Saturday, January 12, 2019

Language Barrier No Problem; Barberchairs Kill!

Svante Hansson does a mighty fine job of showing the dangers of barberchairs.  We get negative comments regularly about borecutting and safety rules for chainsaws.  Pay no attention to the naysayers.  Cutting plans, borecutting, safety gear, and following chainsaw safety rules will save you from injury and death.




Hi, John: Thanks for the comment question. Here is a video I shot many years ago of chainsaw instructor Joe Glenn demonstrating the use of the bore cut to make a hinge, plus setting the dogs and rotating to make the hinge the proper thickness. His tree is an elm. The student in the latter part of the video is cutting a heavily leaning hackberry, and the same technique is used. At the end of that segment you will see the hackberry domino a red-cedar that has been set up with an undercut to the backstrap.

7 comments:

Eaton Rapids Joe said...

Great video.

What is the preferred method for bucking up downed logs?

David aka True Blue Sam said...

The short answer is to cut first on the compressed side and watch for the kerf to begin closing. Finish on the tensioner side. There are many little tricks, such as wedging the kerf open and continuing on through. When cutting big wood that will have to be moved by hand, cut on an angle so the ronds will roll free. If the log is on a surface that will damage your chain, cut mostly through, then drive a wedge in the topside. That will raise the log off the ground. Plant the tail of the saw on the ground and cut. The log will be severed and your chain won't touch the ground.

David aka True Blue Sam said...

Tensioned! Fat fingers got me!

Anonymous said...

I am not experienced with a chain saw, even though I have used one as a landowner for about 15 years. Note that I am not claiming 15 years of experience, more like 3 months experience 60 times over. Using a chain saw scares me every time, but especially the thought of bore cutting. I believe what you say on the subject but need more instruction before I will attempt it. If you have a video that provides a detailed description of how to bore cut, I would appreciate a link. The demo at the end of this video is helpful, but why three different different demos? For different situations? Maybe if I understood the language ...
Thank you for the videos you post on the use of a chain saw but also those on hit and miss engines.

John S. Russell

David aka True Blue Sam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David aka True Blue Sam said...

Hi, John: The stump demonstration at the end of the video shows some normal sequences for open face tree falling. His first cut shown is the lower, or second cut used for aiming the tree. Your open face would be complete after that cut. The second cut is the bore cut. Start with the lower corner of the nose and the saw running wide open. After the nose is buried sufficiently you bring the saw around and push straight through while keeping the saw from crawling toward the top of the bar. The saw wants to go that way because of the reactive force at the tip, so you keep a firm grip. Practice a bit and you can punch a hinge exactly where you want it, but the instructor here does the safe method of cutting a bit farther back. I usually angle away from the hinge at this point. When you are punched through you set the width of the hinge. I like to saw to the correct thickness on my side of the tree and set the dogs into the bark, then rotate on the dogs to swing the far end toward the open face. Look around the front and don't cut out too far, which would destroy your hinge. Next you cut toward the back, removing wood except for the backstrap, which keeps your tree steady and standing on the hinge. At this point you can set wedges, or a lever to tip the tree. He finishes by cutting under the backstrap, going just a bit past it. The fibers will tear loose when you begin wedging. You can use that cut to domino trees, but OSHA regs do not allow loggers to do that. It is kind of neat to watch it happen. I will shoot another video and stop and talk about each cut and post that in the next week. Thanks for visiting and commenting!

Anonymous said...

Hi David: Thank you for the comments and the posting of the second video. I will give them a careful perusal.
John S. Russell