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Garroting a tree.would it be possible?

edwin dirnbeck

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Oct 24, 2013
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st,louis mo
If you could make some piano wire out of the highest tensile strength material,could you wrap it around a tree to slice it down? Edwin Dirnbeck
 
Yes, in theory, if the wire were of infinite tensile strength, it could be tightened enough to overcome the cellular bonding of the tree. But in practice, no.

Does anyone here remember the flexible pull saw?

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jack vines
 
Id imagine the tensile strength needed to garrote a tree would require some pretty thick wire. the thicker the wire, the harder for it to "slice" thru. it would end up either being too thick to wrap around a tree or the wire would have too much surface area to cut thru the tree and would squeeze the tree until the tree wont compress anymore and break the wire.
 
Yes, if it were done in a manner similar to how stones have been cut using spooled wire that is continuously pulled through the cut. For stones they use an abrasive slurry along with the wire. Bare wire could be used for a tree but it would eventually char the cut and maybe even set the tree on fire.

But why?

People have successfully used everything from 2-man saws to grapple mounted chainsaws to cut trees. Years ago I even read of a technique where a plunge cut was made into the trunk and a bag inserted and then filled with a 2 part liquid explosive that would "slice" through the trunk on detonation. apparently it was meant for military uses such as quickly clearing trees and also for things like cutting firebreaks in a hurry.

IMO pulling a wire through a trunk would be the most inefficient method other than trying to do the job with a serrated steak knife.

"If God meant us to work that hard he wouldn't have invented power tools" :D
 
Years ago I even read of a technique where a plunge cut was made into the trunk and a bag inserted and then filled with a 2 part liquid explosive that would "slice" through the trunk on detonation. apparently it was meant for military uses such as quickly clearing trees and also for things like cutting firebreaks in a hurry.

"If God meant us to work that hard he wouldn't have invented power tools" :D

I don’t know why they would bother with binary explosives for that application, when we’ve had primercord capable of doing the same job for quite some time.

Primercord and the PETN explosive within are *VERY* fast acting (21k/sec.). As long as the primercord doesn’t “cut” itself it will cut through all manner of materials like driveshafts, bridge supports and tank treads… even the densest tree isn’t gonna give up too much resistance, provided some effort is made to direct the explosive for inward.

I’ve used it in motion picture work to cut limbs off for aerial-burst explosions. Two wraps of 100-grain primercord will separate a 6” limb from a tree posthaste.




Jeremy
 
Many years ago, I read a science fiction story that included the hero arranging some nearly infinitely strong and nearly infinitely thin material across a doorway. The story said a villain trying to walk through the door in a hurry would cut himself in half. I guess the flaw is, how do you attach the material at the ends so that it does not cut through the attaching points.

Larry
 
If the intent is a slow motion girdling with the tree eventually falling probably not. We see fences attached to trees by the lazy and the bark and wood will eventually grow around the offending wire.

Weed eaters commonly girdle trees and the tree will eventually die as the roots starve. I have purposely girdled brushy thorn trees with flames from a pear burner, sprayed with a combination of gas and diesel, as well as skinned the bark off with a shovel all the way around the trunk. Takes several months to see if you did it successfully.
 
If you could make some piano wire out of the highest tensile strength material,could you wrap it around a tree to slice it down? Edwin Dirnbeck



Just wrap it with nichrome wire.

Apply voltage . . .and burn through the cambium layer.

Then wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . for the tree to fall.

More seriously, there are several ways to girdle a tree -- and leave it dead and standing (for a while). If you prevent the entire cambium layer from transport, the tree will die.
 
Many years ago, I read a science fiction story that included the hero arranging some nearly infinitely strong and nearly infinitely thin material across a doorway. The story said a villain trying to walk through the door in a hurry would cut himself in half. I guess the flaw is, how do you attach the material at the ends so that it does not cut through the attaching points.

Larry

Have you ever seen the movie Cube? In this Sci fi/horror movie a bunch of strangers wake up in a strange maze made of cube shaped rooms with hatches to other cubes in all six faces. Sometimes the neighboring cube is ok, other times there are various deadly booby traps. In one room, the guy goes through and at first he seems fine but then a series of bloody lines appear and as the viewer realizes he's literally been diced by tiny invisible wires the pieces fall apart.
 
Have you ever seen the movie Cube? In this Sci fi/horror movie a bunch of strangers wake up in a strange maze made of cube shaped rooms with hatches to other cubes in all six faces. Sometimes the neighboring cube is ok, other times there are various deadly booby traps. In one room, the guy goes through and at first he seems fine but then a series of bloody lines appear and as the viewer realizes he's literally been diced by tiny invisible wires the pieces fall apart.

I think that was also a book by Scott Adams......
 
I've heard of that cutting PVC with fishing line. Every time I've tried it (twice?) it didn't work 'worth a shit'. That's understandable as I usually am inept at just about everything except The Addams Family pinball and masturbation. But here's the kicker - every time someone else has told me you can cut PVC with a fishing line, then tried to actually show me, they also failed. What's up with that...? I file this tip under 'MacGuyver'.

Around here, no one cuts down trees with anything. They use a big Komatsu excavator to push them over. Apparently, this takes care of the root ball problem as well.
 
Wire sawing, yes. Garroting, no, at least with actual wire rather than something out of a science fantasy. It is a common practice to pull stumps with a choke loop around the trunk. Exceeds the tensile strength of the soil (massively amplified by the root system) long, long before it squeeze the trunk to splinters.
 
Just wrap it with nichrome wire.

Apply voltage . . .and burn through the cambium layer.

Then wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . for the tree to fall.

More seriously, there are several ways to girdle a tree -- and leave it dead and standing (for a while). If you prevent the entire cambium layer from transport, the tree will die.
Yes. More explicitly the disrupted cambium will starve and thereby kill the roots. This will in turn, stop water and nutrients from reaching the leaves which then kills the tree.
 








 
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