Saw a barber chair cut in half by a half-hitched rope last Tuesday in Tacoma

I was helping a buddy clear a dead doug fir over a shed in Tacoma and he tied off a limb with a half hitch that popped the second it loaded, sending a 40 lb chunk right through a barber chair that launched back at the trunk. I yelled at him to cut a proper notch and step back, then we re-rigged with a running bowline and a redirect and it came down clean. Anyone else had a near miss from a knot that looked fine until it wasn't?

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kai46321d ago

Half hitches can hold fine when they're backed up or when the load stays steady, but on a shock load with a 40 lb chunk they'll walk right off the rope every time. That's not really the knot looking fine until it wasn't, that's a knot doing what it's built to do, which is slip. A running bowline was the right call, and adding the redirect shows you know what you're doing. Glad the barber chair ate it instead of your buddy.

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