Avoiding "Tear Out" in Spruce

[Does’ Leap]

I have been cutting spruce and have been getting a lot of tear out or fiber pull on my but logs from the hinge. Per Game of Logging standards, I aim for a hinge thickness of 10% DBH, a hinge length of 80% DBH, and a notch angle of at least 70 degrees. Any suggestions on how to avoid this?

George

[jac]

Hi George sometimes I did a bore cut from the front or the hinge side and that way the fibres are cut clean before the back cut goes in..
John

[Scott G]

@Does’ Leap 22220 wrote:

I have been cutting spruce and have been getting a lot of tear out or fiber pull on my but logs from the hinge. Per Game of Logging standards, I aim for a hinge thickness of 10% DBH, a hinge length of 80% DBH, and a notch angle of at least 70 degrees. Any suggestions on how to avoid this?

George

George,
Try reducing the thickness of your hinge, ONLY if you feel comfortable about it. You’re cutting at the butt, not breast height??

[Does’ Leap]

John:

Can you elaborate a bit? I have plunged through the hinge on large trees but am unclear on how that helps with fiber pull. Most of fiber pull happens on the edge of the hinge. @jac 22222 wrote:

Hi George sometimes I did a bore cut from the front or the hinge side and that way the fibres are cut clean before the back cut goes in..
John

Scott:

I will give that a try. Yes, I am cutting as close to the ground as possible in order to maximize yield. For whatever reason, game of logging bases their standards on DBH.

Thanks for your replies.

George

[jac]

Sorry George I thought you meant it was ripping the heart.. Cutting the “toes” off at the sides was another move that helped with it tearing at the hinge…
John

[Rick Alger]

Cut into the stump about an inch deep on each side of the hinge below the plane of your notch and back cut. The fibers are stringier there and tend to pull more. Also make sure your back cut makes a perfectly even hinge.

In the small wood I usually cut, my hinges run about half an inch to an inch depending on diameter.

[mitchmaine]

hi george, i agree with rick. i hesitated to respond cause i think its hard to know when or if someone understands what you are saying and can get into more trouble cutting where they shoudn’t. we used to cut lots of spruce and the heavier the tree, the worse the tear. we used to notch the tree and on the same line, girdle the tree just through the bark into white wood. then make the backcut an inch higher so you could see the hinge and make sure you weren’t cutting it off the stump. when you say plunging through the hinge, do you mean cutting out the center of the tree? when the diameter of the tree was bigger than two lengths of the bar, we would plunge into the face cut and cut out the center of the tree so the back cut was deeep enough to knock it over. anyway, be careful out there and don’t get bit. mitch

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks for the responses. I will try what you mentioned.

@mitchmaine 22233 wrote:

when you say plunging through the hinge, do you mean cutting out the center of the tree?

Mitch, yes I meant cutting out the center of the tree for the reason you described (too big for 2 lengths of the bar). I don’t have any spruce like that, but I’ve had to do it on some bigger hemlock.

[TaylorJohnson]

Sometimes I cut a little above the notch . It seems like the pull is off of the stump and not our of the log this way. Taylor Johnson

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