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A big oak in Springfield taught me to double-check my rigging after a limb swing nearly clipped a shed.

I was lowering a large limb over a client's property last Thursday when my redirect pulley slipped, causing the piece to swing wide and just miss their garden shed, which made me ask if anyone has a better knot or hardware they trust for tricky redirects?
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2 Comments
iris_smith42
Oh man, that's a heart-stopper for sure! I've had a redirect slip on a pine before and it's not a fun feeling. For something like that, I've really come to trust a simple running bowline on the redirect side, backed up with a half hitch. It just seems to bite and hold better under side load when you're sending a heavy piece.
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lily_craig
lily_craig27d agoTop Commenter
Running bowlines are solid, but have you checked the bark thickness on that pine? Sometimes a smooth redirect just needs more surface area to grip. I've started using a timber hitch for the initial bite on slick bark, then finishing with the bowline. The extra wraps seem to stop that creeping slide before the main knot sets. What's the diameter of the wood you're tying off on?
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