Interesting Tree cutting technique (video)

Nice video. I wonder if they took the game of logging. The guy running the saw never kept his thumb wrapped under the handle. That is a big no no. If kick back occurs you don’t have enough control of the saw to stop it and a serious injury can happen. good video to watch though.

I have to agree Mitch….. what was this supposed to demonstrate??? There wasn’t two cuts that lined up. There was no reason to take that much time making all the different felling cuts. The face cut didn’t even line up so the hinge broke so the tree didn’t even go where he wanted.

Carl

carl, scott. correct me. if i started my backcut with a bore cut and came straight back parallel with the hinge til the tip popped out the other side, pulled the saw and set it back in that hole and finshed the backcut leaving that livewood to hold the tree wouldn’t you atleast have a backcut with one plane? isthat the proper method of making that cut?
and more importantly, if you looked up and saw (knew) your tree was going over where you wanted it, would you bother to go through all the motions or just cut it?

mitch

@Carl Russell 23722 wrote:

I have learned to use the bore-cut-trigger method nearly 100% of the time.

But I don’t think you typically make a plunge cut through the face?

My take is pretty much what has already been said.

The man made felling that tree way to complicated and his myriad of cuts weren’t that well done. I like Mitch’s analogy of a beaver, the two cut face resembled that… But as others have said, I don’t want to beat up on the guy.

The face bore is handy for significantly oversize material when you are working with a very short bar, and that is the only reason IMHO.

Removing the center of your hinge is no better/different than reducing your hinge thichness across its width to accomplish the same goal. I would argue that there is more stability/control with a hinge that spans the diameter of the butt vs two short lateral “mini-hinges”

Mitch’s question of the backcut/pre-setting the hinge & then backing until you reach your latch on diameters greater than bar length; yes, I will move over to the other side, continue from the visible bore back towards the hinge. You end up with a nice level cut that way. The sloping cut on the face in big timber you start with “rolling” your saw on the off side towards you in order to span the distance. The same goes for the horizontal cut on the face. Turns out nice & clean and you don’t end up with a “beaver” face as shown on the video. Keep the sloping cut on the face steep to maintain control all the way down without snapping off the hinge prematurely and getting fiber pull that may degrade your butt log.

Mitch, as far as just wacking it if the tree is already leaning in the direction you want it to go, depends. I’ll often do traditional backcuts in pole-sized timber when the strip layout is going with the direction of the predominant wind direction for the site. They will fall just like dominoes and it is more time efficient than pre-setting hinges on each stick. What causes major issues is one of the most dangerous situations an inexperienced feller (chopper) faces in the woods, heavy leaners. Trees that have a radical lean have a tremendous amount of tension opposite of the lean. When backcut in a traditional fashion from the backside (no hinge preset) the tension often reaches a critical point and rips apart well before the feller has reduced the hinge. This can/will create a “barber chair”. I have seen butts almost explode on people when this happens. The situation can clean your clock for the last time, bad juju. It is critical to always pre-set your hinge in this situation and leave an adequate trigger. Besides, it makes a really cool loud “pop’ when you cut the trigger 😉

Speaking of explosions on a lighter note 🙂 Explosives have really caught on with the wildland firefighter crowd. Removal of hazard trees, creating fireline, etc.. As in most things with fire suppression I think they have went overboard on some/most situations.

I was pulled off the line on a fire a couple of years ago by our FMO so I could help/witness explosives being used to take down this 5′ d.b.h. cottonwood “hazard” tree. The FMO, local bomb squad guy (aka wack job), and myself put about 50# explosives wrapped around the trunk with duck tape, primed it, and went to hide in a ditch about 100 yards away. Popped it off and I swear 10′ of the bottom log just went missing. In that blink of the eye it looked like this 60′ tree was standing upright in mid-air all by itself. Then, of course, the only large piece of wood blown any distance came gunning right for us, a 6′ long piece did an end-over-end towards our little piece of paradise in the ditch. Lucky it landed about 15′ from us… All in all, seconds of fun and a helluva mess to clean up afterwards.