then the snap and then the throw so let's. Take a look at those nice, so the cuss! Now what you're, not gonna do is just grab your saw and make two random bypassing cuts there's.
Actually, a lot more going on here. With the snap cut, there's a lot of nuance and subtlety that you need to understand before you even get started, so you need to start with the end in mind. So, first of all, you're gonna want to make both cuts through clear wood.
You don't want to make them through branch attachments just to maximize your chances of success. Secondly, the snap cut is actually a directional cut. It wants to snap off in the direction of the lower of the two cuts.
So if I make one cut here - and I make my second cut here - it's. Gonna want to snap off in this direction, so that's. Something to keep in mind before you, you start your cuts. You need to think about, depending on that, the orientation of the wood and your work positioning you need to figure out.
Do I want it to snap off towards me for maximum control, or do I want it to snap off away from me? You're, usually deciding between those two options. You're, hardly ever even. I want it to snap off hard to one side, because you usually don't, have the solar strength to allow you to do that, and then, in terms of the size of the piece you need to be able to just physically manhandle the weight Of the piece once it snaps off, so you can't, select a piece that's too big.
So a good general guideline around this area, with the cutting trees that we work with, would be somewhere around 4 feet 3 to 4 feet chunks. You're, usually going to be able to handle those, and when you're starting it.
You know, and it depends on the situation smaller-diameter you can take. You know six-eight feet whatever: whatever you can control, it all depends and then so. The two cuts need to be as parallel as possible.
You don't, want them on crazy angles. Relative to each other, they really need to be very parallel, so that takes that can take a lot of practice, especially on bigger stems. It takes a lot of practice to get that skill and then the other variable to think about is the gap between the two cuts.
If you make your gap too big, you can have trouble snapping. The piece off you won't, be able to snap it off if it's too big. So a general guideline for most stems would be let's say around one to two inches for a gap between your two cuts Soloway.
There's. My two cuts lower on the front side, because that's, the direction that I wanted to snap off in so in this case I'm, actually going to cut it so that it snaps off sort of towards me. So I can have better control because I'm, not in a good position to snap it offside to the side here.
Do the lower cut towards me, okay, sawed down, I'm, going to snap it towards me and then I'm gonna try and throw it there. All right, so you've made the two cuts. Now you've put your saw down now.
What you're gonna do is use both hands. You're gonna rock the piece back and forth to get it to sever completely, and this part is crucial before you can throw it. It needs to be completely snapped off.
So sometimes it'll be easy. It'll just be maybe one or two rocks back and forth, and you'll feel that it's of other times. It'll be more work, but it's, absolutely crucial that it is completely off before you try to throw it, because if it's, not it's.
Gonna pull to one side of the other, and it's, not gonna land, where you want it, so use both hands rock it back and forth, and you'll feel, and you'll hear it when it. When it snaps off completely, and then you know that you can control it and throw it exactly where it needs to go, so we're all clear down there, both hands.
Okay, I can feel when it's fully off. So you gotta make sure that's totally off, so I can tell it's off so now I can throw it so now. I can grab it okay. So now I know it's fully off now I can control and throw it where I needed to go.
So you've made your two cuts. You put your saw down you snap, the piece off completely, and now you're, ready to throw it so generally, your goal is to throw it so that it lands flat and that's.
Just to you know, minimize the damage to the turf or the grass, so this is a skill that takes a lot of practice. So there are two general techniques that I use to help me land a piece of flat, but they both start with visualization.
So I need to visualize what that piece of wood needs to do in the air. You know it's based on the size of the piece it's, also based on the height of where I am so. The first technique is, I'm, going to manipulate the number of flips that the piece is going to take in the air on the way down.
So the way I'm going to do that is I'm, going to use my hand and I'm, going to slow down the, but as just as it comes off, I'm gonna. I'm gonna, so I can manipulate the number of flips. I can slow it down and it'll take fewer flips and it will land flat.
The other technique is the opposite. As it comes off, I'm. Actually going to push on the butt to speed it up in an attempt to stop it from flipping at all. I'm going so as it comes off, I'm gonna push the butt and then it's.
Gonna fly through the air and land flat without flipping at all. So those are the two general techniques. What I would say about landing flat is don't, beat yourself up about landing flat. You know that landing it flat to me really is a bonus.
You know the real goal is just to safely snap it off and throw it and get it to land in the drop zone landing it flat. It takes a lot of practice. It takes years to get good at it and it comes with experience.
So if you can execute the cuts properly snap it off and throw it where it needs to get, then in my mind you've done your job landing it flat as a bonus can do it that's. Awesome and I'm, going to try and land it flat, bingo, so yeah any time you're chunking down something like this in a small drop zone.
What you want is your ground guys to actually move every single piece as it comes down one for one drop, one, they move it you don't want to be dropping the wood on top of wood because they can do some unpredictable things.
So, to sum up, the snap cut looks very simplistic when you see a veteran do it, but hopefully, by this point, you can see that it's actually quite complex. There's a lot going on there, so for anyone just starting out.
I would encourage you to just play around with the snap cut using some of these general guidelines, experiment with it in non-critical situations, and just to get a feel for it. If you can get really good and proficient with this technique, you'll start to see that it can be real-time.
Saver in the tree. You know having the ability to quickly and consistently cut snap and throw pieces of wood and get them to land flat, can really speed up your production abilities and really help you to stand out as a professional climber.
So until next time climb high whoop, smart, and read more.
