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Heard a climber in Boise say he never trusts a hackberry until he's hit it twice with a mallet
Was grabbing coffee after a removal job and overheard two guys talking about hollow spots that sound solid from the outside. One of them taps with a 2 pound mallet first and then uses a small drill to check, and he said it has caught rot he would have bet money wasn't there. Do you all sound test before you commit to a climb, or do you just go by the visual cues?
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zara_hunt15d ago
Used to roll my eyes at the mallet thing, figured a good eye and a solid thump was plenty. Then I dropped a cottonwood that looked flawless from the ground, no cracks, no conks, bark tight as a drum, and the whole top third was mush inside. Bucked into it and the saw basically fell through. Now I carry a little 12 ounce mallet and tap as I go, maybe chest height and again higher, listening for that flat dead sound instead of the sharp ring. Two taps costs me thirty seconds and once it saved me from tying into a spar that was hollow past the halfway point. The drill trick makes sense too for the really sneaky stuff.
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