robo hippy
If I am at all suspicious of the soundness of the piece of wood, I turn much more slowly, and stop to check. I also stand totally out of the line of fire. If he had been directly in that line, instead of a glancing blow, the face shield would have been no help at all, and he would have been in the emergency room at the least. Frequently with crotch pieces, you have the bark inclusion and no sound wood, which guarantees a failure. As soon as he said 'rot' I said 'oh no!' A lot of risk can be eliminated when you identify the problem before you start. Like the quote from Will Rogers, some thing like "There are 3 kinds of men in the world, those who learn by observation, the few who learn by reading, and the rest who have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."

Lesson learned.

robo hippy